Hitman HD Enhanced - Can somebody tell me why people hate Absolution so much?

[Hazard_Kujacker]

Recently I got myself a copy of the HD Enhanced collection mainly because I enjoyed World of Assasination (Hitman 2016 & 2) so much that I wanted to give older games in the series a try.

For years whenever someone mentioned Absolution in any capacity it was described as "the worst in the series" or "that's not even a Hitman game". And while the abount of story I've seen so far definitively feels more like an action movie than an assasin simulator I still feel it plays fairly well, kinda like Hitman 2016 but with some different mechanics.

Is it just the story or does the game screw the pooch hard at some later point in terms of mechanics and I just don't know yet?

 

[Theswweet]

IIRC the problem is similar to Deus Ex HR before the updated release - bosses don't really respect your decision to go stealthy.

 

[leng jai]

It's because the game was way more of a third person shooter than the older Hitman titles.

 

[TinTuba47]

I don't know if it's been changed since release, but the disguise system was pretty busted

 

[Dio]

offers vastly less freedom on how to deal with problems, encounters, etc

 

[Rookhelm]

It's more of a stealth game than a Hitman game. Not bad by any means, but lacks the assassination sandboxes the series is known for, save for a couple levels

 

[TheBaldwin]

It just felt so limited in how you could approach youre target

Game was super linear.

Plus the disguise system was absolute arse cheeks

 

[Jintor]

hitman is a game about sandboxes and absolution largely was a game about corridors. (Some small but limited exceptions)

and instinct suuuuucked.

 

[LiquidSolid]

It's a linear third person shooter with extremely simple and shallow stealth mechanics. In other words, it isn't a Hitman game.

It isn't the first time IO fucked up with HItman though, og Hitman 2 was really linear too, though the execution was far worse.

 

[Hanbei]

I really liked Absolution when it came out on PS3, but it was also my very first steps in the series.

 

[Dremorak]

Its because Blood Money was an awesome game and Absolution was ....fine.

 

[Valdega]

Two reasons:
- The disguise system was too binary. For example, if you dressed up as a cop, every other cop would be suspicious of you and every non-cop would never be suspicious of you.
- The levels were too small, too linear, too scripted and most of them just required you to get to the level exit rather than assassinate anyone.

Disguise system aside, Absolution was pretty strong from a mechanical standpoint and served as the foundation for the last two games. The sound design was also top-notch. If Absolution hadn't been called Hitman, I think it would have been much better received.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Being graded negatively on screen for small choices and mistakes soured me from the get go.

 

[Resident4t.]

It was never considered a bad game. It's fine.
The problem is the number of linear levels and action set pieces.
The bigger sandbox levels were also limited and bite-sized compared to previous games.

Blood Money built on the previous games in the series and almost perfected the formula. Then Absolution sort of threw it all out. It was a weird sequel.

 

[TitanicFall]

Fine game. Just different from what the series was known for. Think of the critical reception of DmC and RE6.

 

[Moebius]

I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a more linear Hitman game but it has some great moments.

 

[KillLaCam]

I liked it. But there were too many levels that weren't like a Hitman game. It was mostly like a Splinter Cell Hitman hybrid. The only level that felt like a Hitman level to me was China Town and The Streets of Hope.

I still think it's the best Hitman visually though

 

[ItIsOkBro]

Don't a lot of kills happen in cutscene

Or a cutscene interrupted your kill

 

[More_Badass]

It's a pretty fun stealth-action game
But it's also a terrible Hitman game, as well as being the first Hitman game after six years since Blood Money and the first one of that generation.

 

[Hazard_Kujacker]

Fine game. Just different from what the series was known for. Think of the critical reception of DmC and RE6.

Click to shrink...

So fans of the franchise dont like it but journalists do. Got It.

Jokes aside unlike the 2 examples you gave Im at least enjoying Absolution.

 

[Dakath]

In a weird way, it was a third attempt at a Kane and Lynch game after the first two failed to find success. It has that same grind house sleaze aesthetic and awful unlikable characters. Someone in the SquareEnix Eidos hierarchy really, really loved Kane and Lynch. Never made any sense to me, but few things about that era of their management did.

For Absolution itself, the best one word description for it I've come across is "uneven." It has several design choices that do not agree with one another. It's hard to qualify it as a stealth game with bad third person action, or a third person shooter with bad stealth because there are levels where it manages to be excellent at one or the other but never manages to blend the two in a way that isn't frustrating. You're either tediously stealthing your way through a sequence that's meant to be guns blazing or you're guns blazing through what might otherwise be a good Hitman level. And the points system for rating how well you're doing was immediately punishing for going loud and lethal--despite there being multiple systems, design choices and mechanics that all encouraged you to murder everyone in a level. Why give me a way to mark and shoot multiple people in the head if murder instantly lowers your score?

There's literally a hospital-for-orphans filled with brutally murdered little old nuns level, where you come across the enemies torturing someone to death in the first room. You can go through that without killing everyone, but it's not fun, not from a thematic or mechanical point of view. There's also an excellent penthouse museum level with some really great ways to carry out the assassination--drop a whale skeleton on them, harpoon them out the window, poison their sushi with hallucinogens, etc. It's not a good guns blazing level though, and because of the imperfect stealth/instinct systems it would frequently become one with no satisfying way to go back to the more traditional stealthy play style.

Absolution is ultimately a failed marriage of two design philosophies that had way, way too much money spent on the ceremony.

 

[Persagen]

One of the worst save systems of all time. It's completely counter to what makes Hitman games uniquely appealing - observation, planning and patience are all thrown out the window if you load a save. Manual saves are only allowed in specified locations in each level. Using one saves your location in the level, but all of the character locations and AI routines are reset if you load that save.

After 40 minutes of careful sneaking and planning, you use a save location just seconds before your target comes into view for a snipe. You blow the shot, so you load from the save point. Unfortunately, the target is no longer about to come into view - he's now clear across the level where he was at the very start of the mission. And that guard you lured and took out to gain access to the save room? He's now at his level start position - right outside the door of the room you're in, and won't budge because you can't trigger his patrol routine.

I was flabbergasted when I realized how it worked. It's as if the devs didn't really understand their own game.

 

[Liam Allen-Miller]

In a weird way, it was a third attempt at a Kane and Lynch game after the first two failed to find success. It has that same grind house sleaze aesthetic and awful unlikable characters. Someone in the SquareEnix Eidos hierarchy really, really loved Kane and Lynch.

Click to shrink...

So I never worked anywhere above QA for SE, but from what I'd heard IOI was in full control. I see a lot of consumers blame Square for those years of IOI but from what I know Square kept investing in IOI's choices and lost money each time (except Absolution and Mini ninjas).

 

[Deleted member 41931]

It lacked what made Hitman stand out from other stealth games. That being said, it's still a solid game for what it is.

 

[Dakath]

So I never worked anywhere above QA for SE, but from what I'd heard IOI was in full control. I see a lot of consumers blame Square for those years of IOI but from what I know Square kept investing in IOI's choices and lost money each time (except Absolution and Mini ninjas).

Click to shrink...

Someone at IOI really loves Kane and Lynch. More than they should.

 

[Duxxy3]

I liked Absolution more than the recent Hitman game.

 

[Deleted member 1003]

It just felt so limited in how you could approach youre target

Game was super linear.

Plus the disguise system was absolute arse cheeks

Click to shrink...

Checkpoints also didn't work unless the goal was it reset everything and just moved 47.

 

[Hazard_Kujacker]

Well. After reading some of the responses I can definitively see why people dont like absolution. And I do magree with the sentiment that it is a good action stealth game that massively deviates from the formula. At least the Hitman vision mechanic got transfered over for World of Assasination.

Thanks :)

 

[NekuWitTheDraco74]

So fans of the franchise dont like it but journalists do. Got It.

Jokes aside unlike the 2 examples you gave Im at least enjoying Absolution.

Click to shrink...

Hey know!!!! they're Lot of fans for DmC, it's the only one in the series I could actually get into.

 

[Liam Allen-Miller]

Someone at IOI really loves Kane and Lynch. More than they should.

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Honestly agreed lol. I'm surprised the second game happened, but as I hear, Square was faithful that IOI would right the ship and that the big multiplayer inclusions would help save it.

 

[melikefishnchips]

Disguise system sucked

Checkpoint system was downright broken

Each level ends with you having to arbitrarily lock pick a door hoping you don't get caught in the process.

 

[Premium Ghoul]

It had one of the worst checkpoint/save systems I've ever seen in a game. The checkpoints didn't actually save any progress, just your physical position in the level. So if you kill a guard, move past them and grab a checkpoint, then fail and reload that checkpoint, the guard you killed will be alive again and will see you the moment you load up that checkpoint.

According to the devs it was completely intentional but I just don't understand how anyone thought that was a good idea in a stealth game.

 

[Common Knowledge]

I remember being thoroughly confused and confounded the first couple of times I put on a "disguise' in the game and suddenly I had perception warnings decorating my screen from every direction. The disguises did nothing but single you out more because apparently every street vendor or whatever knew each other so well they could pinpoint a faker from a good distance away.

It was literally easier to go through some areas dressed in your regular Hitman outfit or some other entirely different disguise than to disguise yourself as the type of person who worked in that area. It was completely fucking backwards.

 

[verygooster]

Because they followed Blood Money, arguably the best entry at the time, and decided it needed to be Splinter Cell: Conviction with an awful disguise and checkpoint system.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Forget about characterizing it as universal outright "hate," because that will always seem indefensible no matter how many people explain what was flawed about the game.

The disguise system is counterintuitive because:

• every single person wearing the same outfit as you will see through the disguise (e.g. all street vendor chefs at various, separate food stalls/restaurants in Chinatown see through a chef disguise)
• you need to then sneak around outside people's field of view, negating the purpose of having a disguise, or use the finite Instinct meter to act casual and dispel suspicion
• on higher difficulties, NPCs see through disguises quicker which exacerbates the above issues

The levels are really linear overall and shooting/stealthing is just adequate but not super engaging to the point they carry the game on their own. Even outside of the more traditional Hitman-style assassination levels, there are portions (on normal/hard difficulty, at least) that provide some cool tense scenarios like the hotel escape, but even those are frequently broken up by checkpointing that prevents backtracking (which could be useful at certain points), and restarting at those checkpoints causes the player to lose disguises and revert back to 47's default outfit. Experimentation, exploration, and replaying levels to get better weren't encouraged by its design.

The game has a lot of varied environments that you only pass through once, and a lot of story cutscenes/elements, and those go a long way in entertaining most people, and the game was marketed exceptionally, so it sold well. It does have some traditional Hitman-style levels (rockabilly small town street, the motel/cornfield was good), and I would've been fine with the story and assassination framing if the game consisted of Blood Money-style missions and without the disguise mechanic being the way it is, but it wasn't.

 

[Hazard_Kujacker]

Hey know!!!! they're Lot of fans for DmC, it's the only one in the series I could actually get into.

Click to shrink...

Im sure there are fans of DmC out there. Definitive edition is an ok character action game.

 

[FarZa17]

I don't know the game was hated so much, and I enjoy it a lot when playing it first on Xbox 360. Always coming back to try different approaches.

Though I did have some complaints with it; the bloom, glaring effects with green/yellow tint on the visual that strained my eyes and the scoring system, which kind of intimidating to look at and make me nervous everytime to not do any mistake that can drain my score, unless I play on "Purist".

 

[HeavenlyOne]

Blood Money:

*gets caught being somewhere I shouldn't*
"Hey, you shouldn't be here!"
*leaves to find another way*

Absolution:
*gets caught being somewhere I shouldn't*
- 1000 HITMAN POINTS

 

[Deleted member 28076]

It's not a Hitman game, it's a poor clone of Splinter Cell Conviction, already the worst Splinter Cell game.

It's also really, really bigoted.

 

[GameAddict411]

I don't know if it's been changed since release, but the disguise system was pretty busted

Click to shrink...

I agree with this. The way it worked pretty much made it useless. It was extremely difficult to remain undetected in many parts of the game. People will spot you as an impostor from a mile away. Not even something that could happen in real life. 2016 Hitman was in credible on the other hand.

 

[Kill3r7]

It's the best selling Hitman game by a large margin and laid the foundation for the current two games. Don't let forum negativity/hate cloud your judgement.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

It's the best selling Hitman game by a large margin and laid the foundation for the current two games. Don't let forum negativity/hate cloud your judgement.

Click to shrink...

What's that got to do with how the game plays?

 

[speedomodel]

As someone that never got super into the series, I loved Absolution and had a blast with it. Got me to give Season 1 a try when it released and I enjoyed that very much as well. I thought the story in Absolution was enjoyable and fun.

 

[LossAversion]

- Too linear
- The disguise system didn't work with the linear level design
- The save system was terrible
- Batman inspired "detective vision" took a lot of the challenge and sense of discovery away

Despite these flaws, I still like Absolution a lot. It's not a bad game. It just wasn't what Hitman fans wanted after an amazing game like Blood Money. It was basically like going from Chaos Theory to Conviction for Splinter Cell fans. Tons of freedom and options stripped away in favor of story and cinematic moments.

It's the best selling Hitman game by a large margin and laid the foundation for the current two games. Don't let forum negativity/hate cloud your judgement.

Click to shrink...

If you're talking financially... sure. The rebooted games play nothing like Absolution though. They are much more of an evolution of earlier Hitman games.

 

[Kill3r7]

What's that got to do with how the game plays?

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The way a game plays and how enjoyable it is for the player is purely subjective. What might be trash to you can be amazing to me and others. Hence the constant debate around TW3, RDR2 etc on forums/YouTube. Absolutions biggest fault was that it was not what one considers a traditional Hitman game. It was fun and had a good story.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

The way a game plays and how enjoyable it is for the player is purely subjective. What might be trash to you can be amazing to me and others. Hence the constant debate around TW3, RDR2 etc on forums/YouTube. Absolutions biggest fault was that it was not what one considers a traditional Hitman game. It was fun and had a good story.

Click to shrink...

And the thread's asking why (some) people dislike the game. People are saying why, and you just came in to say "don't let forum negativity/hate cloud your judgment" which suggests OP shouldn't listen to the people they're asking.

Doesn't make any sense to say that here, unless you can't accept that people dislike the game for various specific reasons.

 

[Hazard_Kujacker]

- Too linear
- The disguise system didn't work with the linear level design
- The save system was terrible
- Batman inspired "detective vision" took a lot of the challenge and sense of discovery away

Despite these flaws, I still like Absolution a lot. It's not a bad game. It just wasn't what Hitman fans wanted after an amazing game like Blood Money. It was basically like going from Chaos Theory to Conviction for Splinter Cell fans. Tons of freedom and options stripped away in favor of story and cinematic moments.


If you're talking financially... sure. The rebooted games play nothing like Absolution though. They are much more of an evolution of earlier Hitman games.

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World of assasination definitively feels like an evolution of the Hitman formula, although it does take some of the good things I've seen from absolution, like Hitman vision.

 

[NightShift]

It's the best selling Hitman game by a large margin and laid the foundation for the current two games. Don't let forum negativity/hate cloud your judgement.

Click to shrink...

Layed the foundation for going back to what Hitman was before Absolution because it was hated so much? Sure I guess. The only think that carried over from Absolution were the intuitive controls.

 

[Rookhelm]

It's like if the tutorial mission from Blood Money was the design philosophy. A linear stealth game where you simply reach the end of the level.

Not a bad game, just is not what Hitman is really known for.

 

[Nintendo]

Absolution was an amazing game. Just not what Hitman should be.