![]() I know this is flogging a dead sexy nun, but Absolution feels a bit too gratuitous for me, and I honestly can’t recommend it to anyone. I’m not of a sensitive disposition: Resident Evil and Doom are two of my favourite franchises and I’m all for the gore, but you don’t need to make gore sexy. I mentioned back in my review of Hitman 2 in 2018 that Absolution made me question the franchise back when it was released and I must say that it put me off trying the reboot back in 2016. Despite being released in 2012, this game feels somehow more dated than Blood Money does. The dark, gothic overtones and theme of religion throughout the game are heavily offset by how oversexualised this game is. While the levels are still fairly open, they are a linear crawl through Agent 47’s attempt at making up for his sins. Hitman Absolution has the exact opposite problem: it handles beautifully but it is the least Hitman game that ever happened. If the controls had been updated in the same way as the graphics had, we would have a much better game on our hands. Tank controls weren’t fun back then and they’re even less fun to play with now that we’re all used to modern control schemes. The combat is clunky, which isn’t a problem if you can get through a level without it, but the controls, in general, are just awful. The cutscenes are now as beautiful as they can be, given what you’re working with, but the facial animations outside of that are far from good. ![]() Unfortunately, while the game has been given a fresh lick of paint, everything else (apart from the level design) has aged poorly. What’s really impressive about this game, bearing in mind the consoles that it was released on, is the size of the levels and the number of assets contained within them, from simple weapons and disguises to the size of the crowds that are ambling around. Even today, the levels stand up as extremely high quality and, though fairly short if you know what you’re doing, are great fun to play through. The sandbox levels and excellent level design are a testament to what can be achieved if a dedicated team really put their mind to what they’re doing. Given that the game came out in 2006 on the Xbox, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2, it is a marvel of videogame engineering. Hitman Blood Money is quite possibly the best game in the pre-rebooted Hitman franchise, many fans would have you believe. But let’s put the overall confusion to one side and look at these two games in turn. They both showcase the best and worst of the franchise in their own little ways, but I’m not convinced that this is something that IO Software should really be doing. ![]() The two games in this collection are the chalk and cheese of the Hitman franchise, combining the fan favourite Hitman Blood Money and the much decried Hitman Absolution. Not only is it an impossible name to remember, but it’s one of those games that is entirely forgettable. The Hitman HD Enhanced Collection is a strange beast.
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