(PS3, Xbox 360) Publisher: Square Enix Developer: IO Interactive Release date: Fall 2012
Agent 47’s been on hiatus for a few years, but in Hitman: Absolution he’s back with a vengeance. What’s always made gameplay in the Hitman series unique is the ability to hide in plain sight, whether on your way to a contract or while making an escape. Dressing up in someone else’s clothes and walking past guards or other enemies added a tense thrill no other games of their ilk could match. Absolution takes this one step further, adding new layers and tricks to the cloned assassin’s arsenal, such as x-ray vision (yeah, it sounds weird to us, too) that lets you check out foes all around you (a la Detective Mode from the recent Batman games and a mark and the execute function of the last Splinter Cell). I’ve always been able to empathize with 47, because he never seemed like he wanted to be killing — he was, rather, forever working at someone else’s will. Maybe Absolution will free him this fall.
