Hitman: Absolution Review Round-Up [Updated]

Hitman: Absolution reviews coming early ahead of its release next Tuesday. Followings are some of the review scores:

OPM and OXM - 9/10

Here [Hitman has] finally been perfected in what is probably a peak for the series so far. It takes the ideas that made the original games so great and presents them in a modern context of checkpoints, hints and forgiveness but without sacrificing any of the challenge, excitement or shivery-skinned thrill of pulling off some impossibly and beautifully planned hit.

GamesmasterUK - 90 %

- The game does not force you into any kind of gun battle outside of the tutorial. There are places where brute force is encourages, but can be avoided.
- There are Signature Kills that show more unique deaths and doing so will unlock extra abilities; like speedier movement and more accurate shooting abilities.
- The manual checkpointing system is broken; they neither save the NPC incapacity status, nor NPC positions. Everybody except killed targets are reset after checkpoint reload.
- There are no giant-sized levels like in the scale of a Beldingford Manor from the older games. Levels have been broken down into smaller, distinct chunks.
- Reviewer advises to bump up the difficulty to dial down instinct’s benefits a tad if you want to play like a true Hitman.
- The game’s scoring system was broken in one instance: they played a two part mission where they killed ten people in the first part, then entered the second part and noticed that nobody was suspicious of the earlier events. The then played the second part of the mission silently and earned a Silent Assassin rating.
- Other missions handle the scoring system much better, noted that there are so many built-in score-boosting challenges it will take hours to finish them.
- The campaign is huge with each containing hours of alternative kills, pick-ups and Easter eggs. On its own the campaign is a winner.
- The mode Contracts is a great inclusion to the series.

Game Informer 8.8/10

Despite all of Absolution's improvements, Hitman still isn't for everyone. The pace remains slower and more methodical than most action games, and you'll find yourself reloading checkpoints countless times, in part because they are frustratingly tied to physical locations. If you take a different approach than what the developer had in mind, you may miss them completely. Attaining the rank of Silent Assassin still requires patience, skill, and more than a little trial and error. But while Hitman is slower than most games, it's also smarter. Devising a strategy to your advantage, and leaving before anyone knows you're there are the hallmarks of a perfect hit, and Absolution proves Agent 47 is still the gaming's premier hitman.


PC Games (German) - 88%
Best Hitman of all times - brilliant atmosphere, more variety and high replay value thanks to Contracts mode.

Pros and cons:

+ Many details
+ Great cutscenes
+ Great lighting
+ Atmospheric soundtrack
+ "Full" weapon sounds
+ Very good German voices
+ Dense atmopshere
+ Nasty accidents
+ Varied solutions
+ Pleasantly demanding
+ Inventive Contracts mode
+ Great level design

- Some cloned enemies
- Not lip-synced
- Small levels


PC Gamer – 66/100
A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made Hitman great.

IGN – 9/10
CVG – 9/10
OPM – 9/10
OXM – 9/10
Gamespot – 7.5/10
Gametrailers – 6.9/10
Edge – 7/10
Eurogamer – 7/10
Videogamer – 5/10
Joystiq – 4/5
NowGamer – 8/10
God Is A Geek – 8/10
Kotaku – ‘Yes’
Xbox 360 Achievements – 83/100
Shacknews – No score
Duimschroef – 9/10
Eurogamer.cz – 8/10
PureSophistry – 9/10
VicioJuegos (Spanish) – 91/100
Playfront (German) – 9/10
Games Radar – 4.5/5
Digital Spy – 4/5
Gamesurf (Italy) – 8.5/10
PCGames.de (German) – 88/100
GIGA.de (German) – 85/100
GamesAktuell.de (German) – 9/10
Gamingbolt – 9/10
PSX Extreme (Polish) - 9/10