E3 2012: Hitman - Absolution

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For all that we've already seen about the upcoming game

Hitman: Absolution,

there's been one key piece of a puzzle missing.

We have not actually seen Agent 47 carry out a hit

on an unsuspecting target.

All that changes with this year's E3 demo

in which you are tasked with assassinating

the king of Chinatown.

Now there's many ways you can do this.

You can shoot him with a sniper riffle from a rooftop,

you can blow up his car,

you can even poison his food.

We spoke with the game's art director to find out more.

What makes Hitman: Absolution

different from the previous installments in the series

is the fact that we really wanted to balance

the in depth mechanics of the previous series,

made a more accessible view

to get more players in the franchise.

Shooting mechanics in Absolution

have been balanced much more.

And now they do offer a compelling experience

if the player is so inclined to take the level in this way,

or if he's actually forced to resort to violence

to succeed in his mission.

All these features that make the game more complex,

they also have to be accessible to the player,

and that has been one of the main focuses for the team,

to communicate clearly enough

so that most players can have access to them

and enjoy them.

There are different type of levels in Absolution.

The target can be killed both with the weapons,

but also just by creating maybe an accident

in the environment.

This is something we try to put in

in every single target level that we have in the game

that they can be solved in many different ways,

and it's just not shooting the target

that is the most viable solution.

We can also try to be much more subtle about it.

It's very easy to see what would make a bad assassination.

I mean collateral damage in the form of civilians,

that's just not very elegant,

and then will of course have a high impact on your score.

This course is made to support also a rating system.

It is showed up in the left corner of the screen,

and it's a two-fold system

where you start out a level with a title

that can be affected according to what you do.

This is also where the coveted rating of

assigned assassin comes to play.

If you actually manage to fulfill

all the requirements for it,

you will get that,

and you will also get a better score.

This score is also tracked on leader boards

that have influence both on national level

but also on global level.

So you can compete with your friends on a worldwide level.

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