Written by: PlayDevil.com

 

 

 

One of the best parts of going to the Eurogamer Expo is the chance to attend various developer sessions, where teams can show you part of their upcoming games. Whilst perhaps not as good as a hands-on, it still gives me time to see what is upcoming, and I’m able to take more notes.

 

My second session was held with IO Interactive, who gave the audience a demonstration of their long-awaited return to the Hitman series, with their forthcoming Hitman Absolution, scheduled for release in 2012.

 

We had the first level played out, where we were told to look out for a variety of new features which IO have added into the mix, such as the ‘Intelligence Spectrum’ AI and ‘Instinct Mode.’ The game begins with a bang, with Agent 47 hiding out in Chicago, pursued by literally dozens of cops. The library is disused, either abandoned or undergoing repairs, and the lights are off. It was a tense first few seconds, as the police get within feet of your hiding spot.

 

The game is incredibly cinematic, even more so than the Prey 2 demo which I checked out. Even though there were over 30 police searching the library, they were working in an incredibly natural way, chatting with each other, and working in a variety of different patterns. However, with instinct mode (think Batman again), and some great stealth and free running mechanics, Agent 47 was able to avoid detection through the first two rooms.

 

However, at the end of this room, the producer got bored with stealth, stole the gun from an officer, and then held him to gunpoint. At this point all hell broke loose. The cops turned around, and whipped out their weapons, but didn’t fire, and called for back-up. You could soon hear a helicopter hovering above the building, so Agent 47 broke the neck of his captive, and made a run for it. The helicopter chase was simply sublime, with some fantastic weather effects, cover-based gameplay and free-running; it was just very tense. The score, no doubt conducted by Jesper Kyd again, was amazing, with some brilliant bass shaking the conference hall.

 

When bursting into the next building, Agent 47 stole a bong in order to knock-out a police officer, before stealing his uniform, hiding for a period eating donuts, and simply walking out onto the streets of Chicago unchallenged. This was just one relatively short mission, but was simply stunning- and was both refreshingly familiar but very different in terms of what I’ve come to expect from the Hitman games.

 

Most excitingly, the producer also told his captive audience that there were many ways to complete the level- and that every scenario should have at least 2-3 ways of completing your objectives, including an all-stealth way of getting through each level. 2012 is shaping up to be a year of amazing titles already, and Hitman is now at the top of my list of must-haves!