<p>The Hitman series has always had a special place in my heart. Right from the days of <em>Hitman: Codename 47 </em>back in 2000, I have been hooked on the series&#8217; open-ended and improvisational approach to, well, murdering people. There were times when I would dip into the games just to go on a shooting rampage with my silverballers, seeing how long I could juggle a ragdoll body against the wall just by shooting the hell out of it. Other times, I&#8217;d aim to carry out the perfect hit &#8211; silent and clinical &#8211; before sneaking off without anyone noticing.</p>
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<p>While the adventures of the icy-eyed killer have always brought me joy, there&#8217;s no denying that the series hasn&#8217;t made much progress. Aside from minor graphical improvements, the <em>Hitman </em>series hasn&#8217;t really kept up with the times, with bodies still crumpling in slightly too ragdoll-y ways. With six years since the last game, I was desperately hoping that <em>Absolution </em>would give the series the breath of fresh air it needed.</p>
<p>The PS3 demo I played at the Eurogamer Expo throws 47 into a bustling Chinese market, where it&#8217;s your job to take out the King of Chinatown. And by bustling I mean Beijing-style overcrowded. After entering through the main gate, you&#8217;re instantly hit by the atmosphere. Woks sizzling, oils causing stoves to go up in flames, and hundreds of people packed into a small market square.</p>
<p>To identify my target, I activated the slightly cheeky X-ray vision, which outlines your target in red and can even see through walls (was it really necessary to blatantly plagiarise from <em>Assassin&#8217;s Creed</em>?). This is a feature I have mixed feelings about, but at least it&#8217;ll motivate me to immediately play the game through on a harder setting, where hopefully it will be disabled.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-9521 aligncenter" src="http://www.explosion.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/image_hitman_absolution-19303-2284_0005.jpg" alt="hitman absolution chinatown" width="600" height="450" />Anyhow, just because I identified my target didn&#8217;t mean that I knew what the hell to do with him. Suffice to say there was a bit of trial-and-error as my <em>Hitman</em>-rusty slowly kicked into gear. My initial attempt involved murdering a chef, hiding his body in a bin, then attempting to batter the target to death with an empty bottle. Another effort saw me shoot him in the back of the head from behind a bin as he took a piss.</p>
<p>I enjoyed the fact that hints were optional, and not looking at them is extremely rewarding, as I sniffed around the market square looking for ways to carry out the kill. After walking past chef chopping a poisonous Fugu fish, I thought I&#8217;d worked out my approach; poison the fucker! However, a side-alley with a police officer guarding it caught my attention. I blew a fuse to distract him, then snuck past as he went to check it out. Metal door leading to murky stairwell. Things looked very promising&#8230;</p>
<p>As I reached the top of the stairs, I overheard dubious-sounding voices through the door. Of course, it could&#8217;ve been anyone in there, but in the world of <em>Hitman </em>you don&#8217;t just stumble into a family home as they&#8217;re huddled around the TV watching <em>Who Wants to be a Millionaire? </em>No, the man behind this door was doomed to die.</p>
<p>Barely looking, I burst into the room and activated the slow-motion Point-Targeting mode. I shot the sketchy-looking guy in the face (who just happened to be my target&#8217;s drug dealer), leaving a satisfying blood splatter on his mouth. After hiding the body, I noticed that this guy also <em>just so happens </em>to be the owner of a Sniper Rifle and his window <em>just so happens </em>to be facing neatly towards the Gazebo where my target was chilling. All too convenient perhaps, but the satisfaction of planting the perfect bullet in my target&#8217;s head &#8211; and the chaos that followed &#8211; made up for it.</p>
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<p>After clinically carrying out my mission, the market burst into chaos with people dispersing in all directions, with many leaving the area altogether. As I walked calmly towards the exit, the ground was littered with food, and people were cowering and being interrogated by the police. This sense of a &#8216;crime scene&#8217; being created was convincing, and I opted against going up to the target&#8217;s body and playing around with it just to see how the police would react. Back in the Hitman groove (and with my clumsy previous assassination attempts a fading memory), I walked out through the extraction point.</p>
<p><em>Hitman </em>is back, with better physics, more realistic environments, and, erm, Eagle Vision. The final hand-holding feature aside, the series is looking better than ever! <em>Hitman: Absolution </em>is due out on 20th November on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. <a title="Hitman: Absolution not getting Wii U version" href="http://www.explosion.com/hitman-absolution-not-getting-wii-u-version/">No plans for a Wii U version</a> though guys, sorry.</p>

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