DarthVolod said:
Dishonored is kind of a wild card from a studio that does not have much of a reputation. It seems to mix elments of Bioshock with its art direction and plasmid like abilities and the Thief series with its stealth and steam punk world together which is an awesome combination (especially the Thief part). While the developers said you would be able to play it in a non-stealth fashion (just like the hybrid stealth/shooter of last year, Deus Ex HR) there will be consequences for it, and that is what a game needs to be a stealth game, consequences. Playing non-stealth in stealth games like Thief, Deus Ex, and the older Hitman games resulted in the game punishing you in a variety of ways ... usually it was a quick death as your character is usually unable to handle a swarm of guards. Hitman: Absolution, however, is encouraging players to take a more action oriented approach with a focus on gunplay while stealth elements are dumbed down so anyone can handle them (you get an ability that lets you see a guard's path as though Agent 47 can predict the future or something). It is sort of like what happened with the Metal Gear Solid series after MGS 1. MGS never really had a strong emphasis on stealth, but at least in the first game you were somewhat penalized for not being sneaky. In MGS2 and beyond you can pretty mcuh kill guards with impunity and not have to worry so much if the alarm goes off or not. Hitman: Absolution is taking a similiar route by moving away from stealth in favor of action which seems to be the most popular and lucrative genre of this generation. |
Fortunately no. I've been studying up on this game and I can say that most of your worries are not true. I'd say none of them are, actually.
The Hitman series has always offered two ways to play: Action & Stealth. Action has always been an option, but the Hitman series always had mediocre action & shooting mechanics. You could always go guns blazing in Hitman games, correct? Yeah. It wasn't the smartest route but it was possible. All the developers have done was upgraded that particular option. I say 'option' because stealth is still very much there. Is any particular 'route' encouraged? No, the developers have made it clear that the player can go any route they wanted. They've only been showing more action levels because action is a far more marketable showing. It has nothing to do with lack of stealth.
You can play Hitman: Absolution out exactly like past Hitman games if you want to. You can STILL go through an entire level WITHOUT killing a single person other than your target. The devs have made that clear enough. The only exception is during the first mission, however, that is of course the tutorial mission. Blood Money's first mission was also linear and actiony, but again, it was just the tutorial mission. You can still snipe your targert. You can poison them. You can make them have 'accidents'. You can explode them with C4. You can stab them. You can disguise yourself as their drug dealer, lead them into your room, & poison his coccaine which will subsequently kill him. And again, you don't have to kill anyone else, other than your target. The 'Silent Assassin' rating is still there. The choice is yours.
Even though, I say you have a choice, you will still be punished for going guns-blazing. In the trailer I link below for example, it's quite difficult to win the level by shooting everybody in the face, and in later difficulties, it's borderline impossible. Also, as mentioned early, ratings are back along with a bundle of new statistics. These can all be accessed at the main menu. So you still have that incentive to play stealth. You still have that Silent Assassin Rating for being perfect.
Now there has been some questionable additions to the Hitman gameplay. The main one being the Instinct system. I'm pleased to tell you that you shouldn't worry about that because
A.) It doesn't affect the gameplay any more than past Hitman games. The Instinct system is nothing but a map directly streamlined into the gameplay. Instinct shows Enemies, Targets, Point-of-Interests. Civilians, ect. The thing is, all of these things were shown in past Hitman games with the map. What advantages does instinct in Absolution give you over the maps in past games? Nothing. It's just that now, the elements aren't in the map, they're blended in the gameplay. With Instinct, you are shown these elements without tediously switching back-and-forth between your map & gameplay.
B.) Even though the Instinct system is literally a glorified map, it's pretty much useless on the harder difficulties. The harder the diificulty, the less Instinct helps. And on the highest difficulty, which I assume a core gamer like yourself plays, it will be severely limited.
Again, this can be played exactly like past Hitman games. Exactly. I'm personally pleased with the Instinct system, because as useful as the maps were in past Hitman games, it is pretty outdated to constantly go between map a gameplay. I'm glad the developers have placed the map into the gameplay without increasing it's power.
I have two suggestions for you: 1.) Go to the Hitman Forums & just browse. You'll see that the site is in pretty much unanimous agreement that this game will stay true to it's roots, & 2.) Check out this thread. It has two trailers. The first is the Saints trailer. You can ignore that. The second is a gameplay trailer that shows the multiple ways to kill a target. Some of which involve only killing the target.
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=143885&page=1
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