History Trivia / HitmanAbsolution

* PlayingAgainstType: Very apparent in the Japanese dub: Victoria is voiced by Creator/AyanaTaketatsu, a voice actress well-known for voicing sweet, cute girls like [[Manga/KOn Azusa Nakano]] or [[Manga/OreImo Kirino Kousaka]]. Victoria is anything but sweet.

** Narrowly averted for Agent 47 himself - in previews, IO revealed that 47's long-time voice actor, David Bateson, had been replaced by William Mapother. Following ''many'' fans protesting/begging/[[BreadEggsBreadedEggs protesting and begging at the same time]], Bateson was called back in at the last second and did the voice work again in ''Absolution'', though 47's motion capture and face model is still Mapother's in the final product.

** It being an odd-numbered sequel, it's time for ''Hitman'' to revamp itself yet again, with characteristic subtlety. Now we're freezing time and gobbling up pain pills like VideoGame/MaxPayne.
*** Some of the Chicago levels should look familiar: Beat-up hotel, explosive foot chase, subway, nightclub, hospital. The final mission, involving a helipad and a timer, draws heavily from the original ''Max Payne''.
** Instinct Mode sounds suspiciously like [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries "Detective Mode"]].
*** It lets you see through walls, draws out NPC patrol routes, highlights items of interest, and ''reads peoples' thoughts.'' (Which the tutorial lady says is due to 47's rigorous "training".)
*** Also, if you fail a boss fight, you also get a NonStandardGameOver of 47's adversary lording it over you.

* TheOtherMarty: William Mapother was intended to replace David Bateson as 47 in this game, but Bateson returned due to fan demand and rerecorded the lines that Mapother had already done. Mapother's face model and motion capture for 47 are retained in the final product despite this.

** Early ideas of the plot explored even more radical changes to 47 and had darker tones. One, dubbed "The Angry Man", had 47 hunting a group of men who had been involved in the killing of a teenager, with a tone heavily inspired by revenge films of the 1970's. Another, "The Homeless Hitman", had 47 crossing the DespairEventHorizon over killing Diana, causing him to leave the Agency and descend into homelessness and poverty. They ultimately decided against these ideas, as they were deemed too dark and too story-driven for a ''Hitman'' game.

** [=LaSandra=] Dixon, the leader of the Saints, also had a larger role in the story. Behind the scenes material show that 47 was to directly confront her in a cutscene. In fact, a significant amount of material related to the Saints were cut from the game, possibly due to the backlash at their debut trailer.

** Travis's mechanical hand is a remnant from an earlier version of the story. Originally, he was to be present while 47 escaped with Victoria, and would have been shot in the hand by 47 during their escape, prompting him to replace it. This part of the story was cut, but the developers kept the mechanical hand.
** 47's tie was originally planned to serve as a substitute for his trademark Fiber Wire, but this was cut due to difficulties with making them share animations, and memory limits prevented it from having its own set.
** 47 interrogating henchmen for information was a gameplay idea that was considered, but ultimately cut.
** Level ideas that didn't make it included a raging forest fire, a hot dog factory, an airplane that would crash mid-way through the mission, and a ship during a raging storm.
** It was planned that 47 could move around while using environment objects to "blend in", but memory limits forced them to simplify it to an idle animation.

* ScheduleSlip: ''Hitman 5'' (What would become Absolution) was first announced in 2007. Development apparently only got going in 2009, only to stall again (if not be canned completely and subsequently restarted; reports vary) because Eidos wanted more ''Kane and Lynch'' games. Instead of reprising his famous role, David Bateson was yanked into a recording booth to do a commercial for ''VideoGame/KaneAndLynch''.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: Contracts mode is absent in the remaster, as IOI doesn't own the servers that they used to run it. (They presumably still belong to Square Enix.) They are, however, trying to find a way to bring it back.

* PlayingAgainstType: Big time in the Japanese dub: Victoria is voiced by Creator/AyanaTaketatsu, a voice actress well-known for voicing sweet, cute girls like [[Manga/KOn Azusa Nakano]] or [[Manga/OreImo Kirino Kousaka]]. Victoria is anything ''but sweet''.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: Contracts mode is absent in the remaster, as IOI doesn't own the servers that they used to run it (They presumably still belong to Square Enix). They are, however, trying to find a way to bring it back.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The developers really played around with ideas for this game. There's even a free Iphone app, ''Absolution Full Disclosure'' that gives info about the pre-release notes. Some examples:
** Early ideas of the plot explored even more radical changes to 47 and had darker tones. One, dubbed "The Angry Man", had 47 hunting a group of men who had been involved in the killing of a teenager, with a tone heavily inspired by revenge films of the 1970's. Another, "The Homeless Hitman", had 47 crossing the DespairEventHorizon over [[spoiler:killing Diana]], causing him to leave the Agency and descend into homelessness and poverty. They ultimately decided against these ideas, as they were deemed too dark and too story-driven for a Hitman game.

* YouSoundFamiliar: In French, Blake Dexter has the same voice actor 47 had from ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' to ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'', Creator/PhilippeDumond.

** Ex-porn actress Traci Lords voices Layla. Evidently, her voice work impressed IO enough that she returned in ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' as Maya Parvati.

** Point shooting is similar to the "Dead Eye" mechanic in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' or "Mark And Execute" from ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Conviction'' and ''Blacklist.''
*** Speaking of ''Splinter Cell'', the plot is more or less identical to the latter-day SC games (Sam shooting an associate to buy them time, before declaring war on the agency he works for).

** 47's tie was originally planned to available as a substitute for his trademark Fiber Wire, but this was cut due to difficulties with making them share animations, and memory limits prevented it from having its own set.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Purist mode.
** The missions you hate turn fun in Contracts mode.

** For ''Absolution'', the original voice actress for Diana (Vivienne [=McKee=]) was replaced by Marsha Thomason (best known for her roles on ''{{Series/Lost}}'' and ''WhiteCollar'').

* TheOtherDarrin: For ''Absolution'', the original voice actress for Diana (Vivienne [=McKee=]) was replaced by Marsha Thomason (best known for her roles on ''{{Series/Lost}}'' and ''WhiteCollar'').
** Agent 47 himself nearly got this treatment in ''Absolution'' too, when his voice actor, David Bateson, was revealed to have been snubbed by IO. Following many fans protesting/begging/[[BreadEggsBreadedEggs protesting and begging at the same time]], Bateson was called back and did the voice work (but not the motion capture) again in ''Absolution''.

* ScheduleSlip: ''Hitman 5'' (What would become Absolution) was first announced in 2007. Development apparently only got going in 2009, only to stall again (if not be canned completely and subsequently restarted; reports vary) because Eidos wanted more ''Kane and Lynch'' games. Instead of reprising his famous role, David Bateson was yanked into a recording booth to do a commercial for ''K&R''.

* ExecutiveMeddling: This is the reason why there was such a long gap between ''Blood Money'' and ''Absolution''. Apparently the developers started work on a new game for release in 2009 or 2010, but Eidos decided that the ''KaneAndLynch'' franchise (also developed by IO Interactive) was going to be the next big thing (spoiler: it wasn't) and ordered them to produce a sequel to that game instead. Square Enix, on the other hand, were far less enamored with ''Kane and Lynch'', and upon buying out Eidos they put that franchise out to pasture and let IO get back to its flagship series.

** It was planned that 47 could move around while "blending in", but memory limits forced them to simplify it to an idle animation.

** Early drafts of the story had many symbolic elements and a strong theme of 47 "rising from the ashes". Another idea was lyrically-driven gameplay, where the gameplay would be heavily underscored by and revolve around the soundtrack's lyrics. While ambitious, this idea was discarded due to being too creatively demanding.
** Cosmo Faulkner and Clive Skurky were meant to have greater roles in the story. An entire sub-plot revolved around Cosmo searching for 47 and questioning various characters throughout the story, many of which were recycled into various NPC's in the final game. One gameplay idea involved Cosmo walking 47, who was disguised as a coroner, through a murder scene of a young girl killed by Dexter. Skurky had a level planned to take place at his house, where 47 would find that he was at the courthouse waiting for his ex-wife's divorce papers.

** Level ideas that didn't make it included a raging forest fire, a hot dog factory, an airplane that would crash mid-way through the mission, and a ship during a raging storm. None of these made the game due to technical or plot issues.

* WhatCOuldHaveBeen: The developers really played around with ideas for this game. There's even a free Iphone app, ''Absolution Full Disclosure'' that gives info about the pre-release notes. Some examples:
** In a very early draft, the story was about now homeless 47 avenging a teenager killed by some people. The game was then going with the name "Hobo with a shotgun".
** 47's tie was originally planned to available as a substitute for Fiber Wire.
** Wade was planned to be playable in a mini-game.
** The developers wanted to give 47 a rocket launcher at some point.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Purist mode.