History VideoGame / HitmanAbsolution

* BunnyEarsLawyer: '''This''' is the top informant in the city? Birdie lives in/works out of a derelict prison bus which is rife with pet birds, even though he has plenty of money. His nickname derives from three things: the bird poop covering his jacket, his association with and love for birds, and a wink at his "stool pigeon" role.

** In "Fight Night", 47 is required to turn over all weapons all the security booth. Even if he's disguised as a trainer or the fighter himself, he promptly forks over his giant-sized silenced Hardballers with custom ''fleur de lis'' logos and says not to lose them. He sounds exactly like a Yuppie warning a parking attendant not to scratch his Lamborghini. Of course nobody in the queue blinks at this. This is also the mission where '''ripping off your mask and snapping Sanchez's neck in full view of cheering spectators''' counts as a "Silent Assassin". It's almost as if IO has schadenfreude for the introverted types who like these games for their slow and deliberate nature.

--->"You got to [the count of] three. Three." '''BANG.'''

** The "Shagri La Garden" is a psychedelic loft, full of picket signs with slogans such as "MAKE LOVE NOT WAR" and "SAVE THE WHALES'. Now, have a look inside the stoners' safe: '''[[TechnicalPacifist It's a remote bomb!]]''' Once all the cops herd in to canvas the scene, you can go ahead and detonate it. Case closed, we guess. The AM radio is tuned to a conspiracy show: Looks like the hippies were prepping themselves for an assault by Big Brother.

* HenpeckedHusband: It's funny how a private security guard at Diana's house is too terrified to pick up a phone and call his wife's divorce lawyers. ("You've been in '''[[AnythingButThat combat]]'''! How hard can this be?" "Man, you don't know Angie...") Another male NPC is complaining to a police officer on the train platform. "I gotta get home, I got a fucking bitch of a wife!" The cop threatens to arrest him for obstruction.

** Sometimes it's just plain silly: After tampering with Valentine's hair restorer, his scalp will '''immediately''' catch on fire, and Valentine will run screaming off the catwalk and topple into a {{bottomless pit}}.

** Travis announces his arrival in Hope with armored [=ATVs=], a chopper, and a megaphone. When Skurky tries to beat a hasty retreat, he gets shot in the leg '''and''' hit by a runaway SUV, causing a domino effect which flips a gasoline truck and sets the town on fire. Just another day for ICA.

--->'''Cop:''' "Medicinal"?! You got a fuckin' '''ECOSYSTEM''' growin' in here!

** 47 himself suffers this a fair bit. The framing of 47's for murder only happened because he took on that gargantuan bodyguard, completely alone and unarmed, and '''tried to garotte him!''' That's right, the so called "master assassin" tries to choke to death a guy twice his size and far more muscular. That's sure to work! 47 admits afterwards that he had gotten "overconfident" and paid the price.

* BigFun: The rotund manager of the Wakiki Inn must be the densest man on earth. A ''Scarface''-looking type with a "don't fuck with me" expression stomps into the joint, checks in under "Ben Franklin", and shoves a $100 note under the guy's nose, and what's this guy's reaction? Offer him a two-for-one deal on Mai Tais and a complimentary bobble-head on the nightstand?

** The People vs. Tinfoil Hat Man. Stickland calls a recess and exits to his chambers, where you can subdue him and take his robe and wig. Now it's your turn to be the long arm of the law. The moment he steps up to the bench, 47 brings down the gavel and mumbles, "Case dismissed.", causing Tinfoil Hat Man to whoop in victory and the prosecutor (John Turner) to throw a fit. "What the HELL was THAT shit?"

** Stickland's court. Despite having a reputation for being "fair", he is completely aware of Sheriff Skurky's corruption yet shows no objection to it. According to a news radio station, Strickland was under investigation by the FBI in connection to a bribe scandal. The previous year, he was under investigation for his obvious lack of objectivity in cases involving Dexter Industies, mostly those related to worker compensation (suggesting that he is on Dexter's payroll as well). It's also a running gag that he keeps acquitting James Seth Lynch (of ''VideoGame/KaneAndLynch''), despite his rap sheet and documented schizophrenia.

'''Stickland''': We have technical difficulties and an incontinent defendant, so let's take a break.

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* ArtificialStupidity:
** In "Attack of the Saints", you should see Dijana (one of the killer nuns) and a guard on the other side of the reception desk. Sneak over and take cover at the desk. Even though it looks risky, you can actually grab Dijana and yank her over the desk right in front of the guard, and all he'll do is ask '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hG5S-JFfBk#t=760s where she went!]]'''
** As is typical for ''Hitman'', guards get antsy if they see you enter Sneak mode. That's not the unrealistic part. The problem is their attention spans are so short, all you have to do is break their line of vision. Meaning that it is possible -- and this is something you can even do in your plain suit in an off-limits area -- to let an enemy follow you for a little while, then crouch behind some crates, then reappear in the guard's line of sight a second later to move to a new cover. It reaches outrageous levels when eliminating the Praetorians who are said to be the best, being alone in an abandoned area and ''still'' allow you to casually sneak across without them even reacting to it. Now, in ''real'' life, a construction worker would surely get more suspicious of a guy hopping around behind pallets than if he was just beelining to where he wanted to go.
** Another funny thing about the AI is how you can just throw [=C4=] charges and the AI will treat it like any other distraction in the game. However if they see you carrying [=C4=], they treat you as armed and open fire.
** Sometimes in the Testing Facility, landmines being tested will kill guards when exploding. Even if the player isn't responsible, the score will still be reduced.

* HundredPercentCompletion: In ''Absolution'', there are 278 challenges (basically mini-achievements) to obtain by killing the target in various ways and utilizing different disguises. Fortunately you only have to complete 100 of them in order to obtain the "Grand Master" achievement/trophy.

** It's also {{deconstruct|ion}}ed by Diana's last wishes: Victoria's career as an action heroine is cut pretty short, and though she annihilates a half dozen guards in "Countdown", she spends the bulk of the game lying in hospital beds or fainting. And unlike 47 (who accepts the fact that he's literally Born To Kill), Victoria wants nothing to do with the business.

** It's pretty obvious the setting of Hope, South Dakota was intended to be located in Texas based on the climate, wildlife, fashion sense of the inhabitants, and prominence of the HS football teams, among many other things. Only the cinematic at Mt. Rushmore is uniquely South Dakotan, and it could easily be a late addition. It looks like the setting was changed to South Dakota very late in the game's development, presumably because there are 27 million potential customers to offend in Texas and less than a million in South Dakota, and moving the game setting to an even ''less'' populous state would have made the the disparities even more noticeable.

* ExplosiveBarrels: When push comes to shove, you can aim at a gas cylinder (basically a flammable barrel) for a quick, messy kill. In "Blackwater Park", another Accident involves hurling a jug of gasoline into the fireplace, a nod to ''VideoGame/HitmanContracts''.

* HellholePrison: The example to beat is "Skurky's Law", a real life medieval dungeon which lies underneath the Hope courthouse. Here prisoners are routinely beaten and suffer 'accidents' shortly before giving a trial testimony. Skurky enjoys torture so much, he even chains ''himself'' up down here and allows a dominatrix to whip him.

** Many, many examples of this in the enemy chatter. For example, in the tutorial mission, Agent 47 can overhear a guard being told by his doctor that he's tested negative for prostate cancer. Excited by the good news, the guard happily proclaims "I was a goner! WOO! No one can piss on ''this'' day", while standing in front of window overlooking a jagged cliff. In another, you find a Dexter Industries employee who just had a baby girl the day before. It's [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential up to you]] on how to get past them.

* TinfoilHat: The preferred attire of Timothy Hawke, a man who believes the UN are using 'mind control rays' embedded in garden gnomes. Although he is obviously mentally unbalanced, Hope's law enforcement considers him essentially harmless and often dismisses the charges against him. And yes, you can steal his outfit and go to jail in his place.

* WildCard: Birdie is (to say the least) an unreliable ally. Although 47 does not tell him where Victoria is, he nonetheless has little difficulty finding out. Once Wade captures him, he divulges the girl's location to him, causing the brutal attack on the Rosewood Orphanage and Victoria's subsequent capture.

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* BadNewsIrrelevantNews: The Wakiki Inn is reduced to cinders, but it's not all bleak. If Mr. 47 saves the manager from being shot, he will waive your bill.

* DifficultySpike: If you want to keep it clean, "Attack of the Saints" will tax your patience and memorization.

* CatScare: A [[EverythingsWorseWithBears stuffed grizzly]] on the 8th floor landing of the hotel.

* SequelDifficultyDrop:
** There's very little reason to explore beyond what [[NoticeThis glows yellow]] or the blazing footprint paths of your targets, and the player interaction with the environment boils down to "''I can interact with sleeping pills and pizza, hmmm''" There's also another small issue which the Challenge notebook make very apparent: if 47 hasn't already thought of a way to kill your target, [[ICantReachIt you're out of luck.]]
** It takes less than 2 seconds to reload now, even with the Silverballers. Your Ballers also come with silencers by default.
** Hitman doesn't need a sedative or chloroform rag anymore. Put your enemies in a sleeper hold, and they're out like a light for the remainder of the mission.
** 47 can now conceal large two-handed weapons on his person, such as shotguns, assault rifles, and even sniper rifles (which no longer need assembly). This feature does away with the ICA crates and weapon briefcases.
** ''Hitman Absolution'' has {{regenerating health}}, but it only regenerates part of your health. To fully heal you need to use a first aid station.
** If 47 is caught in the middle of trespassing or some other suspicious activity, the rest of the [=NPCs=] won't be alerted immediately like in older games. Instead, he will be asked to leave (if trespassing) or held at gunpoint, giving him a chance to regain control of the situation by killing or knocking them out before they alert each other on the radio. 47 can also pretend to surrender, disarm them and take them as a human shield.
* SequelDifficultySpike:
** For one, it doesn't allow you to choose your guns. The sniper method is a bit messy since the Kazo TRG (which you can find sitting around) is unsilenced. This will attract attention, and on higher difficulties a S.W.A.T. team will be deployed after the shot is fired. Civilians will automatically identify the source of the ''second'' shot, so make the first one count.
** What makes ''Absolution'' harder is the lack of a real Save feature. The checkpoints in this game are far apart, even the extra ones you are given on any difficulty from Hard and below. It's a test of endurance. On top of that, activating a checkpoint only saves how far along you are in your mission, not the actual state of the level. If you reload a game, you'll find any complex accident kill you've set in place now has to be reset and all those guards you got rid of are suddenly alive and well.
** Having people recognize you if have their disguise on. (''I know every cop in America, and he's an imposter!'') A similar thing happened in ''Silent Assassin'', wherein if you got too close to staff they would look past your disguise and call for help. But it's somehow even worse here: An example would be the Chinatown mission. If you waddle out wearing a chef disguise, the disguise will constantly trigger chefs among the crowd, and you have to burn instinct or hide until it blows over. In most cases just wearing your suit is better, because trying to 'blend in' is actually ''less'' effective.[[labelnote:*]]Oddly enough, wearing a disguise only ''one'' person has will usually disguise you perfectly, even though it should be much more recognizable than someone in a uniform.[[/labelnote]]

* NeverTrustATrailer: "King of Chinatown" (shown in the demo) and "Streets of Hope" were similar to old ''Hitman'', but missions like the hotel are nothing more getting from point A to point B without being spotted. Instead of the sandbox format, we've got helicopter chases, library hunts and a lot more corridor walking. Also, tons of cutscenes and QTE boss battles.

* DifficultySpike: If you want to keep it clean, "Attack of the Saints" will tax your patience and memorization.

* SequelDifficultyDrop:
** There's very little reason to explore beyond what [[NoticeThis glows yellow]] or the blazing footprint paths of your targets, and the player interaction with the environment boils down to "''I can interact with sleeping pills and pizza, hmmm''" There's also another small issue which the Challenge notebook make very apparent: if 47 hasn't already thought of a way to kill your target, [[ICantReachIt you're out of luck.]]
** It takes less than 2 seconds to reload now, even with the Silverballers. Your Ballers also come with silencers by default.
** Hitman doesn't need a sedative or chloroform rag anymore. Put your enemies in a sleeper hold, and they're out like a light for the remainder of the mission.
** 47 can now conceal large two-handed weapons on his person, such as shotguns, assault rifles, and even sniper rifles (which no longer need assembly). This feature does away with the ICA crates and weapon briefcases.
** ''Hitman Absolution'' has {{regenerating health}}, but it only regenerates part of your health. To fully heal you need to use a first aid station.
** If 47 is caught in the middle of trespassing or some other suspicious activity, the rest of the [=NPCs=] won't be alerted immediately like in older games. Instead, he will be asked to leave (if trespassing) or held at gunpoint, giving him a chance to regain control of the situation by killing or knocking them out before they alert each other on the radio. 47 can also pretend to surrender, disarm them and take them as a human shield.
* SequelDifficultySpike:
** For one, it doesn't allow you to choose your guns. The sniper method is a bit messy since the Kazo TRG (which you can find sitting around) is unsilenced. This will attract attention, and on higher difficulties a S.W.A.T. team will be deployed after the shot is fired. Civilians will automatically identify the source of the ''second'' shot, so make the first one count.
** What makes ''Absolution'' harder is the lack of a real Save feature. The checkpoints in this game are far apart, even the extra ones you are given on any difficulty from Hard and below. It's a test of endurance. On top of that, activating a checkpoint only saves how far along you are in your mission, not the actual state of the level. If you reload a game, you'll find any complex accident kill you've set in place now has to be reset and all those guards you got rid of are suddenly alive and well.
** Having people recognize you if have their disguise on. (''I know every cop in America, and he's an imposter!'') A similar thing happened in ''Silent Assassin'', wherein if you got too close to staff they would look past your disguise and call for help. But it's somehow even worse here: An example would be the Chinatown mission. If you waddle out wearing a chef disguise, the disguise will constantly trigger chefs among the crowd, and you have to burn instinct or hide until it blows over. In most cases just wearing your suit is better, because trying to 'blend in' is actually ''less'' effective.[[labelnote:*]]Oddly enough, wearing a disguise only ''one'' person has will usually disguise you perfectly, even though it should be much more recognizable than someone in a uniform.[[/labelnote]]

On the multiplayer front, there was an online mode called Contracts which let players create different, well...Contracts for each other. The gist of it was you could load any of the missions found in the game and set new objectives. You could mark up to three random [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] found in the level as targets, kill them and then leave via an escape route of your choice. It was a modest way of adding 'multiplayer' to a single-player game while keeping Creator/SquareEnix's server costs down.

The plot is more 'grindhouse' than ''Hitman'' is generally known for, [[ActionizedSequel with a heavier emphasis on action]]. Whereas the old cast would feel right at home in ''Film/TheReplacementKillers'', these characters are ripped straight from ''Film/{{Machete}}'', with a third of the game spent avoiding ''polizia'' in the desert. While praised by the gaming community at large, ''Absolution'' didn't receive as much support from the niche ''Hitman'' crowd, and it was less commercially successful than ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]''.

Along with the graphics, the gameplay got a major facelift: This is very much a modern shooter, with more linearity (instead of single [[WideOpenSandbox sandbox]] map, each mission is divided into segments), [[QuicktimeEvent QTE]] battles, [[TakeCover stop n' pop]], and [[GameplayAndStorySegregation scripted spectacle events]]. Here's the rundown:

On the multiplayer front, there was an online mode called Contracts which let players create different, well...Contracts for each other. The gist of it is you could load any of the missions found in the game, but this time, ''you'' were the one to set the objectives. You could mark up to three random [=NPCs=] found in the level as targets, kill them and then leave via an escape route of your choice. It was a modest way of adding 'multiplayer' to a single-player game while keeping Creator/SquareEnix's server costs down.

** "Run For Your Life": A police helicopter is tearing up the pigeon coop 47 fled inside of.

The plot is more 'grindhouse' than ''Hitman'' is generally known for, with a heavier emphasis on action. Whereas the old cast would feel right at home in ''Film/TheReplacementKillers'', these characters are ripped straight from ''Film/{{Machete}}'', with a third of the game spent avoiding ''polizia'' in the desert. While praised by the gaming community at large, ''Absolution'' didn't receive as much support from the niche ''Hitman'' crowd, and it was less commercially successful than ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]''.

* DrinkOrder:
** When the motel manager offers him a selection of cocktails, 47 grunts, "Something brown." Which is delivered to him in a coconut.
** In preparation for Wade's arrival, Dom lines the walls of the Hawaii room with whiskey, along with Wade's TrademarkFavoriteFood (smoked salmon).

On the multiplayer front, there was an online mode called Contracts which let players create different, well...Contracts for each other. The gist of it is you could load any of the missions found in the game, but this time, ''you'' were the one to set the objectives. You could mark up to three random [=NPCs=] found in the level as targets, kill them and then leave via an escape route of your choice. It was a modest way of adding 'multiplayer' to a single-player game while keeping Square Enix's server costs down.

* DuelBoss: Wade, Skurky, and Layla (optional).
** Murdering Layla in a quick-draw duel is a fun (and unique) way to complete the mission. This duel is triggered by meeting her in a private panic room.

* MaskedLuchador: The Patriot is an out-of-state challenger who is scheduled to face Sanchez in a cage fight held at the plant. 47 can use his mask to get into a ring with [[strike:Bald Bull]] Sanchez, as the locals laugh and make fun of your tights.

* NoGearLevel: "Operation Sledgehammer". After being captured by Sheriff Skurky and stripped of his gear, 47 must escape captivity and kill him, all while dodging his cohorts from the Agency.

** The overturned tanker on MainSstreet ("Operation Sledgehammer") sets off a chain reaction which destroys much of the town.

* SequelHook: At the end of ''Absolution'', Birdie decides to sell 47's identity to the police.
** [[CanonDiscontinuity The sequels themselves seem to have completely ignored it, however.]]

** ''Absolution'' appears to have been given this treatment in ''VideoGame/Hitman2016''. The only reference that game makes to this is the time where 47 shoots someone through a reflected mirror. While the other games have a few ContinuityNod's here and there, ''Absolution'' has been ignored almost completely, which is especially notable given its conspicuous sequel hook.

** The overturned tanker on main street ("Operation Sledgehammer") sets off a chain reaction which destroys much of the town.

** The gas station blowup fun can also be used with the Saints, killing two of them and multiple of her mooks instantly. It's even possible to get a quadruple reaction: detonate a bomb that lights the gas that explodes the station that explodes the cars.

* AbortedArc: The game ended with Victoria living with [[spoiler:Diana]] and Birdie betraying 47 to Chicago PD. Neither character is ever seen or mentioned in the newest incarnation, ''VideoGame/Hitman2016''

** Travis provides a perfect foil to Jade and Diana's 'softly, softly' approach', but to his credit, he also favors women in the organization. Travis' lieutenant is female, he hand-picks Victoria to replace 47 as ICA's top killer, and his experimental unit (The Saints) is comprised entirely of women. In "Attack of the Saints", the titular killers act as field captains to the roving wetworks team, who are comprised of males.

* ExplosiveBarrels: When push comes to shove, you can aim at a gas cylinder (basically a flammable barrel) for a quick, messy kill. In "Blackwater Park", another Accident involves hurling a jug of gasoline into the fireplace, a nod to ''Hitman: Contracts''.

The plot is more 'grindhouse' than ''Hitman'' is generally known for, with a heavier emphasis on action. Whereas the old cast would feel right at home in ''Film/TheReplacementKillers'', these characters are ripped straight from ''Film/{{Machete}}'', with a third of the game spent avoiding the ''federales'' in the desert. While praised by the gaming community at large, ''Absolution'' didn't receive as much support from the niche ''Hitman'' crowd, and it was less commercially successful than ''[[VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney Blood Money]]''.