E3 2011 Preview: Hitman Absolution

At the beginning of the last console generation a newly formed studio named IO Interactive created what would become one of the most interesting takes on the stealth action genre ever created: Hitman.  With just its inaugural outing Hitman introduced us to a far more methodical approach than had ever been attempted in games like Metal Gear Solid or Tenchu before it.  After four successful titles over the course of six years IO decided it was time to try something new and while their follow-up efforts with Kane and Lynch have certainly turned heads once again it hasn’t lived up to the legacy and grace that the adventures of the world’s greatest assassin experienced.

Five years since its last outing, a lot has changed in the industry and the fear that the influence of modern gaming aesthetics might adversely affect the game are well placed.  Judging by the demo I was allowed to see at E3 this year however Hitman Absolution looks to be the comeback tour we’ve been wanting for so long.

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Codename: 47

Agent 47, the darling of the International Contracts Agency, has seen and carried out just about any kind of assassination ever conceived of.  From drug lords to murderers, from pedophiles to mob witnesses, no target is too difficult to get close to so long as the one who calls out the hit has both the cash and the right connections.  47’s lengthy career has had him traveling the globe in search of his next target from Russia to Columbia to even the White House but his riskiest assignment yet takes him to a place whose history for a century has been consumed by crime and corruption: Chicago.

After having taken care of his latest victim, 47 is on the run from the Chicago PD.  Alone, outgunned, and without any of his trademark equipment to aid him in the evasion of his pursuers, 47 crashes through the window of a derelict with dozens of cops hot on his trail.  It is here that our demo begins.

Hidden in the darkness from the men chasing him, the libraries’ rundown environment coupled with the raging storm outside makes for an ideal environment to play a game of cat and mouse.  Huddling behind toppled bookshelves and dust-ridden desks, 47 makes notice of his only viable exit: the large open doors on the other side of the building.  In between him and that exit though are over a dozen police officers whose loudmouth chief insists that they shoot first instead of asking questions.

Hitman Absolution’s gameplay in this particular instance is a dramatic departure from the games we have come to love over the years.  While certain missions will retain the classic Hitman formula of a sandbox environment to explore and plan out your actions with, this occurrence is an example of what gamers can expect to be playing a majority of the time when the game sees its full release.  Similar in approach to recent stealth titles like Splinter Cell Conviction and Batman Arkham Asylum, 47 has to play it cool without the element of social stealth to keep him safe.  Staying out of sight is in his best interest and the darkness of the library is his new companion.

Patrolling guards roam amidst the bookcases, boxes, and desks that litter the area with their weapons drawn and a flashlight flickers in the direction of even the slightest hint of sound or movement.  It is immediately clear that the game’s AI has received a massive overhaul over its previous incarnations, something that was much needed if IO wants to stay competitive in a genre that is slowly becoming increasingly more populated.  The guards are clearly nervous as the lightning flashes and thunder roars through the dead lobby of the library and one wrong move could spell the premature end of 47.

As he wanders past a set of shelves 47 stops dead in his tracks.  A flashlight is pointing towards where 47 was heading and the cone of light is becoming smaller by the second: a guard is approaching on the other side of the bookcase and 47 is sure to be spotted if he stays put.  Backing up a bit, our demonstrator activates a new aspect of 47’s arsenal: Instinct, something that the world’s greatest assassin has honed over years of hunting targets.

Instinct is a game-changing aspect for the Hitman series as it serves as both a visual and audio aid to the player.  Activating Instinct in this particular instance allows 47 to see the patrolling cop through the bookcase as well as a red line on the ground indicating his intended path of movement.  Instinct can also be used to indicate interactive objects in the environment.  It is clear that Instinct is a great tool to the player but the possibility of abuse seems to exist.

As the guard slowly passes by 47 he reaches up and grabs the guard from behind before squeezing the life out of him.  Dropping the lifeless body to the floor, 47 presses on, moving toward the center of the room where a larger concentration of guards can be found.  Hiding behind a desk the player finds a piece of extension cord and has it added to his inventory.  Sneaking up behind another guard 47 quickly chokes the guard using the cord thankfully yielding a quiet death.

The lights in the room suddenly come on.  Much to the insistence of the lieutenant in charge a couple of cops have found the fusebox and have restored power to the room.  The additional lighting will make escape far more difficult so the player moves toward the box, staying in the shadows.  As the two cops go around the corner 47 approaches the fusebox, rigs it, and turns out the lights.  As the lights go out panic sweeps through the already spooked cops and one rushes back to fix it.  When the guard tries to fix the panel it instead electrocutes him, both killing him and ensuring that the lights will not come on again.

Crossing the room, 47 nears another guard.  This one stands next to a portion of the floor that has collapsed.  Taking the opportunity, 47 pushes the guard to his death.  Hearing the noise another guard, this one on the balcony above, comes to investigate.  Moving quickly, 47 grabs the edge of the balcony and, just as the guard arrives, grabs him by the belt and pulls him over the banister causing him to meet the same end as his fallen counterpart.  47 pulls himself up and continues on narrowly avoiding another patrolling guard.

Silent No More

As 47 come around the corner the player takes notice of the exit.  His salvation may be in sight but there’s a problem: a contingent of cops are huddled together near it and there’s no way 47 will be able to sneak past them without a fight.  Grabbing a gun from a slain officer 47 slowly creeps behind an unsuspecting cop and take him hostage.  As all hell breaks loose and the remaining police draw their guns at him our favorite assassin climbs the staircase slowly toward the door.  At its threshold he knocks the hostage out and makes a run for it.

Climbing across several balconies with the heat right on his heels, 47 finds a fire door and breaks through it to the stormy Chicago rooftops.  As he jumps to a nearby building a new obstacle appears: a patrol helicopter equipped with a spotlight and enough firepower to make short work of him.  The player quickly steers further on, dodging the gunfire before making it to a maintenance room on another rooftop.  The helicopter can’t peak in with its spotlight or get a clear shot at 47 so it stays put blocking the connecting rooftop along his escape route.  Temporarily trapped, salvation arrives in the form of a patrol officer ordered over the helicopter’s loudspeaker to investigate the room.  Waiting for the guard to get out of sight, 47 sneaks behind his target and knocks him out.  Taking the opportunity to switch disguises, the player changes out of the familiar black suit and red tie into the cop’s uniform.  Walking outside, the helicopter does nothing to stop him.

Entering the adjacent building 47 finds himself in an apartment filled to the brim with hippies and marijuana plants that looks like a stoner’s quintessential paradise.  As one hippie tries unsuccessfully to flush his green bounty down the toilet others instead continue to do what stoners do best, some barely even acknowledging the in-disguise assassin let alone being able to acknowledge that a powerful storm is raging on outside their windows.  Nearing the entrance to the apartment a patrol officer busts through the door searching for 47.  The player grabs a lamp on a table and introduces it to the officer’s face, knocking him out quite brutally.

Exiting the apartment our demonstrator descents a flight of stairs and arrives in probably the worst place he could find himself in short of a morgue: a lobby filled to the brim with cops.  Slowly walking by the officers, the player activates Instinct once again.  As officers pass by and take notice of him 47 pretends to speak into his radio and pulls his cap down, obscuring his face.  One cop in particular’s thoughts mistake him for another officer but 47 continues on.  Nearing the door, the player has the camera squarely fixated on a cache of assault rifles and it seems like there’s about to be a huge firefight.  As he reaches them though a contingent of SWAT officers rush through the door, startling everyone in attendance.  Thinking quickly the player has 47 stop and instead grab a donut that was right next to the cache.

47 isn’t free just yet.  About to leave as the SWAT team passes by, the cop who mistook him for someone else before calls out to 47, questioning him.  47 plays it cool and answers the man before walking out the door into the rain and a crowded train platform of several hundred pedestrians.  As 47 disappears into the crowd the camera and music rise in an exciting bellow of horn instruments not unlike Inception’s soundtrack, marking the world famous assassin’s successful escape.

Curtain Down

IO Interactive has a lot to live up to with returning to the Hitman franchise after two mediocre games over the past several years but this latest iteration is looking nothing short of fantastic if the E3 demo we saw is any indication.  It seems as if every complaint that has run through the series, from the questionable character animations to the gimpy AI, has been addressed and updated to modern standards.  The gameplay modifications present in this single level may be a departure from the standard Hitman formula but what we get in the end seems to be a far more cinematic presentation that the series has long needed.  If IO can keep this level of quality up then Agent 47’s next tour of duty will certainly be memorable.

E3 2011 Preview: Star Trek

Three years ago rising director J. J. Abrams was approached by Paramount to do what many people had believed impossible: reinvent Star Trek, arguably the most beloved science fiction franchises of all time, and make it relevant to today’s audience.  This task seemed insurmountable for most directors and producers but Abrams, riding strong on his successes on television shows like Lost and Fringe as well as film successes like Mission Impossible 3 and Cloverfield, certainly delivered with one of the most entertaining films of 2009.  Bringing back classic characters while both making it easier to understand for non-fans and not ticking-off Trekkies around the world, Star Trek made the old new again.

While Abrams works on a sequel set to release next year Paramount had their Digital Entertainment team approach Digital Extremes with a task just as monumental: creating a Star Trek game that everyone can get behind.  Creators of Dark Sector and The Darkness II, Digital Extremes has a tough task ahead of them but judging on what I saw while at E3 several weeks back I’m certain they’re the right team for the job.

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Beam Me Up for Adventure

Stepping into Paramount Digital’s small meeting room on Wednesday afternoon I was sat down with a few other writers in front of a television and two members of the development team.  All around me we saw concept art from the game which really seemed to capture the authenticity of the Star Trek universe.  Awe-inspiring vistas and beautiful starscapes gave ideas as to the sense of scale that has always been at the forefront of every Star Trek property and, as the demo began, it was mentioned that the concept art was just a hint of what is to come in the final game.

Most Star Trek titles over the years have been mostly the same, built around the concept of a space-flight simulation with small strategic aspects built in.  This is all well and good as everyone wants to be able to pilot the Enterprise into combat against Klingons, Borg, or what name you but in the end the experience has never been anything more than a decent experience.  Star Trek Online took steps to address this when it was released early last year with gameplay that, ideally, is perfect for the franchise.  However, in the end its gameplay didn’t seem to match up to what people really wanted despite plenty of bells and whistles.  Digital Extremes however it taking an entirely different approach with their title: a cooperative third-person shooter.

Taking place an undisclosed amount of time after the 2009 film, Star Trek, much like many licensed film properties, is set between the previous film and the next one.  Similar to how film tie-in titles like Tron Evolution, Star Trek will be canon to the new vision of the series.  Players take on the roles of the two most famous characters of the franchise: Kirk and Spock, at a point in which their friendship is still growing but still retain differing opinions and styles.

Our demonstration began a good portion into the game’s story.  Returning from an away mission aboard a shuttlecraft, Kirk and Spock find the Enterprise adrift and almost certainly abandoned in the middle of an interstellar minefield.  Certain that the shuttle would not be able to approach the ship without hitting a mine, Kirk and Spock opt for a less conventional approach: launching themselves at the ship while in their spacesuits in hopes of landing at an air lock.   With a swift thrust the duo blast away from their shuttlecraft and begin their speedy approach to the Enterprise in an on-rails tunnel ride like that of modern Sonic the Hedgehog game levels.  As mines fly toward and past them the pair tries desperately to avoid them while at the same time trying to utilize as little maneuvering fuel as possible.

As Kirk and Spock fly through the minefield it begins to become clear that the two are meant in both character and gameplay style to be very different from one another.  In this particular instance it is probably a more believable scenario to say that the two players were trying to reflect upon their characters in the way they play as Kirk’s player has trouble avoiding mines while Spock’s player has little to worry about, making calculating moves past the mines.  This became more pronounced though when, as the sequence comes to an end, Kirk lands in a heap, tumbling across the deck while Spock executes a perfect landing.  After a witty exchange, which clearly shows that the levity present in the 2009 film will be returning, the two proceed into the innards of the gigantic starship.

Darmok and Who at Where?!

As Spock and Kirk enter the ship it is immediately apparent that things are amiss.  The Enterprise is under command lockdown and the crew is nowhere to be found.  Traveling down a decimated corridor the two come across a locked door.  This part introduces us to the game’s utilization of one of the most famous Star Trek devices: the tricorder.  Using their tricorders together, Kirk and Spock are able to bypass the door and continue beyond.  Just a few meters down they come across a dead crewman (wearing a red shirt).  Spock uses his tricorder and scans the body, learning that the man did not die of battle wounds or environmental damage but instead of a parasitic organism he somehow was infected with.  The ability to scan the environment and bodies with the tricorder gives players more information about what’s going on in the world as well as the possibility of actually affecting gameplay later on.

As they continue on a transmission from a crewmember is received by Kirk: she’s trapped in the shuttle bay and is requesting assistance.  Riding a turbolift, Kirk and Spock arrive at the bay only to find it empty save for displaced cargo and docked shuttles gathering dust.  It is clear that whatever happened to put the Enterprise in its current emergency state didn’t allow the crew time to evacuate.  Venturing further into the room, Kirk and Spock find the source of the transmission but no sign of the person who made it.  Suddenly a group of aliens unlike any seen in the entirety of the Star Trek franchise ambushes them, surrounding them on all sides.  Kirk and Spock run for cover in a completely interactive sequence, allowing the player to get a few early shots in as their characters dive behind some cargo before the firefight begins.

The dynamitic difference between the two characters is again demonstrated during the combat sequence.  Kirk, being the ambitious, nigh-reckless character that he is, is very offensive in his gameplay so therefore his phaser can be ungraded over time to include a vaporization mode in addition to the standard kill and stun modes.  Spock on the other hand is more defensive in nature and also has abilities and upgrades unique to his character such as the ability to utilize a particle cannon that can knock out enemy shields or the ability to mind meld with the enemy, confusing them into attacking his own teammates.

The firefight lasts for several moments, Kirk blasting away from cover and vaporizing a few aliens while Spock is able to sneak behind one and performs a mind meld.  Suddenly attacked from the rear, Kirk is knocked down after falling into a rising yellow cloud.  Kirk calls for Spock’s help as he has become infected by the same parasite that killed the red shirt crewmember they found earlier.  Taking Kirk over his shoulder, the two travel to the medical bay, Spock’s player walking them toward their destination while Kirk fires away at approaching enemies, his vision slowly turning yellow and blurring as time passes by.

Arriving at medical, Spock places Kirk on a surgical gurney and begins scanning him.  A monitor displays several parasites that have invaded Kirk’s body and Spock is forced to do a small interactive sequence in which he uses a surgical laser to rid him of the infecting agents.  Taking into consideration how many dead bodies were scanned with a tricorder prior to the firefight in the shuttle bay the sequence can be easier.  As enemies burst into the room Kirk provides covering fire as Spock attempts to kill the parasites.  With the removal of each parasite Kirk’s vision steadies, allowing him to aim better and see more of the environment.  Finishing up the task, Spock joins Kirk in fending off the invading aliens.

Stepping off the gurney, Kirk picks up a Federation phaser rifle.  More powerful than his captain-issue phaser, the rifle’s helps even the odds.  After another wave of enemies pins them down, Kirk uses the rifle’s secondary fire option, a portable shield, and takes cover behind it.  Kirk orders Spock to shoot his shield which succeeds in giving it more strength.  As the combat continues Kirk uses his tricorder to explode a panel next to an enemy, killing him.  Just when the two think that they’ve exhausted the enemy’s reinforcements a more powerful one teleports into the room.  After a short firefight Kirk is knocked unconscious.

Set Phasers to Fun

The next adventure of the USS Enterprise and her crew is still a year away from us and many questions are left unanswered: who attacked the Enterprise?  Where is the crew?  How does this tie into the two movies?  My brief time with Star Trek was a wonderfully sweet tease and, as the son of a Trekkie, I get the feeling that the dedication Digital Extremes is putting into the game will be well worth it to both old fans and newcomers alike.  At this point in development there’s a lot of potential for upping the ante for fans such as utilizing the voice talents of Zachery Quinto and Chris Pine but at this point they weren’t ready to confirm such a possibility.

I’ve always likened Star Trek games to Superman ones: no one has ever really gotten it or its characters right.  If Digital Extremes can deliver on the promise of what I saw that Wednesday afternoon I can’t help but think that finally, for the first time in a very long time, the series might finally get a game that’s worthy of the long running series’ universe, characters, and fan appreciation.