In his small chapter in the book ‘Whiskey and Philosophy‘ (1) titled ‘Heisenberg’s Spirits: Tasting Is More Uncertain Than It Seems‘ single-malt fan Jerry O. Dalton (who also happens to be by profession the master distiller at Jim Beam and Barton Brands) explains that the answer to the frequently asked question ‘are some whiskeys better than others?’ is much more complicated than it seems…
He is often asked that question — and not just by casual drinkers, but by icons in the whiskey business like Booker Noe (the grandson of Jim Beam), Jimmy Russel (Wild Turkey), and Elmer T. Lee (Buffalo Trace), men who are considered widely to be masters of the art with bourbons named after them, so one might be forgiven for thinking that they would already know the answer to that question…
The underlying foundation for the wisdom that Dalton shared in his contribution to the book began with his application of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and while it may appear that what he was doing by invoking that rule was avoiding offering a considered opinion on the subject, in reality he was doing just the opposite — by pointing out that a great deal of weight for any attempt at a reasonable answer to the question requires that the sensory evaluation and statistical analysis of the results remains heavily influenced by the observer (in this case the taster) he underscores the age-old problem that is naturally associated with any evaluation of this type: that no matter how exacting the standards are that are applied, and even when the underlying criteria are mutually agreed to, there are simply no absolutes when it comes to personal opinion.
I bring this up because of a conversation that took place in the waiting area outside of the gate for our flight home at LAX, where we had settled in several hours before the flight to work on organizing much of the information acquired at E3 in the previous week, feeling all noble and productive about not allowing what would ordinarily be considered “downtime” to interfere with getting our work done.
As is sometimes the case at the end of trips like this one, due to the imbalance of dirty laundry over clean, we were wearing T-Shirts acquired at E3 — specifically I was wearing the shirt passed out at 2K’s exhibit for Borderlands II, and my intern was wearing the shirt they had been given at the Hawken after-event party, and because of this we stood out as easily identifiable targets who were marked by an interest in gaming.
May 2012 was a busy month for the folks over at IO Interactive and Square Enix, and not simply because they were preparing for E3 — as May saw the release of a number of video trailers for upcoming games including the next game in the Hitman series, Hitman: Absolution — including this one, which introduces Agent 47 and shows off his skills, his assassin’s instinct, and through a series of cut-away images, a variety of the environments that will feature in the game.
Ordinarily we don’t do that — and we never wear shirts from an event at the event itself — for reasons that stray into the area of professional ethics and responsibilities that cover a lot of ground… For instance does wearing a shirt from a game publisher constitute an endorsement of the product being advertised by the shirt? It is a sticky issue, to be sure, and not much different from the matter of applauding or cheering at press briefings (we don’t do that), and while this is not the place to hash out the matter, it bears mentioning that our wearing the shirts was unusual and not a standard practice, I am just saying.
Having arrived at the airport hours early in order to ensure that any issues that might arise in the time delays generally associated with clearing security at the TSA checkpoint would not interfere with the flight, as luck would have it we had breezed through the TSA checkpoint without a hitch, and in unusually good time. Because of that we arrived at the gate several hours before the flight and, as I mentioned above, we opted to put this time to good use since the flight back to the east coast would be spent sleeping with any luck.
As we sat reviewing our notes and matching them to the hand-outs and other game-related material we were approached by several gamers who correctly interpreted out T-Shirts as reasonable evidence that we had attended E3 in some capacity. After ascertaining the veracity of that suspicion, the gamers then launched into a series of questions, starting with what games we thought were the best of the show, and which presentations impressed us the most. It was evident that these light questions were intended to be ice-breakers, paving the way towards the question that they really wanted to ask, and finally did…
“So what did you think of Hitman: Absolution?” they asked, and by their tone and the serious expressions on their faces, it was clear that this was what they wanted to talk about.
It just so happened that I had already written a basic assessment of that game and its presentation at E3 and was in the process of writing a more in-depth assessment, and so had spent considerable time and effort in researching the previous games in the series in preparation for it; having also played every game in the series when they were released, and being something of a fan of the series and thus perhaps more knowledgeable about it than the average gamer might be, it turned out that it was good that they had a genuine interest in the game, because I was prepared to discuss it with them at some length.
Even as I warmed up to the conversation that was unfolding, in the back of my mind I mulled over Dalton’s words about the subjectivity of opinion and the lack of absolutes when it came to expressions of opinion like this… Of course the word ‘absolutes’ and the title ‘Hitman: Absolution’ are two completely different concepts and meanings — the word Dalton used meant complete, or perhaps something not dependent upon external conditions, while the world ‘absolution’ as it is used in the title is a theological term for forgiveness — but I was unable to carry that line of thought to its natural end due to the insistence of our new acquaintances to rehash the underlying story and its many diverging plot elements in order to reflect upon how it plays out in this newest title in the series…
Before we go any further here I would like to make a few observations — part of which will clarify for you the underlying purpose here — while helping to define our goals.
This article is intended to function as an in-depth introduction to the Hitman game series that, in addition to assisting the reader in understanding the story so far, might also serve to encourage them to take up the games from the beginning in order to experience what they have to offer as a means for preparing to play the newest offering in the series, which is the fifth title, Hitman: Absolution, which will be arriving in November of this year.
Presented at E3 2011, the “Run for your Life” demo presented almost 17 full minutes of game play at a point when so little information had been made available about the game that the video was carefully dissected by games journos who commented upon every minute detail it provided. It should be noted that this demo represented the first actual game play, excluding screen shots, that the gaming community had ever seen. While the library of demo film has since been massively expanded, if you have yet to experience them, starting with this demo video is a good idea!
Particular effort has been taken to share the story and many of its underlying elements, including the icons that serve to identify the characters and their place within it, while at the same time stopping short of revealing information that might serve as spoilers to the story and games. The process by which we determine what can be shared, what should be shared, and what should not is somewhat frustrating, as it necessarily makes it more difficult to completely illustrate some of the key issues that play important roles in the story…
Please bear in mind that we have done as complete a job as we could manage, while at the same time accept that in the doing of it we are encouraging you to not only begin playing the games, but to start from the very beginning, which necessarily means obtaining a copy of the PC game Hitman: Codename 47 and playing it, even if you are not usually a willing PC gamer!
The series and the character of Agent 47 offer a tremendous measure of entertainment and, as a side-effect, an inherent potential to provide you with a sort of relationship that has been enjoyed by so many gamers over the course of the past twelve years so as to recommend in its own right your becoming a willing party to this conspiracy of immersion that will naturally lead you down this well-traveled path.
In each generation there comes an idea and character that captures the imagination of the masses in a way that few ever do, and Agent 47 is no exception to that rule. I have often remarked that it is a pity that the stories that were told in the video games had not originated as books — since their place in the firmament of literature would have added immensely to the pleasures already obtained from the stories in the video games… If you pick up the banner and begin to play the games from the start, you will come to understand and appreciate that observation, and if not, well, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Agent 47
The Hitman series consists of five games in total, beginning naturally enough with the game that set the title and starting point for the story, Hitman: Codename 47 (2000) which was released exclusively on PC. This was followed by Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002) which was released for the PlayStation 2, original Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, and Windows PC, and keeping with the established two-year development cycle, the story continued with Hitman: Contracts (2004), which was released on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows PC.
The release of the fourth game in the series, Hitman: Blood Money (2006) was the last game in the series to follow the aggressive two-year development cycle, and in addition to being released on the by now traditional platforms that included the PlayStation 2, original Xbox, and Windows PC, it was also released in mobile versions developed by Morpheme Wireless for Java-enabled handsets (smartphones) split into two episodes; the first episode released simultaneously with the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC versions of Hitman: Blood Money, and the second episode following that release.
In addition to the unusual mobile release, Blood Money was the first game in the Hitman series to be released in the then new Xbox 360, and was later added as a title to the OnLive gaming service — which is a web-based subscription gaming service that allows gamers to rent and play PC games via the OnLive site, as well as purchase games should they find that they like them enough to own them.
The upcoming fifth sequel in the Hitman sage, Hitman: Absolution, is scheduled to arrive on 20 November 2012, and will include versions for Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Windows PC via the traditional digital distribution platforms as well as a boxed version.
Revealed exclusively at the 2011 Video Game Awards in December 2011, the trailer that is being called “The Rescue” depicts a sequence that, based upon the information that has been revealed at E3 2012, likely appears towards the middle of the game, and may be our first look at the girl that Agent 47′s former handler, Diana, has implored him to rescue as her dying request.
While the core video game series largely revolves around Agent 47, whose origin story resonated with gamers to the extent that it spawned the motion picture Hitman (2007) directed by Xavier Gens and based on the video game series, telling a story of the gun-for-hire “Hitman” character, who is a genetically-engineered assassin known as Agent 47. The film stared Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott, and told a story that was written outside of the arc contained in the video game series.
In addition to the games and movie, a novel, Hitman: Enemy Within, written by William C. Dietz, expanded the series to literature, and the popularity of Hitman: Blood Money combined with an assumption that the development time for the fifth game would be similar to those of the previous four titles (that turned out not to be the case) prompted the re-release of the previous games, first as a triple-pack of the games for PS2 and PC entitled Hitman: The Triple Hit Pack in Europe, and Hitman: Trilogy in North America, consisting of Hitman 2, Contracts, and Blood Money, and then a compilation containing all four of the games entitled Hitman: Ultimate Contract, which was a PC-only compilation released in July of 2009, after developer IO Interactive was aware that the fifth game in the series was not going to release on-track.
The basic concept for the Hitman games revolves around a core set of objectives relating to individually assigned assassination contracts that are taken by a shadowy organization called “The Agency” who employs Agent 47 as well as other professional assassins (though there really are no others quite like Agent 47, whose real name we never learn), in which there are often multiple targets or special conditions attached.
Agent 47 is a genetically-engineered assassin who was created from the recombinant DNA of five of the world’s most successful and dangerous criminals — and it is thought that much of the finely honed skills that 47 relies upon to survive encounters that would very likely prove fatal for most men are the result of inherited elements in that DNA cocktail that was used to create him.
Sporting a distinctive barcode on the back of his shaved head — all of the experiments in the project from which 47 emerged were so branded — the name ‘Agent 47′ far from being a designation created by The Agency or chosen by 47 himself is little more than the final two digits of his barcode number, 640509-040147.
The true strength of both The Agency and Agent 47 is the invisible and invincible reputation that he and they enjoy — the wealthy and corporate aristocracy utilize the services that they offer precisely because they are always reliable and, even when it is clear that the target has been eliminated as part of a professional hit or by contract, there is never evidence left behind that permits law enforcement to identify who was behind the contract or who performed it.
With those conditions in mind it should be clear to the player that the expectation is for a stealthy and discrete hit, though it is always possible for the player to turn the assignment into a bloodbath (doing so though will cost them significant amounts of their fee as the price for “cleaning up” any mess that they leave behind in their wake).
The games encourage the more subtle approach towards each assignment by rewarding the player with special weapons, kit, and bonus cash, which is awarded for obtaining a favorable rank for each mission — that rank being obtained first by completing the primary assignment in the manner requested, and increased by completing optional secondary elements for each contract, which can include completing the assassination in a particular manner, such as by poison, or by the elimination of additional often related targets.
he next trailer to be released presents the background of the Handler of Agent 47, Diana Burnwood, who until the events of Blood Money was widely considered to be among the most loyal and dependable of the agents at The Agency… Her apparent betrayal of Agent 47 at the end of Blood Money in what turned out to be a Hail Mary move to rescue him set her against key elements in government who would later play a role in the resurrection of The Agency and, ultimately, would lead to her being designated as a target as we learn in the video above.
Signature Elements and Symbols
While the origins of Agent 47 are shrouded in mystery in spite of the events told within “Hitman: Codename 47″ and that largely tells his story, there are elements to his existence that present unique symbols with which the player — and Agent 47 — identifies. Among these are a special insignia closely identified with Agent 47 and with the man responsible for creating him, Professor Dr. Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer, who 47 ends up terminating.
This symbol appears throughout the game series, beginning with its presence on the gates of Ort-Meyer’s asylum, which was located somewhere in eastern Europe and at which the genetically-engineered human experiments — of which Agent 47 was the most successful and possibly the only viable experiment that was considered to be a complete success — and additionally appear inside the asylum as part of a tile mosaic on one of the floors, on a belt buckle worn by Ort-Meyer, and later in the series on the spines of books encountered by 47 at various key points.
The symbol is engraved upon the iconic pair of custom-made automatic pistols used by Agent 47, specifically on the handles of his ‘AMT Hardballer’ .45 caliber automatic pistols — which are also called Silverballer Pistols in Contracts and Blood Money — and beginning with Contracts, the insignia appears engraved in the slides of each pistol, and can be found on equipment belonging to Agent 47, from his laptop and briefcase to the special model of cell phone that he uses.
The Silverballer Pistols
Perhaps the reason for their legendary popularity has more to do with the fact that they are the preferred handgun of Agent 47, or perhaps it relates to their highly customized and customizable nature, but the pistols that were originally known as “AMT Hardballers” and that came to be known as “Silverballers” remain closely associated with Agent 47 to the extent that hand-made copies of the pistols exist in the real-life collections of gamers and firearm collectors all over the world today.
Many gamers are surprised to learn that, far from being created for the game, the preferred personal weapons of Agent 47 are in fact based upon real handguns created by Irwindale, California based firearms manufacturer Arcadia Machine & Tool (they are no longer in business), whose most famous — or perhaps infamous — product was their AMT Automag line that was plagued by reliability issues, while their AMT Hardballer and AMT Skipper lines are still considered widely collectible even today.
The AMT Hardballer is a clone of the standard .45 ACP Colt M1911 — or Government Model Colt — though distinctly held as unique among firearms aficionados because some components of the action are not interchangeable with other M1911′s, for reasons that will soon become obvious. Designed and manufactured by Arcadia Machine & Tool, which was commonly known as AMT, from 1977 to the 1995, when the company closed due to insolvency brought on by a number of lawsuits.
The Hardballer was the first entirely stainless steel 1911 pattern pistol ever offered for sale as a commercially viable model, and derives its name from the round-nose hardball ammunition (solid lead bullet with driving bands or non-jacketed lead bullets) that it chambers and shoots.
In addition to serving as the signature weapons for Agent 47, movie fans will note that the same weapons were featured both in the movie and on the movie poster for the film The Terminator, though the model used in the film was a very plain and unmodified version of the “Longslider” variant, whose barrel is 2-inches longer than the standard Hardballer, and was also equipped with a fake laser targeting system.
The standard 5-inch version of the Hardballer was also the weapon of choice for actor Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead Series, Escape from LA, Burn Notice) for his character in the motion picture My Name is Bruce. Anecdotally during an episode of Burn Notice when the character played by Campbell named Sam Axe was asked to supply weapons for a mission, among the weapons that he produced was a pair of Hardballer automatics, an AMT Skipper, and the very distinctive form of a classic black AMT AutoMag V being spotted among the collection of pistols in the bag.
Agent 47 and His Story — Hitman: Codename 47
We are introduced to Agent 47 in the first game in the series, Hitman: Codename 47, which despite being an established and establishing part of the series is actually a very different game when its play elements are compared to the later titles in the series, and picks up following 47′s escape from Ort-Meyer’s laboratory having taken employment with The Agency (which is more formally known as The International Contract Agency).
A worldwide and well-funded clandestine corporation whose business is death, The Agency exists in something of a gray area in that while it enjoys the cooperation of governments and government agencies like the FBI, the CIA, Britain’s MI6, and the NSA, who it is intimated have employed the services of The Agency in the past to great success when it is not politically expedient for them to go after the targets that they wish eliminated, the activities of The Agency are nonetheless illegal, immoral, and rife with potential scandal should their relationship with legitimate government agencies ever become public knowledge.
At least part of its longevity and ability to survive in the murky world of politics is put down to an unwritten policy at The Agency for refusing to accept contracts with the individual enemies of its allied government agencies, which nicely explains why the vast majority of the contracts given to Agent 47 are for the termination of criminals and figures — political or otherwise — who most western agencies will not lose sleep over seeing killed.
Much of the underlying expanded elements in Absolution revolve around the “Hitman Instinct” system and ability — the Hitman equivalent of Spider-Man’s “Spidey Senses” — which is powered by a rechargeable bar and allow Agent 47 to see through walls, predict pathing of the enemy, and execute special targeted moves whose features are showcased in this demo video hosted and narrated by Robert Marchesi, Art Director for the Hitman: Absolution project.
While the Instinct ability will be a boon to new players and gamers who do not fully grok the many abilities and capabilities of Agent 47, this is a feature in the game that most veteran players are going to want to turn off before they start playing.
As helpful as it may be in some respects its overall impact on the game renders it too easy, with the Instinct mechanism turning the game into the equivalent of a large and movable paint-by-numbers adventure that, when it is combined with the Tool Tips System, almost becomes a step-by-step instruction system that takes away the discovery process and cheapens the feelings of accomplishment that makes finding the best solution for a mission one of the biggest thrills in the game!
An examination of the symbol of The Agency reveals its motto — Merces Letifer — which is Latin for Lethal Trade, and nicely sums up the business that it is in. If the logo of The Agency looks familiar, that is because it is a variation of the official logo for Britain’s MI5, which suggests that some of the founding members of this corporation of death were originally members of the espionage community and specifically MI5. Closer examination of the logo also reveals a hidden Easter egg in the form of the initials of the studio that creates the games, IO Interactive.
Part of the process of doing business at The Agency is to identify and encourage assets like Agent 47, whose relationship with The Agency is a tightly controlled interpersonal process that is restricted to that of the handler-subject style of management for which agencies like MI5 are so well known. In the case of Agent 47 that comes down to his established and ongoing relationship with handler Diana Burnwood, who in addition to functioning as the official go-between with The Agency and its operational assets, with the intimacy of that relationship later becoming a critical matter when The Agency found itself at war with a competing firm, called The Franchise, that turned into a last-man-standing situation in which The Agency was the winner.
We really do not know much about Dianna Burnwood — in fact it becomes obvious as the story arc plays out that neither does Agent 47 — as she appears in the games mostly as a voice on the phone and computer whose primary function is to pass on assignments and information, and in rare occasions to provide emergency assistance — as she did in Contracts and Blood Money. Voiced by voiced by Vivienne McKee and sporting an upper-class British accent, as the story that is told in Hitman: Absolution unfolds Dianna ends up taking a much larger and more important role than could have been imagined at the end of Blood Money, when it seems that Agent 47′s world is coming apart, but we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves…
A Genesis of Death
As is often the case when a story begins, our limited knowledge of the events unfolding around us serves as a very limiting factor, provoking a reactionary sense of what is and is not important that must be rationalized with the certainty that we are the good guy — so when 47 becomes conscious and finds himself in a sanatorium where a voice on a loudspeaker is instructing him to undertake a series of “lessons” that eventually result in his escape, it is understandable if the player assumes that the voice is if not at least an ally, than perhaps concerned about us…
When we rejoin Agent 47 a year has passed, and he has successfully made the transition from escapee from a mental institution (at least that is what we assume) to professional assassin in the employ of an organization known as The International Contract Agency (ICA) — or more informally as The Agency — under the guidance of Diana Burnwood, who functions as our controller and primary contact with The Agency and who dispatches us on our contracts.
Presently we are tasked with the elimination of four very bad men — professional criminals who need killing, beginning with the leader of the Red Dragon Triad, Lee Hong, who we find in Hong Kong. After managing him, the next target is a world away in Columbia, and is identified to us as Pablo Ochoa, a drug lord and psychopath. Back in Europe we execute a quick contract in Budapest, eliminating the terrorist Franz Fuchs, and finally we wrap up the series of contracts by taking out a notorious weapons smuggler named Arkadij Jegorov, along with a few of his business partners.
In the process of taking out each of the designated targets, Agent 47 uncovers written intelligence that makes reference to a genetically-engineered assassin who the four principles are very interested in, and who traces back to one key figure, Dr. Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer. Before he can make any sensse of the information that he now possess, a new contract is received, which originates from the same man who ordered the assassinations that 47 has just completed — this time the nefarious nature of the target is less clear — as 47 is being sent to execute Dr. Odon Kovacs at a mental sanitarium in Satu Mare, Romania.
In the process of completing the assignment 47 is betrayed by the client — Ort-Meyer — and exposed to attack by the Romanian Special Operations Police who were dispatched to the sanitarium by Ort-Meyer, who it seems is cleaning up loose ends. In the process of extracting from the location, and during his pursuit of the target, 47 confirms his worse fears, learning how he was created and who was behind it — and why. Even more disturbing is confirmation that the four targets that he previously killed were all the genetic donors whose DNA was used to create him!
The events that caused Ort-Meyer to seek 47′s death turn out to directly relate to the ongoing experiments in a hidden lab beneath the facilities, and having gained entrance 47 learns that far from being alone, he has served as the donor for genetic material that was used to create an army of clones, which Ort-Meyer labeled Project-48, but who lack the free-will and functional intelligence with which 47 is endowed and which served to elevate him into his present position, as the world’s greatest assassin!
Mistaking 47 for one of his automaton Project-48 killers, Ort-Meyer allows the assassin to get physically close enough to take him out, and is thus hoisted by his own petard in a turn-around that perfectly illustrates that saying! In his final moments before Agent 47 executes him, Ort-Meyer reveals that his was the fifth DNA used in the creation of the projects.
The infamous “Shower” trailer in which Agent 47 easily works his way through the team of agents who have been set to guard the perimeter of the house of former handler and Agency contact Diana Burnwood, who has been designated by the ICA as Agent 47′s next contract assignment. He does not know it, but the kill order on Diana Burnwood is the final assignment to be offered by The Agency before it turns on Agent 47 and betrays him to the police.
Agent 47 and His Story — Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Sometimes revelations of truth can be cathartic, softening the blockage (in this case mental and emotional rather than the classic meaning), and allowing for a process of healing that can be obtained in no other way, but more often than not the healing that is anticipated when a subject encounters the bald truth behind their origins or a traumatic event that served to create them, it leads instead to the disastrous realization that you are simply not equipped emotionally to deal with the fallout from such an event. That is the case with Agent 47, who having been confronted by the horrific truth behind his creation in a lab, and the reality that he was conceived as more of a tool than a person, he ends up retreating into the safety and anonymity of the church, where at least for a time he succeeds in the necessary process of decompressing and coming to terms with who — and what — he is.
Having abandoned his career as a paid assassin, 47 now leads an almost idyllic life as a Gardner within the walls of a small church and monastery in Sicily, where with the help of Father Vittorio and the brothers who serve there, is well into the process of coming to terms with his past. Vittorio is both his best friend and mentor, providing acceptance without judgment even as he hears 47′s confessions each week and, clearly grasping the fragile threads by which his friend retains his grasp on the path to redemption that his choice of walking away from The Agency represents, seeks only to reinforce the peace that 47 now feels for the first time.
Naturally to move the story forward from here something must happen to upset this process, but when the other shoe drops it sets into motion events that the antagonists never could have predicted, being a perfect example of the phrase Manifest Justice in which the actions of the group result in uniform punishment of a biblical nature — I do not want to go any further into that process at the risk of ruining some of the best moments of the game for those who have yet to play it…
Be Careful Who You Kidnap
In the book Man on Fire, English novelist Philip Nicholson nicely illustrates the entire concept of the phrase “unintended consequences” in describing the actions of the protagonist in that story, an American-born veteran of the French Foreign Legion named Creasy who finds himself employed as teh personal bodyguard for a young Italian girl named Pinta, who lives outside of Milan with her parents, Ettore and Rika Balletto, young and upwardly mobile heirs to a textile fortune who live in an environment in which kidnap-for-ransom has become a plague facing the wealthy families of Italy.
Creasy is perceived as a burnt-out alcoholic who barely qualifies for his role as bodyguard, and who was in fact hired more to obtain a discount in the anti-kidnap insurance premiums than with any notion of actually being capable of protecting his charge, so it comes as a major surprise to both the father and the kidnappers when the loss of Pinta triggers a transformation in Creasy, from whom emerges the calculated and extremely capable warrior that had up until then remained concealed behind the large-bottle-per-day habit of a seemingly broken and embittered man.
As is often the case when a book is turned into a movie, the translation onto the big screen ends up being a pale imitation of the details and the story contained in the book. Nobody is blaming (nor should they) actor Denzel Washington, who played Creasy in the 2004 remake of the film (the original 1987 French-Italian film Un uomo sotto tiro, starring Scott Glenn, Joe Pesci, and Jade Malle), both of which were crippled by the unfortunate practice of re-interpreting stories from books that are made into films.
The point to this is simply that the book (and to some degree the movies) nicely illustrate the effect of unintended consequences, serving as a cautionary tale illustrating that things are not often as they appear to be, and when you set out to do bad, you should not be surprised when that act ends up biting you on the ass.
In Hitman 2 the world-altering event is the kidnapping of Father Vittorio, who is being held for ransom as part of an ongoing scheme by the bad guys that may or may not involve plans that one of the principle parties to the story (that was dropped as the game developed, thus altering the plot but we only know that because of comments made by the writers after the fact), with the point being that the note left behind by the kidnappers has the unintended consequences of nudging Agent 47 off of his relatively tenuous perch as mild-mannered and peaceful monastery Gardner, who was not thought to have any direct or indirect role in the environment, to being the worse nightmare of the kidnappers!
The violent abduction of Vittorio forces Agent 47 to re-embrace his old career, and as a result he resumes contact with The Agency — who it quickly develops believed him to be dead until his unexpected contact — calls his former controller Diana, requesting that she provide aid and resources to him during his time of need, and assist in tracking down the kidnappers and exacting from them his pound of flesh.
The Terms of the Deal
In an agreement worked out with The Agency via Diana, Agent 47 agrees to come back to work for them in exchange for immediate and no-questions-asked support, first in locating Father Vittorio, and then in dealing with the party responsible, who it works out are members of the Sicilian Mafia, and specifically a cappo (boss) named Giuseppe Giuliano, who is actually on the radar of The Agency for completely different and unrelated reasons.
Father Vittorio is being held prisoner in a cell under the mafioso’s personal mansion, Villa Borghese, and Agent 47 proceeds to infiltrate the mansion and kill Giuliano, but unfortunately somehow fails to find or free his friend, who he comes to believe was killed by the mafia. As the story and game play out however, towards the end he discovered that not only is Vittorio not dead, his original kidnapping was part of a complicated plan by Russian mobster Sergei Zavorotko, the brother of one of the five men whose DNA was used to create 47 and that, surprise surprise, was meant to lure 47 out of retirement.
In the process of completing a series of missions orchestrated to reveal Vittorio’s location, 47 encounters a number of Russian mobsters, and comes face-to-face with one of the earlier experiments from the genetic labs in Romania, Agent 17, who like 47 is equipped with a sort of assassin’s instinct that makes him particularly good at what he does, which is kill.
Zavorotko is holding Father Vittorio hostage in the confessional of the rundown church in the heart of mother Russia, and despite the dire circumstances and the likelihood that they will be murdered by the mobsters, Father Vittorio urfes 47 to resist the urge for vengeance, gifting him with his own rosary beads and begging him to continue along the path towards peace and reconciliation that began in the monastery in Italy, something that 47 clearly cannot do.
The video above, hosted by IO Interactive Producer and Hitman: Absolution team member Luke Valentine, presents the second of the two hand’s-off demo missions that was presented to attendees at E3 2012 in the theater of the Square Enix exhibition space, but that also functioned as the hand’s-on mission playable by attendees in the play-space outside of the theater after viewing the presentation.
The playable demo takes place in Chicago’s Chinatown District where gamers are dispatched to perform a kill on the “King of Chinatown” — with the focus of this demo/video being a look at the plethora of different tactics that can be used to complete the mission, touching upon melee, poison, accident, and direct weapon attacks, then touching upon the advanced ability to blend-in to crowds either through discrete motion or using disguises that 47 acquires as the result of taking out henchmen or dirty cops…
Agent 47 and His Story — Hitman: Contracts
As Hitman: Contracts begins an obviously injured Agent 47 wanders along a hotel corridor and enters a room where he collapses, provoking the flashback memory of his killing Dr. Ort-Meyer that in turn provokes the long string of active-flashbacks that serve as the “mission” system in the title. The missions that follow are largely replays of the missions contained in the original game, though they play out in reverse order for how they actually happened and arguably within his feverish and disturbed mind.
When this sequel was originally released there was rampant speculation that in addition to serving as a way for console gamers to experience the missions from the previous game (which was never to be released on a platform other than PC) in updated formats, it was also intended to (and did) serve as a vehicle for fleshing out the character of Agent 47 — revealing loads of background information largely concealed within dialogue and the background elements of the different missions, elements and factoids that are more or less explained as fragments and memories that 47 inserts into each of the missions from his subconscious mind.
It is not really clear how much of what was revealed was intentionally set out as part of the basic underpinnings of the game, and how much was inserted more as after-thoughts and because the game and its missions provided the opportunity to include those elements, though how much that really matters is debatable…
Once he manages to complete all of the mission flashbacks, 47 is thrust back into the here and now with his fever having broken, and is forced to kill the Inspector in order to have his escape, after which he heads to the airport and boards the plane to fully escapes; in one of only two incidents that we know of in which 47 is physically in the same place as his handler, Diana, we see (and hear) her taking the seat behind him on the plane, and significantly this is the moment in which Diana informs 47 that the last contract had been betrayed — making him officially aware that an unknown group (The Franchise) has targeting him for assassination — this being one of the dozen-odd hints for what will follow in the next title.
Ultimately this part of the game series is intended as a sort of sequel/prequel, providing fans of the series with a seemingly never-ending supply of Easter eggs, red herrings, and factoids while at the same time painting a picture (for those who are paying attention) foreshadowing what is coming in the next game in the series.
Unusual Elements
Chef’s Delight…
On the Seafood Massacre level when you enter the room in the basement to change into the Chef’s uniform, a brief look at the posters on the walls will reveal that one of them is a movie poster for the Hitman movie…
A Picture is worth…
While playing the level Rendezvous in Rotterdam in the room in which 47 can choose to poison the inks used by the tattoo artist, examining the papers that are pinned to the bulletin board will reveal, in addition to the Hitman logo, a copy of the IO Interactive logo a logo that if you look closely you will see is for the game “Freedom Fighters,” which was also developed by IO Interactive.
The Ghost of Missions Past…
On one of the missions 47 glimpses a ghost in the hallway and, if he follows the ghost at various points he will have the opportunity to see a ghostly murder scene on the other side of a door that the ghost passes through that 47 has to pick to open. The ghost can be glimpsed in the mirror in the bathroom when 47 examines his own reflection…
Making a Donation…
When 47 returns to the Asylum (by playing Asylum Aftermath) if he continues down the hall past where the pair of Golden Hardballers are obtained he will find the original culturing tanks within which is contained the DNA materials that were used to create Agent 47 — happy father’s day?
Special Weapons Unlocks…
Unlike the previous games, in which there was a unified support structure in place, the events in Hitman: Contracts follow a different path, so natrually unlocking weapons in the game requires a different approach, and in this case the process is tied to your success in completing the flashback missions, and specifically for obtaining the “Silent Assassin” rating for each… The following unlocks are completed by obtaining that rating:
AK 74 Silenced Assault Rifle ( Mission 9 )
CZ 2000 Dual-Pistols ( Mission 1 )
GK 17 Dual-Pistols ( Mission 10 )
M4 Carbine Silenced Assault Rifle ( Mission 6 )
Magnum 500 Dual-Pistols ( Mission 4 )
Micro Uzi Dual-SMG ( Mission 2 )
Micro Uzi Silenced Dual-SMG’s ( Mission 11 )
MP5 Silenced SMG ( Mission 8 )
PGM Silenced Sniper Rifle ( Mission 12 )
Sawed-Off Dual-Shotguns ( Mission 5 )
SG220.S Dual-Pistols ( Mission 7 )
Silverballer Silenced Dual-Pistols ( Mission 3 )
Agent 47 and His Story — Hitman: Blood Money
Until the details surrounding Hitman: Absolution began to be released the story of Hitman: Blood Money was widely acknowledged to be the most complex and deepest of the series, starting with the first level which comprises the tutorial phase of the game introducing new players to the world of Agent 47 and offering finer points on both how to control him, and the different weapons and kill styles that are available in the game…
As the game begins 47 finds himself outside of the derelict amusement park near Baltimore, Maryland wherein the target for the contract is located. As the player is walked through the process of locating and executing the target, a number of different options are made available, from poison to direct execution, with the caveat from the client that the final image that the target sees before they die is the photo that you have been provided.
Once the mission ends it quickly becomes evident that these missions are all playing as flashbacks, and the true here-and-now is a meeting that takes place between a journalist named Rick Henderson and the former Director of the FBI, Alexander “Jack” Leland Cayne, an embittered man who now lives in a wheel chair.
As Cayne briefs Henderson each of the missions is launched, which is how we interpret Cayne filling in the reporter on the actions of Agent 47, who it is clear the reporter is not entirely sure actually exists. The details of 47′s origins are revealed — and while Henderson may find it hard to believe, we know that Cayne has the true facts since we know the story — and it is at this point that we learn that the legacy created by Dr. Ort-Meyer is still making itself felt.
Specifically we learn that a rogue outfit called The Franchise is in the process of eliminating all of the operatives from The Agency, with the primary offensive being orchestrated by a pair of assassins who Cayne identifies as Mark Puriyah II and Mark Parchezzi III — and who we can safely assume are clones — which he identifies as albinos.
As the story plays out 47 learns from Diana that together they are all that remains of The Agency, and that is when we learn that the events of the previous game (Contracts) are actually where all of this began, since the assassination attempt from which 47 recovered in it was the opening move against him by The Franchise!
The video above provides a behind-the-scenes look into the pre-order incentive mini-game Hitman: Sniper Challenge that was released in May 2012 to gamers in North America who pre-ordered their copy of Hitman: Absolution via gaming retailer GameStop, and via a variety of gaming retailers outside of North America.
Access to the Sniper Challenge mini-game is obtained by entering the special code provided along with each gamers receipt for their pre-order payment for the game, which could then be redeemed via the online marketplace for the platform that the pre-order is for (for Xbox 360 that is the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, while PlayStation 3 gamers obtain theirs via the PlayStation Network), and PC gamers will obtain that version next month when it is released via Steam and the Games for Windows LIVE Marketplace.
Creating a pre-order mini-game is a very unusual step, even for a franchise as well established as the Hitman game series, but the logic behind the mini-game is sound, especially when one takes into account the fact that certain weapons obtained as part of play in Sniper Challenge as well as key abilities and other elements/items (some as yet unannounced) will transfer directly into the full game once it is released and played under the GamerTag / PSN ID of the gamer!
Cayne relates the events that took place in New Orleans the previous year in which 47 managed to infiltrate an operation being undertaken by The Franchise and took out one of its primary agents, Mark Puriyah II, and what follows leads to the dissolution of The Agency, and the beginning of what appears to be a freelance career for Agent 47, which starts with a contract offered by someone he knows — Agent Smith.
The circumstances surrounding this contract present as a politically-loaded conspiracy that, in the end, it turns out that the completion of which is in the best interests of Agent 47 and, ultimately, the country. As he pursues the contract 47 ends up confronting the remaining “heavy hitter” for The Franchise, Mark Parchezzi III, but wrapping this up turns out to be only the beginning of his dealings with The Franchise and its impact upon his continued existence, and before you can say “Bob’s Your Uncle” 47 finds himself being betrayed by the one person he thought he could trust!
The end of Blood Money unfolds at the funeral of Agent 47, where the woman who betrayed him appears, placing his signature weapons on his chest so that they can be cremated with him — and then 47 comes back to life (you have to play the game to fully appreciate how and we are not going to ruin that part by outing it here), with a massive bloodbath ensuing that once and for all puts shut to The Franchise, the plan to create a clone army, and all that goes with that!
Paying close attention to the prologue events in Blood Money offers a wealth of hints to the next game in the series, Hitman: Absolution, though at the time of its release we had no way of knowing that, or what was and was not significant…
Agent 47 and His Story — Hitman: Absolution
More information has been released about the next game in the series in the last six weeks than was released Over the course of past six years(!) and even with the relatively open attitude that IO and Square are taking with respect to the game and its plot, the reality is that we really do not know much at all!
Most of what we do know starts with the briefing and presentation that was made at E3 2011, followed by a lot of heavily implied information taken from a series of trailers that have been released in the past year, and finally what feels like a firehose full of information from E3 2012 (at least when compared to the level of information that was released prior to this year’s E3 that is).
The first in-depth trailer for the game, released during E3 2011, shows Agent 47 trapped in a library and escaping into a building chock full of Chicago cops — and we learn that not only has he been betrayed, but that his photo and bio have been released to the Chicago PD as well as law enforcement agencies all over the world, effectively burning his cover.
The next in-depth trailer shows Agent 47 storming a safehouse, where he confronts his former handler, Diana, who he finds in the shower (this is the infamous “Nude Trailer” that everyone is talking about) — where he confronts her. The details of the confrontation are largely not shared with us in the trailer but were later revealed as part of a media briefing — but there is nothing to be served by sharing that information with you at this point and a lot to be lost, since it serves as a spoiler…
The bottom line is that the world in which Agent 47 now operates is completely different than the one he existed on only a year ago — he is outed to the police and LEA’s the world over, and was betrayed not just by the people he thought he could trust, but by The Agency itself, as they are who outed him to the police!
A great deal of what we know comes from the E3 2012 briefing and the series of trailers, and regular readers of Game On will want to stay tuned over the course of the next few weeks as we will be detailing what we learned at E3, including information from the private briefing. In the meantime this piece serves as a primer for the entire story-arc up until now, and also addresses the series of trailers, including the controversial Saints Trailer — all of the trailers are embedded in this article, and you are encouraged to view them since the offer an incredible amount of information about the game (subject to interpretation of course)!
The controversial trailer Attack of the Saints — released in the week before the opening of the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo — was intended by IO and Square to boost interest in the game for attendees and press covering E3, where Hitman: Absolution received a major push with two different briefings, an exclusive E3 trailer, and playable demo that put gamers in the heart of Chicago’s Chinatown District where most had their first taste of play in what has proven to be the largest and most complex offering in the series to-date!
Gamers familiar with the series will find a lot of revealing information in the trailer embedded above, starting with the the group of assassins — dressed in a parody of nuns — with those paying close attention to detail will realize must have been dispatched by The Agency to kill Agent 47, proof of the ultimate betrayal as his own turns against him! Proof of this betrayal is easily found in the tattoo revealed on the arm of the leader of The Saints — the logo of The Agency — leaving gamers to speculate at just what point in the story this betrayal takes place?
The most controversial of the trailers was The Saints — released on May 29th, 2012 in preparation for the upcoming private and public briefings at E3 2012 — which takes the form of a cinematic teaser that was produced by Square Enix’s CGI studio, Visual Works, and officially titled “Attack of the Saints.”
The depiction in the trailer of gun-toting PVC-clad nuns being killed in a hail of bullets ended up serving as the focus for targeted outrage from several directions, as woman’s groups protested the sexist portrayal of women, while Catholic groups protested the portrayal of nuns as gun-toting over-sexed murderous assassins…
They probably did not attend the same Catholic schools as I did (kidding, just kidding), with the end result being the issuance of an apology by Hitman: Absolution Director Tore Blystad, who issued a formal apology, noting that the intent of the trailer was not to offend but to illustrate one of the elements in the game.
The function of this retrospective feature is to educate gamers who have not played the previous games in the series, offering a summary briefing of the story and the different elements to the game that are unique, as well as a view of Agent 47 outside of that offered in the trailers. As mentioned previously, we encourage interested gamers to play the original games before the release of Hitman: Absolution in November since playing them is the best way for them to not only get up to speed with the story, but to obtain a better grasp of Agent 47 and what he is about while building an attachment to the series.
Stay tuned to Game On, as this piece will be followed by an in-depth analysis of the briefing and presentation at E3 2012, as well as additional information that was provided only to the press.
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