Hitman has difficulty just for hardcore

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 4 October, 2011

And stealth assassin achievements/trophies.

Hitman: Absolution features a difficulty level designed specifically for veteran fans of the series, and will reward those who play the game as if they were playing past entries in the franchise.

This difficulty level - and associated achievements/trophies - require the gamer play in true stealth assassin style, Danish developer IO Interactive has revealed.

Lead producer Hakan Abrak said to get the stealth assassin-related achievements you'll need to do a number of things: "We will get into more details at a later point, but obviously it's linked to the playing style," he explained.

"It's more pacify your enemies, be undetected, maybe solve the challenges in a smarter way. That will probably give you a stealth assassin achievement."

The live Hitman: Absolution gameplay demo shown to press sees Agent 47 sneaking about a library, stealthily killing cops and assuming a disguise before escaping into a packed city street.

Absolution has come in for some stick from fans of the popular series for apparently ditching the hardcore stealth gameplay of previous games - in past Hitman games players would often try to kill only the "mark" assigned to Agent 47.

But, according to Abrak, the Absolution demo was choreographed to show off Absolution's new features - and should not be taken to indicate a drastic shift in direction.

"We have a lot of difficulty levels in the game as well," he said. "Rest assured, the hardcore fans that like to have replayablity value in the game or want to have this stealth assassin - you know, I'm the ultimate stealth assassin - that playing style, those achievements, are very much in the game.

"There's a huge replayability value in it and we have some features in the game I cannot speak about that will enhance this and make this easier, and heighten the replayability value for the hardcore players as well."

Does the hardcore difficulty level have a special name?

"Yeah, it has a very special name," Abrak teased. "And I'm pretty sure it's going to please the hardcore fans. I can't say what it is."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • MiniAmin #1 8 months ago

    As long as it's as good as the frankly brilliant Hitman Blood Money, i'll be pleased. I was very pessismistic towards this one, and i'm still not sold yet, but this news is slightly encouraging.

  • bad09 #2 8 months ago

    "Please buy the game it's awesome honest" PR waffle means nothing, Hitman is off my radar sadly until they show me a game remotely like Hitman and not Splinter Cell Conviction.

  • johnson81 #3 8 months ago

    I'm currently going through Blood Money on OnLive and it's still awesome. It's been a while and just need to remember how to cause the accidents.

  • StooMonster #4 8 months ago

    RE: difficulty levels in games, have they been getting easier?

    I started playing Gears of War 3 in "normal" (i.e.g default) difficulty, not "easy", and the game is ridiculously easy.

    Is "hardcore" the new "normal"?

  • Nova1977 #5 8 months ago

    The Hitman games were about NOT being detected, about only taking out your main target. the trailer they showed at E3 went against all of that, 47 goes in and just kills everyone. The gameplay video they showed at E3 didn't help either even if they say it's coreographed (spelling). I'm really hoping that I'm just being annoyingly paranoid and the final version ends being lendary but things like "vision mode" etc puts me off.

  • bad09 #6 8 months ago

    @Nova1977

    Why did you have to remind me of that vision mode, I'd wiped that from my brain. Yuck :(

  • weejok #7 8 months ago

    Can we also get a proper animation for picking stuff up? Seriously the small statue flashes on the desk then just magically appears in Agent 47's hand......lame

  • Phoenisis #8 8 months ago

    PR talk. I have very little confidence in IO at this point.

  • jaguarwong #9 8 months ago

    Sounds like he's talking about Achievements and an interviewer has summised the stuff about a 'Difficulty Level'

    There is a world of difference between having to playing a level a certain way and getting an achievement for play a level a certain way.
    Edited by jaguarwong at 04/10/11 @ 12:19

  • gm914 #10 8 months ago

    " Does the hardcore difficulty level have a special name? "Yeah, it has a very special name," Abrak teased. "And I'm pretty sure it's going to please the hardcore fans. I can't say what it is."

    Umm, is it called "How the Freakin' Game is Supposed To Be Played"?
    Because that would be fitting...

  • asphaltcowboy #11 8 months ago

    For the hardcore who want to be able to play in a stealth assassin style?

    IT'S A GAME ABOUT BEING A STEALTHY ASSASSIN FFS!

  • anthonypappa #12 8 months ago

    hopefully hardcore mode does away with hand-holding and other intrusiveness.

    fine, have it aimed at the masses, but don't let the lame stuff bleed into the hardcore mode and ruin it.

    games are unrecognisible these days. they treat us like dummies for no good reason.

  • bad09 #13 8 months ago

    @vamos

    Well I'm happy for you that you are looking forward to it, personally I've not seen one thing positive regarding this new "accessible" Hitman. Hey don't get me wrong, as someone who loves the games to death I'm happy to be proved wrong. MORE than happy in fact but as far as I can see they keep telling fans "don't worry it's Hitman" but don't actually SHOW us anything like a Hitman game, certainly what we've seen is not Hitman and looked like a scripted and dull action sequence which absoutely is NOT what Hitman was about.

  • the_dudefather #14 8 months ago

    Blood money had an easy mode, it was called 'get spotted by guard and decide to shoot everyone in the building instead of being sneaky' mode

  • mattk84 #15 8 months ago

    Never been a Hitman fan but although it may take people a while to warm to its new style it seems very similar to Splinter Cell. I was a fan of the old school Splinter Cell gameplay and disliked the reboot a lot at first but soon warmed to it. I think the same will be true of Hitman. It may even encourage people such as me to ge into it.

  • intpleeus #16 8 months ago

    While I love sneaking around as Agent 47 and aiming or the Silent Assassin rank, sometimes all I wanted to do was return to a mission and just blow the crap out of everyone. If IO can deliver on the former while improving the latter, then they'll secure a sale from me. *Crosses fingers*

  • BigDaddy82 #17 8 months ago

    The video doesn't really sum up the Hitman series for me very well, i prefer the levels where you are essentially hiding in plain sight in public areas, not in some abandoned library. Also they need to fix the fact that old baldy head sticks out from behind cover, if any guard turned around they'd notice his shiny dome behind a low wall easily. Deus Ex Human Rev did a good job of hiding your character in these situations i thought.

  • Power_n_Glory #18 8 months ago

    There was always more than one way to play Hitman. You could go the total stealth route or get drawn into a gun battle. Earning the Silent Assassin ranking in the old games is almost the same as earning an Achievement.

  • Dr.Mott #19 8 months ago

    "It's more pacify your enemies"

    No, that's not what it's about. You don't pacify them, you leave everyone but your target untouched. This game is sadly going to suck, I imagine.

  • Subdominator #20 8 months ago

    "It's more pacify your enemies, be undetected, maybe solve the challenges in a smarter way. That will probably give you a stealth assassin achievement."

    Quite a lot of "maybe" and "probably" for a game that is well into development. Seems like they decided to add it only recently (after E3?) and have not figured out exactly how to do it. Same goes for the name. OMG it has an amazing name but I can't tell you. Seriously? Why not? Because you want to surprise us by calling the game mode "Silent Assassin"? This interview doesn't bring back any confidence, it actually lowers my expectations even more. I have seen how Fable went downhill, I saw how Splinter Cell was nerfed, I know it will happen to Hitman as well. All goes down the drain in the name of the casual player. Hell, we are already at a point where game reviewers complain about having to save themselfs. Because it's so much better to get a checkpoint every five meters.

  • Nova1977 #21 8 months ago

    Also the Hitman games have been the only series of videogames where I felt bad if I killed innocent bystanders as they never just die, they're always on the ground begging you to spare them or there'll be the one guy who'll run to pick up a fallen guard's weapon and kill you before you realize where the shot came from and what just happened. These things were never scripted they were great moments and many a time regardless of who you are, when you played a Hitman game your story would be different to the next guy's story.
    How did you kill the woman beating billionare's kid? How did you take out two targets without letting the third one, who was in constant contact with them, know what was happening? How did you get the two triad gangs to wipe each other out?

  • space_ace #22 8 months ago

    absolutely excellent

  • mornegroth #23 8 months ago

    Are they doing with Agent 47 the same thing they've done with Sam Fisher? I couldn't tell, I'm still to watch any gameplay footage.
    Edited by mornegroth at 04/10/11 @ 14:36

  • shave_my_donkey #24 8 months ago

    well i kinda expected this, i mean, it is hitman after all. still confirmation is definitely welcome