Preview by: Neilie Johnson

The Hitman franchise dates back to the year 2000, when the first game, Hitman: Codename 47, first demonstrated the series' potential. Of course, potential is really all that first Hitman had, troubled as it was by clumsy controls and a vague, highly unforgiving stealth system. The good news is that in the ensuing decade, developer IO Interactive has learned from its mistakes, offering steady improvements with every subsequent Hitman release. Even better, as the team demonstrated at last week's press event in downtown San Francisco, this year's Hitman: Absolution promises to outshine them all.

PR often goes for drama with gaming press events and the Hitman: Absolution event was a prime example. The address took us to one of the worst areas of town, where we ended up standing nervously in front of a blank door attached to a decrepit, seemingly abandoned building. If not for the small Hitman sign tacked to the door frame, we might've turned around and left. The door was locked, so we hit the nearby buzzer and were led into a dark entry and up a narrow set of stairs to...a totally normal—even lush—event space, which was somehow disappointing. We'd half expected to find an empty, cement floored room full of gun-toting mobsters standing around someone gagged and bound. Ah well.

As a consolation, we were given a private demo led by the game's art director, Roberto Marchesi and driven by PR Manager, Sven Liebold. To demonstrate the game's diversity and the freedom it offers players, Sven played through the same level twice: once with a stealth approach and once with guns blazing. The story of Hitman: Absolution we're told, is that it will be the most personal of the Hitman narratives. In it, Agent 47 is hired to take out his former ally and “handler”, ICA agent Diana Burnwood. Thus far, it's uncertain how this will affect the storyline, but according to IO Interactive, this is the first time Agent 47 is driven by his own motives, rather than those of his employers.

Although IOI is still being cagey about the game's locations, current trailers have been set in Chicago. In keeping with that, the demo was set in a Chicago orphanage, where Agent 47 is sent to locate a very special young girl (IOI wouldn't say why she's special). Complicating matters is a cowboy-hatted baddie who also wants the girl, and who sends his right hand man (who looks frighteningly like David Carradine) to get her. The orphanage is run by nuns and so to better infiltrate it, Agent 47 entered wearing a priest suit (which IOI was quick to say he hadn't killed any priests to get). Slinking behind shelves and throwing found items to create distractions, he expertly avoided the group of violent thugs who were shooting up the place, and made his way to the girl's room.

Although IOI is still being cagey about the game's locations, current trailers have been set in Chicago. In keeping with that, the demo was set in a Chicago orphanage, where Agent 47 is sent to locate a very special young girl (IOI wouldn't say why she's special). Complicating matters is a cowboy-hatted baddie who also wants the girl, and who sends his right hand man (who looks frighteningly like David Carradine) to get her. The orphanage is run by nuns and so to better infiltrate it, Agent 47 entered wearing a priest suit (which IOI was quick to say he hadn't killed any priests to get). Slinking behind shelves and throwing found items to create distractions, he expertly avoided the group of violent thugs who were shooting up the place, and made his way to the girl's room.

Getting back to body disposal, that aspect of the game is likely to prove one of the most entertaining. During the stealth demo, bodies were tossed down laundry chutes, into freezers and even into a kids' ball pit. Related to this, we saw how you can use every day, incidental objects as weapons. Creatively lethal use can be made of kids' toys, statues and other items found lying around the environment and it's entertaining to see thugs being taken down or “pacified” (knocked out) as Agent 47 makes an amusing “shushing” sound. Although Hitman's core concept has been altered some to allow for a non-stealth approach, IOI assured us they still have the hardcore stealth player firmly in mind.