Since it seems to be all the rage to be an assassin these days after the success of Dishonored and Assassin's Creed 3, it's time for IO to reinvent their grumpy, cue-ball contract killer, Agent 47,  in Hitman: Absolution. This instalment continues where Hitman: Blood Money left off, with 47 faking his own death in an attempt to leave the Agency, he inevitably getting suckered back in and the plot goes downhill from there. 47 isn't emotional enough to make us sympathise with him, it just seems half-baked and downright idiotic at times. I think it was the moment when I was dressed as a chipmunk mascot that I thought, “Whilst this is hilarious, this isn't the Hitman I know and love”.

The plot isn't why you play a Hitman game anyway- it's for the ingenious assassinations. These levels are among the best of the series, with numerous paths to your target and skills as incentives for completing the levels in true Hitman style (without alerting guards etc.) but you can still shoot your way out of a tight spot if you slip up. The real joy comes in repeating the mission and finding new, intricate ways to kill the target, such as poisoning the target's favourite sushi. The controls are tight and the new Instinct Mode (seemingly borrowed from a certain Dark Knight) works well. The problem is that there seems to be a much greater tendency toward linearity in the later stages, which is frankly boring, with an almost unacceptable level of completing your crafted kill in cutscenes.

One of the star aspects of Hitman: Absolution is the believable and beautiful settings you find yourself in. Particular note must be made of the Chinatown crowds, which interact with 47 incredibly realistically. You can see the panic spread as they notice something is out of place, such as a dead body that you dragged to a corner earlier and forgot about. However, this does take its toll on the framerate and a few graphical glitches do occur now and then. The game has tried to deal with this problem by making the levels smaller or dividing them up with loading screens, but this gets annoying after a while, especially as you frequently lose items between loading screens.

The pinnacle, though, is the Contracts mode, which works as the multiplayer. You take a level from the game and kill anyone in the level in whatever fashion you like and then you challenge the world to complete the contract in the same way you did, but better or faster. This is old-fashioned Hitman, but with the added bonus of competing with friends.

Overall, I think that the actual gameplay of Hitman: Absolution makes up for the sometimes dire plot and graphical glitches. It's modernised well and, while not quite as good as Dishonored, definitely holds up as a great stealth-based game. Welcome back, Agent 47. Welcome back.