Games have come a long way since the giant pixels and midi music of the NES. Though they may look and sound better than ever, they’ve also become considerably easier. While this may not be an entirely bad thing, it has been harder in recent years to find a good challenge in games. According to an article on Kotaku though, IO Interactive may have found a solution to this issue in their upcoming release, Hitman: Absolution.
Hitman: Absolution will come with five difficulty levels. The easier two are given the subheading “enhanced” while the more difficult three are “professional.” The enhanced difficulties will give players different mechanics to work with, such as an “instinct” mode that highlights enemies and important environmental obstacles like Batman: Arkham Asylum‘s “detective mode.” The professional difficulties will also speed up enemy reaction times and improve enemy AI.
The major difference between the settings is in how willing the game is to forgive mistakes. On the easier settings, Agent 47 seems more capable of gunning his way out of a sticky situation while the more difficult options require a lot more care and finesse in navigating obstacles.
It’s certainly an interesting idea to change the mechanics for each of the difficulty settings. It’s also nice that the game can be tailored to suit either a run-and-gun play style as well as a more deliberate and stealthy one.
We’ll see how it works out in practice but it’s never a bad idea to make a game accessible to as many people as possible, right?