The latest heads-up from IO Interactive is that Hitman: Absolution is going to stay true to its core while being made more available to a worldwide audience.
In his interview with Digital Trends, Absolution’s director Tore Blystad remarked that since newcomers were discouraged by the “learning curve” of the series’ previous releases, the firm is taking steps to simplify the game:
“The Hitman games of the past have been very hardcore. Even though the fantasy of the Hitman universe has a very universal appeal, the games have been so difficult to play, that it’s been more of an acquired taste. The biggest challenge that we had with this game was to make it much broader in every sense, so that it was easier to play and more accessible, but still retain a very strong, hardcore side as well. We don’t want to alienate any of our fans who have been extremely loyal for so many years.”
AI in Absolution will benefit from the new game engine, the Glacier 2, by allowing the characters to “act as believable as possible.” Blystad went on to say that Glacier 2 was “the most central part of the game”:
“If you attack an enemy from any angle, than we’re able to have them fight back, or continue on in a normal state if you ignore them. There are similar things in games like GTA or these bigger sandbox games, but it’s on a much less granular level because we have a very strong focus on the abilities of the characters.”
The release date of Hitman: Absolution for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 will be sometime in 2012.