Hitman: Absolution was playable at E3 2012 and I got my hands on a controller to check out a couple missions of the demo.
The first level I tried is a sniper level. Agent 47, your character, is on a rooftop with a sniper rifle in his hand. The target is flying in a helicopter looking to join a party on a neighboring rooftop. The goal is to kill the target and as many of his bodyguards as you can.
On the demo station I was using, aiming was performed with L2 and shooting with R2. While aiming down the sights, the reticle moves around making shooting the targets a challenge. There is also a few second delay when firing a bullet before it hits the other rooftop and this makes hitting moving targets really difficult, but fun when you nail one. After taking out the target, the body guards one by one leave the roof top and at that point, the game feels like a shooting gallery. The demo end after all the bodyguard have been killed or have escaped.
The other level had Agent 47 in Chinatown assigned to assassinate a popular public figure. He is talking in a gazebo with lots of people around and there are multiple police officers around the area. There are several ways that the person can be assassinated but most of the players playing the demo preferred the direct approach of shooting him in public. Some people playing the demo chose to get a cop’s uniform to disguise themselves while other players just wandered around the crowd grabbing items and checking things out. Shooting the target without a disguise will pretty much bring the entire police force in on you . While I was watching the demo being played, not a single person playing the demo survived, including myself.
Many people played the demo but it doesn’t translate well in a fast loud environment as E3. Playing the game while able to concentrate on all the elements is absolutely recommended. The game was fun and there were a lot of people there playing it, trying different ways to complete the task. It is definelty a game we will keep our eyes on when it is released this November.
