Reviews go live for Hitman: Absolution

Square Enix is preparing to release its last big release of the year, and the review embargo for Hitman: Absolution broke overnight, painting a very welcoming picture.

This is a fantastic package – a dark, witty tale of death and retribution that can be whatever you want it to,” Official PlayStation’s 9/10 review stated in its latest issue. It captures the ebb and flow of tension that stealth games forgot about years ago, but presents it in a way that feels utterly contemporary.”

IGN also gave it a 9/10, adding: Like Dishonored before it, it’s actually a true pleasure to play a game that lets you tackle it from multiple angles. After several years of increasingly totalitarian games where you’re very much following a pre-determined path, it’s nice to have a game that doesn’t just encourage improvisation; it requires it. More please.”

CVG was another publication awarding it 9/10, concluding: Absolution delivers on the anticipation of a series that has been lingering menacingly in the shadows for six long years. It does so with creativity, genuine player choice, the odd smile and an unrivalled panache for turning murder into an art form.”

Grumpy Eurogamer appears to be the odd one out at the moment, scoring the game 7/10: Amidst the inevitable and deserved grumbling about its awkward checkpoint system, small levels and weird obsession with its daft story, hopefully those who persevere with it will be rewarded by enough of those moments to make the whole thing feel worthwhile.

Hitman is a series to treasure for those moments, even if Absolution isn’t its finest hour. Hopefully it won’t be another six years before IO Interactive gets another shot at showing us why.”

Hitman: Absolution is out in the UK tomorrow (November 20th).

UPDATE 1:The internet masses seem to be up in arms that we dared to neglect to mention the reviews from the likes of Videogamer, GameSpot and PC Gamer which were more in line with Eurogamer. The truth is we hadn’t seen them. So feel free to hunt those down for a broader perspective.

UPDATE 2: OK. After lots of comments and people engaging with us on Twitter, it’s probably right to point out that other outlets have indeed scored the game along the same lines as Eurogamer or lower. These include PC Gamer (66%), Edge (7/10), Gamespy (7/10), Gamespot UK (7.5/10) and Gametrailers (6.9/10).

We should also add that other positive reviews have appeared on the Metacritic, too, including GamesRadar (4.5/5), Spong (8/10) and GamesMaster (9/10).

The game currently has the following Metacritic scores – PS3 (83%), Xbox 360 (79%) and PC (79%).

UPDATE 3: We have changed the headline from "Critics delighted with Agent 47’s return in Hitman: Absolution" to "Reviews go live for Hitman: Absolution".

UPDATE 4: We have now added links to every review mentioned here.