Diana’s Death Was a Tough Decision for Hitman: Absolution Developers

The decision to kill Diana Burnwood, the handler of Agent 47, was a tough one for the team working on Hitman: Absolution, but it was necessary because it offers a clear motivation for a character who is otherwise unmoved by much of what’s happening around him.

Tore Blystad, who is the game director working on the IO Interactive title, told the Official PlayStation Magazine that, “To bring emotion to a character like 47 there needs something really devastating to kind of shake him up. It was a tough decision.”

He added, “If you look at him, he’s always been told what to do, been more on other people’s missions. So making this his game and about his decisions – enabling him to create the briefings on his own instead of having someone tell him what to do all the time – was the starting point, because then it would feel like the player was a bigger part of creating the story.”

Agent 47 has been one of the more mysterious video game characters for the first titles in the series, but the development team at IO Interactive has tried to present a more humane side of the protagonist in the upcoming title.

Hitman: Absolution is a stealth title which allows players to use a wide variety of weapons and items in order to assassinate targets without being detected.

Gamers will be able to complete levels by simply shooting their way through them, but that will significantly increase the difficulty level of the game.

IO Interactive said that it plans to attract a wider audience to the character and the series, while also delivering the tactical puzzles that long-term fans have been accustomed with.

Hitman: Absolution will be launched on November 20 of this year on the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC.