14 DAY TRIAL // The Hitman series has always focused on the character and identity issues of the main character but, with the upcoming Absolution installment, the developers at IO Interactive have decided to expand their aim and give a name and a personality to every character appearing in the game.
This automatically means that the development team needed to create a much larger script for Absolution, and that there’s more work to be done when it comes to voice recording and script decisions.
Speaking to VideoGamer, TOR Blystad, who is the game director on Hitman: Absolution, said “We’ll see how much we can cram in, it’ll basically come down to logistics and memory. We have a script of 2000 pages for the AI alone. It’s huge.”
He added, “We’re still doing voice recordings and pick-ups. We just did a big recording before Christmas and we have another one.”
Hitman: Absolution is already an ambitious project because it aims to take the core concepts of the Hitman series, including a focus on stealth and quick decisions, and make them the centerpoint of a modern game experience, complete with cutscenes and full storytelling.
The development team at IO Interactive believes that it can create a game experience that can appeal to both long-term fans of the series, with complex challenges and tough stealth sections, and to newcomers, who get access to a special easier games mode.
Agent 47 will have to deal with a new villain, called Blake Dexter, who has a personal grudge against the main character and is keen to remind him of past experiences.
At the moment publisher Square Enix says that Hitman: Absolution will be launched during 2012, presumably in the fall launch season, and will be playable on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the PC.