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| Hitman Absolution |
Hitman:
Absolution is the fifth title in the Hitman series by producer, IO Interactive,
published by Square Enix and co-published by Eidos. The game was released for
the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on November 20, 2012.
Hitman:
Absolution runs on IO Interactive's proprietary Glacier 2 game engine,
combining classic Hitman game mechanics with new mechanics.
The game's
story further delves into the mysterious life of Agent 47, the series'
protagonist. Hitman: Absolution was unveiled at the E3 2011 in Los Angeles.
Set after
the events of
Hitman: Blood Money and
Hitman:
Damnation, the game begins with
Agent 47 detailing
his relationship with his handler
Diana
Burnwood whom he had trusted until she, without explanation, betrayed
the
International Contract Agency (ICA)
by sabotaging their funding and database, using the subsequent confusion to
vanish. After the ICA is reformed, 47 is tasked by his new handler,
Benjamin
Travis, a high level official within the ICA, to kill Diana for her
betrayal and retrieve an important Agency asset; a teenaged girl named
Victoriafrom
her mansion in
Chicago, Illinois. 47 sneaks into her mansion and shoots
Diana. Rather than finishing her off, 47 comforts the dying Diana and asks her
why she betrayed the ICA. Diana discovered Victoria was genetically-engineered
to be an Assassin for the ICA. Not wishing to see Victoria suffer the same fate
as 47, she betrayed the ICA and escaped with her. As Diana's final request, 47
agrees to protect Victoria, for which Travis brands him a traitor.
After 47
drops Victoria off at the
Rosewood Orphanage to hide, he contacts his
informant,
Birdie,
for information about Victoria and the ICA, which Birdie agrees to provide once
47 has assassinated
a crime boss in
Chinatown for
him. After cutting the barcode tattoo out of his head and giving his
Silverballers to
Birdie, 47 is informed by Birdie about a man named
Blake
Dexter, head of
Dexter Industries, a home defense
system company, who is staying at the
Terminus
Hotel. 47 sneaks into the hotel and learns from a conversation between
Dexter and his secretary
Layla
Stockton in his penthouse that Dexter is planning to kidnap Victoria
and sell her to the highest bidder. However, 47 is knocked out by Dexter's
bodyguard
Sanchez.
Dexter, realizing who 47 is, kills a hotel maid, frames 47 and leaves him to
die after setting his penthouse on fire. 47 manages to escape the hotel, and is
then hunted by the Chicago PD. After escaping the police, Birdie sends 47 to
kill Dexter's Dom Osmand. After Dom is killed, Birdie calls 47 for
help as Dexter has hired thugs lead by a criminal named
Edward Wade to
find him in order to discover Victoria's location. 47 heads to Chinatown and
kills the thugs searching for Birdie only to discover Birdie has already been
captured, and immediately heads to the orphanage, unaware Birdie has betrayed
him by revealing Victoria's location to Wade so that his life may be spared.
47 manages
to arrive at the orphanage just as Wade and his men attack. 47 mortally wounds
Wade but Victoria is kidnapped and taken hostage by
Lenny,
Dexter's son. Learning where to find Dexter from a matchbox found on Wade, 47
heads to the town of
Hope, South Dakota, where Dexter rules the town due to his PMC's
and the corrupt town sheriff,
Clive
Skurky, who is under his pay. Retrieving his Silverballers, 47 takes out
Lenny's gang, the "
Hope Cougars", who were planning to kidnap
Victoria from Dexter and sell her to a
rival weapons company. After interrogating Lenny
over where Victoria is, 47 can either kill Lenny or leave him to die in the
desert. Arriving at Dexter Industries HQ, 47 sneaks into the company's
laboratory, kills the scientists who examined Victoria and destroys their
research data on her. After killing Sanchez in an underground cage fight, 47
recuperates at a hotel but the hotel is attacked by an ICA strike team lead by
"
The
Saints". 47 eliminates The Saints including their leader,
Lasandra
Dixon. Angered over this failure, Travis heads to Hope with a large group
of ICA operatives to kill 47 and find Victoria.
47 manages
to find Victoria under the Hope Courthouse jails but is subdued by Sheriff
Skurky. As Dexter tortures 47, demanding to know where his son is, he is
informed that Travis wants Victoria back in exchange for $10 million and
leaves. 47 manages to escape into the streets of Hope, just as the ICA takes
over the town. 47 chases Skurky to a church where the sheriff tells 47 that
Dexter is heading to
Blackwater Park in Chicago, before
47 kills him. In Chicago, Dexter and Travis attempt an exchange for Victoria
for $10 million but the deal turns sour when Travis refuses his part of the
deal and Dexter takes the money anyway. After reaching the top of Blackwater
Park, 47 kills Layla and finally Dexter himself, after the latter had tried to
escape with Victoria on a helicopter. In Dexter's dying words he offers an
apology to his son and his money, leading a disgusted Victoria to throw the $10
million on his body before leaving with 47.
A few months
later, Travis and his assistant
Jade Nguyen arrive
at a cemetery in England with an ICA crew to find Diana's grave as he has
suspicions that Diana might not be dead. 47 is there as well as he recounts the
letter Diana gave to him. In the letter, Diana reveals Victoria was created by
Travis's funding without the knowledge and approval of the ICA higher ups and
tasks him to eliminate Travis. After eliminating Jade and Travis's
elite
bodyguards, 47 confronts Travis himself after injuring him in an explosion.
As Travis rants at 47 for wasting Victoria's potential for the ICA, he asks 47
if he really did kill Diana to which 47 responds "You will never
know" and kills Travis.
It is later
revealed that Diana survived and Victoria is with her at her mansion where 47
watches them from his scope thus revealing that only he knew all along he hit
Diana with a shot that would not be fatal. The game ends with a message from
Diana to 47 welcoming him back to the ICA and thanking him for his help. This
also reveals that the story from the end of Blood Money to Absolution was all
one daring hit contract on individuals within the Agency by Diana and executed
by 47 to protect Victoria and to terminate the assassin cloning project. In the
epilogue, Detective
Cosmo Faulkner of the Chicago PD, who has been
tracking 47 since the Terminus Hotel fire, is having trouble discovering 47's
identity until Birdie offers to help him for a price.
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