Hitman: Absolution: the deadly imagination of Agent 47

Hitman is a series with a strong identity and an ardent fanbase, but it's not easy to get across what the game is in a trailer. Take the Uzi Nuns trailer for Hitman: Absolution. Six nuns walk towards a motel, strip off their habits to reveal leather basques, produce machine guns and bazookas from god knows where, and explode the entire building, with Agent 47 inside. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a high-octane sexy thriller starring half a dozen Angelina Jolies.

Far from it. Hitman is a series where chaos is possible, but the most coveted rank has always been the super-tidy Silent Assassin. "We've always had these larger than life trailers," says producer Luke Valentine, responding to our suggestion that IO might be getting people in under false and sexy pretences. "It wouldn't make a very good trailer if you just saw a man waiting in a box." Hitman is a game of stealth, of observation and planning. It's a game of professionalism, where the only people who need to die are the people you're being paid to kill. But most of all, it's a game of options, where maps bristle with potential killing implements. It's like a Final Destination movie - where you get to play Death's invisible hand.

Hitman makes you think in a maliciously creative way. For example, in the last game, Blood Money, when you saw a shark in a tank, your first thought wasn't "oh cool, a shark". It was "how do I get him to eat my victim?"

Pure, not simple

The word "purist" was designed to go into the same sentence as "outcry". Sure enough, Hitman purists have been voicing their concerns about what's been shown so far. They're most suspicious of Agent 47's 'intuition', which comes in the form of on-screen context hints. Getting spoon-fed is anathema to a game where you're supposed to learn and exploit the patterns, and spot the opportunities.

Hitman has five difficulty levels, but the real difference is between the two broader categories. Intuition comes as part of the two 'Enhanced' modes, Easy and Normal. Enhanced refers to the augmented reality of this layer of hints. If you want to strip out the UI completely, the toughest of the three 'Professional' difficulties is a homage to your uncompromising dedication. It's called 'Purist'.

"With the Purist mode, we are removing all helper systems and GUI elements so that you're more or less left on your own," game director Tore Blystad explains. "This is a severely harsh difficulty, and we are looking forward to seeing the response we get to it in the final game. We know that there are a lot of gamers out there waiting for a real challenge and this should be it." In other words: stop saying that this isn't a proper Hitman game.

Absolution marks a new era in Agent 47's career. Duped into thinking that his long-time handler, Diana Burnwood, has betrayed him, 47 accepts the hit on his trusted companion. But this is no simple hit - Diana has been the voice in your ears since the very first game. She gives you your mission in the pre-order bonus, Sniper Challenge, and there's a genuine warmth to her. This is why, in the second act, we're no longer working for the ICA. This also ties in to that Bazooka Nuns trailer - when the Saints whipped off their habits for an unexpectedly sexy showdown, their ICA tattoos were plainly visible. Agent 47's relationship with his former employer has broken down to the point where they're sending blasphemous hit squads to kill him.

The second act is King of Chinatown. It's a small, tightly-packed level that's designed to show you the density of options available to you. And it's not just murder methods that are packed in - the crowds are incredible. This is the first outing for IO's home-brewed Glacier 2 engine, and the 500 people packed into the Chinese market is something that Valentine describes as a "fraction of the engine's capabilities". It makes Assassin's Creed's crowd dynamics, with clots of four or five courtesans patrolling around, feel old-fashioned. When you push your way through this crowd, you're brushing up against individuals - it's not even easy to spot duplicates.