Five top tips to help you become the silent assassin…
Don’t be afraid of the arrow
There’s no need to mess your pristinely pressed assassin trousers every time the yellow enemy vision arrow starts popping on screen. Play Absolution on normal and you can really push your luck thanks to the foes’ slightly lackadaisical reaction times. When you start to infringe on someone’s view in a hostile area or if you’re wearing a suspicious disguise you’ll have a few seconds before the arrow lapses into the orange ‘your cover is blown, Johnny Cack-handed’ territory. In most instances there’s usually enough time to use this window to either dash behind cover or use the hidey face Instinct trick by holding R1, providing your meter is stocked up sufficiently.
Get an easy Silent Assassin
On the King Of Chinatown you can nab one of the easier Silent Assassin ratings in Hitman: Absolution by following your mob boss target into the corner with the pallet of bricks. Hide behind the nearby bins to the right, wait until the nearby cops wander off, then take him out with a silenced Silverballer headshot while he’s relieving his bladder. Once the King is dead, simply dump his body in the dumpster near the Tuktuk restaurant. Providing no one sees said dumpage you’ll be awarded with the ultimate Hitman rating and a shiny silver trophy.
Go crazy
The idea of going postal in a Hitman game will probably have purists vomiting all over their shiny red homicidal ties. But treating yourself to a full blown psycho spree is actually the best way to learn Absolution’s levels. It also gives you the chances to mop up challenges by playing with signature kills and collecting weapons. Once you’ve taken out a stage’s enemies you’ll have free reign to explore all the points of interest on your Instinct view and any hidden areas or disguises. Scout these out properly, map out the job in your head with this new knowledge before simply reloading the checkpoint to execute your perfect pre-planned hit.
Take out The Patriot
This tip is obviously more specific than the rest, but heed the following advice and you’ll be rewarded with an extra trophy and one of Hitman Absolution’s coolest kills. On The Fight Night level you’ll be tasked with stealing a keycard that lies behind some crates in the area behind The Patriot’s mobile home. Once you’ve nabbed this, creep behind the masked wrestler’s trailer and fiddle with its power generator. One of the wrastler’s entourage will come around to investigate. When his back is turned pacify him, take his clothes, then dump him in the nearby dumpster.
After this, steal the teddy bear sitting on one of the chairs by the trailer. Upon realising his beloved Teddy has been nicked, The Patriot will throw a hissy fit, demanding his guards go and search for the stuffed toy. Wait for his men to walk away, pick up the nearby radio, walk behind the trailer, throw it and the masked man will pop round back to see what’s going on. Phew. Now, take him out, put on his clothes and you’ll be able to go through the special entrance reserved for wrestlers. When you get to the cage arena, 47 will now actually fight his massive Mexican target Sanchez in the steely structure. Follow the in-ring QTE to take out the brawler and unlock a special trophy. It’s quite a lot of work, but well worth it.
Don’t be afraid of pacifying people
If you’re the type to obsess over your end of mission rating you may well be put off pacifying folk because the game automatically deducts you 125 points. However, you can claw said points back if you change into your victim’s clothes and, crucially, dispose of the body in a cupboard or dumpster. Absolution will reward you for your good housekeeping/murderous body-stashing by promptly rewarding you those previous 125 points back. Just make sure you subdue the target with square rather than snapping their neck like kindling through a cheeky dabble on triangle.