Hitman: Absolution (2012)
Hitman: Absolution is a 2012 shooter video game made by IO Interactive and Square Enix.
Agent 47 has been given an assignment that puts him directly against the ICA, the agency that trained him. A girl named Victoria is at the center of it, hunted by people who want what was done to her to be done to others. Absolution is the most story-focused entry in the series up to that point, trading the structured contract system for a linear narrative set across American motels, cornfields, and underground labs. It keeps the series' emphasis on disguise, patience, and choosing your method of approach, while the Glacier 2 engine makes 47's world feel tangible and specific.
Quick answers
What is Hitman: Absolution about?
Agent 47 has been given an assignment that puts him directly against the ICA, the agency that trained him. A girl named Victoria is at the center of it, hunted by people who want what was done to her to be done to others. Absolution is the most story-focused entry in the series up to that point, trading the structured contract system for a linear narrative set across American motels, cornfields, and underground labs. It keeps the series' emphasis on disguise, patience, and choosing your method of approach, while the Glacier 2 engine makes 47's world feel tangible and specific.
When was Hitman: Absolution released?
Hitman: Absolution was released on 19 November 2012.
Who made Hitman: Absolution?
Hitman: Absolution was made by IO Interactive, Square Enix and Feral Interactive.
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A few thoughts on Hitman: Absolution
Polar is the closest film analog: a retired professional killer pulled back in by people who were supposed to be on his side, shot with the same cold, stylized detachment. Hitman is the more direct franchise adaptation, worth pairing for comparison.
Assassins, agents and hired guns who live by their own code
Agent 47 spends Absolution turning against the very agency that made him, choosing his own targets and his own rules for the first time. Hitman and Polar follow other professional killers doing the same math, Matahari traces a real spy caught between loyalties, and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War and Largo Winch put ordinary-looking operators up against organizations built to crush them.
Reformed killers who go rogue to protect someone the system left behind
Absolution puts 47 on the run for one reason: keeping a girl named Victoria alive after his own employers decide she's expendable. The Mandalorian and Grogu, The Punisher: One Last Kill, Rurouni Kenshin and Kamen Rider all center on a lethal professional who breaks from their own people, or their own past, to shield someone with no one else to protect them.