Verdict
This all-time classic has great gameplay, looks good, and runs decently on mobile - but the controls aren’t always the easiest thing to navigate on a tiny iPhone like mine. I recommend that you consider using an iPad.
The Hitman series has long been a favorite of mine - I spent a considerable amount of lockdown watching Jacksepticeye giggling his way through, throwing newspapers at the heads of unsuspecting civilians, and I knew I needed to join in the fun. A game I hadn't played in the series, though, is Hitman: Absolution, and though I had long been intending to, its mobile release sealed the deal.
Hitman: Absolution is a delightful predecessor to Hitman 3 and the other main games that I love so much. Fundamentally very similar in style and feel, I immediately knew I was right at home as I saw the title screen. The thing that felt strange was that I was having the experience on my iPhone 15, as I'm not used to feeling quite so immersed while lying on my side in bed. After a short cutscene, I was in.
The game asked me whether I wanted to play in easy, normal, hard, expert, or 'purist' mode, and I selected normal after reading about the characteristics of all. The first level is a tutorial, with a disembodied voice giving me slightly hilarious tips like, 'running is a good way to relocate'. Yeah, I got that, thanks. There were also additional on-screen tips for mobile, where I selected controls, learnt about when my game would save, and a few other things.
One thing I immediately suspected would be annoying, and was soon proven correct, was that if you have to leave the game, none of your checkpoint progress is saved, and you have to start from the beginning of the chapter. Not really an ideal feature for mobile, but I suppose I understand it from a saving perspective - don't get a call, or reply to a loved one, I guess.
As I had to sneak and kill my way into a mansion with high-level security, my hand was held, but I didn't mind too much - I'm familiar with Hitman, so I didn't really need it, but I found the tutorial to be mostly unintrusive. The game let me carry on with my business whether I was listening or not, and permitted me to skip cutscenes, allowing for easy replay.
The design of the first level, as usual, is delightful, and I was pleased to find the framerate consistent with minimal input delay. The colors feel bright enough, and the textures have no loading issues. All in all, pretty nice. The second and third levels likewise presented me with good performance and fun level-building. In the second, I was in a packed market in Chinatown and was told I had 12 different ways to complete my mission.
Hitman games drop information on you and then leave you to explore and try in different ways to achieve the same objective. Ultimately, I stumbled upon my target's drug problem and posed as his dealer, killing him in a dingy, but importantly deserted, underground area. This was, of course, after I died trying to snipe him, blow him up, and poison him. The best part was that I didn't really feel like I'd failed any of those times; I was just messing around. This is what I love about Hitman: creativity is encouraged.
Hitman: Absolution is very replayable, and not really because of the story, which is good but not a standout. It could easily have evergreen status as one of the best mobile games because of the way that players are left wanting to explore the potential of other methods.
I admit that I did have teething issues with the controls. At first, I selected 'dynamic' controls, which seemed to be the one the game was pushing me toward. It claimed to be simpler, by auto-selecting things it thought I might want, and it mainly involved me tapping once to change disguises or pick up bodies. I soon found it impossible to play with, as I died one too many times trying to pick something up in a pinch, only to start dragging a body around instead.
I switched to 'fixed controls' and found that much easier, as there are specific buttons for each action, and though with 'fixed' you have to hold some of them down, I found it to be a lot more fluid, particularly as I learned the icons for each of the actions. Still, despite the new controls, the phone can be a little bit tight for those of us who don't have beautifully slender fingers like a pianist. Consequently, I found running to be frustrating, as my thumb was halfway up the screen trying to convince Agent 47 to jog somewhere ('running is a good way to relocate', so please let me do it).
Similarly, though I'm not naturally gifted at aiming in video games, I found Hitman: Absolution's gun controls to be a bit of a challenge. It's quite difficult to move Agent 47, aim, lock onto a target, and then fire because of the screen size. And, with all the different icons being dispersed around the screen, sometimes I'd get a bit stuck in ADS mode because I couldn't quite remember which button I'd pressed to enter it. I thoroughly believe these issues could be solved if you played on iPad, because as someone who played Genshin Impact on my iPad Mini for as long as I could without running out of storage space, Hitman: Absolution's controls reminded me of the experience.
I love 'Instinct mode', which serves to do a number of things, one of which is slowing down time. In the frozen time, I was allowed to pick out my targets before shooting them all in one fell swoop - a nice, clean way to play. All good things come to an end, though, and your 'Instinct' decreases as you use it. I was forced to reckon once again with my shaky aim. 'Instinct' also allows you to see enemy pathing, trick people into thinking you're someone you're not, and it highlights the bad guys in yellow. 'Normal' mode is one of the difficulty levels that allows you to recharge your Instinct through other actions, so I didn't have any issues.
Speaking of difficulty, I found 'normal' to be the right amount of difficulty for me, but as always, you should choose the one that's best for you with no shame or gloating. Hitman: Absolution also gives you challenges to complete in any of the modes above 'easy', so achievement hunters can challenge themselves further by trying to 100% each and every level. Maybe you could even try to do it in every difficulty level if you're kind of a masochist like that.
Hitman: Absolution for iOS and Android is out on October 16, and you can pick it up from Google Play or the App Store. For more like this, check out the best PC games on mobile, and the best spy games for Switch and mobile.