No multiple marks please

[Platinumoxicity]

The best feature of Blood Money in my opinion was the introduction of accidents. But ironically, another feature nullified any benefit it could have had. In all but one job in that game, you have several targets. And in the one where you only have one target, "A new life" you need to incapacitate another target to steal a microfilm. So mysteriously someone clobbered Vinnie's girl and stole her necklace, while Vinnie himself broke his neck falling down the stairs. Nah, just a coincidence. Let's see what really happened. Oh, wait. We're missing the CCTV footage from that time period. Nah, just a coincidence.

So from a tactical perspective, accidents are pointless in that game. Sure you can pat yourself in the back, when the game manages to technically interpret your mission rating as "Silent Assassins", when technically there were no murders. In a real situation, one accident could be plausible. Two? Nope. If only there was only one mark per mission, then it would make sense to make the hit look like an accident.

Though now that I think of it, when there are several "accidents", it does make sense that the newspaper frontpage headline calls it an assassination. Because it clearly was a hit instead of multiple simultaneous accidents. If there would only be one accident and no mandatory violence during the job, the news probably wouldn't even make it to the front page.

Maybe there should be ways to make several marks die from the same accident, counting it as a single event. Otherwise, there's no point in making it an accident at all. I think the rating system in Absolution should only rate your hit "Silent Assassin" if there is only one accident. Anything more than one is suspicious, and if both victims of separate "accidents" are VIPs, it was obviously a hit. Just like with Ghosting in other stealth games. If you knock out or kill anyone, or get detected even once, there's no point in trying to ghost further because you have already created that one piece of evidence that shows that someone actually was there. Only if you get through completely clean there's no reason for anyone think that an intruder was ever there. It must have been an inside job.

Also, what would you think about a new mechanic called "Disappearance"? You could make your marks' bodies disappear, so that there would be no evidence of anyone actually having died. Like in "A new life" you can shove someone in the back of the garbage truck. A newspaper headline wouldn't talk about an assassination or an accident, but instead the person would have gone missing. 47 could get a good head start before anyone even suspects a professional assassination.

Suicide would be a classic way to go too. But would only be good for certain targets. Like in BM, Joseph Clarence is in a pretty bad spot, having been blamed for the deaths of all those people and abandoned by his family. If I was 47, I would have forced Clarence to write a suicide note while threatening with a painful slow death, and hung him from his office balcony. Except of course first I would have had to get all the way to his office without murdering all those gangbangers.



TL;DR, One mark per mission. One accident looks like a real accident. And newspaper headlines shouldn't imply that it could have been an assassination if it was an accident.

[KleanZlate]

The rating system has supposedly been revamped so it will be interesting to see how it affects the gameplay. Hopefully it will make more sense.

[Platinumoxicity]

The rating system looks interesting, showing you in real time the effects of any indiscretions on your total pay. I just wish that there would only be one mark so that accidents would make sense. I mean, why even have accidents if there are always two marks, and using accidents requires excessive suspension of disbelief?

[KleanZlate]

Originally Posted by Platinumoxicity

The rating system looks interesting, showing you in real time the effects of any indiscretions on your total pay. I just wish that there would only be one mark so that accidents would make sense. I mean, why even have accidents if there are always two marks, and using accidents requires excessive suspension of disbelief?

I see your point although it hasn't bothered me in the past. Gamespot posted a preview article from the Streets of Hope preview at E3. There a small section about accidents in there. It doesn't go as far as the final rating or how it's presented after the level.

Here's a link to the article:

Hitman: Absolution: The Accidental Assassin Visits Hope

[Platinumoxicity]

Originally Posted by KleanZlate

Here's a link to the article:

Hitman: Absolution: The Accidental Assassin Visits Hope

Damn. Well, at least I hope that one can achieve Silent Assassin without accidents. I wish that in Absolution, you couldn't achieve "accident" status at all if there were any other deaths than just the one. "Accident" should be a bonus stat that appears when you succesfully kill one target with an accident without touching anyone else or getting caught.

But judging by that article, I'm sure they will go the Blood Money way, and even though 10 important people mysteriously died by separate fatal accidents at the same time, it was all just a coincidence and there's no reason to think foul play occurred. At least those who prefer a realistic game world and immersion can pretend and just refuse to use accidents because for them there's no reason to try to make multiple assassinations look like accidents.

[4s4sin96]

I'm fine with it...