The thing on Blood Money is that I usually played on easier levels to explore the area and try things out, and then I would do another run on a harder difficulty to see if I could pull it off. Usually, once you knew the scenario well, a Blood Money hit could easily be completed in less that 5 minutes, so you didn't really need saves.

I'm currently replaying Blood Money in expert (with 3 saves per level). It's nice, as it's been so long since I last played that I sort of remember where the trick were, but not exactly, so I have to explore things all over again.

I usually did some scouting too but I disagree about not needing saves. I prefer to have them even if I don't need in case I need as the opposite situation is something I don't enjoy. Besides, when you know what you're going to do it's all about execution and partly timing and that's when saves are needed, not when you do some scouting if you plan to reload from the beginning anyway.

Personally, I much rather use the saves during scouting. I like to try out different solutions, and not having to restart every time I do something stupid to see how the NPCs react. And when I go for the kill (quite literally here), not using saves makes it much more tense as I have to be extra careful with the guards, for I have nothing to fall back on if I get caught. Makes it more enjoyable.

But we each enjoy these games a different way, which is what makes Hitman so great.

Been playing this the last few days. It really is "normal" Hitman levels with Splinter Cell levels in-between. I can't think of a better way to describe it, and for me personally it's pretty cool. Depends on what you were into and how flexible you are about change, I suspect.

One bummer is that I tried hard mode and it just seems to eliminate options. Where once I could go kill the drug dealer and spike his product now there are three permanent cops right outside his door which makes his apartment off limits. I want more things to do, not less, which makes normal the way to play.

Amazing graphics, by the way. Truly jaw dropping in how real the environments look (people not so much). Playing this, Far Cry 3 and Max Payne 3 recently I have to say I don't need graphics to get any better.

Just beat the game. I probably am one of the most hardcore Hitman fans ever and I liked it. I've got to say, a lot of the stuff that the game has been accused of just isn't true. It especially blows my mind whenever both reviewers and supposed fans use comparisons to earlier Hitman games to prove their point and don't notice that they are either simply wrong or only true for ONE game in the series. I mean, the rating system, the stealth system, the loadout, the amount of hints and the nature of the plot or presentation of 47's character are all things that changed notably throughout the series and I must say that almost every decision the developers made in Absolution was fully justified.

So yeah, in order to make the game more plot-driven they made it more linear and added more scripted events, in order to make it more accessible they divided the game into smaller parts and they made it more obvious than ever how to use the environment to kill the target. And yet: I've beaten the game, in some cases I skipped a perfect solution for now, because choosing the best one and executing it still is a tough challenge. I will have to replay every single level, knowing that there's still stuff to discover and ratings to improve. And that's just friggin' awesome!

True, as StingingVelvet said: the game is kind of a mix of Splinter Cell levels and Hitman levels. But I don't mind the Splinter Cellish gameplay, I like sneaking from cover to cover, I consider it a bonus to the puzzle-based gameplay of the other levels which still is pretty darn good. And as for the plot - yeah, it's goofy at times but that's been true for pretty much all Hitman games, it actually is an improvement over the earlier games.

Also: I highly appreciate that both combat and sneaking mechanics got highly improved. Other "fans" don't seem to appreciate that stuff at all. No matter how hardcore you are, things do go wrong all the time and it's just great that if they do I get to play a great shooter instead of some clunky crap. And staying completely out of view has also always been an essential part of the gameplay, it's very good that the devs have finally made this portion of the game feel really polished.

Seriously: Fuck the haters. :P

Your post made me curious so I tried it. Indeed, there's more cops but you can still get inside if you eliminate the drug dealer after he has left the apartment. Dressed up as him you can get inside again. I haven't tried snatching another cop's clothes yet to get past them, I guess it could work if you gather enough instinct first.

Btw, limitations like this have also been present in earlier Hitman games. For example in Contracts in the very first level on Normal difficulty you can easily get past the SWAT guys dressed as one of them, on the hardest setting they instantly see through your disguise so that solution is not an option anymore. Another example for all the haters who claim that Absolution is betraying the rules of the series. :P

You know that you can't judge a Hitman game by the first mission, almost all of them had weird or bad ones and Blood Money's actually was very similar to Absolution's in that it felt like a bad sample of the general gameplay as it was perfectly linear and forced you to use methods you normally want to avoid. I agree though that Absolution's tutorial mission isn't very welcoming, in fact the first couple of missions in Absolution didn't really get me warmed up. I think it was the stripclub level where the game started sucking me in like the old ones did.

I'm not saying it's anti-Hitman, I just don't like the extra guards everywhere on hard, seems to hinder options rather than spur creative thought. Just my opinion.

Yeah, actually that wasn't aimed at you, just wanted to throw it in because of all the people who are accusing Absolution of breaking with all the traditions of the series which is IMO ridiculous. Many accusations I've read or heard are true for at least one game in the series (or at least some part of it). Like for example the weapon loadout thing. Hitman: Contracts didn't allow you to choose a custom loadout unless you were replaying a mission that you had beaten previously, you had to beat each mission with a standard load out at least once. All those "hardcore fans" of the series who are bashing Absolution now don't seem to remember that. Hardcore fans indeed. :P

And yeah, it's a little odd that the higher difficulty adds extra guards, especially since they seem to be more suspicious already which is IMHO enough (like in the previous games). But well, I assumed that it's still possible to get into the apartment without getting spotted and I was right. I guess it's the same for most if not all other solutions in the game, I presume that it just takes some additional effort like in this case.

Yeah... even the Splinter Cell style levels use a lot of Hitman style stuff, from outfits to environmental distractions.

People just hate change.

I disagree with that, but I made my point pretty extensively back in the OP. All I'll say is that while it's nice they spiced things out on the combat part, when things go wrong, I felt a step back on the core Hitman gameplay. One of the best things of this franchise, for me, was how each iteration refined the formula more and more, and for some reason here they abandoned those improvements we all loved. That, I'm certainly not a fan of.

After finishing game I can say it starts good then levels get less and less stealthy as it goes with more corridors and less chances to sneak cause of shit disguise system
Its good or even great but it doesn't reach the others (besides 1 which I hated camera of)

There is absolutely no arguing it isn't different. Hence the hating change comment.

I don't dislike the first mission for its linearity. As I said, I dislike the story! And it started right with the first mission where I had to kill someone I wouldn't want to kill.

Beat the whole game first, then start complaining about the story. :p