IO aware of Hitman fan feedback

Hitman: Absolution developer IO Interactive is listening to fan feedback on the latest installment in its assassin franchise, but refuses "to be dictated to".

Speaking in an interview with VG247, game director Tore Blystad addressed the mixed fan response to news that the developer is striving to widen its audience with the new game.

"There's always people in the office checking up, especially on the Hitman forums. We want to probably know what they're thinking, and we want to make a game that people like, not just a game we like and no-one else cares about," he explained.

"We'll listen to them, but we won't be dictated to by the fans because we also have so many segments of fans that we could listen to one group say 'the game has to be more difficult than any other Hitman.' Well, that's going to be hard for us to pull off if you make a game of this magnitude."

Elsewhere in the interview, Blystad discussed how the development team is attempting to streamline the gameplay.

"One of the things that was difficult with the old games was that there was a lot of freedom, but you really had to dig it out, it wasn't really presented to you at all. So you could start a level and there was ten doors open to you and was like, 'well, where the hell am I supposed to go? I don't know, I'll just have to try the first door, oh I got killed, now I'll try the second one.'

"That kind of freedom is not very interesting because it's not really a choice, but you just try it and then you see if you fail and then you try something else. Now, you're very mindful to present choices to the player that might be more binary in a way because there are physical choices, but in the level."

The first entry in the series since 2006's Hitman: Blood Money is due out some time next year. For a more in-depth look at where IO is heading, give our recent Absolution preview a read.