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" Hitman: Absolution is the long-awaited return of the Eidos-developed stealth series, which last appeared in 2006 with Hitman: Blood Money. Agent 47 can now better analyse his target&amp;#039;s movements and discover new ways to dispatch them, in a story that&amp;#039;s teased to return the tables and make him the hunted. Coverage of Hitman: Absolution so far - from it&amp;#039;s action-packed trailers to a more story-led campaign - has suggested that Agent 47&amp;#039;s latest outing will be headed in a different direction than previous instalments. However, our hands-on with one of the early game missions suggests that puzzle-like scenarios fuelled by experimentation are still ever present, and just as much fun to tinker with. The narrative push that looks at what makes Agent 47 tick is a means to tie together story events and mission locations in a more cohesive manner, as the objectives themselves still joyfully appear to be business as usual; there&amp;#039;s a target to find and a number of inventive ways to take them down.   Agent 47 takes on the King In Hitman: Absolution&amp;#039;s second mission Agent 47 is contracted to kill the King, a seedy mobster who &amp;#039;owns&amp;#039; a Chinatown district. Standing inside a bustling city quarter surrounded by crowds of people enjoying an evening with food, good conversation and shopping, you must find a way to lure the King away from his protected nest of armed guards and innocent bystanders. The best way seems to be to appeal to his &amp;#039;sweet tooth&amp;#039;. Lingering within ear shot, you hear that he phones his drug dealer, who soon appears and receives an order by the King. Tailing the dealer leads you to a back alley where he can be easily offed and raided of his clothing, providing you open access into his apartment. There are two choices here; use a sniper rifle found in the flat and assassinate him from the window - the noise from which deserts the square and brings attention to your whereabouts - or you can use deadly ingredients swiped from the nearby food court to taint the drugs, giving him a fatal high that leaves you walking away clean.  More than one way to kill a crimelord Those are just two solutions, though, and in typical Hitman fashion, there are a bunch of other inventive means of dispatching the King. His car lies at the edge of the square, and with a smartly placed set of explosives and a nudge on the bonnet to trigger the car alarm, the King will wander over to his pride and joy before being blown sky-high.  Our favourite way, though, is tailing him as he goes for lunch, waiting until he passes a seemingly inconspicuous drain cover and quickly pushing him in. There&amp;#039;s a risk of getting spotted by a member of the public, but if timed right it&amp;#039;s the fastest and most amusing way of killing the contract. Another method is to shoot down a set of wooden slats suspended nearby to crush him as he walks underneath, but naturally it creates a fair deal of commotion. It does, however, nail home that there are plenty of ways to finish a mission if you want to be particularly inventive. Elements of the level are a bit contrived, of course; the King will happily accept his tainted drugs from Agent 47 dressed as a drug dealer, despite the sudden growth spirt and change in appearance, and his little lunchtime trip has detours past the potentially deadly drain and hanging debris for seemingly no reason at all. But as always a suspension of disbelief is well advised, and for those that want to make it more realistic, a new set of &amp;#039;Professional&amp;#039; settings turns off Agent 47&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Instinct&amp;#039; mode to present fewer clues, and makes his mistakes far more glaring to onlookers.  Crowd control While Agent 47&amp;#039;s deadly instincts and puzzle design were enjoyable to experiment with, the unassuming star of the hands-on demo were the crowds. What must have been a few hundred people were densely packed into the Chinese quarter, mingling and going about their business in a very natural manner. It&amp;#039;s a sight to behold, and important for gameplay too; visible and dangerous actions can send ripples of panic through the crowd, emptying the square and exposing you to armed assailants with nowhere to hide. Our hands-on time with Hitman: Absolution didn&amp;#039;t highlight the game&amp;#039;s most heavily-touted direction - Agent 47 becoming the hunted and learning more about what makes him tick - but it proves that the beloved, puzzle-like objectives with their many inventive solutions are still joyfully present and remain fun to solve. With some current generation spit and polish to make its participants and environments shine, Hitman is set to join Tomb Raider as yet another of Eidos&amp;#039;s long-running franchises looking to rightfully return to blockbuster status. Hitman: Absolution will be available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC from November 20. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/e3/news/a381901/hitman-absolution-e3-preview-agent-47-takes-on-the-king-of-chinatown/>