EXCLUSIVE: HITMAN ABSOLUTION’S ROBERTO MARCHESI
I’ve always wondered who would win in a fight between James Bond and Hitman’s Agent 47.

On one corner you have the well-dressed, suave talking, womanizing super spy 007, and on the other is 47, the near emotionless test tube baby, who was born (or bred) for the sole purpose of bringing a quick and silent death to his targets.
 
In terms of skills and mission success rates, both fictional characters have proven to be the best at what they do, and coincidentally after being notably absent for the past several years both are making their highly-anticipated comebacks this year—Bond in the movie Skyfall, and 47 via Hitman: Absolution.
 
Both characters have also been revered by fans, and the recent box office and critical success of Skyfall only proves the infallibility of the Bond franchise.
 
Will Hitman: Absolution find the same success and bring more gamers into its fold? Judging from all the initial previews and early reviews, (TV Host Conan O’Brien even posted a hilarious video of how he liked the game) it seems like our bald, barcoded assassin will also be here to stay.
 
Gametime recently flew to Singapore for an exclusive interview with Hitman: Absolutions Art Director Roberto Marchesi to ask him what gamers can expect from IO Interactive and Square Enix’ newest title.
 
Gametime: Aside from Absolutions what other games were you involved with?
Roberto Marchesi: I’ve been an artist for Hitman since Bloodmoney, and I’ve also worked with the Kane and Lynch series.
 
GT: What was your ultimate goal in creating Absolution?

RM: When we started making the game, we wanted it to be the biggest and most ambitious game in the history of the franchise. We even developed a brand new engine called Glacier 2, to achieve this vision that we had. We also wanted to build upon our original fan base but at the same time create a game that will have a wider appeal make the game more accessible.
 
GT: Does making it accessible mean that the game is going to be a lot easier?

RM: Definitely not. We know the word “accessible” is a bit taboo for gamers, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy at all. We want the game to stay true to its roots—and its legacy is all about stealthy gameplay, about creating “accidents” and taking out targets silently--that core mechanic appeals to gamers and we wanted to build on that and make it a more complex game, but easier to understand.
 
GT: Tell us about this new Glacier 2 engine.

RM: We created Glacier 2 to give us more “muscle power” and more tools that are really important in revolutionizing the way we built Absolution. Up until now, we first had to draw the levels on paper and had someone else build it. It was a tedious back and forth process, but since Glacier 2 is real time and you can make changes on the fly in real time. Simply put Absolution and Glacier 2 were tailor-made for each other. From an art director’s standpoint, its super fun to work with, and very responsive, which is important for me to be able to communicate and establish the mood and feel of the levels.
 

GT: After Blood Money came out, what did you think were its flaws that led you to the creation of this new game?

RM:  Flaws? Oh … all our games are perfect (laughs). Just kidding.  What we really wanted to do was to make the biggest, boldest, most advance game and the best game IO interactive has ever made. Apart from the graphics, you could really tell the difference of how the game has evolved. We are taking full advantage of the power of this generation’s consoles. But the biggest advantage is from the gameplay side and how much more the AI has advanced and how it better communicates what it wants to do. One of the reasons we are focusing so much on accessibility is the fact that we want a game that communicates its intentions. When playing Blood Money you didn’t always know what is expected of you. That is fine, but we wanted to reach out to a broader audience and the only way to do that is by making the game easier to understand but NOT easier to play. We went through great pains to make a tutorial that explained the rules of the game and teach new players how to see the world as a trained assassin.
 
GT: What are you most proud of about this game?

RM: Aside from the level designs, I think it would be the characters. I think they have so much personality in them, so much to convey. It really depends on how you are playing the game—whether you like to shoot people or listen to what they are saying first. We really wanted to make this world believable and if the characters are not believable you just wouldn’t fall in love with it. So we wanted to have characters that told stories, characters that were interesting to be around and characters that made you feel a bit guilty or remorseful if you actually had to shoot them.
 
Glacier 2 is also capable of pushing up to 1200 characters on screen, and each one of these characters would act depending on your actions. Even those in a crowd have a story to tell and if you let them live, some will actually even make phone calls. Every single character of the game has a name with the exception of the crowd.
 
GT: What do you think is the most endearing trait of Agent 47?

RM: The interesting part about him is that he doesn’t have that many traits and that has been his strength up until now. The fact that you didn’t control him BUT wear him when you play—you become him and its your morals that dictate the way he acts.

I wouldn’t call it endearing but it may be his professionalism, the fact that he is willing to do anything to get the job done is very interesting.
 
GT: Any favorite levels that gamers should take note of?

RM: If you’ve seen the previews it gives you a feel of what to expect in the game, but to me the most interesting levels are the ones that look simple and can be completed relatively easy, but if you take your time to explore, it will open up—especially this level that looks deceptively simple but when you look around…
 
GT: Could you give a name, a clue or even a setting?

RM: Oh no you’re not getting that from me… marketing would kill me (laughs) But it would be pretty obvious and you’ll immediately know what I’m talking about once you play the game.
 
GT: What about weapons, what is the weirdest item you could use. Can you say, use a piece of bread to kill your target?
 
RM: Bread? Well, you could but that probably would take too long (laughs). When we started making levels we wanted to make sure that we put everyday objects that made sense to a certain location. For instance, in the orphanage level where there are kids living, you can pick up the toys like the toy robot and use it as a weapon. A screw driver is sharp looking by nature, but when you take something like a coffee mug or other everyday objects it can quickly become scary and lethal in the hands of a trained assassin.
 
GT: What about the disguises, any strange ones this time?

RM: Oh you know I can’t tell you that. But what’s interesting about the franchise is how people perceive the use of disguises and how it changes people’s minds. Some people will absolutely avoid wearing costumes especially if they are going for the silent assassin rank. While there are those who like to shoot everything that moves and want to see 47 change costumes on sight. It’s really a matter of perception and what they think is appropriate. But all the disguises are logical and not just for the heck of it.

(In one of the most recent trailers entitled Disguise, 47 can be seen wearing various outfits including a giant duck, a teddy bear, a masked luchadore and even a scarecrow costume!)
 
GT: Contracts mode is one of the most interesting additions to the game, tell us about it.

RM: Contracts is fundamentally our way to introduce online multiplayer. We have been looking for a way to introduce it and it was the community who came up with a solution for us. Because when we were looking at how they played Blood Money and how they are challenging each other with custom made contracts…If you check Youtube you’ll find a video there about a hundred ways to kill a clown. It’s a level where you could take a clown outfit and now it has become sort of a sport to kill this poor guy in different ways and using different weapons.
 
What if anyone on a level can be a target? That is the premise of contracts.  

Now we did that and gave the players the possibility to create missions or “contracts,” share them and compete with themselves. The biggest strength of this mode is that you don’t even have to be online to play it. You create it and ship it to your friends and the next time they log on they will receive a message about the contract. It would be really interesting to have spent hours making a really devious contract to ship to a friend only to have it come back the next day and see that they have easily completed the contract with even better scores.
 
GT: What’s next for 47? Do you plan on taking him outside the US and maybe even to Manila?

RM: We have tons of stuff that didn’t make it and we just come up with ideas all the time. It may sound morbid but we all have these small black notebooks filled with ideas for our future games.

Agent 47 is still pretty much busy with his missions in the US, but who knows? Maybe. You just have to wait and see.
 
On a personal note I just can’t wait for gamers to get their hands on Hitman Absolutions. We were very inspired to make a game that could withstand all their poking and probing and their assault and hopefully they would get a really great kick out of playing it. I can’t wait for them to experience it. We put so much energy and effort into making it a worthwhile experience making it interesting, funny and surprising. And I’m really curious to see how long it would take them to find all the secrets.

Hitman: Absolution is now available at Datablitz.