Hitman Absolution game director Tore Blystad recently took time out to address what has become a rather infamous “Attack of the Saints” trailer for Hitman Absolution. The mixture of S&M nuns with heavily violence drew criticism from people both in and outside of the gaming realm, though Blystad denied that they were trying to stir the pot.
“We’re sorry that we offended people – that was truly not the intention of the trailer,” said Blystad. “Of course we understand, this has been a very big topic for us and we’ve been reading as much as we could of the articles and responses. We were surprised that it turned into such a huge topic. Something similar happened with our Sniper Challenge pre-order bonus… We just wanted to make something cool, it wasn’t the intention to stir up anything.”
Blystad strongly denied that the trailer was a marketing ploy designed to attract attention as some asserted. “It really came as a big surprise to us how it all went down,” he said. “It was never the intention to provoke people with it.”
“It’s a level from the game called ‘Attack of the Saints’, and this trailer I guess you could say represents one possible outcome,” he explains. “As you know with Hitman games, you can go about it any way you want. The problem with showing off a Hitman game in a trailer is because there are many different ways to play, you’re only ever showing off one of any number of potential scenarios.”
When asked why there were professional assassin’s dressed as nuns, Blystad responded, “The Hitman games as a series has always been extreme in many ways. The religious themes have been there from the very beginning, along with outlandish party scenes. And there are a lot of movie influences in Hitman Absolution, like Tarantino and Rodriguez. The grindhouse theme is something that we’re using throughout the game. It tends more towards sixties exploitation movies – these were a fascination [for us] because they were so extreme.”
Source: IGN
