Hitman Absolution is the newest and most drastic departure for the franchise so far. For instance, the iconic bar code tattoo on the back of Agent 47’s head is no longer present, and game director Tore Blystad indicates there is a reason for that.
“It’s part of the personal contract story that Hitman’s taking on. During that, he goes through some changes,” says Blystad. “We wanted to make Hitman Absolution a personal story for 47. He’s been yanked around in the old games. This is his story. He’s playing a very big part of the story himself. We wanted to expose his personality more than before but it’s actually been much more difficult than we anticipated.”
“He is an enigmatic character that is very difficult to draw out. So when we re-did the script – like a hundred times at this stage – his dialogue got smaller and smaller and the ways he interacted with other people got more and more into the classical way you know him as from the old games,” he added. “We cannot really change him or his personality, but we can do is change the world around him to expose certain fragments within him that would give him something. One of the reasons he works so well as a character is because he is such a blank slate – the player can invest a lot more in to the character and say ‘ this is my Hitman this how I’m playing him’. With your play style this is how you present him to the world. Personalizing him though how the player uses him in the game.”
Source: OPM
