The Cheshire Cat posted:

Absolution had some nice refinements on the existing systems (the shooting/cover was good, contracts mode was a great idea) but the level design was way too constraining. Even the more "open" levels were really tiny, and the various ways to kill your target all felt really forced - Blood Money and earlier games certain had "scripted" options for kills (like say, rigging the pyrotechnic display in the heaven & hell mission in BM), but the way Absolution did it just felt like ticking off boxes for achievements rather than being rewarded for exploring the level and watching the target's routines.

I feel like Absolution's game feel combined with Blood Money quality level design would easily be the best Hitman game, which seems to be what they're going for with the new one, although it will be hard to say for sure how good the levels actually are until they've released enough to get a good sampling (even Blood Money had a few weaker missions).