I am now on my second run-through of Hitman: Absolution. I'm playing on Normal, and this time am particularly focused on getting Suit Only and Infiltrator challenges. At times I find myself wondering why I'd want to replay the same missions; even though getting things perfect seems reasonable, we are talking about a video game here. And each mission can't be completed without several hours of grief - that is if you're really talking about being perfect.

My standards have gone down a bit since playing this game. It's a consequence of having been a Thief player. I want to "ghost" through the entire level - nothing moved, nobody knocked out, nobody killed except for the target, no disguises, no NPC becoming suspicious. Just relying on timing to move through the level provides for great amounts of frustration until one accepts that the designers probably didn't design the thing that way. It's taught me much about patience and focus, playing as a bald genetically-engineered super-assassin; not to mention it's a pretty good distraction. So much so that the game has started to really eat into my training time so now I'm cutting back; thirty minutes a day should do it. Even then my mind occasionally strays, especially on some of the stickier points of execution.

For example, I've been recently trying to find a way to get the evidence in the Barber Shop part of the Shaving Lenny mission. On Normal, the evidence is on top of a widescreen TV that has four people surrounding it. Depending on which entrance you take those four may be joined by two more people, standing behind the four at angles that overlap blind spots. Beside the TV are stairs that lead up to an open area that has three hostiles, two playing pool and one seated to the side watching the other two. There is a room adjacent to the TV that opens to stairs; lingering on the stairs will invite an alarm as you are still within the line of sight of at least one guard.

The TV is up these stairs, to the right.

The answer, which I found after nearly sixteen hours of trying (I kid you not), was to leave a bomb that you start the level with in one of the upstairs rooms. Detonate the bomb once there are only six people in the room (which means you need to eliminate the two targets and subdue Lenny/wait for him to go on patrol first). Doing so will make them all look in the direction of the blast:

When this happens, take cover at the side of the leather chair that is closest the doorway beside the TV.

From here, and this is vitally important, WAIT. Usually, only one guard will run up the stairs, followed by a second or two before some others follow. This is the best outcome, and you can then go take the evidence, go back to that precise spot for cover, then walk through the door you came out of. However, it is still possible for all of them to start going for the stairs, and this is why the cover is important - you might get accidentally spotted so it's best to hang back and change your avatar's placement depending on who gets a whiff of you. The absolute worst scenario is if the guy who was sitting on the chair you're hiding behind turns around. In that case you have no choice but to reload - you only get one bomb, and any of the other incendiary devices in the level can't be detonated remotely. Not unless you're a good shot and can shoot a petroleum tank near the rooms I was talking about on the second-floor walkway from the first floor after distracting the NPC who'll be otherwise looking directly at you while you're aiming.

That was just for getting the evidence, by the way... Completing the other level objectives would take about the same amount of time to explain for each goal. It would be so much simpler to kill everybody in the building, and I myself am not proud to say that I copped out on my first playthrough and took the easily accessible Barber disguise. I guess to someone who's more used to the conventional type of games they would think that this is a whole lot of bother, and it is that, oh my yes. But the Hitman: Absolution world is quite a well-designed, complex one, and playing with that world is tons of fun. Take note that I used the word complex - there's a lot of rules that are not immediately apparent when you start out, and even with a thorough exploration it's still possible for the game to surprise you. A group of NPC's might move to investigate the sound you made, but they might not move in the order you saw on your last game, or maybe only a couple might move since the object you lobbed bounced after it landed.

( To other beginner players - yes, NPC's will stop at the place that they last detected made sound - whether it be at the spot you suddenly stopped running or where that screwdriver landed after it bounced. Typically, the closest NPC will move to investigate anything less than an explosion - and for the purposes of keeping your sanity remember that when bouncing things off walls the thickness of the wall may as well be zero to the NPC you're trying to lure. )

That kind of randomness is something quite familiar. Difference being, when we screw up we can just reload the game; and with the game, we are very sure that we can win, by definition. Sticking to a higher standard seems easier then since the stakes aren't really that high.