Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Absolution

Developers
	IO Interactive
	Eidos Shanghai
Windows	Nixxes Software
macOS (OS X)	Feral Interactive
Publishers
Former	Square Enix
OS X, former	Feral Interactive
Current	IO Interactive
Russia	Noviy Disk
Engines
	Glacier 2
Release dates
Windows	November 20, 2012
macOS (OS X)	May 15, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	79
IGDB	76
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Immersive sim, Stealth
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary
Series	Hitman

Hitman
Hitman: Codename 47	2000
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin	2002
Hitman: Contracts	2004
Hitman: Blood Money	2006
Hitman: Sniper Challenge	2012
Hitman: Absolution	2012
Hitman GO	2015
Hitman	2016
Hitman 2	2018
Hitman World of Assassination	2021

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Hitman: Absolution is a singleplayer first-person and third-person immersive sim and stealth game in the Hitman series.

Servers for online services were shut down in May 2018, making the Contracts mode unavailable, any Contracts related achievements unobtainable and any single-player unlocks useless.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Square Enix Forums

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.co.uk
GamersGate
		Elite Edition also available.
GOG.com		Now-redundant online UI/functions removed; 6.8 GB smaller install.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam
Developer website (unavailable)		Elite Edition.
Mac App Store (unavailable)		Elite Edition.
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)		Elite Edition.

Version differences

The Professional Edition includes a 72-page digital artbook, The Making of Hitman Absolution video, and the Agency Gun Pack DLC.

The Elite Edition includes the Professional Edition contents and all DLC. It is the default release for OS X.

All purchases except the GOG.com version now include Hitman: Sniper Challenge which was previously a pre-order exclusive.

Japanese language support is only available in Japan; this version only includes Japanese text with both Japanese and English audio.

Monetization

All DLC was Contracts-mode only. Purchasing and using DLC is no longer possible due to the Contracts mode servers being shut down.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Agency HX UMP
Agency Jagd P22G
Agency SPS 12
Bartoli Custom Gun
Bronson M1928 Gun
Deus Ex (Adam Jensen) Disguise
Deus Ex (Adam Jensen) Handgun
High Roller Disguise
High Tech Disguise
Krugermeier 2-2 Gun
Public Enemy Disguise

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Extract the contents of this archive to <path-to-game> and overwrite existing files.[citation needed]
The game contains 7 GB of pre-rendered cutscenes. Besides ui\menu_main, they can be deleted - at least the whole in_level folder, and probably also loading folder, without replacing the files with dummy files (like above). As a result, the game will show an error, then disappear from thet taskbar, but when pressing Alt+Tab ↹, it will continue loading.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IO Interactive\Hitman Absolution
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Feral Interactive/Hitman Absolution/Preferences Data
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/203140/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Steam	<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\205930\remote\
GOG.com	%APPDATA%\IO Interactive\HM5\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.feralinteractive.hitmanabsolution
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/203140/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Display settings

Graphical settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Aspect ratio has to be set to "auto" in-game for ultra-widescreen to work properly. Prerendered cutscenes and menus will still be shown in 16:9 aspect ratio.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Turn off "Exclusive Fullscreen" under Display to use borderless mode.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16 samples.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA, up to 8x MSAA. Seperate options in settings.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Triple Buffering
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No frame rate or refresh rate cap with Vsync disabled. Up to 144 fps-limit can be set that only activates when Vsync is enabled.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Launcher requires mouse input. Can be fixed by launching the game using Controller Companion application.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 7.1 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation. Available to download. It substitutes the english localization.
Italian
Japanese				Available in Japan only; only includes Japanese text with English and Japanese audio.
Korean				Fan translation. Available to download. It substitutes the english localization.
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation by GGames. Available to download. It substitutes the english localization.
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Hitman Absolution. Native support was present on launch and in beta builds, but was patched out soon after release.
vorpX		G3D, Z3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction. ( G3D available but with glitches ! )

Issues fixed

No sound

Reported at launch. It is not known if this issue still occurs after many updates to Windows, drivers and the game itself over the years.

Disable surround sound on audio drivers

Game does not run in Windows 8.1

In Windows 8.1, sometimes the game will appear to start minimized, and any attempts at restoring the game will not work.

Disable Exclusive Fullscreen[citation needed]

DirectX 11 Crashes on Nvidia GeForce 500 and 600 series

Increase Vcore to the GPU slightly or drop the GPU clocks[citation needed]
It seems Nvidia have set the default Vcore too low on the 5xx/6xx series cards. They do pass stress testing but crash in a few DX11 intensive games.

Crash to desktop when using MSI Afterburner's On Screen Display

Edit configuration file
Open the MSI On-Screen Display Server program (RivaTuner Statistics Server). Click the plus sign (or newly "add" button) and navigate to <path-to-game> and add HMA.exe. Once that is added, go to %PROGRAMFILES%\RivaTuner Statistics Server\Profiles. Edit HMA.exe.cfg. Change EnableDynamicOffsetDetection=0 to EnableDynamicOffsetDetection=1 Change HookDirectDraw=0 to HookDirectDraw=1 Save the file.

Mods

Toggle HUD - allows the toggling of the entire HUD with the Tab ↹ key.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	10, 11

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX, Shroud cloth simulation engine	PhysX v2.8.4.4
Audio	FMOD	v4.43.00, newer version than used in Hitman: Sniper Challenge
Interface	Scaleform
Cutscenes	Bink Video	v1.9.99.0

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista, 7	7 64-bit
Processor (CPU)	True dual core CPU (Intel, AMD)	Intel Core i7 AMD Athlon II X4
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	24 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8600 AMD equivalent 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 10 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 ATI Radeon HD 5770 DirectX 11 compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.9.2 Mavericks
Processor (CPU)	2.0 GHz	2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	24 GB
Video card (GPU)	512 MB of VRAM	1 GB of VRAM