BLUF: If you have have a capable PC to run this game as intended, and enjoy stealth mechanics that allow the player to choose (within reason) their path to the target but don't punish you for being overly violent, then go buy this game.
Hitman: Absolution is fun. Very fun, in fact. In an age where killing is a core-mechanic of progression (/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii/61-38039/, /borderlands-2/61-36055/, /halo-4/61-35533/), it's pretty nice to see a game that will reward you for not killing people. Lets keep it in perspective, though, 47 will kill people. A lot. And often in some very exciting ways.
At first glance, the designers appear to have funneled players into more linear paths; and while the play-fields are smaller this time around, there is more to do, more ways to execute your target, and more NPCs that will get between you and your quarry.
The meta-game employs a challenge mechanic, one which encourages multiple plays-through. It keeps tabs on what you've carried on your person, the disguises worn (or none) and how many of the signature kills you've found.
What's a signature kill? Imagine there are some very dole drum items in the world that, by themselves, aren't very dangerous;should you decide to tinker a bit, you can create some interesting death traps. For example: In one mission, you come across a target drinking from a sink. Outside of the shed there lies a power panel. By pulling the live conduit and inserting it into the waterlines, you get your kill and a blood-curdling scream. And bonus points. It should be noted that all of the signature kills are contextual items in the player world and they are finite. You never have to use them, though. And there generally aren't hints pointing to how to use them, but sneaking around while trying to find out how to create these oft hilarious death traps while trying to not get discovered adds a sense of tension and excitement missing from many games I've recently played.
Instinct is another dual-aspect mechanic that the game throws-in. Activating it will allow you to hide in the open (helping you avoid being discovered by like-clothed NPCs [hostile or non-hostile]). It will also illuminate a patrol path to help you quickly find your best route to no being caught. Should enemies become aggressive, you can activate a second mode while using instinct which freezes time so you can tag targets and fire off many precise shots with the push of a button.
So, the stealth/assassination puzzle is the name of the day, but a player who only want to see the outcome of the game's slightly mental, and self-aware, story can literally kill anyone they see with guns blazing. There's a pretty good chance that if you don't care about your score, or can't find a quiet way through a situation, then you won't mind always having the option of just killing everyone. And I mean everyone. What else is nice is that there are no boss-encounters. No enemies with in-vulnerabilities and no life bars save your own.
There are some small technical hiccups in the game. The stealth and disguise system don't always work as one would imagine. Generally speaking, these glitches can also work in your favor and when it doesn't, its nothing you cannot shoot your way of.
The game's story, a strange tale of revenge which doesn't make itself apparent until later in the game, told through a ham-jam of nicely-rendered real-time and pre-rendered cut scenes, works. Voice work is very well done. The developers have noted they took influence from Quentin Tarantino, and it shows. If you enjoyed some of Tarantino's movies, then you probably won't take offense to obtuse story-telling, killing assassin nuns or obvious developer placed jabs at the (un)realistic nature of this game or its story.
Aside from the story is the Contracts mode. A world-wide series of tailor made contracts on any segment of the game, targeting anyone, using any weapon. There are currency and scores tracking. You may also create your own contracts and challenge your friends to conquer anything you can dream up.
As noted, this is a review for the PC version. I run a higher-end Windows 8 based PC with an i7 2700K processor and a GeForce 680. On this machine, Hitman: Absolution runs like a dream. Gorgeous graphics and textures with nary a framerate hitch. I also used a XBox 360 controller without issue.
At the end of the day, Hitman: Absolution marries fantastic presentation and free-form gameplay to keep the controller in my hand until the end of the story mode. Which is all I can ever ask from a video game.