A few weeks ago, IO Interactive released this stunning look at Hitman Absolution with a 18 minute gameplay feature called “Run For Your Life“. It featured some rather innovative ideas for the series that potentially give players a huge amount of freedom of choice. The game has the facility to help you go in all guns blazing with a modified cover-based shooting system, skulk the landscapes in order to get the jump on enemies, or disguise yourself in various clothes to evade detection.

You can check out the interview with Hakan Abrak from IO Interactive here, but thanks to the wonders of technology the developers in the following presentation explain some of the more complex systems such as “Instinct”  and “Hiding in plain sight”. They also go into more detail on how the AI works, perhaps the most essential and fascinating concept shown so far. Not only do they explain that if you are spotted, initially only those in the immediate vicinity will react, but they also show how different disguises provoke different reactions depending on the AI approached. If there is one game that the developers needed to make a commentary about in order to explain just how innovative the ideas really are, this is certainly it, and well worth watching.

Hitman Absolution will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in 2012.