The guards and goons of Hitman: Absolution will have plenty more to say than your typical variation on "what was that? I thought I heard something. Must have been a rat." Game director Tor Blystad tells Videogamer that IO are giving their NPCs thousands of lines of dialogue.
"We just did a big recording before Christmas and we have another one," he said. "We'll see how much we can cram in, it'll basically come down to logistics and memory. We have a script of 2000 pages for the AI alone. It's huge."
Stumbling across NPCs in the middle of a chat adds to the weird voyeuristic thrill of being completely hidden in a stealth game and can be a good way to deliver some extra optional story information, or just do some jokes. Hopefully the barks will be of a higher quality than the likes of Splinter Cell: Conviction's constant calls of "I'll kill you, Fisher!" "Come out, Fisher, I know you're there!" and "Fisher, Fisher, I'll Fisher your Fisher, Fisher!" Something more on par with The Darkness' quality "stick your face out so I can shoot you in the face!" line would be preferable.
For more Hitman, check out the latest trailer . The latest Hitman: Absolution screenshots also confirm that, yes, you will be able to dress up as a priest and kill men with an axe. No sign of a clown costume yet, though.
