Did Hitman take it too far?
The E3 Hitman: Absolution trailer has caused a few stirs. Most have been upset with its total irrelevance to the real game but a few have spoken out against its darker theme: Sexualized Violence.
IGN’s Keza MacDonald wrote a piece about the trailer, condemning its use of extreme violence against woman in the most sexualised way possible.
Should we be offended?
Well, I’m not exactly sure.
You see. When I first watched the trailer, I was enjoying the CG goodness. Look at the water bouncing off of the PVC, I thought. This looks awesome. I must be one of the very few people who still actually enjoys CG trailers but I think they bring something a bit extra to a video rather than a montage of explosions in the in-game engine.
The entourage of woman in nun outfits was chiche, I knew straight away that those robes will be revealing something more sinister/sexual. I like the idea of the femme fatal but it’s completely wasted here. 8 PVC-clad female “assassins” rock up, get their faces literally smashed in and are left dead.
The fight scene was kind of cool and Agent 47 comes off looking bad-ass, as you’d expect in a trailer for the game he stars in but it just feels a bit.. well.. wrong.
As the video stopped and I kind of sat there a little confused. I kind of enjoyed it but I also was a little shocked with the general theme. One man beats up 8 young woman who are all dressed in kinky PCV outfits. The violence is extreme. The panning shots of breasts, up skirts and heels are prominent and the idea … well the idea is a weird one.
Visually the trailer looks amazing. In reality, I’ve just watched a product trailer that condones sexualisation of woman and violence against woman in one fell swoop.
I’m not offended. I’m just a little disturbed. This is becoming a trend in the industry. In fact, one of the earlier Hitman: Absolution trailers constantly witched from a naked woman enjoying a shower and Agent 47 beating the crap out of her body guards.
Do you really need to see sexual imagery and violent imagery to buy a game these days or is this what marketing people think young men jack off to before laying down their pre-order.
Let me know your thoughts and feelings in the comments below.
Note: The actual game looks awesome by the way.
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It’s a game about assasins and killing people in general, I just wouldn’t go as far to say it condones violence against women, the nuns were female assasins, therefore they’re fair game.
Most games involve killing men… On that note it makes it rather refreshing, you always hear women moaning about wanting equality. So if its acceptable to have a cg video of man being shot/killed etc then why not a woman??
The pvc costumes and nun outfits were pretty tame in comparison with some games akwardly sexual cgi moments.
With games like GTA constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable, the marketing depts almost have to out do one another with overly sexual or violent gameplay and cg.
I be it was males or females you should expect gratuitous violence in a Hitman game, it’s a Pegi 18 for a reason.
I knew some people were going to take offense to it. I agree with you on all points. It os a little disturbing to watch 47 beat up scantily clad “nuns” so viciously. However, the context has yet to be revealed. We have no idea who they are or why they were trying to kill him. Secondly…it’s a video game. People always forget the “fiction” part and want to justify it being wrong without considering that. Third, it has been done before. One of my favorite anime series “Black Lagoon” has a group of assassin’s who’s cover is that of nuns in a convent. That anime is extremely violent and could be considered just a sexist. No one batted an eye at that. I don’t know. I think people have become way to sensitive. I guess it differs for each individual in terms of what we take away from it. I for one love it and can’t wait for the game
Just thought I’d share my 2 cents. Glad you posted this ^_^
“Should we be offended?” – No.
Keza’s “misogynistic desires” comment really irritates me. In fact I think her article is more exploitative than the trailer, taking any opportunity to add “woman” as the object.
I don’t recall the historical back story suggesting he kills for pleasure, regardless of the age, sex, race, etc. of his victims.
Yes, the trailer is guilty of cliche but the leather/pvc stereotype has existed since way before video games cg sequences were able to “abuse” it.
Switch out Hitman for a female assassin would Keza have written “brutalising a bunch of men”?
As Hitman is a white male, would we be reading blog posts suggesting it was racist if the attacking gang were all of another race, or misopedia if they’d featured another movie stereotype, groomed child assassins?
Keza also claims “it’s not remotely relevant to the game – Hitman is about a silent assassin”.
Wrong. The game allows the player to go all guns blazing if they desire.
Perhaps the flight or fight instinct of our fictional character was off, due to the fact he was being attacked by a gang wielding a rocket launcher or more likely the creators thought a plot where he left by the back door and didn’t engage the enemy wouldn’t make a conversation worthy trailer.
This comment explains it all I guess Keza hasn’t watched a decent action movie lately
Whoever that comment is aimed at, did you consider the concept of constructive criticism? Which sentence(s) are you referring to? I think you should also give us a link to some of your work or keep your grammar-nazi comments to yourself.
Deleted the comment in question. If people want to make complaints they could at least do it under their actual name
I was going to write out a long response, but Richard saved me the time. I agree with everything he said.
I’m not offended what so ever. The fact that they are women is just a small detail, a small irrelevant detail. The outfits didn’t bother me either, maybe I’m just used to that being the norm. Sexy women and violence is the gaming industries bread and butter when it comes to marketing. I just thought it was a good trailer with awesome CG, I actually thought it was a live action trailer at first. People just always need to get their undies in a wad about something.
I haven’t watched the trailer, but I will, so cannot comment on it’s general tone, but the idea of an assassin wearing PVC (whether they are male or female) seems silly, surely you want a material that is going to be as quiet as possible, and gives good range of movement?!
Everyone makes a good point but in all the other Hitman games you never actually saw Diana’s face so the shower scene kind of defeats the purpose of what the other games tried to to make, a character that is never seen just heard! Not saying the scene is a bad thing.