Hitman: Absolution

Hitman: Absolution is the fifth title in the Hitman franchise and is a stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix.

Plot
Set after the events of Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Damnation, the game begins with Agent 47 detailing his relationship with his handler Diana Burnwood whom he had trusted until she, without explaination, betrayed the International Contract Agency (ICA) by sabotaging their funding and database, using the subsequent confusion to vanish. After the ICA is reformed, 47 is tasked by his new handler, Benjamin Travis, a high level official within the ICA, to kill Diana for her betrayal and retrieve an important agency asset; a teenage girl named Victoria from her mansion in Chicago, Illionis. 47 sneaks into her mansion and shoots Diana. Rather than finishing her off, 47 comforts his dying friend and asks her why she betrayed the ICA. Diana discovered Victoria was genetically-engineered to become an assassin for the ICA. Not wishing to see Victoria suffer the same fate as 47, she betrayed the ICA and escaped with her. As Diana's final request, 47 agrees to protect Victoria, for which Travis brands him a traitor.

After 47 drops Victoria off at the Rosewood Orphanage to hide, he contacts his informant, Birdie, for information about Victoria and the ICA, which Birdie agrees to provide once 47 has assassinated a crime boss in Chinatown for him. After cutting the barcode tattoo out of his head and giving his Silverballers to Birdie, 47 is informed by Birdie that a man named Blake Dexter, head of Dexter Industries, a home defense system company, who is staying at the Terminus Hotel. 47 sneaks into the hotel and learns from a conversation between Dexter and his secretary, Layla Stockton, in his penthouse that Dexter is planning to kidnap Victoria and sell her to the highest bidder. However, 47 is knocked out by Dexter's bodyguard, Sanchez. Dexter, realizing who 47 is, kills a hotel maid, frames 47 and leaves him to die afte setting his penthouse on fire. 47 manages to escape the hotel, and is then hunted by the Chicago PD. After evading the police, Birdie sends 47 to kill Dexter's Dom Osmund. After Dom is killed, Birdie calls 47 for help as Dexter had hired thugs led by a criminal named Edward Wade to find him in order to discover Victoria's location. 47 heads to Chinatown and kills the thugs searching for Birdie only to discover Birdie has already been captured and immediately heads to the orphanage, unaware that Birdie has betrayed him by revealing Victoria's location to Wade so that his life may be spared.

47 manages to arrive at the orphanage just as Wade and his men attack. 47 mortally wounds Wade but Victoria is kidnapped and taken hostage by Lenny, Dexter's son. Learning where to find Dexter from a matchbox found on Wade, 47 heads to the town of Hope, South Dakota, where Dexter rules the town due to his PMC's and the corrupt town sheriff, Clive Skurky, who is under his pay. Retrieving his Silverballers, 47 takes out Lenny's gang, the Hope Cougars, who were to planning to kidnap Victoria from Dexter and sell her to a rival weapons company. After interrogating Lenny over where Victoria is, 47 can either kill Lenny or leave him to die in the desert. Arriving at Dexter Industries HQ, 47 sneaks into the company's laboratory, kills the scientists who examined Victoria and destroys their research data on her. After killing Sanchez in an underground cage fight, 47 recuperates at a hotel but the hotel is attacked by an ICA strike team led by The Saints. 47 eliminates the Saints including their leader, Lasandra Dixon. Angered over this failure, Travis heads to Hope with a large group of ICA operatives to kill 47 and find Victoria.

47 manages to find Victoria under the Hope Courthouse jails but is subdued by Skurky. As Dexter tortures 47, demanding to know where his son is, he is informed that Travis wants Victoria back in exchange for $10 million and leaves. 47 manages to escape into the streets of Hope, just as the ICA takes over the town. 47 chases Skurky to a church where the sheriff tells 47 that Dexter is heading to Blackwater Parker in Chicago, before 47 kills him. In Chicago, Dexter and Travis attempt to exchange for Victoria for $10 million but the deals turn sour when Travis refuses his part of the deal and Dexter takes the money anyway. After reaching the top of Blackwater Park, 47 kills Layla and finally Dexter himself, after the latter had tried to escape with Victoria on a helicopter. In Dexter's dying words he offers an apology to his son and his money, leading a disgusted Victoria to throw his $10 million on his body before leaving with 47.

A few months later, Travis and his assistant, Jade Nguyen, arrive at a cemetery in England with an ICA crew to find Diana's grave as he has suspicions that Diana might not be dead. 47 is there as well as he recounts the letter Diana gave to him; telling 47 that Victoria was created by Travis's funding without the knowledge and approval of the ICA higher ups and tasks him to eliminate Travis. After eliminating Jade and Travis's elite bodyguards, 47 confronts Travis himself after injuring him in an explosion. As Travis rants at 47 for wasting Victoria's potential for the ICA, he asks 47 if he really did kill Diana but 47 states he will never know and then shoots Travis dead.

It is later revealed that Diana survived and Victoria is with her at her mansion where 47 watches them from his scope thus revealing that he only hit Diana with a shot that was not fatal. The game ends with a message from Diana to 47 welcoming him back to the ICA and thanking him for his help. In the epilogue, Detective Cosmo Faulkner of the Chicago PD, who has been tracking 47 since the Terminus Hotel fire, is having trouble discovering 47's identity until Birdie offers to help him for a price.