Hitman: Hitting Men

I know I'm the only one here playing this, but I don't care. It's great.

It's really just more of the same, but given that the last one was pretty much my GOTY for 2016, that's absolutely fine by me. It's more polished-looking, with fancier lighting and stuff, and also adds things that the community was frothing at the mouth over not being in Hitman 2016 - principally the briefcase, which I have yet to use even once.

As well as all the new levels, there's also the Legacy Pack, which is almost all the levels from 2016, but rebuilt with all the new stuff - so you can hide in foliage, smuggle stuff in a briefcase, and so on. If you already have the stuff for Hitman 2016, then you get it here - there's no re-buy.

Things you've unlocked don't carry over, though, so I've probably spent more time in Paris than Miami, as I work my way back to having all the shit I had before (with the main focus on poison vials, the keycard scanner, and a silenced sniper rifle - at which point, I might actually use the briefcase).

I'm still trying to mop up as much as possible in each level before moving on - while I'm happy to hop around the 2016 levels a bit in the name of gear, I'm trying to stick to my episodic guns on the new levels, and only move on once I've hit level 20 Mastery; I tried to get all the trophies, too, before, but some of them are fucking hard, including completing levels on Master, which I haven't dared even attempt yet.

As with Hitman 2016, the prologue is free - but as with Hitman 2016, it's the ICA training facility, so if you played the demo of the first game, there's not a lot different.

So far I've only played the pre-release version of the Sniper mode in single-player, and only had 2 goes in the 1v1 competitive Ghost Mode, but each of them only seems to have one level so far. I know they're adding more Sniper levels down the line, but Ghost Mode is still labelled as "Beta", so I assume they'll expand it to the rest of the locations at some point in future.

It struck me this evening just how different this game is to pretty much everything else that's huge at the moment; as the industry seems to be going all Ubisoft with their big, open worlds covered in sidequests and collectibles, IOI are sitting here, quietly focusing on their small, intricate clockwork sandboxes, and I greatly appreciate that.

TL;DR: Hitman 2 is great.

This appeared on the BAFTA Steam list yesterday, which means it'll be popping up on the nomination website soon. Need to keep tabs on that… I can't miss a free code for it. I need this game.

I’ve still not played the first as much as I’d like, so have just about stopped myself from buying this, but I’m sure I will eventually. The lack of Ubification that Ninchilla references is a trait worth rewarding in my eyes too.

I've done Miami a few times now, but still doing some stuff in the Legacy levels for unlocks. I've got all my poison vials back now, working on the keycard hacker and a silenced rifle next.

Looking forward to the first Elusive Target, which I think is coming up this week - I just want to be as well-prepared as I can.

Every Christmas season seems to get a couple of quality games that are sent out to die in the middle of a load of bigger releases and sadly this year it looks like this year it's Hitman 2: sales are apparently down a full 90% over last gen's Hitman: Absolution. Estimates are that it's sold no more than ~150,000 copies across all formats so far.

I can kind of understand why: it's fairly niche, it looks a bit like an expansion pack, and it's had virtually no marketing that I've seen. I had no idea it was even out until Ninchilla started talking about it. And these things are self-fulfilling in a way: now everyone knows it's tanking, they'll be holding out for the inevitable sale reduction.

That said, it does look really good. I saw a bit of the first one on PC, though I don't really play on PC much these days so was considering picking it up on PS4 at some point. Is it still worth doing that or do you get the full experience by buying the second one and the Legacy Pack?

The only thing that's not part of the Legacy pack are the "Sarajevo Six" missions, which were a PS4 exclusive. They're different targets/missions on the existing 6 locations, and they're good - more Hitman! - but hardly essential.

If you wanted to get everything, Hitman 2 + GOTY Legacy pack is probably the way to go, because you can start from the beginning, and keep all the unlocks from the Hitman missions, which don't carry over otherwise¹.

That would include: 3 training missions, 6 Season One missions, 3 Bonus Episode missions², 6 Patient Zero missions², 6 Hitman 2 missions, plus escalation contracts, player contracts, and Elusive Targets as they come.

Hitman 2: sales are apparently down a full 90% over last gen's Hitman: Absolution. Estimates are that it's sold no more than ~150,000 copies across all formats so far.

That's just boxed, though, right?

¹You can unlock "mk II" versions of the essential gear in Hitman 2, but some of the kookier stuff is fun

²these are technically set on the same levels as the other missions, but change things up in really significant ways.

Well. Having downloaded the prologue/demo to see how it runs on the PS4 Pro (very nicely), I've lost two hours to the opening mission - not even the proper intro, but the wooden boat thing that acts as the basic controls tutorial. I'm in.

What happens when I buy the disc? The prologue shows up as Hitman 2, and unlocks trophies, so it's at least partly the full game rather than a separate thing. Do I uninstall this and then install the disc so I get the full experience?

No idea, sorry; I bought it digitally.

I moved from digital to disc on… something (a Destiny trial?) once, though, and I seem to remember it just prompted me to ask if I wanted to replace it.

I’ve played full games with less content than this demo. I’ve just discovered the delights of the Escalation mission, and I’ve still barely scratched the surface of the chess player assassination.

I kind of love it. From the little I saw of it before, I never really appreciated it was a puzzle game at heart.

Oh, absolutely. A gunfight is a fail state.

I've been trying to remember how the hell you do SA, SO in Paris and I can't. I might have to just look it up. Margolis is easy, but I can't work out Novikov.

I did manage it on my first run of Sapienza, though, which I'm rather pleased about.

So do you unlock permanent items for use by completing challenges on each level? Really not sure how this works.

Some challenges, Escalation Contracts, and Mastery levels unlock gear, yeah, and once you have them you can use them in any level. So by completing three particular opportunities in Marrakesh, for example, you get a vial of emetic (I think?) poison that you can then use in your loadouts.

Can’t recall if you’re playing on a PS4 Pro, Ninchilla, but there’s a new High Frame Rate option with today’s patch. Makes a big difference and also reduces the jet engine roar from my console which is a big bonus.

I’m still playing the demo! It seems much better with the guidance set to Minimal rather than Full.

Ha, no, I'm on a bog-standard launch PS4.

They've also released the first Elusive Target - Sean Bean. I haven't tried it yet.

I assume if you ignore him he just dies of his own accord?

Maybe, but if I compete it, I get a new suit. 👔

My disc copy arrived. I didn't notice that the box had been damaged in transit and it gave me a nasty gash on the hand when I opened it. You have to admit that's pretty on-brand for this game.

However I don't seem to be able to purchase the Legacy Pack. I've never owned Hitman 1 but the game suggests I can buy the Legacy Pack separately.

If I go to the in-game store, it asks me if I want to buy the Legacy Pack but then takes me to the store with no option to Buy.

If I try and access the Legacy in-game missions directly, it says that the content is not available for purchase.

If I go to the store from the main PS4 dashboard, it says I can’t buy the Legacy Pack because I don’t own Hitman 2.

The FAQ suggests that the first option is the way to do it but it just isn't working at the moment. Very frustrating.

Oh. No idea; tried tweeting them?

I've posted on their technical support forum. That's not a bad idea though, I'll give it a go.

Problem resolved. Must have been a temporary PSN brain fart.

Huzzah!

Holy shit at the size of the first proper level (the Paris fashion show). It's absolutely massive! I spent all evening just wandering around scoping out the mansion and achieving very little - I've spotted the beginnings of a few possibilities here and there but no real idea yet on how to turn any of them into actual opportunities. I can totally see how this worked as an episodic release, it looks like there's hours and hours of gameplay on that level alone.

I'm absolutely delighted with this game though so thank you Ninchilla (even though I'm essentially just playing Hitman 1 two years after everyone else). When I saw this game before it was someone playing it with guidance on full, basically just going from green target to green target and trying to headshot all the guards, so I thought it wasn't really my sort of thing. I'm not even typically a fan of stealth games. With guidance turned down and played as it was intended, though, this is just the biggest and most immersive logic puzzle and it's absolutely enthralling. One of those rare occurrences when you discover something that feels genuinely new that turns out to be right up your street.

Glad you like it! If you ever get to the point where you sort of know your way around Miami, we'll have to give Ghost Mode a go (1v1 me, noob).

I was thinking I might stream my Sean Bean attempt, when I get round to it, in case anyone wants to watch my disastrous failure.

So is Miami the Sean Bean level then? Maybe I should prioritise learning that one so I can make a hilariously hamfisted attempt at doing him in before he disappears.

Yeah, he's in Miami until the 4th.

Apparently several people have been banned from Twitter for openly discussing how they intend to murder Sean Bean. This makes me very happy.

Bean is dead, by my hand.

Well, pen.

Silent Assassin, too; took 20 minutes, but I got there in the end.

Impressive. I did play through Hawkes Bay in order to unlock Miami but I haven't played it yet, I've been focussing too much on Paris.

Spoiler - click to showI've now murdered the two targets in a variety of hilarious and unlikely ways and I'm pretty comfortable with the layout. I'm going to try for a Silent Assassin run which I think I can do with a bit of care but I'm some way off working out how to do Suit Only: I can get up to the auction as 47 but can't isolate Margolis once I'm up there, and I can hardly go anywhere on the ground floor without some sort of disguise.

The Mission Stories are slightly frustrating in that you have to do everything in sequence. There's one called Lights Out that involves killing the target by dropping the stage lighting rig onto him: I've done that (and have the Challenge ticked to prove it) but I can't complete the Mission Story because I don't know where it begins; presumably I need to overhear someone talking about the lighting rig somewhere.

I'll carry on plugging away though. This is such a good game. It reminds me of Dead Rising, curiously enough, with that some kind of feeling of your abilities increasing not because of some arbitrary number going up but because your knowledge of how things work is improving. Going from fumbling around working out the layout to being the master of all you survey is a great feeling.

Lights Out:
Spoiler - click to showThere are a couple of guards in the attic (of all places) who talk about how rickety the light rig looks.

Suit-Only Margolis:
Spoiler - click to showMargolis isolates herself, if you get to the auction; after you introduce yourself as Mr. Rieper, hightail it to the top of the stairs (past Prince Po) and into the attic (you can get in without being spotted - it's out of the guards' vision range, and the waiter guy is facing away from the door). From there, hop out the window immediately to your right, climb into Dahlia's bathroom. After she has a conversation with her assistant next door, she'll come in (hide in the wardrobe), and ring someone to ask about 47's alias. Emerge from the wardrobe, piano wire in hand for victory. Stuff her in the wardrobe, and head back out the way you came.
Novikov:
Spoiler - click to show…is an utter bastard, though; I know I've done it, but I can't for the life of me remember how. I think you have to engineer some kind of accident?

Lights Out:

Spoiler - click to showI actually heard the Lights Out conversation between the guards once but it didn't trigger the Mission Story Revealing prompt. I'd probably murdered my way through too many of them to get to that point. I'll give it another go - thanks.

Novikov:

Spoiler - click to showThere's a puddle just outside the bar area that you can electrify, and on one of my playthroughs he went outside and walked right over it, so that's a possibility; however I must have done something else to get him to break his normal loop, and I can't for the life of me recall what I did.

I started playing the original hitman (humble bundle!) and… I don't get it?

What's to get?

What don’t you get? How to play it or how it works? It’s all about replaying the levels (even the basic tutorial) multiple times to try and tick off as many of the challenges as you can - usually different ways of taking down the target.

My experiences of Novikov:

Spoiler - click to showI got him to come outside to the pagoda area for a meeting, then waited until everyone had gone and pushed him over the balcony into the Seine. I shot him from the balcony when I forced him to take the fashion designer's place on the catwalk. I believe you can poison his favourite drink if you learn how to make it, but I've not done that. My favourite, however, was grabbing a sniper rifle and hightailing it to the crane boat, then setting off the fireworks. When Margolis came out onto her balcony to watch, I waited until Novikov was outside below and then shot her… she fell off the balcony and crushed him. Nice.

I feel that maybe my brain ain't wired for the creativity of killing in Hitman. I just wanna shoot someone but- I can't work out how to make people drink the rat poison, or work out how one piece of the puzzle fits into the other. Help.

You can't make them drink poison; you have to work out which drink is theirs, then poison that one. Ideally in a waiter disguise, so you don't get shot to bits doing it.

I just wanna shoot someone

Hitman isn't really a game about just shooting people. It's a puzzle game at heart.

Just, y'know, one where the solution might maybe involve shooting someone.

Yeah, it's a puzzle game. Each level is a perfectly functioning little ecosystem into which you are dropped as the single variable. You need to work out how to disrupt its rhythms in the most unobtrusive way possible (ultimately, with no-one realising what you're up to at all). So there's a lot of just waiting and observing what's going on, working out what you can tweak in order to alter things, and where you need to be and at what time in order to achieve that. Knowing the levels and the characters' routines inside-out is a prerequisite for any truly successful attempt.

Sometimes, of course, shooting the target in the head and then yakety-saxing your way to the exit is one way of getting the job done. Not a very elegant way, but there are always a couple of attempts that end up like that. And the more ways you achieve your target, the more options open up to you, in terms of starting locations, gear loadouts and so on, making progressively more ambitious runs a possibility.

A simple example for the very first level (Paris):

Spoiler - click to showIf you follow the first target around and just watch what he does, his route takes him through the dressing room, the kitchen and the bar. He's trailed by his bodyguard. The bodyguard can't resist sampling the sushi platter in the kitchen when no-one's looking. There's some rat poison in the corner of the kitchen - if you can disguise yourself as a waiter, and poison the sushi before he gets there, the bodyguard rushes off to the nearest toilet to throw up which is a pretty good place to waylay him and get the bodyguard outfit… and bodyguards can go places most other staff can't. Where can you go now?

The best thing is when you've managed to silent assassin your way through the whole level, you're dashing towards the exit, and turn a corner only to find yourself face-to-face with a guard whose patrol you forgot about, you haven't saved since killing the target, and the last auto-save was at the start of the ten-minute wait for the target to get into position.

(I'm looking at you, Sapienza.)

Guys, stop it, you're making me want to buy Hitman again.

Hitman 2's PC version is currently £23.00 on cdkeys, and you can buy the Hitman 1 levels within the game for £15.00 (or get them for free if you already own the GOTY version of the first game).

PS4 version's been down to £34.00 already at thegamecollection, sold out now but it's £38.00 on Amazon.

Guys, stop it, you're making me want to buy Hitman again.

It's the best. Do it.

Mastery 20/20 on Paris, all mission stories done. Still can't work out a SASO run but time to move on, see if I can get the hang of Miami and clobber Sean Bean before he disappears.

Patience pays off… Hitman 2 is mine through BAFTA. Mwhahahahaha!

You'll hate it. No Platinum trophy.

I don't understand why; sure, for Hitman 2016, the episodic thing kind of prevented it, but you can't only get part of Hitman 2.

Well I guess the way they've done the Prologue kind of does - it counts as the full game, with its own set of trophies, and every other episode (whether S1 or S2) has its own DLC-type set of sub-trophies. But getting the Platinum for rinsing the Prologue would be silly.

WHAT.

I see why, but there's no excuse for not having a Platinum these days. Even the smallest indie games have them usually. That's just sloppy.

Couple of bugs on Miami. I had one session where I lost all music and NPC dialogue (including subtitles) - just the sound of my footsteps remained. Peculiar and eerie but essentially unplayable. And the race seems to end at random times, and can be triggered almost immediately by loading a save. I’m sure these will get fixed and given the complexity of the game I think it’s actually a remarkably solid experience.

Hey, Ninchilla… you been making Hitman videos again?

Jesus, I wish I was half that good.