Hitman: Hitting Men

It uses a very small section of the level, too, there'll still be loads to discover.

I had a quick look at Greed, the first of the 7 Deadly Sins, last night too. It's another escalation but an interesting one - you start with a target and when you kill them you get another one, so there's a kind of risk/reward thing going on whereby you have to decide whether to continue on or quit while you're ahead.

Also you get a unique weapon and every time you kill a target with it, it produces "Greedy Little Coins". Most of the challenges associated with this are to finish a level with 10 coins, 20 coins, 30 coins etc so it encourages you to keep pushing forward rather than just killing a single target then dashing for the exit. Coins carry across between stages of the escalation too, which I think is new.

The whole level (Dubai) gets a piss filter and some creepy demonic voices. Not sure if there are any changes outside of that, though. The new suit is absolutely hideous, like something you'd buy in Top Man.

It's good, I think, if hardly essential. There's probably four quids' worth of fun to be had here though whether it's better than all the stuff they've added for free over the years is a bit debatable.

I've held off for now.

It certainly sounds really interesting, but I've still got so much left in the game I have, I'm not sure I need to add to the list - yet. Maybe it'll appear in a sale, or maybe some of the later Sins will tip me over on it, but it's relatively easy to resist at the moment.

Has anyone else attempted the final deluxe escalation? It's in Berlin, and very, very difficult - the whole area is hostile, almost everyone is an enforcer, there are things that make noise when you get to close all over the place, and you fail instantly if you're spotted doing anything illegal.

You get a straitjacket for the attempt, plus a new alternative to fiber wire and a dart gun(?) for finishing the first stage.

I got what I was 99% certain would be an SASO run in Chongquing, with both targets in an accidental explosion, but for some reason when the bodies are found it loses the Silent Assassin.

Spoiler - click to showIt involves getting a remote explosive into the trashcan next to a gas tank on the lotus bridge and taking out the drones to trigger a meeting.

So now I've got to come up with something else, which is annoying.

Could you trigger that when you're right next to an exit and then immediately leave the level?

I think the problem is that one of the targets is taken out by the gas tank, but the other is killed directly by the remote explosive. Maybe I just need to work on the timing - or shoot the gas tank instead, if I can find an angle on it.

The roof of the laundry has a good line on that bridge, and you'll pass a guy on your way up with the best rifle in the game.

My achievement for completing all the mission stories on Mendoza is still bugged.

In not sure I've done that one yet. I've had a problem with the trophy for Spoiler - click to showmaking a target clip on a banana while evacuating in Dubai - the trophy dropped, but the challenge in-game hasn't unlocked.

Egg hunt done. All easy, with the exception of that last target given the amount of guards around. Still, SA across the board.

Well done. I just went apeshit with the shotgun!

I played through the Greed missions this afternoon, and quite enjoyed it. I'm not sure the risk/reward balance is great (there seems to be little benefit to pushing on; they should probably have tied the unlocks to the number of coins you collect), and good Christ I wish you could skip the intro shot and narration, but it was a nice little diversionary puzzle. Curious to see how they approach the other Sins.

Well done. I just went apeshit with the shotgun!

I'm curious why no-one around me thought 'Oh, why did that yellow bunny just drop something on the ground and hey, look, now that guy is dead and oh, what's the gas smell?'. Idiots.

Chasing after a Silent Assassin rating on escalations is often a fool's errand for me; unless I'm specifically forbidden from A. killing non-targets, or B. being spotted, they inevitably descend into a bloodbath.

why did that yellow bunny just drop something on the ground and hey, look, now that guy is dead and oh, what's the gas smell?

It never even occurred to me that you might be able to drop the eggs to break them; I ended up waiting for the targets to isolate themselves (or luring them out of the way) and throwing 'em. Your way probably would have been much easier.

It took a few attempts, but I did end up with a triple SA run.

I only worked it out by accidentally dropping one and then gassing myself.

I couldn't get the emetic ones to affect anybody. They just got right back up and panicked, alerting all the guards.

Are you throwing them at the target? I seem to remember that the emetic ones seemed to work best for me when thrown next to them.

Best exit in the game?

It's either that or the Mary Poppins exit from Santa Fortuna.

That's not a lot of downtime between elusive targets. Hopefully I'll manage SA on the Politician this time, though, I slipped up and had a body found in Hitman 2.

Wait a minute… Greed ends on May 9th? So I can't play it again even though I paid for it? Or is that just saying that the next one comes out May 10th?

The Greed Escalation, I assume, will stick around forever; there's no way they'd be able to justify charging £4 a pop for something that's only playable for a month, and the bundle would be worthless as soon as the first Act dropped out of rotation.

Yeah, the DLC is permanent. They’ve just renamed the monthly roadmaps as “season of xxx” to tie things in with each month’s drop.

Elusive Target day! And it's a new one for all of us, as it's the first ever Hitman 3 Elusive Target, in Dartmoor.

As always, post stories of your hilarious misadventures here for everyone's enjoyment.

Should be interesting. I had a quick dash around the mansion last night to try and refresh my memory (and get the last kill I needed for a trophy), but the place is still just a maze to me.

I'm interested to see where they set it, and what changes they make. If it's in the mansion, and you've still got access to the detective outfit, you have a lot of freedom to move around. I wonder if they will put him in one of the lesser-used outside areas instead.

With a name like The Collector, I'd expect to see him in the Trophy Room of the mansion.

Yeah. I was thinking more along the lines of a tax collector, but a trophy collector ties in with the Season of Greed much better.

The briefing video is on YouTube - he's Spoiler - click to showan art collector.

It's interesting in that it's the first Elusive Target briefing I can remember that doesn't immediately give away where he is.

Spent 20 minutes jogging around over lunch, didn't even lay eyes on the guy. I can't think of anywhere in the level I didn't go, so either he's got a very wide roaming route or I've overlooked something.

Don't click!

Spoiler - click to showHe starts in the greenhouse.

All done, fairly straightforward, managed to get Silent Assassin too. Didn’t bother with the painting though, do you get anything specific for that?

Usually the only challenges for Elusives are for success and Silent Assassin. I don't imagine there's anything for specific kills beyond your own satisfaction.

That’s got me up to mastery 18 on Dartmoor too so I reckon one final push will see me over the line. Going to be a case of grinding out the little challenges though as I’ve already done all the big stuff.

Done! I was only intending to have a look around, but saw an opportunity on my first run, and took it.

I was even able to make a lucky educated guess where the painting was from the image in the menu. Sorry, Gar, turns out there is a challenge for it.

That video's going to be helpful, thanks. But having never played Dartmoor before, meaning I have no shortcuts or alt starting points open (let alone special equipment), this will be… interesting.

I was going to go in almost default, but knowing where he started changed my mind. The emetic gun was obviously very helpful, and knowing the back approach to the study.

You have 9 days, though - take a few runs at the main mission first to get the lay of the land.

Yeah, I’d definitely go for at least a single standard run through Dartmoor following the extremely obvious private investigator mission story. It’ll be horribly confusing if you don’t.

Egg Hunt has been extended until May 10, but I think we’ve all done that one already.

If you do the PI mission and save right before the end, you can get all three endings with very little effort, which is a ton of XP.

I got him and the painting. Only changed outfit twice (housekeeper when getting the painting, security guard when getting the target). Who knew a feather duster could be so deadly?

Wow - well done!

The guy doing the interview in the garden was my only problem, he kept seeing me dumping the security guard body despite me crouching AND the hedge being between us. Took multiple retries to get the timing.

I did the painting first, then the target. However, the target is carrying a paper cutter that he drops when he goes down… could have used that on the painting rather than having to nick a letter opener from the room where the painting is in full sight of a guard. Hmm.

Nice work Mart! I did the whole thing in the garden before he even made it into the house.

I never let him out of the garden either. Looking into it, it seems his trigger for leaving the greenhouse area is you getting close enough for the handler to identify him.

Ah. If I’d known that, I’d probably have scoped out the painting first like you did. But I thought I had limited time before he made his way to the house, and once he was down I wasn’t taking any chances. Still pleased with my SA rating though.

I really hope that, once support for Hitman 3 ends, they make all these elusive targets permanent. There’s a lot of content there with a surprising amount of replayability.

once support for Hitman 3 ends

The always-online requirement for unlocks and the like makes me think that once support ends, the games will be largely unplayable.

They'd have to patch it to remove that. Otherwise, imagine the uproar.

The challenge reward for the painting is 4,000XP. So, nothing exciting that you missed Gar.