Only my second Elusive success ever (including on PS4, where I managed to miss all of the events as I worked through the first game's levels), and a Silent Assassin to boot. Also got the painting.
Spoiler - click to showLoadout was coins, the concealable knife and the Sieker emetic dart gun. Got the bodyguard with a coin/wrench combo and took his clothes, then followed the target until I could poison him in the corridor. Had to subdue a maid in the bathroom he chose to throw up, but drowned him and stashed her in a laundry basket. Headed back outside to stuff the bodyguard in a crate and very nearly got spotted doing so, which would have scuppered the whole run. Getting the painting was a bit nerve-wracking as I'd taken so long that the matriarch had gone up to the office (meaning another enforcer to watch out for), but once of pocketed the artwork it was a breezy stroll to the river exit on the east side.
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.
I really, really like this but as you say it is incredibly hard! It’s Hitman as a pure stealth experience and completely the opposite end of the scale to the Romanian escalation.
The Deluxe pack was expensive but they’ve really put time and effort into the escalations and they feel more like proper Hitman mini-games than the kind of thing we’ve seen before. Worth it, I think, plus you get the Tory Suit from Dartmoor of course…
I've still got most of the escalations to do. The only one I've got for sure is the Marrakesh escalation for the Sieger Ghost sniper rifle.
I've got to finish off Argentina's Mastery and Classics and then The Train, but there's still a frankly ludicrous amount of stuff to do between Escalations and alternative missions.
I still need to do the last Mission Story in Mendoza, and then there are a couple of specific kills there and in other locations, and I'll be on track for the platinum.
The amount of side content is bananas, but I sometimes feel like escalations, in particular, are a lot of effort for not much in the way of reward? That might be compounded by the fact I've already got most of the rewards already via Hitman 2.
(reads everyone's progress above)
…
…
Paris is going really well for me. 
I barely get to play solo games since I like spending time with my partner in the evenings and then we pirate most weekends. But she's getting back into crochet currently, so I'll have more nights where I need to entertain myself. Many men will be hit, oh yes.
Paris Mastery lv20 get!
Never done a level to this extent before, so feeling quite pleased about it. Still got a good few challenges to do, and there's all the escalations as well, but at least it's progress.
That said, a question: how is it possible to get 100% on a level? I ask because I've done literally everything on the training area, yet it's still only showing me as being around 66% complete. That makes no sense. The only challenges still marked as incomplete on it are ones that aren't possible to do on that level (the Classics, basically), so I'm not sure what's up there. Any ideas?
Yeah I think it's the Classics. It's a bit silly but I wouldn't worry about it. You'll get it over time if you end up going for SASO and Sniper Assassin on each of the other levels, I guess.
Are you moving onto Sapienza? I think you'll drive yourself insane if you try and do all the Escalations as well before moving on.
I'm going to do all the doable challenges (so, again, not the Classics though I already got SASO here) and then probably move on. But equally, Paris is totally fresh in my head… I might forget where stuff is if I do something different. I dunno, we'll see.
[Challenges] that aren't possible to do on that level (the Classics, basically)
As far as I recall, you can do The Classics on every level – though not necessarily in every mission. Escalations have specific assassination requirements for most targets and frequently have limited loadouts, for instance.
[Challenges] that aren't possible to do on that level (the Classics, basically)
As far as I recall, you can do The Classics on every level
I get that. However, take this example: one of the challenges marked as incomplete is for getting SA on all H1 levels. You can't do that in the ICA Facility alone! Why that would count towards the completion of a single area, rather than some overarching goal tracker, is totally beyond me.
After finishing the last campaign mission in Hitman 3, I counted up how much I've still got to do.
Fifty four escalations, plus the four Patient Zero missions, three Bonus Missions and four Special Assignment missions.
I'm gonna be here forever.
Don't forget functionally infinite contracts!
And Elusive Targets.
And the rest of the Seasons of Sin.
😰
And whatever else they release this year (at least one additional Escalation each Season, and maybe some additional Seasonal Events?). With six more "Deadly Sins" seasons to come, and each one lasting around six weeks, we're guaranteed support in some capacity for the rest of this year at least.
I'm still hoping for some more proper DLC later on, more along the line of the the Bonus Missions than the Escalations we've seen so far, but it doesn't sound like they have many people working on Hitman now it's shipped so I think the 7 Deadly Sins might be our lot.
It might depend on the continued success of what's already there; if they think there's an audience, they may well find the time and people for something more ambitious. I'd love to see another mini-campaign like Patient Zero, or even the return of the Sarajevo Six.
So, that's the whole trilogy done – or the main campaign story missions, at least.
I actually came around to Mendoza a lot in the end; a lot of the level is kind of empty space for single Mission Stories and opportunities, but I think it was probably important to have that kind of sprawling level right before everything got tightened down for the very literal railroading of the Carpathian Mountains. It's also nice to be out in the sunshine for a bit, after a lot of pretty claustrophobic levels. Chongquing is ostensibly outside but it's all high buildings and corridors; the only other map with the sun in it is Dubai – which is almost all inside.
I really liked the train as well, in the end. I'd seen so many people with complaints about it ranging in scale from minor nitpicks to full-throated condemnation that I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from it – and no doubt its linear structure will limit replayability – but I appreciate what IO were trying to accomplish and I think they succeeded marvellously. It could maybe have done with fewer heavily-armoured shotgun-toting enemies (yes, there's a non-combat option to get past them, but only the one and then it pulls the same trick twice).
As mentioned above I still have a ludicrous amount of stuff left in the game but, like Gar, I think a full campaign replay might be in order to actually pay attention to the story the whole way through.
I ended up really liking the train level in the end. Going for SASO really shows how cleverly it's constructed, and (if you have the Deluxe edition) the escalation is very inventive. I wouldn't be surprised if this is in some way indicative of the kind of action/strategy balance they will end up going with for the Bond game.
Mendoza I can't get on with at all. The fact that one of my achievements, and at least one of the challenges, is bugged makes me hate it even more. Apparently they had huge problems with the scripting for Diana on this level (the engine isn't set up for friendly NPCs, so they had to hand-code almost all of it) and I think it shows. The level is just so big, and so empty, and as Ninchilla said, the targets are actually pretty easy to get at - everything you do is just manufacturing complexity rather than unpicking it. I think it's become my least favourite level in the trilogy now, with the possible exception of Hawke's Bay.
I feel rotten being mean about Hitman 3, because it was clearly made on a shoestring by a heavily reduced team of developers and under the circumstances what they have managed to pull off is a minor miracle. It's my least favourite of the three games, but I appreciate that they tried to do new things with most of these levels (only Dubai and Chongqing are really "traditional" Hitman levels, all the others are inventive in various ways) and I really do think some bits of it are great. I'm still hoping the post-launch support helps to lift it all a bit, as I've mentioned the Deluxe escalations are pretty great and I enjoyed the Collector as well.
Yeah, there are a couple of Challenges in Mendoza that just refuse to drop for me – I've collected all three wines on several runs – but I've also had that problem with the "find a shotgun" challenge on the train as well.
By all accounts they only had one gameplay programmer on Hitman 3, and he was technically working on the VR implementation, so the fact that this thing hangs together at all is a minor miracle.
Yeah, the three wines are being stubborn for me, too. I've picked up every bottle on the level, I'm pretty sure, and I'm certain that the first bottle on my first run did pop up the tracker, it just didn't progress from there.
The three wines are all together in the wine cellar, aren't they? So it's easy to confirm it isn't working. I think that particular challenge is bugged for everyone at the moment.
I don't have much experience with the bugged challenges, but there's one in Paris that the internet says is bugged, but isn't… it's just finicky.
Killing Victor with the lighting rig gets you Showstopper. However, it only pops if you trigger it at precisely the right time: there's a second where he steps onto the catwalk right after bowing to the crowd, but right before the announcer starts talking. That appears to be the only window in which the challenge pops. I know because I did it six times this morning before it worked. So, it's not bugged, just… well. Bad.
Maybe this is the case for other stuff too?
That wasn't the case in Hitman 2 though - I did that challenge the week before Hitman 3 came out and as long as you flattened him with the rig, it counted as a success. So it is bugged, in that it's more fussy than it should be.
I'm sure you're right in that this is probably the case for other stuff too.
There was a bugged challenge in New York involving
Spoiler - click to showshooting the target through the back of a mirror
which wasn't working at all in Hitman 3 but I think that's been fixed as of the last update. I'm sure they will squash a few of these with each monthly patch, as they become aware of them.
At least "pick up the wine" isn't a difficult one to engineer; if I spent 20 minutes setting up the lighting rig accident in Paris and it didn't drop, I'd be pretty mad.
Paris done then - only thing I've not done is the Sniper Assassin one, but that's impossible without a silenced sniper as everyone on the grassy area hears the shots. Will come back later for it, I think.
(There was another 'bugged' challenge where you had to get Dalia to greet you in the auction room as Tobias Rieper, then shoot her with a silenced pistol. I did it multiple times without success, then had a thought that I was using one of the three special pistols you get with the H3 Deluxe pack. Swapped to a standard one and boom, it unlocked first time. Guess someone forgot to mark those three guns as being eligible for the challenge… sigh)
Still says I've got 30-odd challenges left, so I give up trying to understand how it's counting them. Does doing the level SASO on the highest difficulty count as a different challenge? I've done it on Professional so far, although all my SA, SASO marks only have one skull and crossbones next to them… weird.
You can definitely do Sniper Assassin on Paris with a loud boomstick, I did it myself.
Assuming you are doing it the obvious way:
Spoiler - click to showTriggering the fireworks and shooting from the top of the tower on the barge
then yes, everyone will hear you and come running in your general direction, maybe even fire off a few shots, but unless they actually see you and you enter Hunted status then you won't fail Sniper Assassin. You should have enough time to slide down, dump the rifle and saunter to an exit.
(Admittedly I did this on Hitman 2, there's a chance this is another one of those situations where behaviour has changed. They tweaked this stuff quite heavily in the first few months of H2's release, so it's entirely possible they've borked it again in H3. Maybe aniki or Ninchilla will have some idea).
The easiest/best way to get a good silenced sniper is still the night-time Marrakesh escalation, I think. I haven't done Sniper Assassin on Paris in Hitman 3, so I don't know how the AI would respond to the noise these days.
Still says I've got 30-odd challenges left, so I give up trying to understand how it's counting them.
This will include the overarching challenges for The Classics (SA/SO/Sniper on all levels) and Escalations. It might even include the Featured Contract progress challenges. It's mildly irritating that they're bundled into every level's challenge tracking but not something to worry about.
Does doing the level SASO on the highest difficulty count as a different challenge?
It did in Hitman/Hitman 2, I think, but not in 3. I don't think there's any benefit to playing on Master.
The easiest/best way to get a good silenced sniper is still the night-time Marrakesh escalation, I think.
If you've got the Deluxe edition of Hitman 3, completing just the first stage of the Proloff Parable escalation in Romania gets you an equally good sniper rifle, and it's very quick and straightforward to do.
Although as that's the final level of the entire trilogy, I can understand why you might not want to jump straight into that if you're at all interested in the story.
I'm aiming to do House Made of Sand (I think that's the one Ninchilla's referring to), as I read on t'interwebs that it's an easy in. I definitely don't want to do the last level first.
House Made of Sand is the level that's set in Marrakesh at night, but it sounds like from what Ninchilla's saying, it's the escalation that's set there that you need.
Ah, yeah, it is. Okay, no matter, I'll get there.
Assuming you are doing it the obvious way:
Spoiler - click to showTriggering the fireworks and shooting from the top of the tower on the barge
Nearly.
Spoiler - click to showI'm doing the former but taking potshots from the end of the garden by the boat, waiting for the two patrolling guards to walk near the front of the helicopter before setting off the fireworks. That way, I'm right by the helicopter when I want to make an exit… though I guess I could go get the boat key first, but who's got time for that?
If you're already getting the fireworks remote, you're not far from the boat key - it'sSpoiler - click to showon the desk in the painting studio room off that same internal courtyard balcony.
Yeah, already found it once to get the challenge (though I only found it by accident, so forgot where it was). That makes it super easy though:
Spoiler - click to showStart as the tech guy with the rifle hidden in the shed, get the remote and the key, head downstairs and out the back, grab the rifle, run to the far end while triggering the fireworks, pop pop and run down the stairs behind me after dropping the rifle. Three minutes, easy.
Just need that silenced sniper rifle then.
20 mastery on Berlin, pleased with that. I know this level pretty well by now and I still have no idea how to get SASO.
Berlin's SASO isn't too bad because there are so many options. The sniper and the guy under the crane are very straightforward to get, and you can electrocute the one on the walkway pretty easily. Can't remember which other two I got off-hand, though.
There's one patrolling the ground floor and another on one of the roofs that are pretty easy to get in accidents, if I recall.
Do you need to do SASO from the original start point (the gas station, with targets concealed) or can you do it from the more usual start point at the club entrance?
No, you can do it from any of the points that don't start you in a disguise. I think I usually went with the Club Entrance starting point.
Excellent. I think I've got a Sniper Assassin strategy worked out in my head so that'll be first, but I'll need to do SASO as well in order to consider Berlin "complete".
Oh god, and that escalation too. I'm going to be on this level for a while.
I forgot about the Paris escalations, so I started one before work this morning. Killing people with a massive axe you can't hide while not being able to climb at all is… unique.
In general, I can see multiple ways to do things, but some of them seem… wrong? Like, abusing the AI scripting doesn't seem fair. If it works, then great but it's not exactly cricket…
Nah, abuse away. Finding ways to break the scripting is one of the pleasures of the game, especially when it comes to escalations which are often not exactly fair to begin with. Some of them get extremely difficult, especially without saves.
My go-to so far is when I can't be bothered waiting for a key NPC to finish their conversation. Apparently, walking into them just makes them completely forget they were talking in the first place…
I've found that sometimes that just makes them restart the whole dialogue.
It can be useful for getting rid of bodyguards, though – keep getting in their way until there's enough space between them and the target that you can subdue the bodyguard without being spotted, which leaves the target open for shenanigans later.
which leaves the target open for shenanigans later.
I'd rather just kill them if it's all the same with you.
Nah, abuse away. Finding ways to break the scripting is one of the pleasures of the game, especially when it comes to escalations which are often not exactly fair to begin with. Some of them get extremely difficult, especially without saves.
Also, don't feel the need to go Silent Assassin on escalations - if non-target kills aren't forbidden, trying to avoid collateral damage is usually an exercise in frustration.
I played a bit of Mumbai last night - it's not my favourite level but it's kind of Peak Hitman, really, isn't it? It's huge and it's absolutely packed with detail, you can spend ages just wandering around listening to incidental conversations (and unlike Marrakesh they actually bothered with local accents, which makes the world of difference). There are mission stories and opportunities all over the place and it's possible to play through several times and still have whole areas of the city you haven't been to yet.
Plus it's got the best assassination in the whole game:
Spoiler - click to showRedirecting the train right through the train shed and wiping out two targets simultaneously. Then nonchalantly hopping on the back to make your exit.
I've never done that one. Couldn't ever figure out Spoiler - click to showhow to arrange any of the meetings.
Without giving too much away:
Spoiler - click to showThe whole sequence starts when you access the Kashmirian's laptop in his apartment in the chawl.
Ah - I didn't know he even had one. Maybe I'll take another stroll round there this evening, then.
I normally avoid podcasts (mostly because I'm allergic to the sound of people laughing at their own jokes) but I recently discovered The Back Page which is put together by Matthew Castle from Rock Paper Shotgun and Samuel Roberts from PC Gamer, and it's actually pretty good in a properly nerdy sort of way. Just two knowledgeable guys earnestly discussing their favourite games.
They did a whole episode on Hitman 3 and it's excellent: both of them clearly know and love the series. The first half of the episode is a fairly spoiler-free discussion of Hitman 3's levels, and the second half is a runthrough their favourite ten episodes from the series as a whole.
I think this should let you listen to it - though of course it's available on your podcast platform of choice:
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-p23i8-cd6c177?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share
They've just done an episode on the Yakuza series too so I'm definitely going to listen to that one.
Did the first level of that Berlin escalation. Took me all evening! Second level looks even more ridiculous.
