Hitman: Hitting Men

Imagine not knowing what they are, diving into them without having any experience with the game and fucking them all up immediately. That'd be a great user experience.

No, wait.

You'd still have the "YOU CAN ONLY ATTEMPT THIS ONCE" popup, I would imagine.

They'd just be like Contract Mode, I guess, but with actual extra dialogue and stuff.

I dunno, I've not really thought this through, but some of these targets have been among the best content they've made for the game so it would be a shame for them just to disappear forever.

Anyway, that guy was the worst Elusive Target ever. So fucking dull.

Spoiler - click to showStarted as the chef, poisoned the birthday cake that was literally right in front of me, then went and chilled out on the dock for ten minutes till I got the message that he'd died.

21 minutes, to be precise. Yawn

Timer was 13 minutes for me.

That's so weird…

Spoiler - click to showhe didn't interact with the cake until his second visit to the kitchen for me. That took aaaaaaaages.

Did you poison the cake right at the start? Bizarrely I think he only interacts with it at all once you’ve poisoned it.

Guys, is anyone going to help me bring in these fucking coconuts.

Did you poison the cake right at the start? Bizarrely I think he only interacts with it at all once you’ve poisoned it.

Check out my tweet above for the video. I poisoned it in within the first three mins, I believe, but I had to get into the hotel and wait for the chef to stop prattling on first.

sigh that's a no

Hitman has launched on GOG, and its online connection requirement has resulted in the game getting review bombed for having "DRM".

The Eurogamer article linked above suggests that an offline-enabled version might appear for GOG (based on little to no evidence, it must be said); it'd be interesting if this actually materialised, and if it resulted in any changes to other versions.

I do think it's something they're going to have to change at some point. IOI have never really come up with any convincing reason for its inclusion apart from "diagnostics" - and surely they now know everything they could possibly ever need to know about their player base and how they play the game? There's no actual multiplayer functionality to speak of and there seems little purpose in preventing players from saving progress in offline mode, as they do at present.

Yeah, even if it's designed to protect unlocks from being accessed illegitimately, it's hard to see the argument against it when you're not going to be cheating anyone else out of it. The top entries on the leaderboards are all basically cheating as it is.

The only thing I can see needing online is the Elusive stuff, since that's managed by the server (availability, failure/completion state, etc). Everything else, it's pointless. That said, and as Gar already mentioned, there'll have to come a time when they have a viable offline solution. I doubt they plan to keep the servers live forever…

The top entries on the leaderboards are all basically cheating as it is.

I've honestly never understood this. What purpose does obviously cheating to be #1 serve? No-one respects you, you look like a dick, so it can't be for the rep or glory. Guess it just proves some people just like to be arseholes.

New patch notes, and the start of the Season of Envy. Don't think there's a full roadmap yet.

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-september-patch-3-70/

I feel like I'm so far behind on the Deadly Sins – pretty sure I've finished Greed, Pride and Gluttony, but I've got at least one stage left on Sloth, and haven't even properly started Lust (I fired up the first stage, but I got so thoroughly confused about what I was supposed to be doing).

I've barely touched them, and I've only played about half the Deluxe escalations so far. Every time I load up the game I always end up playing something else, either a level I still havent got full mastery on or one of the various side missions.

Not complaining though, it's nice to know there's still loads of Hitman to play. I'll probably treat it all as one big expansion at some point down the line. Still not sure if there's going to be any more content on the way after the Deadly Sins, so kind of saving this one for later.

Roadmap's up:

That's nice - new challenges with associated unlocks. Makes a change from endless escalations.

Oh, cool - that Colorado ET suit is the only one I never got in Hitman 1 & 2.

I guess I understand moving the "+ gloves" versions to Mastery, but I miss the location-variant elusive suits.

ELUSIVE KLAXON

Already?! Thanks for the heads-up.

Ugh. UGH.

I've never played Dubai before, so going in I was in full 'just work out the easiest kill' mode. But even so,

Spoiler - click to showanother ridiculously easy 'poison in something the target interacts with' kill

just seems really cheap. Still, SA is SA.

Just two more elusives and I'm done with all the elusive-related challenges. Nice.

Spent the first couple runs looking for an interesting way to do it, but ended up taking the usual poison approach. Sigh.

https://twitter.com/martTM2/status/1444247851027021827

Identical time to you, aniki, but still somehow beat you by 27 points. Weird.

Identical time to you, aniki, but still somehow beat you by 27 points. Weird.

I think the points must break down to smaller segments of time than the full-second display on the end screen.

Looking at the end screen, you're still wearing your suit whereas I had a disguise on. I got +25 for stealing that, so maybe…?

I had a disguise for the actual poison-y bit, swapped back for the exit because there seemed to be more enforcers who could see through it

All right, how did you do it? I tried it a few times as both the security guard and the event staff, couldn't work out how to actually poison the drink without being spotted by the three people in that small area.

Tried clearing out the toilets so I could off her in there but couldn't manage to get rid of everyone in time.

In the end I poisoned the drink and ran for the exit, shook everyone off and got the elusive but no Silent Assassin obviously.

All right, how did you do it? I tried it a few times as both the security guard and the event staff, couldn't work out how to actually poison the drink without being spotted by the three people in that small area.

Spoiler - click to showI grabbed a staff outfit from the guy in the storeroom behind the bar, then hid in the crowd to the right of the curtained entrance. Threw a coin when the enforcer outside looked away, then ran in behind him when he turned and ducked behind the chair next to the tea. I only saw one enforcer inside the curtained area, not three… needed another coin to get out, but that was it. Only close shave was that the target was coming straight at me as I tried to leave, so I had to hide again until she'd gone by before heading to the exit.

Spoiler - click to showGrabbed a staff outfit from one of the attendants in the toilets, snuck into the VIP bar close to the wall to avoid the enforcer outside and crouched behind the target's chair which seemed to block me enough from the other two guys in the room to get the poison in the glass. Snuck back out, switched back into my suit, then got the lifts for exit.

Well, fuck. Got impatient, body spotted. No SA for me.

KLAXON

Oh, gods, Colorado…

I'm not convinced I'm going to get this guy at all, let alone get him SA. I don't know the level and he seems really difficult to get to. Hmmm.

I'm not convinced I'm going to get this guy at all, let alone get him SA.

Yeah, I spent an hour tailing him around the farm last night and cannot find a way to get him alone – even if you get him with the emetic dart, the entire security entourage follows along to watch him be sick in a bin. I think I spotted a lethal poison injection opportunity, but his route appears to be randomised, so I suspect there's going to be a lot of waiting around.

I stumbled across the Ledger completely by accident, though; thankfully I didn't pick it up and lock in the run, like I did with The Entertainer in Marrakesh.

I think I spotted a lethal poison injection opportunity, but his route appears to be randomised, so I suspect there's going to be a lot of waiting around.

Yep, he goes to the same set of places but never in the same order. He also seems to change path occasionally too… I spotted a conveniently placed puddle for a potential electrocution kill, but he only walked through it twice out of five times. Hmmmmm.

I've not had a look yet, but once I perfect it, I'll let you all know how it's done.

Best hurry up, clock's ticking.

How long is this target around for? I’m away at the moment.

It was up last week, and it's ten days… I want to say until next Monday or Tuesday?

Fucked it.

Raging.

Got him. But it wasn't clean and no Silent Assassin rating for me. I didn't get spotted/caught, it's just the target wasn't playing ball.

Spoiler - click to showDecided to go for an accidental explosion kill, as there are a few propane tanks around the compound and I have the remote explosive device. Worked out the best spot for it (there's an SUV away from the house that he always seems to walk by), so I placed the tank in his path and hid the remote explosive in front of the vehicle so it would set off the tank. Of course the bastard decides to walk to the right, rather than the left, meaning he was away from the tank and closer to the remote explosive. Bah. Just went for it and detonated, killed him and took out a guard in the process. Got into the house, grabbed the ledger, ran for it. Not great, but a kill is a kill.

I'm not overly fussed about missing out on the SA - it was only an extra 1k XP and I already have the challenge for doing five Elusives with SA, so it's just about completing Elusives now to reach the magical 15. Still, not exactly my finest performance.

How long is this target around for? I’m away at the moment.

Four days left today, according to the in-game banner Gar.

Oh, I got him, but I rushed it and missed out on the SA - and nearly died in a gunfight retrieving the ledger.

Spoiler - click to showIf you blow up his escape car, the security detail takes him into the basement, where I'd set an explosive canister. Unfortunately I'd triggered his evac (firing a couple of rounds into the ground nearby) too soon after detonating the car, so the basement had some extra guards in it, one of whom heard the gunshot when I blew up the tank. So I kept the green icon for a couple of seconds after the target was down before being spotted, but had to hide in a cupboard for things to settle down before I could nab the ledger.

I got close with the lethal injection approach, but a pathfinding problem with his guards meant I got spotted by that one guy with the dot, and having to restart the mission another half-dozen times to get him to come into the house just wasn't worth it.

Spoiler - click to showThe approach was: when he's in the hacker room, all his guards stand with their backs to the target. He has a conversation with one of the hackers, but I emetic gun'ed them out of the way as he was coming up the stairs and blended in at the laptop right behind where he stands. But one of the non-dot guards got caught on some scenery so by the time I un-blended to jab the guy, the enforcer was coming back in and spotted me – thankfully before I'd managed to kill the target.

I, too, fucked it.

Spoiler - click to showManaged to take out the target PLUS ALL HIS GUARDS with emetics, so I could snap his neck and stuff him in a bin unobserved. Took a few restarts to get the positions right, but that was fine. Then I had to get the ledger. Because of the gear I'd brought - emetic grenade, emetic syringe, etc. - I'd neglected a lockpick, so had to choke out Sean Rose for the safe key, but when trying to get rid of his bodyguard, another militia guy bumbled in on his sleeping boss, and I just had to leg it.
Very frustrating.

Spoiler - click to showYou didn't find the crowbar by the truck then.

I did not. Spoiler - click to showTruth be told, I forgot you could use a crowbar. If I'd actually thought it through at all, I'd have used an agency pickup for the lockpick.

Had a look at this Elusive Target and I've still got a day or two to do it but I'm not sure I can be bothered - Colorado's enough of a pain in the arse already without dealing with this guy and his massive entourage, and I haven't got enough Mastery to unlock the starting location in the house which might make the whole thing bearable.