Hitman: Hitting Men

If only…

The news today is full of some Brexit plan called The Malthouse Compromise

Pretty sure someone named that one by typing 'organising a piss up in a brewery' into Thesaurus.com.

It’ll never happen but the Houses of Parliament would make an incredible Hitman level.

“That is Iain Duncan Smith…”

Well that’s all the Snow Festival challenges done. That was lots of fun. I really like Hokkaido as a level.

Oh, I've hardly done any; I did one or two runs to figure out the guy's route, then one quick one to see how quick I could go (not very). The reward is an ice pick, or something? Dunno if I need any more lethal melee weapons clogging up my inventory.

So, which one of you murderous psychopaths wants to do a two-player session on Himmelstein with me, for the trophy?

Oh, go on, then. It'd have to be around or after 9, though, after E goes to bed.

Likewise. Probably not tonight but if I spot you playing one evening when I’ve got some time I’ll bung you an invite.

Dunno if I need any more lethal melee weapons clogging up my inventory.

So of course, I now have an ice pick.

Trying to get Sniper Assassin on Colorado last night - I want to finish The Classics 1 before moving on to Hitman 2 levels - and just can't seem to get it. Finished a Silent Assassin run, killing all targets with the Sieger Ghost and it apparently didn't count.

The only thing I can think of is that Graves ended up in the slurry pit from the impact, but I'm pretty sure I got the notification popup before she fell in.

How? Any time I try to snipe anyone in Colorado, I get spotted instantly by every guard on the map.

Isolate them as normal, but instead of stabbing/garrotting/poisoning you pop them with the rifle. There's no distance requirement, as far as I know - I got it on Bangkok by letting the lawyer into his suite and shooting him in the back from across the room.

Spoiler - click to showRose when he's washing his hands in the workshop next to the bomb range, Ezra in the basement or his shed, Parvati in that back corridor she walks down after you introduce yourself as the Point Man, Graves at the slurry pit (once you get the badge from the tech).

The Point Man can walk around with a sniper in plain sight, too, and has access to lots of the base.

I'll have to give that a go, then; it's the last thing I need for The Classics I.

Just played the prologue of this.
Why did no-one mention it was rather good?

🔫

Why did no-one mention it was rather good?

I know! You'd expect it to have the largest thread on the entire forum by more than 250 posts, with how good the game is.

Remember: when you get Hitman through PS+ in a few days, export the levels and they’ll appear in the Hitman 2 prologue you just downloaded. It’s the best way to play them.

Cheers for the tips guys.

I'm finding Himmelstein quite… relaxing? 15 minutes of careful sniping and done. It's just a bonus mode really but I'd love a few more maps like this.

They are adding more, thigh I don't know if it's season pass only.

I find it quite frustrating, but then, I've never been much of a sniper

There’s a challenge in Hokkaido to kill five targets with the shuriken while dressed as a ninja. But there are only two targets on the map. How do I do that? Multiple playthroughs? Or do I need to find a Contract with five targets or something?

Yeah, contract. Three are a few challenges that can't be competed with the campaign version of the location.

Several restarts and reloads later, I have finally managed SASO on the Isle of Sgàil. I''ll admit that I did look up a guide on YouTube for Sophia, but managed to work out Zoe on my own. So that's The Classics 1 and 2 (Professional) complete!

So what's your ranking of the levels then now you've done all of them? I'm still to play 3 of the legacy levels but so far I'd peg them as follows:

Paris
Hokkaido
Whittleton Creek
Santa Fortuna
Mumbai
Miami
Sapienza
Isle of Sgail
Hawke's Bay

I might swap Santa Fortuna and Mumbai around depending on mood and what ends up being involved with escalations etc - Mumbai's definitely the cleverer, more intricate level but I simply had more fun with Santa Fortuna.

I wonder if they will do Bonus Missions for some of the H2 levels like they've done with H1.

I've only played the Legacy levels enough to judge – and still haven't managed any of the bonus missions or escalations.

1. Hokkaido
2. Paris
3. Marrakesh
4. Sapienza
5. Colorado
6. Bangkok

I like the compact density of Hokkaido and Paris, with loads of places to sneak around in. Marrakesh and Sapienza are more spread out, but I appreciate the difference in atmosphere and approach from the mostly-indoors, walled gardens of France and Japan. Colorado is kind of a boring level, but has very clever limitations on access to keep it interesting, and four targets to figure out. Bangkok feels the most videogamey; the entire structure of the place is a bit artificial.

If I had to guess, Miami would sit between Paris and Marrakesh; it's got a good balance of indoor and outdoor areas, and loads of possibilities for approaching targets.

I like levels where it's clear where you can go and why. With Hokkaido and Whittleton Creek in particular you can wander around quite a lot of the level quite freely because you're not suspicious at all in your starting outfit, and it's pretty obvious why certain areas are off limits and what you need to do to get in there.

Mumbai is a great level but it suffers a bit from the fact you're just naturally suspicious for some reason and there are random guards looking out for random outfits all over the place. There are three or four different varieties of guard in that level and I could never remember which ones were allowed to go where. Miami's also a bit like that, you need to switch disguises constantly in order to wander around freely, and Sgail is sometimes just too bastard hard to be much fun.

That said, there's not a single level I dislike and every single one brings something different to the game. I forgot the ICA Prologue too which is loads of fun in its own right.

Sapienza is probably top for me, mainly because of the flexibility - Landslide is a great mission, I love The Author in Patient Zero, and it had some of the best season 1 elusive targets.

Generally, I think I have a hard time ranking them, though; Colorado is probably bottom, just because it's so hostile (even Isle of Sgàil has a less threatening atmosphere), and Bangkok, like aniki said, is the least convincing of the locations, even if I think the targets and opportunities are really good.

I forgot the ICA Prologue too which is loads of fun in its own right.

I'm sure it'd get a lot more love around here if it had leaderboards.

I went back in the other day because I noticed that, somehow, I'd not gotten all the challenges for the Freeform Training mission. I must've done all that stuff in the Hitman 1 demo, because I know I did it at some point.

Paris

They peaked very early!

Gar and I both put Paris at the top of our lists, yeah, but the other one in the to two for both of us is Hokkaido, the final level in the first game.

And honestly I'm not sure there's a bad level in the bunch. They all reward different styles of play, they all have their own quirks and bottlenecks, and as a result different players will resonate more with some levels than others.

There's not a single location I've yet played that I've been glad to see the back of, even after dozens of runs at each one.

New Elusive Target in Hokkaido in four days' time… perfect timing.

Then one at the start of next month in… Hawke's Bay?!

Oooh, that'll be interesting.

The Fugitive was a season 1 elusive target - if it's the one I'm thinking of, he's just had reconstructive surgery, so you have no idea what he even looks like.

http://hitman.fandom.com/wiki/Ji-Hu

Oh hey, Elusive Contracts on levels I actually know! Quite looking forward to trying these out.

I’m glad they’re re-running old ETs. Gives newcomers like me a chance to catch up.

Apparently those Shaman challenges unlock a concussive powder that knocks out everyone in a certain radius when thrown… I can think of a few uses for that.

I think the main question is, does the Hokkaido ET unlock the kimono for use in every level?

I love the never ending unlocks in this game. They’re almost all pointless yet weirdly compulsive at the same time.

I know, right? Like, nobody else will ever even know I'm using the Classic Lockpick, or the Snowball, or whatever, much less care; but still, I covet these things.

I wish there was a proper photo mode though. Need to preserve those Silent Assassin Clown Only kills for posterity.

Photo mode might be the only thing to make me spend more time in this.

SASO and Sniper Assassin done on Miami. Think I need to move on before these challenges really frustrate me; I spent over an hour of this evening trying to get Robert Knox to walk under a shark.

I don't even know how to get him in the aquarium.

Spoiler - click to showI assume it's about sabotaging the car at the right point in his route, but I couldn't get him to come down the one set of stairs that would take him through there.

You need to Spoiler - click to showtrigger a lockdown.

Or just knock him out elsewhere and drag him under the shark, I guess.

Right. Got hitman 1 and now downloading the legacy packs. If I play those through hm2 prologue I'll still get the full experience right?

That's right - every location and mission you have for Hitman 1 will carry over (except the Sarajevo Six missions, which weren't included for some reason, presumably related to the fact they're PlayStation-exclusive).

Heads up: three challenges being removed from Isle of Sgail.

Our February Update is shaping up nicely and we’re excited to share the full details on some of the community-requested quality of life changes, gameplay tweaks and bug fixes that it will bring. Before then, we also want to give all players an advanced heads-up that when the update arrives in late February, we will be removing 3 challenges from the Isle of Sgail location; All The King’s Men, Making Waves and No Budget For A Railing . After a sweep of the challenges in the game, we think that these particular challenges encourage the killing of multiple non-targets and they’re not fun to complete. We’ve also factored community feedback into the decision and wanted to tell you ahead of time. We won’t be removing any XP or progression if you’ve already completed these challenges but they will be removed from the game with Update 2.14, so you’ll have no in-game proof of your exploits. If you haven’t completed them yet, you’ve got until the last week in February to do so before they’re gone.

I think those three are the ones for dumping 47 NPCs into the sea, killing 25 elite guards dressed as a knight, and throwing custodians into the lift shaft. I can see the logic (and the first of those apparently could cause quite bad frame rate problems) but there was comedy value there and it's a shame to see stuff being removed; Sgail is a bit of a slog to get to 20 mastery as it is.

In a game where it's all about precision, stealth and the elimination of key players without looking like you've influenced the world around them though, killing NPCs just feels… wrong? To me, anyway. There are plenty of shooty-bang-bang games out there where you can slaughter innocents without repercussions (hell, I spent ten minutes doing ninja takedowns on NPCs in Sleeping Dogs just because a trophy demanded those kills and people on the street were infinitely easier to do them on than enemies), but Hitman feels like the absolute counterpoint to that. I can see why it'd be almost offensive, I guess.

Then again, that's me speaking as someone who's still yet to get into this.

There are a few other challenges about killing NPCs (usually specific ones – the two guards under the shark in Miami, taking out Sato in Paris – but they're pretty easy and limited in their scope compared to chucking nearly fifty people in the ocean.

It always feels weird to target bystanders, though. I'm not so concerned if they're collateral damage (for challenges that involve blowing up a target, for instance), but going after randoms deliberately and specifically is… wrong.

Maybe it'd be different if the best (and, according to some guard chatter, canonical?) outcome of your missions wasn't eliminating your targets without anyone ever being any the wiser.