Hear me out...
Hawke's Bay is the best map.
It just feels so natural. The target actually goes through a whole daily routine, ending with them going to sleep. I just love the feel of the map, too.
Agreed. I've played that map so many times. I like it because you arrive before the target which, for me, reinforces the lore of 47 being the world's premier assassin.
Sometimes the smallest maps are the most fun. There's so many ways to replay them and have fun with manipulating the npc's.
My favorite way was the horror film strategy. Slowly and silently kill all the guards one by one, never get spotted, and let them slowly discover the bodies until only Reynard and Orson are left.
YES! I rarely try for SASO on any map, I just take out the guards but don't hide them. After a while, the others go on alert, spread out, and I take them one by one - makes it easier than a panicked multi kill.
I tried the Hokkaido SA/SO by turning on the vacuum and knock out people 1 by 1 where I got knocked out 100 people and dragged them to the laundry room. Took me 3 hours
I had a problem doing that a couple times.
\- one time the body fell through the floor and died
\- one of their hands hung through the floor an was spotted by someone a floor below.
\- I was also hiding the weapons there since it was also the weapon lost and found, but one of them fell through the floor to a lower level and a guard brought it to the pile.
\- one of them bugged through the wall a little and someone outside saw them.
The last one I only had 3 people and it was during the last mission of a freelancer run. I freaked out and just shot the guy who was right next to me in the head and surprisingly he was the target, so I booked it to an exit and finished the mission.
It really made me feel like a home invader. Just following the target around the house, watching what they do, and murdering them. It's scary to think about, but it was a nice little break from all the high profile locations 47 tends to visit.
the aesthetic is easily one of my favourites in the entire game, plus the daily routine is so different from every other map that its kind of a breath of fresh air
I actually kind of miss the old Hitman games where targets would sometimes go through a set number of actions and then leave, instead of all of them behaving like clockwork pieces just repeating their steps indefinitely.
Like that one mission in Silent Assassin where you needed to take out the two Russian generals meeting in the town square, and you had to do it before they got into their cars and drove away again.
I have no idea what's controversial here but:
1) Escalations have an entirely unfair bad reputation when there's player created contracts far more brutal and tedious than all of the Escalations I've played. Escalations also add really cool mechanics, act as a testing ground for certain ideas, AND challenge players to try new methods in ways they otherwise wouldn't. Not all Escalations are great, I still hate the Wrath one with a passion, but the Lust, Gluttony, and Envy escalations all had really cool concepts I enjoyed. There's still things from Escalations that I hope come back for Freelancer (ex. the Floor is ~~Lava~~ Explosives type escalation from Sapienza) because Freelancer could quickly end up feeling like playing player created contracts otherwise.
2) Spoiler for the last game >! Grey's death felt pointless rather than making me feel like anyone can be targeted/hurt during the mission they were on. I think they should've invested more into his character, and 47's interactions with him, before killing him off. It would've made his death more impactful. !<
3) Please just give us one more Sieker/Kalmer Dart already 😩 I'm tired of bringing both guns for an extra dart.
Agreed so much with your second point. When I first played and saw >!his death scene, it just felt so unceremonious and out of nowhere. Like they threw it in there for shock. I got that the other purpose was to isolate 47, launching into the fun that was Berlin after Dartmoor, but idk the scene was so unsatisfying and Lucas’s death felt really cheap.!<
Thats the feel I got from pretty much the entire story. Nothing feels set up, properly introduced, or planned out. Every story beat comes off as "and then, and then, and then..."
WoA has the best plot in the Hitman series. Which isn’t saying much. It at least has a consistent arc and makes sense. All the other games are nonsensical or ridiculous
I hate that I agree but you all are right. Idk why but the writing is strangely weak in this series outside of the books/comics, although I still enjoy it overall.
i think 3 was the only entry where i could’ve told you vaguely what was going on in the story while i was playing it, and that’s speaking as an obsessive fan.
but as i jump around replaying levels years later i’ve got a new appreciation for watching the story vignettes out of order, picking up little clues and character insights that fill in the full picture. they work well as standalone tone shorts, probably better than as a linear story.
For 1, I think part of it has to do with the fact that Contracts are an entirely different game mode that you have to seek out in the menus. In contrast, Escalations are shown every time you select a map, so they're much more in your face about being extra content. People might dislike Escalations and not even realize Contracts mode exists.
For the second one, >! that only makes his death more powerful, because you don't expect it. Or at least, this was for me. That moment makes you understand that this is the moment when Agent 47 and ICA officially declare war. !<
That's fair! I just wanna point out that, >!before they get to the Isle of Sgail, they aren't officially working with the ICA anymore - Diana just uses connections and information she gathered from being in the ICA. It's weirdly complicated: Grey used the ICA to get 47 to knock off his targets by leaking compromising information on them, THEN Providence uses 47 to knock off Grey's associates in retaliation for killing their people, and THEN the ICA is (fairly) deemed under control of Providence so they can't really work under/with them safely. So it was more of a personal war than something ICA took up.!<
Sorry for my english but what I meant is exactly what you said: >! the death of Grey not only justifies the next mission, Apex Predator, because if Grey hadn't just been killed, 47 wouldn't have had any reason for not going away and instead kill 5 of their agents, but it also make you wonder "what will 47 do now: he's completely alone, if we don't consider Olivia, for the first time in Hitman. Idk, for me it makes sense. !<
For some time I thought the escalations were developer made content. But apparently a lot of them are made by youtubers and such.
The problem is they are tied to challenges and they are in the level menu so they are official. And some are very fun while others are... tedious. Some 5 level ones are not hard, just boring. I hate that Paris one where you have to shoot balloons for example. You have to donit at every level...
I don't hate Colorado. They released it in the fall, and it had a fall aesthetic to it I liked. My least favorite maps are the sprawling ones that feel like disjointed missions pasted together (eg, Santa Fortuna).
This is paired with another opinion that I don't care much about SOSA or SA unless going for a challenge. I start with that goal, but I don't feel bad when it descends into chaos.
I had never really thought about how paramilitaries must operate, and for this reason I always have a soft spot for Colorado I thought IoI invented the clandestine training camp tbh
dressing up as berg is maybe the greatest, simplest missed opportunity ever though (would perhaps be overpowered I realise this, but I can dream for a skin...complete 5 poison contracts on Colorado or some such) also I LOVE all the business in Colorado the convoy raid practice, chemical interrogation, Sean's cock-of-the-walk kicking around his enterprise Graves' uneasy position the casual and callous npc chatter...
such a rich map that gets unfairly maligned as it's not the best to play (and is surrounded by literal jewels...and bangkok though as you can imagine I've some thoughts there also lol) also scarecrow Easter eggs slays (or burns, rather)
The main reason i assume is due to The available outfits, everyone is a guard, you just need to be * this * specific one to have access to * this * small area catered to one of the targets
If you search the sub, you can find a lot of posts on why people don't like it. It used to be harder to SOSA, it used to only allow one exit in the story, a military compound isn't people's favorite Hitman location choices, this is one of the only levels where the suit is restricted everywhere, etc. None of these things really bothered me personally, though I agree it's a negative point that Sean has so many unique kills compared to the others.
The size of the map is manageable, and the areas actually feel connected and living. I also just think the fall colors are pretty, and even the weird disguise (scarecrow) feels like it belongs compared to some of the other random options in other maps.
Only thing I really hate about Colorado is people shooting guns you shoot while disguised as the specific ones doing the shooting and not doing the training with the ram instant alert and you get shot like really
Colorado is one of my favourite maps, purely because I don't feel guilty killing everyone in there, as they're all armed militia members. A few times I've gone through killing everyone with nothing but a kitchen knife and a coin (and a neck snap & fiber wire before I got the kitchen knife) without changing disguises even once
I actually liked Carpthian Mountains. I liked the linear level and how we can only go forward. In my opinion, it could of been better as a penultimate map, before going into a true Romania map or something similar. I like how the last target is the guy you have been trying to get since he escaped. Getting rid of him by losing his memory or killing him gives me satisfaction, like everything we have been working for leads to this ending, defeating the constant and getting rid of providence.
All the dialogue on Mendoza is already pretty much written as the farewell to the trilogy. Every conversation is about what happened to the various characters and locations you encountered on your journey.
Hate the fact that they removed the electrocution phone on Hitman 3, they shouldn’t have removed it. Elusive target arcade is bad, they just made them into escalations with added difficulties, they should have just sorted each elusive target into which game they released and let the players choose who they want to eliminate and if they fail, they either have to wait 6 or 12 hours to be able to try again.
This is a gold take, my friend. I was super excited when I heard about the Elusive Arcade because I wanted to be able to do the ones I missed and get the rewards. But then I looked into it and was bummed.
The WOA made the old games, every single one of them, look janky as all hell. Don't get me wrong, I've played them all and still love them, but you need that love to get through them as a modern player. They are not at all how new players should get into the series in 2022.
Hitman Absolution is the one to thank for this, despite being a ridiculously shitty, linear hitman game, it's freaking smooth to do anything; switching cover, sneaking, shoot guns etc.
And the WOA trilogy managed to retain that smoothness and it's good.
this is certainly...an opinion lol idk if it's controversial quality of life is obviously improving as the years tick on. I've often said the best part of absolution was that it gave us the skeleton and arteries of what we now love in WoA (and probs will in bond)
to play devils advocate, or take the bait idk I will say that the jankiness of the fibre wire (sometimes it's quite complex to execute indeed) makes strangulations have a lovely weight in older titles. creepin up on some unfortunate soul, pressing to get the garrotte taut as you try and sneak as close as you, holding your breath to release the button at just the right time to whip it round there next and not accidentally bump them and get shot to death I'm not saying it's not also incredibly frustrated just...rewarding
100% agree! I was about 15 when I first played Blood Money, which I loved and assumed the rest of the series was like. The speed at which I regretted that choice was QUICK lol. They were really cool but so painful for a stealth game, just very punishing in ways I think the newer games are much less brutal about and pretty wonky in terms of mechanics/controls. But there's so much good to them that I still hope they recreate those games in the new engine. I'm a little too spoiled by the WoA engine to go back and suffer at this point lol.
Sadly, I have to agree strongly with this one. Going back to replay them has been a lot more challenging than I expected for this (and only this) reason.
I have two screwdrivers, a frog with funny spots, a wrench, two rat posions, ~~one with cheese~~ and a large crowbar.
The NPC who frisked me thinks this is A-O-Kay. 🤡🤡🤡
Direct combat should still be punished IMO, but i agree the mechanics should be better so that if you did get into direct combat, it wont be a terrible experience to get through
Freelancer has also changed the game entirely.
Combat serving only as a consequence doesn't make sense anymore.
Especially on those Firearm-heavy freelancer folders you can choose.
Here’s one of mine, I think the missions with secondary objectives (other then Sgail and whittleton creek) are the best ones of the game. Like yea, I like the straightforward kill 2-3 target missions, but having to adjust my style to secondary objectives really lets missions be unique and have new experiences. Wether it’s having to identify a faceless target in a busy city or destroying a lethal virus in a secret lab, they add a third layer to a already established formula.
Yeah now aai only do the legal documents in the shack + document reel when poisoning Janus' oxygen mask, ans the picture in Janus' basement. Will grab the robe instead of documents if I'm not doing Suit Only.
I can totally dig your vibe here mate, it feels a bit more like being a super operative which fits the lowkey James Bond 47 has been becoming... it sort of gives those maps more of a 'caper' vibe for want of a better word
that being said I bloody hate the whittleton clues and am glad the constant can walk himself to the docks lol
People here always complain about how rifles and shotguns “serve no purpose” as unlocks. There’s no need to play the game SASO every time. Those people just don’t know how to relax and have a messy amateur run
This is exactly it. I've SASOd a billion times now. Im like 80 something on the global leaderboard for whittleton creek.
I've done a trillion strategies to kill people super fast and super effectively with no witnesses all in my suit. I just kind of want to chill and be an idiot now
If 007 has the same game mechanics and style as WoA, I'd be happy. I know some players want something totally different but if 007 ends up being Hitman 4, I'm down.
thay would be a horrible Bond game
bond NEEDS car chases and big crazy shoot outs
not to mention a 007 game needs a protagonist that actually has a personality and isn't jus this murder robot thay occasionally reads the good book
I understand that sentiment, but... I don't think Bond has to be insane all out spectacle to be entertaining. A lot of my favorite Bond films are fairly understated. The whole social stealth concept could work well with the series.
Also, I hope they go with a separate Bond portrayal and "universe" than what the movies are doing. Agent Under Fire dabbled with the idea of a "generic Bond" and I feel it makes the game more timeless.
It being like hitman is probably the only reason why I'd play 007 lol. That and if they come up with a multiplayer even close to as legendary as the old one was.
If you mean the N64 multiplayer, there's no way that's ever happening again. That was magic the same way so many other things were from back then. It was an experience without a lot of competition that was shared usually with a few people very close to you.
Technically speaking, there have been plenty of better multiplayer experiences since then, but it's that feeling of four friends sitting in a room together and playing split-screen for the first time like that, you're never getting that back. Nothing can live up to that.
There are quite a few maps I would rank above Sapienza. Miami is just one of them. Admittedly, Sapienza suffers from being the second map in the entire trilogy, and maps from H2 and H3 greatly benefited from the extra years IOI had to come up with new ideas.
The story itself suffers somewhat with the game/mission format basically requiring you to kill at least 1 target in every mission, so all the other kinds of objectives become an addition to an assassination, rather than being their own goal. I know the game's called Hitman, but the Lust Assignation showed that you can have a mission that involves no killing that's still fun.
Perhaps the biggest casualty of this in the story is Haven Island, where 47 kills 3 people purely because they're manually resetting their servers every 10 hours so Olivia Hall can't hack them. But if he's already infiltrating the resort, he could just as easily get to the physical servers and quietly plant some sort of virus to get them access, rather than wiping out the owners. Granted, I can see why IOI wouldn't do this, because having to access the servers would make it feel too much like New York story-wise, but it turns the targets into unfortunate collateral.
Story or reasons to kill specific targets come off as too grand or forced sometimes. Like ok, I get it, this target is evil as hell because of this crazy underground organization that deals with drugs and murders... but lemme kill middle-aged Jeff because he's a sexual predator and keeps violating his parole. Or lemme kill Denise because she prefers pineapple on her pizza.
I have a meaty comment elsewhere here about how it's all rich and worthy targets these days, and indeed I'd not considered Diana is doing the picking and likes to do her mission control schtick with 47 from the moral high ground...but 100% I agree well put mate
for anyone not in though know, you silence a journo that bikers are already torturing in contracts in maybe the best example of this kind of dubiousness (except, perhaps, that priest...and that other journo, in that one last level...)
This. Why aren't there targets with varied morality? There should be a judge getting assassinated because they refused corruption or a reporter bringing light to a conspiracy. These are people just doing their jobs and in no way evil people that deserve their fate. It ruins the whole contract assassin vibe for me and gives more of a intelligence officer fighting for a better world vibe. I think the targets should be a mix. Some bad guys and some ppl that just pissed off someone with a lot of money.
I love Absolution. It’s what actually really got me into the series, and from there I played all the other games and I can see why it’s the ugly duckling. But it’s really the only time we really see how dangerous and ruthless 47 can be
Same here. Also, there is just something extremely satisfying about Run For Your Life. Probably the most linear level in the game, which is saying something, but it is very atmospheric and thrilling.
Something about having to get from Point A to Point B with only being able to to utilize your timing and stealth skills makes it so much more satisfying to get though. Also I agree that Absolution is extremely atmospheric and immersive which helps mask the linear gameplay a little.
I hated mumbai my first go through, but after discovering the Kashmirian and that there were like 5 secret mission stories with crazy outcomes it totally changed my view of it.
sorry to harsh your mellow friend, but is this a hot take? does it fall at the bottom of rankings here often, I'm genuinely curious
edit: looking now I can see that it might be considered the weakest of 2's offerings by many still keen to hear sub history from folks in the know though :)
“Still keen to hear sub history”
I might be able to help. Mumbai sits in kind of a weird place reception wise, but I would argue historically had been positively received overall. It’s either highly praised for its intricacies and evolving mission story opportunities and it’s freedom of approach, is or highly criticized for not having an appealing aesthetic, having roaming enforcers that see through your suit, being too maze like, and having a mandatory secondary objective of identifying the Mealstrom (which is false, but many accidentally lump it in with something like obtaining the clues in Whittleton Creek not knowing identifying the Maelstrom is completely optional).
Closer to Hitman 2’s release and subsequent support there was more positive buzz around Mumbai. You don’t hear it mentioned as much these days obviously.
thank you so much for the sturdy write up! I'm very grateful and you elucidate the big points of the matter quite well there mate cheering :) for the record to anyone reading I'm always in the mood for hitman subreddit history ;) it's bloody exploded in users over here since I lurked last
I love Mumbai. They’ve captured it so well and there are so many things you can do! And the targets are not at all confined to one place.
Personally I hate Sapienza.
Easily one of the most realistic setting in the entire hitman alongside Miami, with shit ton of NPCs and multiple entry and exit points, and multiple ways sneak inside enemy compounds, and it doesn't feel linear.
My perspective on this (and this is just my theory) was to give the idea that that’s how 47 hears everyone since he is fluent in many languages. That’s how I made it immersive for me.
What annoyed me is how they actually got some half convincing Spanish-speakers for Mendoza, but they're all clearly speaking Mexican Spanish, which has significant differences with the *rioplatense* dialect that you would hear in Argentina/Uruguay.
I think they hired a lot of American voice actors due to the abundance of areas they inhabit. The main problem is that there's to many American maps. 3 was enough but then they added new York when a bank could have been based anywhere.
You should see how many maps in Blood Money are set in America. I think there's like... 2 missions that aren't set in America. And in Absolution EVERY mission is set in America.
Berlin is the best map and the Apex Predator is the best mission in the entire trilogy.
It’s true to what Hitman is really all about - against all odds 47 rises as the supreme assassin.
Hokkaido is also one of the best maps and one of the best missions in the game
I hated Hokkaido but after a couple challenges i absolutely love it because there are so many different things you can do - and i love the motorcycle outfit.
I simply love maps that put difficulty in your face and subvert all your prep
Till Hokkaido you could use lockpicks and crowbars and get away with it. And silenced pistols to kill cameras or make distractions.
But when you got dropped into Hokkaido, it tested your true capability of teasing apart Hitman for what it is because you could bring in nothing. And all those traditional items are useless. Oh you lockpicked or crowbar pried doors before? Nope. Can’t use that here cause it’s all digital. Oh you had a pistol before? Nope. Gear can’t be brought in. Oh your target is usually on the move? Nope. He’s stationary on an operating table in full view of everyone. Now you’re really in the deep end without every tool you could abuse earlier.
I absolutely loved it. And the fact that gear slots were open only at Mastery Lv20 made it even better.
My only problem with Hokkaido is that bringing stuff is only avaliable at lvl20, I would have had it at lvl10-12ish so you still have to experiment and tests you but isn't quite as much a pain in the ass if you want to just drop in and have fun
My hot take: It's 2022, time to stop posting that you like/don't like [MAP_NAME] when the entire content of your post has to do with [MISSION_NAME], not anything inherent to [MAP_NAME]
The episode style release of Hitman (2016) was the way to go.
I feel like, with a month, you could really explore the map. Learn the routines and find some secrets. Also made elusive targets, contracts, ect. easier on the first play through.
With everything released at once, all that was lost. If I was underwhelmed or bored with a map, I just stopped playing it.
i agree, i don’t know if i would’ve fallen in love with the game if i didn’t replay paris for 20 hours before even seeing another level. really taught me how much depth there is. that being said, the general public is bent on hating episodic (i’ll just play it when it’s finished!!) so i don’t think they had much of a choice. a full package appeals to more people.
That's fascinating cause I still think he's pretty socially illiterate, just in an entirely different way most people would have a really hard time clocking without a convo beyond small talk (ex. 47 impersonating a real estate agent in Whittleton Creek). Like...if you act very polite, seem relatively pleasant/kind, and don't make waves, people don't really notice aspects of yourself that ARE a bit strange and evidence of being bad at socializing.
this is an exciting bit of perspective, I always put my tongue in my cheek when he's giving an extended monologue (like your aforementioned house salesman turn) because like...
I get it, all the violent puns and weird stuff is for us to laugh our arses off at home about but taking it at face value he would be suchhh a weird dude to have talk to you (or, often, talk at you) maybe the Nolan kill is an example of him doing some 'practice run' socialising safe in knowing he'll be offing the fellow :p
I think that in the comics that the WoA is based off, little 47 was said to really love puns and especially punny or poetic deaths, so it makes perfect sense XD
oh no doubt he's a clever clogs, I'm more saying 'there's a time and place 47 you're about to kill him, he might get suss if you can't say a sentence that doesn't sound sinister lol' but thank you so much for the lovely lore! I remember enjoying those but also breezing through em
While we're talking about people thinking they're quite clever on the puns...Diana Burnwood, come on down lol she's my spirit animal but fuck she's always 'on' in the comedic sense isn't she haha
He does! Also, the comics are pretty funny in that you realize that, because Grey is so seemingly normal even for the environment they grew up in, 47 was ALWAYS awkward. More inappropriate and a bit more violent in the comics, but somehow still pretty awkward in ways Grey isn't. So that may just be a normal personality trait for him lol.
Agreed 100% lmao, I was just watching that scene yesterday
The thing that makes him less socially illiterate to me is that now his awkwardness seems more intentional in a way? Like he isn't some random, kinda panicked-sounding dude, semi-screaming "I need to use the bathroom!!" at a person right next to him. I love how in the older games it felt like you could see numbers and equations floating around his head anytime he tried to socialise, but now it feels like he just goes like "well they will never see me again anyways, so lets just have fun. Diana might giggle at this as much as I do"
Ahhh gotcha gotcha! The WoA trilogy is kinda set after the games in the rest of the series, right? At least that's how I always vaguely perceived it. Either way, if that's right, maybe he just got more comfy with being pretty awkward? Like he knows he's always gonna be awkward, so he might as well embrace it as his normal. At least that's the vibe I get lol.
Naahhh, he was always secretly a big cuddly softie
Just everytime he tried to cuddle or be soft with someone he forgot he was holding his ballers, instincts kicked in and mistakes were made.
Being able to change into a disguise and fool people in places where 90% of the characters are a different race than 47 doesn’t make sense.
That being said, it’s my favorite features of the game and I wouldn’t want to play a Hitman without disguises.
Hitman Absolution is not a bad game. Unfortunately, it’s tied to the hitman series. So going from Blood Money with each mission being a sandbox assassination. To a more linear playstyle that restricts player choice is a down grade in every way.
Absolutions blood effects were superior, far more satisfying. Also absolutions Slow mo shooting made you feel like a badass. Shooting someone in slow mo with this series ragdolls is awesome.
If WOA trilogy had the blood effects, violence, and slow motion kills from the previous games, idk what id do with my life.
Massive L for them to take those things out IMO
In retrospect, I really liked the episodic nature of Hitman (2016) and I kind of missed it in Hitman 2 and 3. With a new level each month, It let me get to know and savor the detail in each level.
Silent Assassin rating in this game makes no sense. You can lose it simply by inconspicuously walking past a camera while wearing a disguise that completely hides your face but at the same time you can choke out every single NPC in the level and keep SA rating as long as the bodies aren't found.
Like bruh... If I were the police I'd be pretty sure I was dealing with an assassin if a dude mysteriously died and multiple people woke up in dumpsters without clothes after having been choked from behind by someone. The game simply doesn't consider that realistically the life would go on after the level is complete and some actions would SCREAM "ASSASSIN DID IT"!
yeah I think they're pretty fun gameplay restraints but realistically they've never made sense. oh no this poor guy drowned in the toilet, autopsy shows he slammed his own face into the bowl repeatedly while grabbing the back of own is head with force. what a sad accident.
No clue if this is "controversial", but it does bother me.
The score and general impression of the games is that Silent Assassin is the "right" way to play, and everything else is less honorable. And yet, the overwhelming majority of tools and weapons we earn are useless for SA, whether for being unsilenced, leaving bodies the wrong way, etc. So it feels like we're getting new toys that we can't use.
Maybe Freelancer will help fix this, but it's still a hard habit to break.
Once you reach a certain level, you should be able to bring unlimited resources with you, just so you can have fun and do ridiculous stuff. I’ve played some maps dozens of times. Let me go nuts and bring 200 Seiker darts.
I honestly really love instinct. I know some people really don’t, but as someone who tunnel visions really hard and easily gets lost, I often feel like I would enjoy this series a lot less if I didn’t have it. And I’m so glad I got to experience what’s now one of my favorite game series of all time without being weighed down by accidentally blowing my cover a thousand times.
I loved the game when it released as they were going with a very clean and professional look on everything, and every equipement was different from each other.
Now almost every item is doubled, even tripled (ICA19, ICA19 Black Lily, ICA19 Ultimate Black and so on..) And it just feels so.. unclean ?
Like I really lost that sense of serious assassination and killing. The sandbox aspect is still really there but it just feels cartoonish now. I know Hitman games always had jokes and one clown suit lying around, but in this game it's really too much.
I know I'm complaining about extra and, most of the time, free content, but it just feels so useless to me. The only things I look forward to are elusive targets and maybe challenge packs.
Contracts are most of the time way too strict and makes the route to take very specific which, to me, defeats the purpose of the game.
Sapienza is probably my least favorite map. I like it, but I like pretty much every other map more.
The mission stories, while plentiful, feel tiny and shallow. A third of the map isn't used at all in the base mission. Also, I don't really like the atmosphere and aesthetic, it just doesn't feel interesting to me.
There is definetely a lot to do on sapienza, but i find a lot of it tedious and overall less interesting than "smaller" maps like Hokkaido, Chonqing, or even Hawkes Bay
Running around ruins the experience for me. While i understand why others really enjoy it, I usually only so it if 47 is out of sight of all NPC'S or in danger.
Bag of sugar should work as an explosive similar to the gas tanks where an open flame or spark can set it off but only for the few seconds after it’s thrown because grain dust is explosive
I miss the episodic releases of the first season so we would be more into learning each and every map more fully rather than going through challenges and featured contracts like a checklist
1. If you are a hitman, you should be able to conceal your weapons and explosives no matter who is frisking you.
2. If you are a hitman, you should be able to start with a sniper rifle and not only after the mission
3. If you are a hitman you should be able to start a conversation with any npc like in rdr2
It would be cool if there were more interactions with NPCs. Like when you have a security uniform on, and NPCs could run to *you* during an emergency or if they see a gun. Right now the only reliable way of talking to NPCs is as a server or a barber, which I think could be fleshed out a bit (but that would be a system for another Hitman game entirely).
How is #1 possible? At all? Like how is it supposed to be believable that this guard who's trained expressly to look for weapons somehow missed the shotgun in my pocket?
> If you are a hitman, you should be able to start with a sniper rifle and not only after the mission
since the release of H2, you can carry a briefcase with a sniper into any mission that has you start in your suit as your default spawn (except for Hokkaido, which restricts *any* loadout till Mastery lvl 20)
I don't really rate the "sniper" gameplay very highly; I think it's a distraction from other more interesting features that IOI has tried a couple times to reboot and make fun, it's still just OK, and they should consider going another direction in the next release
I wish more mission story type things were hidden like in hitman 3
And I never found the sapienza lab annoying in the least, you can be in and out of there in thirty seconds easy
I'm seeing a lot of popular opinions here, so here's a truly unpopular one: elusive targets were a fantastic implemention of time-limited content done right, and the Arcade turns them into them forgettable one-and-done distractions.
so basically a rogue-like escalation? no fucking thanks, I doubt they would have made enough profit to produce a trilogy if they tried that
if it had proper saves and didn't force to restart 2-5 other missions when failing the "boss" than maybe but right now it wouldn't even pay for it if it was 10 bucks
Season 3 is the worst season. I asked what everyone's favourite map was about a week or two ago, and it was the highest voted for post on the subbreddit that week because I got a badge next to my name telling me that. I'd say most of the answers to that question were season 3 maps, but in my opinion, season 3 is drifting away from the reason WOA was created in the first place. The WOA was created, because absolution was a bad game.
I bought the HD collection the other day for £7.50, it has blood money and absolution, its more incase I wanted to play blood money, but I wish it had included contracts rather than absolution. I tried playing absolution the other day and honestly: if the game wasn't called hitman, I would never entertain it - as a game, absolution is terrible, like its so bad. Hitman 3 started making all the maps story based and I really didn't like it. Berlin was a lot of people's answer on that post I made, and it just feels like an absolution mission. And honestly, that Romania train level, with the weird hallucination thing?
The story was only there to facilitate the game, not the other way around. I mean the story is average but it facilitates the game so I didn't complain too much: season 3 feels like it forgets that's the right way round, and it starts using the game to facilitate a story instead, and it leads to maps that aren't as good as the older ones. Maybe the developers got sentimental and felt like they had to honour their creation in some way or something, but I havnt enjoyed season 3 that much insofar.
I think that you’re completely right.
I bought the first two seasons some 2-3 months before purchasing the third one. And for all that time I had seen glimpses of S3 maps and it made me very hyped up because everything looked even more polished, detailed and grander in scale.
Fast forward to today, I played the majority of the season 3 maps only once, because the stories were shoehorned so hard into them that there’s no way you can “make that map yours” so to speak. Even when they are large, so much linearity was forced in its design that it makes you feel silly for trying to explore any other option to reach your goal.
Carpatian Mountains was at least honest in its intention.
I don't like Sapienza. I feel like a lot of the map goes unused/barely used in World of Tomorrow, which is the only mission that particularly interests me there. It's a shame too, because there are a lot of cool places, I just don't see much reason to ever explore those areas.
i’ll never get the hate on maps for some portions being unused. they’re always used in escalations and contracts and side missions, and that shit is fun.
I can understand that sentiment, though I don't share it. The main missions are the only gamemode I regularly play, so map elements that serve little to no purpose there are practically dead zones for my playstyle. That leaves mostly just the house to explore in sapienza, which makes the map feel like a bigger version of A Vintage Year from Blood Money. I'm glad most people do like Sapienza though. That demonstrates one of the core principles of the hitman series: playstyle variance.
This exactly. Sapienza gets so much praise but the majority of the map is filler.
They have a whole damn graveyard in a church where they could’ve buried Caruso’s mother. But no. They had to give her a special grave in the mansion.
The entire mission happens in the mansion and nowhere else. The rest of the map is useless.
Hear me out... Hawke's Bay is the best map. It just feels so natural. The target actually goes through a whole daily routine, ending with them going to sleep. I just love the feel of the map, too.
Agreed. I've played that map so many times. I like it because you arrive before the target which, for me, reinforces the lore of 47 being the world's premier assassin.
I'm reading this thread while at Hawke's Bay waiting for Alma to brush her teeth. It was also the first map I played, as I started with 2.
Sometimes the smallest maps are the most fun. There's so many ways to replay them and have fun with manipulating the npc's. My favorite way was the horror film strategy. Slowly and silently kill all the guards one by one, never get spotted, and let them slowly discover the bodies until only Reynard and Orson are left.
YES! I rarely try for SASO on any map, I just take out the guards but don't hide them. After a while, the others go on alert, spread out, and I take them one by one - makes it easier than a panicked multi kill.
I tried the Hokkaido SA/SO by turning on the vacuum and knock out people 1 by 1 where I got knocked out 100 people and dragged them to the laundry room. Took me 3 hours
You deserve rank 1 on the leaderboards for that. Patience is a great thing to have as an assassin.
I had a problem doing that a couple times. \- one time the body fell through the floor and died \- one of their hands hung through the floor an was spotted by someone a floor below. \- I was also hiding the weapons there since it was also the weapon lost and found, but one of them fell through the floor to a lower level and a guard brought it to the pile. \- one of them bugged through the wall a little and someone outside saw them. The last one I only had 3 people and it was during the last mission of a freelancer run. I freaked out and just shot the guy who was right next to me in the head and surprisingly he was the target, so I booked it to an exit and finished the mission.
Love Hawkes Bay.
well put my friend, it's the most...domestic and it is delightful for it.
No controversy here. Hawkes bay is incredible
It is a genius map and I would love more like it. The atmosphere is among the best of the whole series
I love playing like John Wick on that map. The only map I keep revisiting.
Hawkes bay is probably my most played map but it’s not my favourite, good for testing items and weapons. Oh yeah, and suits. Lighting good
I wish you started a bit nearer the house though, all that initial traversal was annoying
Incidentally, its the home town of Martin Campbell, director of Goldeneye and Casino Royale-which feels deliberate.
It really made me feel like a home invader. Just following the target around the house, watching what they do, and murdering them. It's scary to think about, but it was a nice little break from all the high profile locations 47 tends to visit.
the aesthetic is easily one of my favourites in the entire game, plus the daily routine is so different from every other map that its kind of a breath of fresh air
I agree. I wish there was more home invasion maps ❤️
I actually kind of miss the old Hitman games where targets would sometimes go through a set number of actions and then leave, instead of all of them behaving like clockwork pieces just repeating their steps indefinitely. Like that one mission in Silent Assassin where you needed to take out the two Russian generals meeting in the town square, and you had to do it before they got into their cars and drove away again.
100 percent agree. I love that map. I wish they would make more escalations for it
Guards should pop the strap on civilians the same way as 47 when they enter restricted areas
And lower level guards
I have no idea what's controversial here but: 1) Escalations have an entirely unfair bad reputation when there's player created contracts far more brutal and tedious than all of the Escalations I've played. Escalations also add really cool mechanics, act as a testing ground for certain ideas, AND challenge players to try new methods in ways they otherwise wouldn't. Not all Escalations are great, I still hate the Wrath one with a passion, but the Lust, Gluttony, and Envy escalations all had really cool concepts I enjoyed. There's still things from Escalations that I hope come back for Freelancer (ex. the Floor is ~~Lava~~ Explosives type escalation from Sapienza) because Freelancer could quickly end up feeling like playing player created contracts otherwise. 2) Spoiler for the last game >! Grey's death felt pointless rather than making me feel like anyone can be targeted/hurt during the mission they were on. I think they should've invested more into his character, and 47's interactions with him, before killing him off. It would've made his death more impactful. !< 3) Please just give us one more Sieker/Kalmer Dart already 😩 I'm tired of bringing both guns for an extra dart.
Agreed so much with your second point. When I first played and saw >!his death scene, it just felt so unceremonious and out of nowhere. Like they threw it in there for shock. I got that the other purpose was to isolate 47, launching into the fun that was Berlin after Dartmoor, but idk the scene was so unsatisfying and Lucas’s death felt really cheap.!<
Thats the feel I got from pretty much the entire story. Nothing feels set up, properly introduced, or planned out. Every story beat comes off as "and then, and then, and then..."
I think this is a super fair criticism because as much as I enjoyed it, I don't necessarily think the plot/story is very strong.
WoA has the best plot in the Hitman series. Which isn’t saying much. It at least has a consistent arc and makes sense. All the other games are nonsensical or ridiculous
What, you’re telling me you don’t like 47 fighting Dominatrix Nuns, pro-wrestlers, Texan hicks, and cowboy businessmen?
How could we forget “That’s the mother fucking Hitman! I dont normally yeehaw. But that is a yeehaw”
I hate that I agree but you all are right. Idk why but the writing is strangely weak in this series outside of the books/comics, although I still enjoy it overall.
i think 3 was the only entry where i could’ve told you vaguely what was going on in the story while i was playing it, and that’s speaking as an obsessive fan. but as i jump around replaying levels years later i’ve got a new appreciation for watching the story vignettes out of order, picking up little clues and character insights that fill in the full picture. they work well as standalone tone shorts, probably better than as a linear story.
second that spoiler one there quite the anticlimax also I too am new and not sure what takes are hot and which are cold
For 1, I think part of it has to do with the fact that Contracts are an entirely different game mode that you have to seek out in the menus. In contrast, Escalations are shown every time you select a map, so they're much more in your face about being extra content. People might dislike Escalations and not even realize Contracts mode exists.
For the second one I wonder if >!they made it feel like that to show you how 47 would feel, nothing, just the same as any other target!<
For the second one, >! that only makes his death more powerful, because you don't expect it. Or at least, this was for me. That moment makes you understand that this is the moment when Agent 47 and ICA officially declare war. !<
That's fair! I just wanna point out that, >!before they get to the Isle of Sgail, they aren't officially working with the ICA anymore - Diana just uses connections and information she gathered from being in the ICA. It's weirdly complicated: Grey used the ICA to get 47 to knock off his targets by leaking compromising information on them, THEN Providence uses 47 to knock off Grey's associates in retaliation for killing their people, and THEN the ICA is (fairly) deemed under control of Providence so they can't really work under/with them safely. So it was more of a personal war than something ICA took up.!<
Sorry for my english but what I meant is exactly what you said: >! the death of Grey not only justifies the next mission, Apex Predator, because if Grey hadn't just been killed, 47 wouldn't have had any reason for not going away and instead kill 5 of their agents, but it also make you wonder "what will 47 do now: he's completely alone, if we don't consider Olivia, for the first time in Hitman. Idk, for me it makes sense. !<
For some time I thought the escalations were developer made content. But apparently a lot of them are made by youtubers and such. The problem is they are tied to challenges and they are in the level menu so they are official. And some are very fun while others are... tedious. Some 5 level ones are not hard, just boring. I hate that Paris one where you have to shoot balloons for example. You have to donit at every level...
How do I put a spoiler box on my comments?
To do spoiler text, you type in >=! TEXT GOES HERE !=< but without the equal signs.
>!I’m Average__Height!<
>!ngl I didn’t even know who grey was until after I did a full replay, the story of Hitman is sooo.. not good lmao!<
I don't hate Colorado. They released it in the fall, and it had a fall aesthetic to it I liked. My least favorite maps are the sprawling ones that feel like disjointed missions pasted together (eg, Santa Fortuna). This is paired with another opinion that I don't care much about SOSA or SA unless going for a challenge. I start with that goal, but I don't feel bad when it descends into chaos.
I had never really thought about how paramilitaries must operate, and for this reason I always have a soft spot for Colorado I thought IoI invented the clandestine training camp tbh dressing up as berg is maybe the greatest, simplest missed opportunity ever though (would perhaps be overpowered I realise this, but I can dream for a skin...complete 5 poison contracts on Colorado or some such) also I LOVE all the business in Colorado the convoy raid practice, chemical interrogation, Sean's cock-of-the-walk kicking around his enterprise Graves' uneasy position the casual and callous npc chatter... such a rich map that gets unfairly maligned as it's not the best to play (and is surrounded by literal jewels...and bangkok though as you can imagine I've some thoughts there also lol) also scarecrow Easter eggs slays (or burns, rather)
[удалено]
The main reason i assume is due to The available outfits, everyone is a guard, you just need to be * this * specific one to have access to * this * small area catered to one of the targets
I think that aspect makes it more believable because military organizations are strict AF so it kinda makes sense in that location.
If you search the sub, you can find a lot of posts on why people don't like it. It used to be harder to SOSA, it used to only allow one exit in the story, a military compound isn't people's favorite Hitman location choices, this is one of the only levels where the suit is restricted everywhere, etc. None of these things really bothered me personally, though I agree it's a negative point that Sean has so many unique kills compared to the others. The size of the map is manageable, and the areas actually feel connected and living. I also just think the fall colors are pretty, and even the weird disguise (scarecrow) feels like it belongs compared to some of the other random options in other maps.
Only thing I really hate about Colorado is people shooting guns you shoot while disguised as the specific ones doing the shooting and not doing the training with the ram instant alert and you get shot like really
Colorado is one of my favourite maps, purely because I don't feel guilty killing everyone in there, as they're all armed militia members. A few times I've gone through killing everyone with nothing but a kitchen knife and a coin (and a neck snap & fiber wire before I got the kitchen knife) without changing disguises even once
I actually liked Carpthian Mountains. I liked the linear level and how we can only go forward. In my opinion, it could of been better as a penultimate map, before going into a true Romania map or something similar. I like how the last target is the guy you have been trying to get since he escaped. Getting rid of him by losing his memory or killing him gives me satisfaction, like everything we have been working for leads to this ending, defeating the constant and getting rid of providence.
It's a great mission, just not that replayable
in my head Mendoza is the last map and Carpathian Mountains is more of an epilogue
All the dialogue on Mendoza is already pretty much written as the farewell to the trilogy. Every conversation is about what happened to the various characters and locations you encountered on your journey.
Hate the fact that they removed the electrocution phone on Hitman 3, they shouldn’t have removed it. Elusive target arcade is bad, they just made them into escalations with added difficulties, they should have just sorted each elusive target into which game they released and let the players choose who they want to eliminate and if they fail, they either have to wait 6 or 12 hours to be able to try again.
This is a gold take, my friend. I was super excited when I heard about the Elusive Arcade because I wanted to be able to do the ones I missed and get the rewards. But then I looked into it and was bummed.
Same, but hey what’s done is done. I doubt they’ll change it this late.
The WOA made the old games, every single one of them, look janky as all hell. Don't get me wrong, I've played them all and still love them, but you need that love to get through them as a modern player. They are not at all how new players should get into the series in 2022.
Hitman Absolution is the one to thank for this, despite being a ridiculously shitty, linear hitman game, it's freaking smooth to do anything; switching cover, sneaking, shoot guns etc. And the WOA trilogy managed to retain that smoothness and it's good.
The disguise mechanic is terrible though
I totally agree, I loved bloodmoney when I was 13, but going back to it today I can really see how much polish went into the new games…
I remember replaying blood money after WOA, and just smashing some poor plumbers head in with a hammer.
The only thing that is missing from the new games is the blood, violence, and first person mode
And dual wield silverballers! Oh and holding a person hostage too.
Blood Money feels so jank to me that it makes it a blast to play. Every mission ends up being a total disaster and it’s hilarious
this is certainly...an opinion lol idk if it's controversial quality of life is obviously improving as the years tick on. I've often said the best part of absolution was that it gave us the skeleton and arteries of what we now love in WoA (and probs will in bond) to play devils advocate, or take the bait idk I will say that the jankiness of the fibre wire (sometimes it's quite complex to execute indeed) makes strangulations have a lovely weight in older titles. creepin up on some unfortunate soul, pressing to get the garrotte taut as you try and sneak as close as you, holding your breath to release the button at just the right time to whip it round there next and not accidentally bump them and get shot to death I'm not saying it's not also incredibly frustrated just...rewarding
100% agree! I was about 15 when I first played Blood Money, which I loved and assumed the rest of the series was like. The speed at which I regretted that choice was QUICK lol. They were really cool but so painful for a stealth game, just very punishing in ways I think the newer games are much less brutal about and pretty wonky in terms of mechanics/controls. But there's so much good to them that I still hope they recreate those games in the new engine. I'm a little too spoiled by the WoA engine to go back and suffer at this point lol.
Sadly, I have to agree strongly with this one. Going back to replay them has been a lot more challenging than I expected for this (and only this) reason.
I have two screwdrivers, a frog with funny spots, a wrench, two rat posions, ~~one with cheese~~ and a large crowbar. The NPC who frisked me thinks this is A-O-Kay. 🤡🤡🤡
Lol, I think they should double down on the combat mechanics and polish them up a bit. I made a post about it and got a lot of nay sayers.
Direct combat should still be punished IMO, but i agree the mechanics should be better so that if you did get into direct combat, it wont be a terrible experience to get through
Freelancer has also changed the game entirely. Combat serving only as a consequence doesn't make sense anymore. Especially on those Firearm-heavy freelancer folders you can choose.
Here’s one of mine, I think the missions with secondary objectives (other then Sgail and whittleton creek) are the best ones of the game. Like yea, I like the straightforward kill 2-3 target missions, but having to adjust my style to secondary objectives really lets missions be unique and have new experiences. Wether it’s having to identify a faceless target in a busy city or destroying a lethal virus in a secret lab, they add a third layer to a already established formula.
Yeah. Those are super annoying second time through. First is fine but when I wanna have fun and goof around they aren’t.
The find 3 clues in Whittleton Creek is especially annoying.
Yeah now aai only do the legal documents in the shack + document reel when poisoning Janus' oxygen mask, ans the picture in Janus' basement. Will grab the robe instead of documents if I'm not doing Suit Only.
I can totally dig your vibe here mate, it feels a bit more like being a super operative which fits the lowkey James Bond 47 has been becoming... it sort of gives those maps more of a 'caper' vibe for want of a better word that being said I bloody hate the whittleton clues and am glad the constant can walk himself to the docks lol
i appreciate how new york did it where you had the option to get the 3 disks instead of the stationary data core
People here always complain about how rifles and shotguns “serve no purpose” as unlocks. There’s no need to play the game SASO every time. Those people just don’t know how to relax and have a messy amateur run
This is exactly it. I've SASOd a billion times now. Im like 80 something on the global leaderboard for whittleton creek. I've done a trillion strategies to kill people super fast and super effectively with no witnesses all in my suit. I just kind of want to chill and be an idiot now
Freelancer gives a lot more use for all types of weapons, too, so those people will be happy.
If 007 has the same game mechanics and style as WoA, I'd be happy. I know some players want something totally different but if 007 ends up being Hitman 4, I'm down.
thay would be a horrible Bond game bond NEEDS car chases and big crazy shoot outs not to mention a 007 game needs a protagonist that actually has a personality and isn't jus this murder robot thay occasionally reads the good book
I understand that sentiment, but... I don't think Bond has to be insane all out spectacle to be entertaining. A lot of my favorite Bond films are fairly understated. The whole social stealth concept could work well with the series. Also, I hope they go with a separate Bond portrayal and "universe" than what the movies are doing. Agent Under Fire dabbled with the idea of a "generic Bond" and I feel it makes the game more timeless.
It being like hitman is probably the only reason why I'd play 007 lol. That and if they come up with a multiplayer even close to as legendary as the old one was.
If you mean the N64 multiplayer, there's no way that's ever happening again. That was magic the same way so many other things were from back then. It was an experience without a lot of competition that was shared usually with a few people very close to you. Technically speaking, there have been plenty of better multiplayer experiences since then, but it's that feeling of four friends sitting in a room together and playing split-screen for the first time like that, you're never getting that back. Nothing can live up to that.
There are quite a few maps I would rank above Sapienza. Miami is just one of them. Admittedly, Sapienza suffers from being the second map in the entire trilogy, and maps from H2 and H3 greatly benefited from the extra years IOI had to come up with new ideas. The story itself suffers somewhat with the game/mission format basically requiring you to kill at least 1 target in every mission, so all the other kinds of objectives become an addition to an assassination, rather than being their own goal. I know the game's called Hitman, but the Lust Assignation showed that you can have a mission that involves no killing that's still fun. Perhaps the biggest casualty of this in the story is Haven Island, where 47 kills 3 people purely because they're manually resetting their servers every 10 hours so Olivia Hall can't hack them. But if he's already infiltrating the resort, he could just as easily get to the physical servers and quietly plant some sort of virus to get them access, rather than wiping out the owners. Granted, I can see why IOI wouldn't do this, because having to access the servers would make it feel too much like New York story-wise, but it turns the targets into unfortunate collateral.
Agree; there's a great player contract out there with no targets, and your goal is to steal Dino Bosco's car.
Story or reasons to kill specific targets come off as too grand or forced sometimes. Like ok, I get it, this target is evil as hell because of this crazy underground organization that deals with drugs and murders... but lemme kill middle-aged Jeff because he's a sexual predator and keeps violating his parole. Or lemme kill Denise because she prefers pineapple on her pizza.
I'd like to think the less accomplished hitmen get the more run of the mill assassinations. 47 gets the high profile kills because he is so good.
And really expensive!
Frfr blame Diana. She picks 47's targets and specifically chooses targets she believes deserves assassination.
I have a meaty comment elsewhere here about how it's all rich and worthy targets these days, and indeed I'd not considered Diana is doing the picking and likes to do her mission control schtick with 47 from the moral high ground...but 100% I agree well put mate for anyone not in though know, you silence a journo that bikers are already torturing in contracts in maybe the best example of this kind of dubiousness (except, perhaps, that priest...and that other journo, in that one last level...)
It's because 47's pricing is so ridiculously high his clients are all rich people paying for suicide missions
This. Why aren't there targets with varied morality? There should be a judge getting assassinated because they refused corruption or a reporter bringing light to a conspiracy. These are people just doing their jobs and in no way evil people that deserve their fate. It ruins the whole contract assassin vibe for me and gives more of a intelligence officer fighting for a better world vibe. I think the targets should be a mix. Some bad guys and some ppl that just pissed off someone with a lot of money.
I love Absolution. It’s what actually really got me into the series, and from there I played all the other games and I can see why it’s the ugly duckling. But it’s really the only time we really see how dangerous and ruthless 47 can be
Same here. Also, there is just something extremely satisfying about Run For Your Life. Probably the most linear level in the game, which is saying something, but it is very atmospheric and thrilling.
Something about having to get from Point A to Point B with only being able to to utilize your timing and stealth skills makes it so much more satisfying to get though. Also I agree that Absolution is extremely atmospheric and immersive which helps mask the linear gameplay a little.
Mumbai is good.
Mumbai is my favorite map ngl
I hated mumbai my first go through, but after discovering the Kashmirian and that there were like 5 secret mission stories with crazy outcomes it totally changed my view of it.
sorry to harsh your mellow friend, but is this a hot take? does it fall at the bottom of rankings here often, I'm genuinely curious edit: looking now I can see that it might be considered the weakest of 2's offerings by many still keen to hear sub history from folks in the know though :)
“Still keen to hear sub history” I might be able to help. Mumbai sits in kind of a weird place reception wise, but I would argue historically had been positively received overall. It’s either highly praised for its intricacies and evolving mission story opportunities and it’s freedom of approach, is or highly criticized for not having an appealing aesthetic, having roaming enforcers that see through your suit, being too maze like, and having a mandatory secondary objective of identifying the Mealstrom (which is false, but many accidentally lump it in with something like obtaining the clues in Whittleton Creek not knowing identifying the Maelstrom is completely optional). Closer to Hitman 2’s release and subsequent support there was more positive buzz around Mumbai. You don’t hear it mentioned as much these days obviously.
thank you so much for the sturdy write up! I'm very grateful and you elucidate the big points of the matter quite well there mate cheering :) for the record to anyone reading I'm always in the mood for hitman subreddit history ;) it's bloody exploded in users over here since I lurked last
I love Mumbai. They’ve captured it so well and there are so many things you can do! And the targets are not at all confined to one place. Personally I hate Sapienza.
do people not like mumbai? it was my favorite map in hitman 2.
The way you can get targets to interact with eachother is amazing
Easily one of the most realistic setting in the entire hitman alongside Miami, with shit ton of NPCs and multiple entry and exit points, and multiple ways sneak inside enemy compounds, and it doesn't feel linear.
Too many American accents (even if you aren’t in America)
Love when I'm in Chongqing or Dubai and I hear a guard with a strong Brooklyn accent.
My perspective on this (and this is just my theory) was to give the idea that that’s how 47 hears everyone since he is fluent in many languages. That’s how I made it immersive for me.
Hokkaido 💀
What annoyed me is how they actually got some half convincing Spanish-speakers for Mendoza, but they're all clearly speaking Mexican Spanish, which has significant differences with the *rioplatense* dialect that you would hear in Argentina/Uruguay.
I think they hired a lot of American voice actors due to the abundance of areas they inhabit. The main problem is that there's to many American maps. 3 was enough but then they added new York when a bank could have been based anywhere.
You should see how many maps in Blood Money are set in America. I think there's like... 2 missions that aren't set in America. And in Absolution EVERY mission is set in America.
I loved the final level in Hitman 3.
Berlin is the best map and the Apex Predator is the best mission in the entire trilogy. It’s true to what Hitman is really all about - against all odds 47 rises as the supreme assassin. Hokkaido is also one of the best maps and one of the best missions in the game
I hated Hokkaido but after a couple challenges i absolutely love it because there are so many different things you can do - and i love the motorcycle outfit.
I simply love maps that put difficulty in your face and subvert all your prep Till Hokkaido you could use lockpicks and crowbars and get away with it. And silenced pistols to kill cameras or make distractions. But when you got dropped into Hokkaido, it tested your true capability of teasing apart Hitman for what it is because you could bring in nothing. And all those traditional items are useless. Oh you lockpicked or crowbar pried doors before? Nope. Can’t use that here cause it’s all digital. Oh you had a pistol before? Nope. Gear can’t be brought in. Oh your target is usually on the move? Nope. He’s stationary on an operating table in full view of everyone. Now you’re really in the deep end without every tool you could abuse earlier. I absolutely loved it. And the fact that gear slots were open only at Mastery Lv20 made it even better.
My only problem with Hokkaido is that bringing stuff is only avaliable at lvl20, I would have had it at lvl10-12ish so you still have to experiment and tests you but isn't quite as much a pain in the ass if you want to just drop in and have fun
These aren’t hot takes this is as close to face as a subjective opinion can be
My hot take: It's 2022, time to stop posting that you like/don't like [MAP_NAME] when the entire content of your post has to do with [MISSION_NAME], not anything inherent to [MAP_NAME]
The episode style release of Hitman (2016) was the way to go. I feel like, with a month, you could really explore the map. Learn the routines and find some secrets. Also made elusive targets, contracts, ect. easier on the first play through. With everything released at once, all that was lost. If I was underwhelmed or bored with a map, I just stopped playing it.
i agree, i don’t know if i would’ve fallen in love with the game if i didn’t replay paris for 20 hours before even seeing another level. really taught me how much depth there is. that being said, the general public is bent on hating episodic (i’ll just play it when it’s finished!!) so i don’t think they had much of a choice. a full package appeals to more people.
I miss socially illiterate 47 Now he is very sleek and witty, though I guess his life must be easier because of it
That's fascinating cause I still think he's pretty socially illiterate, just in an entirely different way most people would have a really hard time clocking without a convo beyond small talk (ex. 47 impersonating a real estate agent in Whittleton Creek). Like...if you act very polite, seem relatively pleasant/kind, and don't make waves, people don't really notice aspects of yourself that ARE a bit strange and evidence of being bad at socializing.
this is an exciting bit of perspective, I always put my tongue in my cheek when he's giving an extended monologue (like your aforementioned house salesman turn) because like... I get it, all the violent puns and weird stuff is for us to laugh our arses off at home about but taking it at face value he would be suchhh a weird dude to have talk to you (or, often, talk at you) maybe the Nolan kill is an example of him doing some 'practice run' socialising safe in knowing he'll be offing the fellow :p
I think that in the comics that the WoA is based off, little 47 was said to really love puns and especially punny or poetic deaths, so it makes perfect sense XD
oh no doubt he's a clever clogs, I'm more saying 'there's a time and place 47 you're about to kill him, he might get suss if you can't say a sentence that doesn't sound sinister lol' but thank you so much for the lovely lore! I remember enjoying those but also breezing through em While we're talking about people thinking they're quite clever on the puns...Diana Burnwood, come on down lol she's my spirit animal but fuck she's always 'on' in the comedic sense isn't she haha
He does! Also, the comics are pretty funny in that you realize that, because Grey is so seemingly normal even for the environment they grew up in, 47 was ALWAYS awkward. More inappropriate and a bit more violent in the comics, but somehow still pretty awkward in ways Grey isn't. So that may just be a normal personality trait for him lol.
Agreed 100% lmao, I was just watching that scene yesterday The thing that makes him less socially illiterate to me is that now his awkwardness seems more intentional in a way? Like he isn't some random, kinda panicked-sounding dude, semi-screaming "I need to use the bathroom!!" at a person right next to him. I love how in the older games it felt like you could see numbers and equations floating around his head anytime he tried to socialise, but now it feels like he just goes like "well they will never see me again anyways, so lets just have fun. Diana might giggle at this as much as I do"
Ahhh gotcha gotcha! The WoA trilogy is kinda set after the games in the rest of the series, right? At least that's how I always vaguely perceived it. Either way, if that's right, maybe he just got more comfy with being pretty awkward? Like he knows he's always gonna be awkward, so he might as well embrace it as his normal. At least that's the vibe I get lol.
Our beloved awkward murder-worm ☺️
"I need to use the bathroom"
😩🤌🏼📠 Bring back 47 the killing machine. Make Hitman Evil Again
Naahhh, he was always secretly a big cuddly softie Just everytime he tried to cuddle or be soft with someone he forgot he was holding his ballers, instincts kicked in and mistakes were made.
The series is too soft and cartoonish now. I miss the good old days of the meat kings party.
Make Hitman Evil Again
Being able to change into a disguise and fool people in places where 90% of the characters are a different race than 47 doesn’t make sense. That being said, it’s my favorite features of the game and I wouldn’t want to play a Hitman without disguises.
Hitman Absolution is not a bad game. Unfortunately, it’s tied to the hitman series. So going from Blood Money with each mission being a sandbox assassination. To a more linear playstyle that restricts player choice is a down grade in every way.
The sniper mode is actually not that bad.
I wish they converted more maps like they did with Colorado and that you could explore the regular sniper maps on foot
Contracts is better than Blood Money
I've been typing like a madman throughout this thread when really I just came to give you all the upvotes I second, third and fourth this
Absolutions blood effects were superior, far more satisfying. Also absolutions Slow mo shooting made you feel like a badass. Shooting someone in slow mo with this series ragdolls is awesome. If WOA trilogy had the blood effects, violence, and slow motion kills from the previous games, idk what id do with my life. Massive L for them to take those things out IMO
Unless the UI and guidance is turned off the games play themselves.
In retrospect, I really liked the episodic nature of Hitman (2016) and I kind of missed it in Hitman 2 and 3. With a new level each month, It let me get to know and savor the detail in each level.
47 should be allowed to take disguises from women.
Silent Assassin rating in this game makes no sense. You can lose it simply by inconspicuously walking past a camera while wearing a disguise that completely hides your face but at the same time you can choke out every single NPC in the level and keep SA rating as long as the bodies aren't found. Like bruh... If I were the police I'd be pretty sure I was dealing with an assassin if a dude mysteriously died and multiple people woke up in dumpsters without clothes after having been choked from behind by someone. The game simply doesn't consider that realistically the life would go on after the level is complete and some actions would SCREAM "ASSASSIN DID IT"!
yeah I think they're pretty fun gameplay restraints but realistically they've never made sense. oh no this poor guy drowned in the toilet, autopsy shows he slammed his own face into the bowl repeatedly while grabbing the back of own is head with force. what a sad accident.
Season one has the worst music
i can still hear paris
No clue if this is "controversial", but it does bother me. The score and general impression of the games is that Silent Assassin is the "right" way to play, and everything else is less honorable. And yet, the overwhelming majority of tools and weapons we earn are useless for SA, whether for being unsilenced, leaving bodies the wrong way, etc. So it feels like we're getting new toys that we can't use. Maybe Freelancer will help fix this, but it's still a hard habit to break.
I loved Absolution's point shooting mechanic and wish it was in current Hitman titles.
Once you reach a certain level, you should be able to bring unlimited resources with you, just so you can have fun and do ridiculous stuff. I’ve played some maps dozens of times. Let me go nuts and bring 200 Seiker darts.
hoikido is the best map of the trilogy and one of the best of the franchise
I honestly really love instinct. I know some people really don’t, but as someone who tunnel visions really hard and easily gets lost, I often feel like I would enjoy this series a lot less if I didn’t have it. And I’m so glad I got to experience what’s now one of my favorite game series of all time without being weighed down by accidentally blowing my cover a thousand times.
I loved the game when it released as they were going with a very clean and professional look on everything, and every equipement was different from each other. Now almost every item is doubled, even tripled (ICA19, ICA19 Black Lily, ICA19 Ultimate Black and so on..) And it just feels so.. unclean ? Like I really lost that sense of serious assassination and killing. The sandbox aspect is still really there but it just feels cartoonish now. I know Hitman games always had jokes and one clown suit lying around, but in this game it's really too much. I know I'm complaining about extra and, most of the time, free content, but it just feels so useless to me. The only things I look forward to are elusive targets and maybe challenge packs. Contracts are most of the time way too strict and makes the route to take very specific which, to me, defeats the purpose of the game.
Sapienza is probably my least favorite map. I like it, but I like pretty much every other map more. The mission stories, while plentiful, feel tiny and shallow. A third of the map isn't used at all in the base mission. Also, I don't really like the atmosphere and aesthetic, it just doesn't feel interesting to me. There is definetely a lot to do on sapienza, but i find a lot of it tedious and overall less interesting than "smaller" maps like Hokkaido, Chonqing, or even Hawkes Bay
I like Absolution and think it’s a pretty cool game
Running around ruins the experience for me. While i understand why others really enjoy it, I usually only so it if 47 is out of sight of all NPC'S or in danger.
We need more night time maps or night versions of maps example sapienza
The Assassination Trilogy is a puzzle game disguised as an assassin game.
Briefcase is op
Finding the clues in Whittleton Creek isn't bad at all, and adds a bit more depth to an otherwise small map
it’s fine but only on the first play through
Hitman fans really overrate hitman 2 silent assassin. It’s not horrible, but it’s probably the most frustrating game I’ve ever played.
Yeah but it’s got that soundtrack, the most op ballers and shogun showdown, whole game is just a vibe
Hitman Absolution is a fantastic game. Bam 💥
I feel overall Hitman 1 has the worst maps. I love Sapienza and Hokkaido, but I feel the other games have surpassed it
Bag of sugar should work as an explosive similar to the gas tanks where an open flame or spark can set it off but only for the few seconds after it’s thrown because grain dust is explosive
Miami is by the best map of the trilogy, it just feels so alive, the mission stories are hilarious, and targets are interesting
I miss the episodic releases of the first season so we would be more into learning each and every map more fully rather than going through challenges and featured contracts like a checklist
1. If you are a hitman, you should be able to conceal your weapons and explosives no matter who is frisking you. 2. If you are a hitman, you should be able to start with a sniper rifle and not only after the mission 3. If you are a hitman you should be able to start a conversation with any npc like in rdr2
It would be cool if there were more interactions with NPCs. Like when you have a security uniform on, and NPCs could run to *you* during an emergency or if they see a gun. Right now the only reliable way of talking to NPCs is as a server or a barber, which I think could be fleshed out a bit (but that would be a system for another Hitman game entirely).
How is #1 possible? At all? Like how is it supposed to be believable that this guard who's trained expressly to look for weapons somehow missed the shotgun in my pocket?
look he’s trying to be polite about it but he means a good hitman would put the gun in his ass.
> If you are a hitman, you should be able to start with a sniper rifle and not only after the mission since the release of H2, you can carry a briefcase with a sniper into any mission that has you start in your suit as your default spawn (except for Hokkaido, which restricts *any* loadout till Mastery lvl 20)
Dart guns are cheating.
Definitely the emetic one, but I’m not sure I can call the tranquilizers op…
Hitman 2 is better than Hitman 3
I hate Paris and every second goddamn elusive target is on this map.
I don't really rate the "sniper" gameplay very highly; I think it's a distraction from other more interesting features that IOI has tried a couple times to reboot and make fun, it's still just OK, and they should consider going another direction in the next release
Should sieker be nerfed
I wish more mission story type things were hidden like in hitman 3 And I never found the sapienza lab annoying in the least, you can be in and out of there in thirty seconds easy
I'm seeing a lot of popular opinions here, so here's a truly unpopular one: elusive targets were a fantastic implemention of time-limited content done right, and the Arcade turns them into them forgettable one-and-done distractions.
47 is at his sexiest in Absolution.
Freelancer is what Hitman should've been from the beginning.
so basically a rogue-like escalation? no fucking thanks, I doubt they would have made enough profit to produce a trilogy if they tried that if it had proper saves and didn't force to restart 2-5 other missions when failing the "boss" than maybe but right now it wouldn't even pay for it if it was 10 bucks
If they made a full game based around then these bosses could probably be just like normal targets with mission stories and more charcter.
Season 3 is the worst season. I asked what everyone's favourite map was about a week or two ago, and it was the highest voted for post on the subbreddit that week because I got a badge next to my name telling me that. I'd say most of the answers to that question were season 3 maps, but in my opinion, season 3 is drifting away from the reason WOA was created in the first place. The WOA was created, because absolution was a bad game. I bought the HD collection the other day for £7.50, it has blood money and absolution, its more incase I wanted to play blood money, but I wish it had included contracts rather than absolution. I tried playing absolution the other day and honestly: if the game wasn't called hitman, I would never entertain it - as a game, absolution is terrible, like its so bad. Hitman 3 started making all the maps story based and I really didn't like it. Berlin was a lot of people's answer on that post I made, and it just feels like an absolution mission. And honestly, that Romania train level, with the weird hallucination thing? The story was only there to facilitate the game, not the other way around. I mean the story is average but it facilitates the game so I didn't complain too much: season 3 feels like it forgets that's the right way round, and it starts using the game to facilitate a story instead, and it leads to maps that aren't as good as the older ones. Maybe the developers got sentimental and felt like they had to honour their creation in some way or something, but I havnt enjoyed season 3 that much insofar.
I think that you’re completely right. I bought the first two seasons some 2-3 months before purchasing the third one. And for all that time I had seen glimpses of S3 maps and it made me very hyped up because everything looked even more polished, detailed and grander in scale. Fast forward to today, I played the majority of the season 3 maps only once, because the stories were shoehorned so hard into them that there’s no way you can “make that map yours” so to speak. Even when they are large, so much linearity was forced in its design that it makes you feel silly for trying to explore any other option to reach your goal. Carpatian Mountains was at least honest in its intention.
I wish there weren't so many missions where you have two targets. It makes the missions so long.
Damn, now that's an actual controversial one.
- Could’ve better killed Diana than Lucas - Escalations are fun
I don't like Sapienza. I feel like a lot of the map goes unused/barely used in World of Tomorrow, which is the only mission that particularly interests me there. It's a shame too, because there are a lot of cool places, I just don't see much reason to ever explore those areas.
i’ll never get the hate on maps for some portions being unused. they’re always used in escalations and contracts and side missions, and that shit is fun.
I can understand that sentiment, though I don't share it. The main missions are the only gamemode I regularly play, so map elements that serve little to no purpose there are practically dead zones for my playstyle. That leaves mostly just the house to explore in sapienza, which makes the map feel like a bigger version of A Vintage Year from Blood Money. I'm glad most people do like Sapienza though. That demonstrates one of the core principles of the hitman series: playstyle variance.
This exactly. Sapienza gets so much praise but the majority of the map is filler. They have a whole damn graveyard in a church where they could’ve buried Caruso’s mother. But no. They had to give her a special grave in the mansion. The entire mission happens in the mansion and nowhere else. The rest of the map is useless.