Hi, I'm Hamish Black and welcome to Writing on Games.
Hitman's first season was easily my game of the year last year.
Few games have given me as much joy in terms of replayability and discovering all the weird,
wacky secrets and scenarios located within.
A lot of this is down to the game's episodic nature – the benefits of which I detail
in this video here – allowing me to continue to be excited for substantial new content
whilst also encouraging exploration of these expansive levels.
Some say the greatest success of the game is the way it merges tactical stealth gameplay
with an absurdist sense of humour.
Whilst I totally agree with this, after exhausting the final episode and returning to replay
the rest, I believe a lot of credit must go to the design of the maps and the missions
themselves.
Given, then, that a disc-based version of the entire season will be released at the
end of January, I want to do something dumb that I haven't done before—a long-form analysis,
examining each mission in the game's first season, in relation to the strengths of the
game's design.
This is going to be a long one, so let's get into it, shall we?
In order to understand how Hitman's levels play to the strengths of the game's design,
we should first try to gather a rough understanding of that design, through its core mechanics.
Hitman is ostensibly a stealth game, with mechanics that incentivise efficiency and
cleanliness.
You have a disguise system that allows you to access different areas depending on the
level of privilege your costume allows.
You have a wealth of guns at your disposal, but their use is highly discouraged.
Given their visibility and noise, combined with their inaccuracy and comparative lack
of damage, they're almost never a viable option.
Instead, you're encouraged to find objects in the world and use them as your weapons
should you need them—they take out enemies in one hit, lock on with often absurd accuracy
and provide you with one of the most satisfying animations I can recall.
The wealth of options available to you encourages improvisation, although, new to this instalment,
we have Opportunities – guided, scripted events that add waypoints to guide you to
your target, often with outright comedic consequences.
Finally, what all these elements contribute to and what I would say is the defining principle
of Hitman's design, is its absurdist sense of humour.
This affects everything about the way you learn and interact with the game's rules
and systems.
It essentially teaches you that you need to view each individual as an AI procedure—as
a piece on a board rather than a living, functioning being.
Now don't worry, either this is sounding like a lot or it's sounding totally reductive.
Like I say, as we go into the levels themselves I'll explain how each of these core ideas
is fleshed out through the levels 47 infiltrates.
Let's briefly talk about the two tutorial levels, as they're actually very good as
teaching tools, even if they might not be wholly necessary (and we'll come onto why
in a bit).
The boat level teaches you basic controls and stealth mechanics (including disguises
and the deliciously satisfying throwing mechanic) before allowing you to replay it and complete
the objective in whichever way you choose.
This highlights both the tactical, improvisational freedom the gameplay affords you, as well
as the idea that in order to get the most out of these levels, replaying them is a must.
The second map largely exists to teach you about the Opportunities system.
There are other ways you can go about dispatching your target, but as you wander around looking
for a way to enter the compound, you're greeted with two workers talking about safety
protocols for a jet fighter which brings up a prompt to track this opportunity.
You find a conveniently placed outfit that gets you into every area, mess with the jet
engine, head upstairs to find your target then guide him through the hilariously drawn
out process of sending his own ejector seat careening into the night sky.
You walk out with no one having noticed any wrongdoing on your part, and SCENE.
And this is where my problems with the Opportunities system arise.
Don't get me wrong, they can be incredibly funny and a nice way to kill some time if
you just want to head into a mission and not have to think too much in order to see someone.
Also, in a game that offers as many ways to off your targets as Hitman does, they can
make the game feel less intimidating to new players.
The problem is that once you get good enough at the game, they perhaps go from hilariously
absurd to irritatingly convenient.
Not all opportunities are like this, but most essentially make the game feel like it's
playing itself.
Even the ones that don't directly end with a character getting killed can lead a target
to a particular area where they'll conveniently tell their guards that they need some privacy,
giving you a chance to strike.
These opportunities are a means by which the developers can say "look!
Our game is funny!" as opposed to just letting the inherent absurdity of the mechanics shine
through.
If you try to tackle these missions like a normal human being would (or, well, a normal
human being who happens to be an assassin), then you will not get far.
In this game, perhaps more than most, there's a disconnect between the realistic design
of the settings and the people found within.
Instead of viewing the denizens of these maps as human beings, you must instead view them
as clusters of AI systems, experimenting with their various states and how to disrupt their
routing.
These states can vary wildly.
For example, guards will usually give you a pass if you trespass on an area you're
not meant to.
They're fairly courteous about it – it's like they understand that some of the barriers
between restricted areas and those that aren't can be somewhat intangible.
That said, don't stick around if you dare to turn off a stove and there's someone
present – they'll become startled, examine the stove, ask if you did it, get suspicious,
get a guard to arrest you and then literally shoot you to death when you don't comply.
All for turning off a radio.
It's the most distorted logic possible, but every stage is easily discernible and, once
you get to grips with these systems, easily manipulated to your advantage.
Essentially what I'm saying is that whilst I appreciate the purpose of the Opportunities
system, I'd recommend ignoring them at least on a first playthrough of a mission.
The organic nature of figuring out how these uncanny systems work and using this to your
advantage is where the real absurdity and humour lies within Hitman (as well as making
you feel like a real puppet master, pulling the strings of these walking, talking AI systems).
The reason I'm talking about this so much is that, well, remember when I said these
levels felt a little unnecessary?
Part of the reason is that, like the opportunity system itself, they feel a little too guided.
Even when you're let loose on your second playthrough of the boat level, it's too
small a level for there to really be much else to actually do on it.
This is where I feel the first main map, Paris, really shines, and why I think it could have
been a tutorial level in itself.
You see, Paris conveys a crucial facet of Hitman's level design which is important
going forward – big does not always mean expansive.
In terms of actual size, it's one of the smaller levels, but it feels labyrinthine
in nature.
Ultimately, it offers multiple different ways to tackle your objective, whilst also remaining
manageable.
The main focus of the level is, of course, the mansion, which contains four floors including
a basement.
You have two targets – one on the ground floor and one on the top.
You enter through the main gate, and find that you're actually allowed to wander around
the immediate grounds, as well as the mansion's entrance, the fashion show itself and the
crowded bar next door.
This gives you the time and freedom to scope out your surroundings.
It's perhaps fitting that the event taking place within the mansion is a fashion show,
because this level, perhaps more than any other in the game, is a puzzle designed to
test your knowledge of the disguise system.
As you enter the mansion you find that not only is everywhere guarded, but your target
is immediately in front of you.
This highlights the fact that this isn't your typical stealth game.
This isn't about infiltrating a military compound—in a manner akin to something like James Bond
or Mission Impossible, this is a literal party.
The guards are vastly outnumbered by general guests.
The target isn't hidden behind puzzles or a set of objectives, he's right there.
He's literally being paraded down the stairs, his entrance couldn't be more ceremonious.
You can take him out right there and then if you want, just don't expect to get too
far (this is perhaps why a second target is implemented, so you can't simply take the
first out and bolt).
You could always try being a bold bastard and worming your way past the security guards
at almost every door in your current getup, but as I say – the guards here are alert
and, thanks to your limited health and the fact that enemies often take more bullets
to go down than you do, direct confrontation is discouraged.
It's here that the stealth mechanics reveal their purpose – it's not about staying out
of sight (because in most cases, that's almost impossible).
Despite how absurd and nonhuman the civilians can act at times, they'll call you out for
being weird if you're seen crouching and taking cover everywhere like a weirdo.
No, instead it's about blending into your surroundings whilst remaining in sight.
The question you ask yourself, particularly if you're new to the series, isn't "how do
I get there" but rather "other people can get there, why can't I?"
Of course, if you've played any Hitman game before, you'll know that the key is subduing
a uniformed individual and taking that uniform as your disguise.
If you don't however, the devs have you covered.
At this stage, you'll likely head back outside, giving you two options – go to the right,
where you'll be told you can't enter the guest car park.
This area gives you an easy disguise but if you're still getting to grips with the mechanics
you're probably not going to want to risk getting caught trespassing by the few guards
here in order to get into the shed and take out the waiter, before dumping his body out
the window and into the bin outside (despite it being a totally safe thing to do).
Instead, you'll likely venture left, to the one area that seems to be almost empty bar
two guards talking to a waiter.
Given that this is still ostensibly a stealth game, you'll probably feel relatively safe
here.
What's more, this is where you overhear the guards mention that waiters can go anywhere
on the ground floor of the mansion, before the waiter walks over behind a truck for a
smoke, placed next to a bin to dump his body.
Overly convenient?
Perhaps.
An excellent way to guide your attention to the disguise system? Definitely.
After you figure this out and have the waiter's disguise, your first target is as good as
dead.
You can follow him around without having to worry and analyse his movements, meaning you
can, for example, expose some wires and have him electrocute himself.
Either that, or through your exploration of the basement floor, find a recipe for a cocktail
and poison him.
Again, the absurdity of this means that even if you non-lethally poison him, you can enter
the bathroom in which he throws up with the guard looking right at you and no one will
care.
Either way, your target is dead, purely through the introduction of the disguise system.
The second target acts as a further test of this knowledge – you know that certain disguises
get you certain places, but your current disguise only gets you so far.
The level centres around the mansion, and the different floors of that mansion act as
a puzzle for you to solve.
You can get a crew outfit but that only gets you to the first floor, and there are guards
at each staircase leading up to the second, where your target is.
Your next thought might be to procure a guard uniform – this is discouraged due to a couple
of reasons.
First, it's incredibly hard to find a guard on his own and take him out without getting
spotted.
Your best bet is perhaps behind the shed at the back of the mansion, but even then it's
risky given the proximity of other guards.
Secondly and perhaps more importantly, not only do different disguises have different
privileges, but they also have different levels of suspicion attached to them.
Low level positions like waiters can get into less areas, but have a much lower chance of
being noticed by anyone.
For guards, well, it's their job to remain alert, so you're much more likely to be seen
by one of them.
It's a nice touch that adds to the unique worldbuilding that goes on in this game.
As you explore the second floor and analyse the staircase, you'll find there's another
type of waiter that can walk up and down the stairs and lo and behold, there's one conveniently
taking a break alone in a room, ripe for the subduing!
I certainly don't think this is unintentional – the waiters are non-confrontational and
placed in just the right kind of secluded areas that, at least initially, I feel this
is the solution you're encouraged to pursue.
So you're able to get past the guards now, although there's a catch – the guards will
frisk you.
Luckily this isn't too much of an issue, as you can run away as soon as they tell you
to dump your weapons literally around the corner before returning, but it does present
an interesting challenge – when you do get to the top, how are you going to eliminate
your target without your lethal arsenal?
As it turns out the answer can be as simple as knocking her out before snapping her neck,
but I like that it encourages creativity on the part of the player.
Up here the target is doing the rounds at her party and secret auction, leaving you
a few options but ultimately your best bet is to try and take out the guard in her private
room and dispose of him before she gets there.
From there, you can quietly kill her and the person accompanying her without too much hassle.
Even here, though, the mission isn't over – you need to extract.
Again, this is the case with every Hitman game, but if you're new to the series it's
probably at least a little significant.
It once again incentivises cleanliness.
You want to dispose of your targets as cleanly as possible not just for a higher score, but
to make your exit easier.
If you somehow manage to take out your targets with guns blazing, you'll be hard pushed to
make it out alive.
It adds an extra level of tension to the situation and requires a more tactical approach than
even most stealth games.
Luckily, however, given the game's penchant for utter nonsense, regardless of what costume
you're wearing, you can easily get out using a helicopter meant for the star of the fashion
show, Helmut Kruger (and the idea of the helicopter acting as a sort of taxi service for any shmuck
bold enough to just ask is pretty, pretty hilarious to me).
Speaking of the bold Helmut Kruger, the reason I feel this map is specifically designed to
show you the importance of the disguise system, is the fact that there are a couple of what
I like to call "skeleton key disguises."
Hell, even when I first entered the palace grounds I saw a big bald supermodel staring
at me and thought "I'm going to be him at some point, aren't I?"
Well, I wasn't wrong – conversations overheard throughout the mansion flat out tell you "hey,
that guy looks just like Helmut!"
Essentially, if you don't want to spend too long thinking about what disguise gets you
where, then finding Helmut alone at the back of the mansion will allow you to traverse
the entire mansion (aside from the attic area) without bother—they don't even frisk you.
What's more, if you follow a couple of simple steps, you'll be granted a private audience
with your target allowing you to easily take her out.
There's also the Sheikh who takes part in the private auction, but given the intensity
of the guard he's under, Helmut is probably your best bet.
It's incredibly fun to revel in the nonsense of dressing as a foreign diplomat or get gussied
up as some Michael Stipe-lookalike supermodel, but it's also tactically advantageous and
gives you a deep insight into the way the disguise and AI systems work.
So, in summary, through the disguise system you're encouraged to get creative and improvise.
On top of this, it also highlights that this game is not afraid to plant you in utterly
absurd scenarios.
Essentially, absolutely everything this game represents is taught to you in the Paris mission
through purely mechanical means.
It's why I think this mission is the perfect tutorial, despite how effective the actual
tutorial missions may be.
Now, the fact that there are still so many methods to take out your targets that I haven't
touched upon made me initially think "looks like we've got a 'difficult second album'
scenario here."
Well, then Sapienza came along.
Sapienza, in short, is absolutely incredible.
For one, when this map was described as an Italian seaside town, they really meant it.
To say that it's expansive for a single level would be an understatement.
We're hardly talking Just Cause 3 size here, but it'd still take you a good few minutes
to walk from one end of the map to the other.
What's more is that every area is different from the others and every area is explorable.
Every NPC feels like they have their own business here, and it acts as a nice change of pace
from the Paris crowd that was there for one purpose.
Here, it feels like you're in the middle of a living, breathing town.
Down the bottom there's the beach (or pier) area, as well as a church, morgue and graveyard.
Up the top there's the town square with various shops littered around the place, as well as
a couple of blocks of flats, as well as the focus of the level, the mansion.
The part joining the bottom of the map with the top feels utterly labyrinthine in the
best possible.
Like I say, almost every shop here can be entered (even if you don't necessarily find
much interesting inside) and the streets all wind around on one another making for a fairly
decent escape route should things go wrong.
What Sapienza does with all of this is exemplify another key element of good map design within
Hitman—even though these areas may be entirely different functionally, they all have some
form of connective tissue, meaning what happens at one end can affect what happens at the
other.
It also uses verticality to its advantage.
Not only does the map itself have a very clearly defined top and bottom part, but each major
building feels like it has multiple layers to it.
There's the church which has a basement as well as a massive belltower allowing you to
go a bit Saving Private Ryan if you want.
There's also the ice cream shop which leads to various basement levels, and you also have
the block of flats where 47's safehouse is, which itself can lead you into the mansion,
which itself has a number of levels including a fully functioning underground lab.
There really is a whole lot to this mission's geography and it can be quite intimidating
at first, as beautiful as it is.
That's only the case, however, because of how many options you have.
The problem arises when you consider the fact that the main mission attached to this map
perhaps doesn't make the best use of the level's varied geography.
Whereas in Paris the devs tried to quell option paralysis by giving you a fairly defined path
through the disguise system should you want to go that route, I feel like the main mission
here tries to do the same thing by focusing most of your efforts on the mansion itself.
Sure, there are ways to draw one of the targets out of the mansion but I feel like you'd be
hard pressed to stumble across that yourself at least the first time through.
You're told the third target here (a virus you need to destroy) is located in the underground
lab under the mansion and that both human targets are located on the mansion grounds,
as well as the fact 47 starts the mission with the mansion in full view – even if
you explore the town a bit for a way to get into the mansion without anyone noticing,
your focus is squarely on that mansion and rarely if ever needs to be drawn from it.
If you do somehow stumble across the opportunity that draws one of the targets from the mansion
down to the pier then you're left with a ridiculously convenient scenario in which her bodyguards
leave her and you lead her down an empty alley in order to get rid of her.
It's a shame because due to the verticality of this level, it's an immensely satisfying
feeling to socially engineer your target to appear at a certain spot, only to take them
out from the completely opposite end of the map.
This is where I feel the game's other modes come into play.
Part of the game's extensive range of content comes from the fact that it reuses previous
maps in order to provide you with things like elusive targets—targets that will appear
for a certain time period on a map, giving you just one chance to get at them.
If you die at any point during your attempt, they're gone for good.
Personally I'm not huge on them.
I understand that they recontextualise the main missions—turning them into training
scenarios, allowing you to familiarise yourself with the map's layout like a rehearsal of
sorts, before the main event.
I just think that the idea of playing as a professional assassin isn't really what I'm
coming to this game for.
I just want to experiment with all the tools at my disposal to see what weird and wacky
scenarios I can get myself into.
Essentially, I want Hitman to be the Curb Your Enthusiasm of stealth games, and this
isn't something you're afforded when you're forced to play extremely carefully lest you
lose your one shot at the target.
At the very least, however, Sapienza acts as the best environment for these elusive
targets to take place.
The labyrinthine streets, the massive size and the degree of verticality the map possesses
force the player into a tense game of cat and mouse with their target when they lack
any knowledge of their whereabouts.
It's a testament to the map that it can make this mode compelling, even when I feel like
the mode itself doesn't play to the strengths of the game's design.
To return to the main mission though, it's just lucky then that the mansion in Sapienza
is even more expansive than the mansion found in Paris – like the streets of the town
it's situated in, the mansion's corridors, bedrooms, grounds and, of course, the underground
lab, feel like a maze in which it is easy to be overwhelmed with choice.
The map's main mission is one where you can do anything from poison a man before pushing
him off a cliff where he's puking, take the disguise of a golf instructor to lure another
target in to have an affair before killing her, or even staging a number of elaborate
pranks to convince a target that his dead mother's ghost has appeared on the anniversary
of her death.
It's all fairly absurd stuff, which is in keeping with the general tone of the game.
What is truly clever is the introduction of the third target – as previously stated,
the destruction of a virus.
This involves infiltrating the underground lab and getting into a specific area unnoticed,
before triggering the virus to overheat and explode.
The thing I like about this is that whilst the opportunities that you receive for this
will get you close to the area you need to get to, it won't end with the virus destroyed
– ultimately you'll be in the room with the virus, but you'll have other people with
you.
You need to distract these people long enough not only to get them away from the virus,
but to allow time for the virus to overheat.
There are a number of distractions available to you in the room and if you've taken one
of the hazmat suits before entering, you'll have a number of places to blend in (for those
who don't know, blending in allows you to avoid detection when in a certain costume
by doing something involved with that costume – like examining a microscope in the hazmat
suit, for instance).
Then once that's done, you can run out and jump in a seaplane to fly away like it wasn't
even a thing.
This is a good example of what I mean when I talk about using the uncanny nature of the
AI and scripting systems to your advantage.
To get into the area with the virus itself, I had experimented with a number of different
techniques.
Dressing up as a security guard or scientist was all well and good, but as I tried to sneak
through I found myself detected immediately by scientists suspicious of my presence.
I'd try to get out, guards would come looking for me, I'd end up compromised, it was a bad
scene.
After a while of trying to make this work like a normal human being, I realised this
was Hitman I was playing.
With this in mind, I found the most effective method to be getting the security guard outfit
on the floor above, bolting down the stairs and opening the lab door, running past all
the scientists as they discovered me and got worried, before immediately shoving on a hazmat
suit before everyone came running in looking for a security guard, finding only a hazmat
dude casually walking away from a security guard outfit conspicuously placed on the floor.
This was a particularly funny situation to me, precisely because it didn't feel scripted
in any way – it felt like I'd totally outsmarted a ridiculously complex AI system in the dumbest
way possible.
It's that disconnect that creates hilarity in this game, for me anyway, far more than
the opportunities, as funny as they can be.
It's show, don't tell (or, in game terms, play, don't show) – let the player find
the comedy inherent to your system design, rather than merely tell them step by step
how to make something superficially comedic occur.
This is perhaps something later episodes struggle with, and we'll get onto that in a bit.
For now though, let's just say that Sapienza is a truly fantastic map, with each area feeling
truly distinct and having its own purpose.
It's sizeable, but this is absolutely deliberate.
It's the difference I mentioned earlier between being big and being expansive - Paris' map
isn't actually that large compared to what comes later, but it feels like there is so
much to discover there.
Sapienza is huge, but things that happen at one end of the map can affect the other so
it all feels intrinsically linked and manageable.
In Hitman, size is always a factor in a map's design, but bigger does not always mean better.
This is an area where the next map categorically fails, and represents a low point for the
season.
Marrakesh is the third episode in the series, and the mission here has all the potential
to play into every strength the series has shown up until this point.
It's probably the biggest, most crowded map in the entire game, but for a number of reasons
also feels like the most lifeless.
For one, the main mission that takes place on this map sees Hitman fall into a fairly
predictable, if still enjoyable, loop.
Up until the fifth episode, every mission is essentially "take out two people and get
to the exit", with only Sapienza requiring anything extra.
The episode after Marrakesh does something interesting with the formula that I'll come
onto in a minute, but the mission A Gilded Cage feels comparatively stale.
Part of the reason for this is that the map is absolutely ripe for new gameplay opportunities.
Like I say, this map is incredibly crowded, taking place in a bustling North African market.
Right beside this, however, is a quite literal riot.
Your targets are conspirators involved in a plot to overthrow the government.
The mission briefing describes one of your targets as an investment banker who stole
billions from the Moroccan people.
He's been broken out of jail resulting in dead police officers, the people have lost
immense amounts of money, and he's currently holed up in the Swedish consulate getting
massages and giving interviews.
The people are quite rightly baying for blood, and what's more, this is all hinted to be
a plot to destabilise the government of the region before a military coup takes place.
This should have been the perfect scenario for a Hitman mission!
The whole game up until this point has been about mischievously causing havoc by forcing
different systems to collide and watching the sparks fly.
How about causing that havoc on a truly massive scale, by placing 47 in the midst of an international
relations powder keg?
The opportunities you could have had 47 take part in here could have been truly wild – imagine
dressing up as an officer or protestor and actually causing those clashes between cops
and civilians before using it as a distraction to enter the consulate unnoticed?
Hell, these riots could have tipped over into the square itself, causing a complete change
in the way the map worked and how you navigated it.
These people are baying for blood!
Players should be given a chance to mess with the dynamics of that!
But no, instead what we find is a crowd functionally identical to the sedate partygoers at the
Paris fashion show.
There's nothing you can do with this crowd of people, except maybe use it as a place
to hide should you get into trouble.
The tensions apparently ready to tip over into full blown violence never do, and the
rioters react to getting bumped into in the same way that any other crowd in the game
would – a curt "would you look where you're going?" before getting back to the tamest
riot I've ever experienced.
This is explained in the briefing cutscene – your client is interested in profits,
not politics, and their business stands to lose out on money if the riots escalate.
That said, it still doesn't excuse why this riot plays into basically nothing to do with
the main mission.
Hell, even something where you were trying to control the riots as a police officer or
having to take your targets out within a time limit, after which the crowds would erupt.
Nope, nothing.
The crowd is totally static and doesn't factor into your mission in any way, shape or form.
It's absurd in the same way other moments of the game are absurd, yes, but in previous
situations the disconnect was between expecting people to react like human beings and getting
shocked when something completely uncanny and erratic happened.
Here, it's the opposite and it feels restrictive in a way Hitman has never been up until this
point.
The riot never spills into other areas either, with almost every part of the map remaining
ruthlessly segmented from one another.
The bazaar you start in gives way to a more open collection of stalls, with many winding
backstreets leading off from here.
Some shops are explorable and some have rooftop areas, but these don't lend themselves to
the kind of interconnected feel of a map like Sapienza.
There are a lot of what feel like dead ends here – seemingly pointless cul de sacs that
serve almost no tactical purpose.
Move on from the marketplace and you have the riot.
Then there's the areas your targets almost exclusively inhabit in the mission – the
consulate and the abandoned school.
These areas are basically joined by an underground tunnel, making them feel perhaps even more
disconnected from the rest of the already disparate sections of the map.
Once inside these areas there are some interesting things you can do, such as disguising yourself
as a superior officer to dismiss guards within the school, or disguise yourself as a masseuse
to snap your target's neck in the consulate.
I just can't help but feel the developers missed a real trick by removing any importance
the riots may have had.
Aside from this, I mainly feel like Marrakesh is just a bit messy and lacking focus.
In Sapienza, like I say, the focus was the interconnected feeling afforded by its verticality.
If you were at the top of the map, you could see anything going on at the bottom, and affect
things as you so chose.
In Paris, the map's focus was the mansion, and introducing you to the disguise system
in order that you could solve the puzzle of how to get to the top.
Details like the Paris mansion functioning as an art gallery and tourist attraction as
well as hosting the fashion show making that mansion feel more lived in, like it wasn't
just designed for the purpose of a mission.
Marrakesh has very little of that detail – just crowds in the areas of the map that matter
little to the mission at hand.
The sterile consulate with a few offices and meeting rooms as well as a barren TV studio,
and there's the school with every room feeling like it serves the same purpose as the last.
These are just rooms designed to fill out a building, and that's a shame because the
game proves it can do subtle worldbuilding in other areas.
It's at this point that the game verges on size for size's sake and, as previously explained,
that's not the best thing for a game like Hitman.
Quality always wins out over quantity – Marrakesh may be one of the bigger maps in the game,
but it's maybe my least favourite.
It's a good thing then that the following map returns some of that focus to proceedings,
seeing 47 infiltrating a lavish Bangkok hotel.
How does it do this?
Well, in terms of level design, it's essentially a return to the Paris map.
You have limited grounds you can explore outside a central, multi-story building, in which
you have a target on the ground floor and one at the top.
The puzzle of this map, like Paris, is to get to the top and, once again, it's the disguise
system that's going to get you there.
What I like about this is that unlike the Paris show, you're actually guided through
a good part of the hotel – I guess it plays into the whole Hitman thing of blending into
your surroundings, but just the idea of checking into a hotel desk before being led to your
room kinda tickles me.
It also means that here, you're given a few floors to explore before you start hitting
restricted areas.
There's the ground floor which has the reception and the floor above which has the bars, then
the floor above that which has the guest rooms.
After this, you hit the floors that act as your "goal" of sorts – the recording studio
and penthouse area.
This is where you'll find your main target – a rich kid dweeb fronting a band recording
their album, who was bailed out of a murder he almost certainly committed by his media
mogul father.
You're also tasked with killing the lawyer who did the bailing, whom you will find on
the ground floor.
I won't go too much into the specifics of this mission because like I say, it's pretty
similar to the Paris mission.
In that way, whilst it perhaps feels a little derivative, it at least has that focus of
its geography acting as a puzzle for the player to solve.
What I will say is that this map is perhaps the most a Hitman level leans into its opportunity
system since the second training level.
You see, the situations 47 gets himself into here are truly, truly absurd.
This is a level where you can dress yourself up as the drummer of the band and play a drum
solo in order to get close to the singer.
Either that, or you can impress the overzealous producer by essentially writing the band's
song before replacing the microphone with one that will electrocute the target.
I've said a lot that would have you believe I really don't like the opportunity system,
but this isn't necessarily the case.
What I like most are the absurd situations the game's mechanics allow you to create yourself
due to the uncanny nature of the people within these maps.
That said, these scripted scenarios can be funny and do show the developers to have a
real sense of comedic timing, so at the very least they're all worth checking out (in fact
the game incentivises it by rewarding you with unlocks that allow you to replay the
mission with different starting disguises and the like).
Maybe it's just because I myself am a musician and do a lot of audio engineering/production
work, but I found these particularly funny because it's not merely the systems that are
uncanny here, it's that the scripted situations are so distant from what real music is actually
like.
Just imagine for a second the idea that not only can 47 be dressed as a random crew member,
but he can actually write the goddamn song for the band!
Why is 47 such a renaissance man and how weren't we notified of this before?
Also, why is this supposed control freak producer giving such power to a random crew member?!
Why are the other crew members applauding you as opposed to saying "who the hell is
this"?!
Isn't this 47 drawing a lot of attention to himself?!
Most importantly, I wasn't aware of the fact that writing music was as simple as selecting
pre-recorded waveforms from a tiny 4x4 grid?!
I've been doing music all wrong!
There are so many questions this opportunity in particular raises that it's legitimately
almost metatextual.
It's SO absurd, so distant from the realities of making music, that even though it's a total
step-by-step way to take out your target that requires next to no creative input (perhaps
except getting the microphone in the first place), I just can't help but absolutely adore
it.
It even builds the persona of 47 in some interesting ways, writing the absurdity of the scenarios
directly into his character.
Ultimately, whilst Bangkok keeps on doing the Hitman thing, it's undeniably a helluva
fun time.
It helps that the map is nice to look at too, which is something that cannot be said for
the next map in the game – Colorado.
This map, for me, is unfortunately as much a low point as Marrakesh was.
No doubt it plays with the formula Hitman has been building up through the last four
missions, but ultimately it represents the idea that sometimes Hitman fails to follow
through on some of its bold ideas.
We saw this with Marrakesh, with the fact that you had the potential of a rioting crowd
apparently baying for blood, whilst it ended up serving the same purpose as any other crowd
in the game.
Here, the potentially compelling differentiator between this and other missions is the fact
that you now have four targets instead of the typical two.
What's more, you're in an apricot farm turned right wing militia compound.
This is a zone filled with paranoid maniacs armed to the teeth, so you're not even afforded
the liberty of exploring unrestricted areas of the map before executing on a plan to make
your way further in.
Here, every area is supposedly restricted and hostile.
This could have been an incredible way of raising tension – not only do you have more
targets, but you now have to rely on stealth and cover mechanics to get through the compound
unnoticed, whereas before you could just rely on the disguise system in order to carry you
through.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work thanks to two factors – one is the game's save system.
When you die, you're given the option to restart or to load a save.
The game autosaves at regular enough intervals that you're always given a wealth of options
to choose from should you mess up and want to fix a particular mistake.
This is an excellent quality-of-life inclusion, for sure, but it also completely removes any
tension from the fact you have to kill double the targets.
Now, of course you can just choose to replay the entire mission again when you die, but
it's a totally arbitrary, self-imposed challenge – there's no reward for getting through
without loading a previous save, so you're basically just choosing to roleplay at this
point.
A possible solution could be to remove the autosave system and rely on manual saves,
like in most previous Hitman games—allow a player to start from a position of great
difficulty and reduce it if they have problems with the challenge rather than the other way
around.
As it stands, the save system means that it doesn't really matter if there's one target
on a map or ten targets.
Now, the other way the mission completely removes the sense of heightened tension is
the fact that, if you head into the compound via the closest unguarded route (which, hey,
you're going to do), then a useable disguise is a mere subdued guard away.
The guard moves to a perfect position to take him down and get his costume unnoticed, so
why wouldn't you?
This disguise can get you through most of the compound as well (or at least to the points
where you can get other disguises), so you really have no reason not to pursue this option.
This map was sold as maybe the most difficult mission yet, so it's disappointing to have
so little importance placed on the means by which the developers tried to implement that
difficulty.
Aside from this though, the map itself just isn't particularly interesting.
It's almost completely flat – there are a couple of points at which you can get higher
up, but it really serves very little purpose.
You can survey just as much of the map from the ground as you can from these points of
elevation.
Even when you do survey these places, they have the same problem as Marrakesh—nothing
feels like it affects anything else.
Really, there is no reason the map should be this big.
There's the living quarters, the barn where the training exercises take place, the garage,
then there's pretty much just the house at the back in terms of notable areas.
Aside from that, there are a few little spots on the map here and there where people congregate,
such as an explosives range or a greenhouse, but no area outside of the house really feels
vital here.
The targets seem to stick to their own little spaces on the map (Maya at the barn or the
Michael Myers looking guy sticking to the area around the house, for example), so everything
feels pretty segmented and inorganic.
I guess there's not really a whole lot to say about this map to be honest.
The flat nature of the map I suppose could contribute to a feeling of constantly being
visible, which could heighten tension, but I never got that from this map.
As I stated previously, the systems this level introduces in order to increase the challenge
are rendered fairly meaningless by other mechanics within the game and the way the mission is
designed.
I think, upon further thought, that I might like this mission less than Marrakesh—at
least that had some colour to it and the feeling of some kind of hustle and bustle.
It just ends up feeling drab and lifeless in a way which totally runs counter to the
playful, fun tone of other missions.
It's a good thing, then, that the map which follows Colorado might have ended up as my
favourite map of the entire game.
It reminds us that Hitman works best when it combines the mischievous tone and tactical
stealth gameplay rather than focusing on just one.
As such, Hokkaido acts as a perfect way to close out the season.
Drab is certainly not a word you could use to describe this map, which takes you to a
top secret medical facility in the snowy mountains of Japan.
That said, my thoughts on this mission were initially a little conflicted.
I enjoyed the look of everything, with the crisp, striking aesthetic straddling the line
between relaxing and sterile that you'd expect from a top-of-the-line facility such as this.
I couldn't help but feel, however, like this final mission (in which you have to eliminate
both a traitor to your organisation, the ICA, and a lawyer who is threatening to leak details
regarding it) perhaps felt a little... anticlimactic.
It always felt like the maps were introducing something new up to this point—Paris familiarised
the player with the disguise system, Sapienza placed the player in a much larger environment,
Marrakesh introduced much larger crowds (even if it failed to do much with them), Bangkok
focused on opportunities, and hell, even Colorado tried to up the tension with double the targets.
Whilst the map failed on that front, it felt weird to find Hokkaido differentiate itself
by subtracting something that felt like a development of the season's challenges.
However, the beauty of the Hokkaido map lies in the fact that upon closer inspection, this
return to the more basic mission design of previous episodes falls in line with the increased
focus of its map design.
Hokkaido features two key areas—perhaps a low amount considering Marrakesh had the
bazaar, the market, the school, the party, the embassy and TV studio, etc.
Where Marrakesh went wrong, however, was that these areas all felt entirely disparate with
nothing done in one area affecting anything else in another.
It was all too much to feel in any way cohesive.
Hokkaido, however, features only a spa and general recreation area, as well as the medical
facility itself.
Both are a short enough distance away that they don't feel entirely separate from one
another, with this sense of cohesion being heightened by the level's unique connective
tissue—the AI controlling the facility, KAI.
In the spa area, this AI presents itself in the fact that access to certain rooms requires
certain costumes—this isn't just a means to slip past guards here, the key to certain
doors is hardcoded into what you are wearing.
It's not only high security areas either—the guest rooms require 47 to don the robes of
that particular guest.
This actually presents some interesting challenges—certain opportunities require items within these rooms,
for example, as well as items stored in your own room requiring your original costume to
access again.
In the medical facility, however, the AI controls the machinery performing heart surgery on
your target, making sabotage an attractive option.
On top of this connective tissue, though, the two sections of the map force the player
to consider totally different methods of approach, which ends up encapsulating the entire Hitman
experience in an incredibly focused way.
In the spa area, you have the more playful, absurd approach with lower level guards being
less able to see through most disguises.
You can run around this area fairly freely, taking your time and experiencing suitably
dumb scenarios such as poisoning your target with fugu fish, giving them yoga lessons,
or taking the place of someone receiving plastic surgery to look like Helmut Kruger from the
Paris fashion show.
Move onto the medical facility itself, and suddenly you have the tense stealth-oriented
side of the coin.
Guards are much higher-level and increased in numbers.
The corridors are tight and the medical staff will see through almost any disguise that
isn't the facility director himself.
The clever thing about this area is that there is no challenge in finding your target—he's
in plain sight on the operating table, spotlight and all.
It's just that with the multiple guards and doctors walking around and the viewing areas
above the theatre itself, the challenge then becomes one of getting close enough to eliminate
him when all eyes are on him.
Now, does this remind you of something?
It's the same scenario as the very start of the Paris fashion show, where Novikov is paraded
down the stairs as soon as you enter the mansion.
The game has essentially come full circle at this point—using similar scenarios, but
trusting that the player has, over the course of the game, internalised the quirks of its
systems to a point that they will approach it in a different way.
It all comes back to the core of the stealth mechanics of the game—the key is not simply
to avoid line of sight, but to blend in with the people surrounding you as best as possible.
In this sense, the fact that the target is so isolated and immobile actually makes him
more of a threat than almost any target previously—it's a nice escalation of challenge.
Now, the easiest way to deal with this is to lure the facility director into a secluded
area within the spa area and then sabotage the AI within the medical facility, but this
might be difficult for some to manoeuvre given the route that particular character takes—seemingly
always in eyeline of someone else, giving you little opportunity to strike.
What I like about this is not only the ingenuity required of the player to interrupt this scripting
(as has been instilled in you through multiple missions by this point), but the fact that
by achieving this goal in one part of the map, your playstyle for a completely different
part of the map changes entirely.
However, this is just one example of many in which the purpose of the two areas intersect,
and how this forces the player to adapt their playstyle.
There's no other map that really achieves this sense of cohesion and focus quite like
Hokkaido and I think for that reason, it's my favourite map in the game which acts as
the perfect way to round out an incredible first season.
So, after all of this, what can we learn going forward?
Well, I think principally, it's the idea that bigger is not always better.
The high points of the season often ended up being the smaller, more focused maps.
Clearly there is no reason these environments can't end up feeling more expansive than the
more sizeable environments—you just need to ensure that every part of your map serves
a purpose.
If you can, design your environments so that different areas require different playstyles
to be experimented with.
The core of Hitman combines a tactical, nail-bitingly tense stealth experience with a playful, absurd
sense of humour—the best missions in the game required me to carefully balance and
adapt to these two seemingly contradictory playstyles.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, let your mechanics do the talking.
Sure, those first two tutorial stages were effective, but Paris felt so much more organic
in the way it carefully guided the player towards certain scenarios without having to
hold their hand too much or just straight up tell them what to do.
It also allows for funnier, more emergent moments of player driven narrative as they
mess around with the AI and routing systems than any guided Opportunity ever could, no
matter how funny those might actually be.
Essentially, the strength of the game lies in giving up some control and trusting in
the player to find (and sometimes even construct) these moments themselves.
If the devs take these lessons away from what is still an unbelievable opening salvo (even
at its lower points), then I don't think there's any prospect that could get me more excited
than another season of Hitman.
Phew!
If you've stuck around this far, then I really hope you enjoyed what I have to say about
a game that I still can't stop playing.
If you're picking up the disc version released at the end of January, just know that you're
in for a hell of a treat.
Also, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different approach to the kind of video I typically
make.
I probably won't do a whole lot of these just because of the time this took, but it was
a whole lot of fun to experiment with the longer format (also, if longer format videos
are your thing, check out Joseph Anderson, Thinreaper, ShayMay, Matthewmatosis and Novacanoo—they
were all certainly big inspirations for how I approached this piece, so thanks guys!).
At this stage I'd just like to thank all of my patrons for their continued support.
The amount of names I get to list here seems to grow every week and I couldn't be happier
about that fact.
Honestly, without your support, taking the time to experiment with and produce a long
form piece like this simply would not be possible.
Hell, the show as a whole wouldn't function without you.
If you like my videos, even the smallest pledges help me more than you can possibly know.
If you can't or don't want to, however, I'm just happy you're watching the videos.
In fact, I think on a special occasion like this, I'm going to list you all out individually
just to express my unending gratitude!
So, without further ado, HEY IT'S
ALL
THE
PATRON NAMES.
Once again, thank you all so much—you've no idea how much your support means to me.
And with all of that said, I'm Hamish Black and this has been Writing on Games.
Thank you very much for watching and I'll see you next time.
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