Topic: Hitman 2 (2018)

@kixem Sounds like a plan; I'll return here and post about whether they're simple level remixes, or full new environments, as my copy came with the Season Pass.

@beemo It does look incredible. It's the second level, so I'll probably get to it tomorrow evening.

I think the race might be IO's attempt to lead to something like that in future. They're huge football fans. A lot of the easter eggs in the earlier Hitman games revolved around nods to their favourite team (headlines on newspapers saying they won the championship, stuff like that) so I wouldn't be surprised if they were gearing up towards a stadium hit. It'd just be tricky to render the crowd and let you move amongst the stands, but perhaps they'd only need to do a section, as most premiership football club stadiums are 80% corporate function rooms and hotels nowadays, at least here in England.

Awesome idea, though. "Good afternoon, 47. The match is five minutes from kick-off. Your target is the centre-forward, and he must be dead by half-time." What do you do? Engineer a way to get him substituted and off the pitch, perhaps? Join the opposition team and do something to him in a tackle? Or join his team and rig the ball you're about to throw in to explode when he kicks it? Spike his water bottle? Snipe him? Carry on a magic sponge laced with poison? Tie his shoe laces together?!

You should contact IO.

@RogerRoger @beemo That's a great idea. I like it when they're going with these very public places.

The last time I was at a match like that, I was actually sitting in a luxury box (I'm not rich, I got tickets via a friend). I never saw that part of a stadium, but would make for a great setting, possibly for a second target: a businessman/woman watching the game. They had an exclusive restaurant on the back, meeting rooms, that type of facilities. And of course the box itself was a bar full of rich people making business deals or getting drunk.

I felt a bit like an infiltrating Agent 47 myself, actually.

@Kidfried I've never attended a match, but I've been to several stadiums over the years, for various reasons. I'll never forget excusing myself from one function to find a bathroom, taking a wrong turn and ending up standing on the empty pitch of St. James' Park in the dead of night. Eerie, yet awesome.

And, funnily enough, you've touched upon an element included in the Miami level of Hitman 2 as well, but I couldn't say anything further because... well, rage.

Started playing this morning. Was really excited and keen. Did the first level, a short but beautiful new prologue which is a much better, much more narrative-driven introduction than the IKEA Training Facility from the previous game. There's a lot of story delivered in the levels themselves; makes up for all the interstitial cutscenes being rubbish (because from what I've seen thusfar, they are). It had a wonderful atmosphere, took me about 30 minutes and re-introduced me to the gameplay and the world of Hitman in an excellent way. Managed to get in and out without raising an alarm or restarting anything, too. Amazing.

So then, fresh from this great experience, I started Miami. The game kindly offered to give me an Opportunity (now called Mission Stories) to track from the get-go, since it was my first visit, but I politely declined. I found one by myself and followed it through to completion, killing one of the level's two targets, quietly and without suspicion. Felt good.

Walked away, found a new disguise and was just about to start tracking my second target when the game froze and a message popped up. "Cannot connect to the IO servers. You are offline. Continue playing and lose all auto-saves and progression tracking, or quit to the main menu?"

Apparently, it's server maintenance, but nowhere did the game (which I'd started playing less than an hour beforehand) warn me of this. It just booted me, halfway through a level.

Won't play more until this evening, and will restart Miami then.

Rage.

@RogerRoger Wow, that’s pretty frustrating. I wonder how long the servers will stay up. Especially since we approach the end of a console generation, I would be a little concerned that they won’t be maintaining them in perpetuity. I suppose it all depends on how the game sells. The recent issue of Gravity Rush 2 and others shows that publishers aren’t opposed to yanking online support within a year if a game isn’t making money. If they did such a thing, I wonder if it is possible to patch the game to be able to make progress offline. I would hope so. What a strange development decision it is to require the online connection.

@Th3solution There's nothing here that couldn't be handled offline. I'd understand if their servers provided greater processing power for NPC AI or something, but it doesn't; you can play the game offline and there's no impact on the details, it's only stat-tracking and XP levelling that requires the internet. The multiplayer modes are also in a different section of the menu, so it's not like they're integrated like challenge modes in open-world sandbox games, either.

Given how they've handled Hitman 2 and integrating the previous game's levels, I wouldn't be surprised if the third game in this current trilogy, released on PS5, incorporates everything and the servers run into the next generation. But you're right, it's totally patchable... if they want to.

Otherwise it just feels somewhat "big data" (especially since the game is about a shadowy organisation that controls everything from behind the scenes of everyday life).

@RogerRoger I think that is what so puzzling, at least for me, it could all be done offline so there is no need to have a continuous connection to the servers.

Okay, so spent more time with Hitman 2 last night and this morning. I'll try to keep my ramblings spoiler-free, but there may be minor details about maps and objectives you'd rather discover for yourselves, so here's a friendly heads up because I won't be using spoiler tags.

***

When I finally got to play Miami last night, I really enjoyed it. I can see that they consider it this game's Sapienza; it has the most detail, the most Mission Stories, the most Challenges, etc. and it feels like there's a heck of a lot going on. It's dynamic, though, so for example I was tracking one Mission Story that required me to meet with somebody who was driving in the race; as I drew closer to the meeting point, the race came to an end, but otherwise it would've kept going. I like that there's no forced timer and that the ongoing story of the location adapts to you and your actions. It's a relatively easy map to get to grips with, too. I wasn't confused at any point, the layout was logical and it didn't feel as divided as some other, larger maps sometimes do. It was good, maybe even great, but I felt like very little was a surprise, because it's been shoved to the marketing fore for about a year now. I wanted to get through it and move on, but I'll enjoy going back and poking around for more Mission Stories.

I immediately continued to Santa Fortuna in Colombia. This map frustrated me a lot. At first, it seems sprawling but then you realise it's another large area constructed of smaller, more isolated components (just like Marrakesh) and since you've got three targets to assassinate, it felt like three quite different, self-contained levels mashed together. It also doesn't help that security is ridiculously tight, to the point where I struggled to find any kind of outfit that'd get me close enough to anything meaningful without being questioned by somebody (and hey, maybe that's realistic, but it didn't make for fun gameplay; it was frustrating-tense, not awesome-tense). I followed one Mission Story for my first target and achieved it, but then couldn't find any others, and resorted to straightforward "stalk them until they're alone and then just shoot them" gameplay. I want to go back and really try to understand this level, because first time out I just didn't get it, and therefore wanted it to be over. For now, it hasn't been a highlight, and I turned the game off afterwards as a result.

Then this morning, I played Mumbai. In many ways, this was the level Colombia should've been, because it was almost identical in terms of layout and objectives, yet felt so much more alive and vibrant. I felt like I could have more impact on it, rather than just walking around and periodically shooting people when nobody was watching. Again, security was incredibly tight; there are random people dotted about that see through any disguise and question you, and you're forced to try and blend with crowds and move around them, which led to some stop-start gameplay that I wasn't massively keen on; however, one of the three targets had a unique element to them, reminiscent of a brilliant mission from the other Hitman 2, Silent Assassin on PS2, which shook things up and made the entire level last over an hour (the others I cleaned up in about 30-45 minutes). Some of the more clunky elements stopped the experience from being incredible, but it was still very, very good. I can see additional objectives and other Mission Stories making this one of my favourites.

What is disappointing overall is that the story is more detailed and engaging than I'd expected, with some really excellent voice acting, so it's a shame that the cutscenes are slideshows rather than fully animated. It makes it feel cheap, and lends weight to some of the review accusations I've seen regarding Hitman 2 feeling more like an expansion pack than a full game. Perhaps someday, one of the planned updates will add proper cutscenes, because for all my previous comments about the story not mattering, I do actually quite like it thusfar.

Two locations remain before the end credits, and then I'll start to properly "play" the game. I remain hopeful, and it's certainly been more great than not, but I'm still waiting for that flash of brilliance that draws me in and makes me eager to suit up.

Adequate work, 47.

...and that's that. Completed every level once; now the real game begins.

Whittleton Creek in Vermont is a stand-out Hitman location, incredibly reminiscent of one of Blood Money's most popular levels (deliberately so, in some ways). I did encounter some confusion as to which objective to attempt first, which made my playthrough an hour-long nightmare of failure, but it remained fun throughout and taught me a lot about how to approach things in future. I managed both of the hits, at least, in classy and stealthy ways via Mission Stories (and one had a great twist halfway through that I wasn't expecting).

Finally, the Isle of Sgàil off the coast of Scotland made for a suitable final level; it had that appropriate "last location" atmosphere to it, but that unfortunately also meant that it was insanely tough. I did manage to pull off two Mission Stories to achieve my objectives, but I had to cause a mess for one of them, which I didn't like (and meant I broke my "only kill the target" rule, which was upsetting despite the collateral damage being some not-very-nice folks). Gonna be interesting going back to there and exploring further, because it feels like there are only a handful of very specific routes along which you can remain undetected or unchallenged by security.

At first glance, therefore, I'd say that the levels in Hitman 2 are very solid. There are a few frustrating moments and missteps, just as with any Hitman game, but the good outweighs the bad. I can, however, totally see why IO have made such a big deal about bringing over the previous game's levels and incorporating them into the game; on their own, the six new levels (five if you don't really count Hawke's Bay) fall somewhat short of feeling like a full game.

Perhaps they're just shaking off the episodic release structure from before, and they've obviously been through a lot in recent history, being dumped by SquareEnix and whatnot. Let's hope the ongoing support for Hitman 2 (both in terms of free content and what's covered by the Season Pass) builds and expands on the solid foundations, because the end result could be something special.

Right now, though, from what I've seen, it's probably on course for a high six or low seven.

So I just killed Hitman 2's first Elusive Target, Sean Bean (a.k.a. The Undying).

Twice.

Which isn't the point of Elusive Targets, you might notice. These are one-shot folks who wander around levels for a couple weeks and you get a single chance to take them out. You can't save during the level and if you die, it's game over and you can't restart. Once you've achieved your objectives and escaped, no matter how well (or how badly) you've done, it's locked off and you can't access it again.

Thankfully, my console glitched out just as I was leaving the first time, so the game registered that I'd killed Sean Bean but didn't register that I'd completed the level. I got another shot, albeit a far more messy one because I just wanted it to log my accomplishment. You get classic Hitman suits for completing various amounts of Elusive Targets and it was more important to me that my game just says "yep, you've completed the level" rather than "yep, you've aced the level with a perfect score". I'm never usually a fan of restricted, limited-time events so getting to have another cheeky look around was neat.

But I didn't particularly feel like I needed to, because this Elusive Target was much more comprehensive than those in the previous game. Rather than just dumping you in a level and sticking a bullseye over somebody's head, Sean Bean comes with a storyline, a full mission briefing and a unique Mission Story to track in order to get close to him. Probably because of the expense of getting Sean Bean to star in the game, it's clear that IO want people to hear his voice work (of which there is quite a bit) and see his character model up-close. There are ways of assassinating him without getting anywhere near him, of course, with Diana pointing out a perfect sniper spot on the opposite side of the Miami race track during the briefing, but I play my games for narrative, so I decided to follow the Mission Story.

Spoiler Warning: If you're planning on taking a shot at this in the next twelve days, probably best to stop reading here, because I'm about to discuss details of the hit.

Following the Mission Story saw me end up sitting in a business meeting with Mr. Bean himself, disguised as an engineer. I sat at the table and the viewpoint shifted to first person. There's lots of shadowy talk regarding what he's up to, and then (because they really want to show off the A-Lister they've gotten involved) he comes right up to 47 and sits next to him. "Hypothetically, let's say you're an assassin hired to kill me," he says. "How would you do it?" A few button prompts later, and 47 has narrated three of the possible opportunities available in the level itself, much to Sean Bean's delight and right to his screen-filling face.

I'm grinning from ear to ear. This isn't just ballsy, this is IO revelling in the set-up they've created. Moment over, Sean Bean decides to then go and inspect some weapons in a lab nearby, and settles in to a familiar Hitman target loop, going from room to room, pausing to look at things and chat to NPCs, waiting for the moment you choose to strike. He makes phone calls along the way, one of which is apparently with somebody trying to warn him that 47 has been sent to assassinate him. He laughs. "Let him try, if he's even real." I'm literally walking two steps behind him. Genius.

During one of his stops, I decided to switch disguises in order to get a little closer to my prey. I manage to lure one of his personal security guards away with a distraction and boom, suddenly I'm a suited and booted corporate security man. Back into the loop I go, following Sean Bean back to the meeting room. There's a little more dialogue and then it's time to leave again. Having hovered near the door like all the other security guards do, I step to one side to allow him to pass.

"Ah," he says casually, looking right at me. "That one suits you."

I froze.

Did he recognise me? Was he registering the fact that I'd changed outfits? No target has ever reacted that way to 47 before, not in any Hitman game. Was he gonna blow my cover? How much longer could I keep this up? Was he playing along to trap me? What about that phone call earlier? Was this a set-up?

Now panicked, I felt the weight of the one-shot level on my shoulders. I couldn't save or restart, and if it was some kind of elaborate trap and I did die...?

I had to get this done.

So I followed him back to the weapons lab. He bent over to inspect an explosive pen gadget he'd commissioned, but there were people around. Lab scientists, mostly. No guards. It'd take them time to raise the alarm, giving me a crucial few seconds to leg it. It wouldn't be pretty and it definitely wouldn't make for a Silent Assassin rating, but who cares; Sean Bean knows. He knows I've been two different people in the last ten minutes. He knows I'm there for him.

Heck with it. Pen, meet eye. "Target down, 47. Now head for an exit."

There's much yelling and screaming, and I instantly become hunted, but that's okay. I know the way out. I'm too quick for the guards. So long, Miami.

I've never had that feeling from a Hitman game before. It was such a casual, throwaway line but with those four words, The Undying had completely changed my game and turned what was a kinda-cool bonus feature into one of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had.

Here's hoping for more Elusive Targets of the same quality and potential complexity, because I absolutely loved it. Can't wait to see what IO deliver next.

With all previous content now under one roof, and with Just Cause 4 failing to light my world on fire as promised, I treated myself to the Patient Zero DLC Campaign which comes with the GOTY Edition of Hitman (2016) or as a £7.99 upgrade to Hitman 2 if you never had it before.

I've just finished playing its four-level storyline and boy, was it tough... in all the right ways.

Strung together by nifty new cutscenes of exposition aboard Agent 47's private jet as he zips from murder to murder, the campaign takes you back to Bangkok, Sapienza, Colorado and Hokkaido and remixes the locations to offer challenging new scenarios. What makes them even more tricky than before is that none of them come with Mission Stories to help guide you through and explore; you have to piece together your own plans, through observation and intel alone. This made Bangkok easier in some regards and incredibly difficult in others, and my hits were sloppy as a result.

After introducing the concepts of the campaign in the first level, the subsequent three came with unique twists. Arrive in Sapienza and you're told that your two targets are meeting at midnight, after which one will leave the area. There's no countdown timer, but you've got about ten minutes to develop a plan before the church bell tolls. Meanwhile, in Colorado, you're forced to keep your distance for plot reasons, and so you spend the entire level stuck up a nearby radio tower, with only a sniper rifle and Diana's voice for company. In a beautiful nod to Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, you're slowly fed information to help you identify four targets, starting with a general area for each before eventually narrowing things down with hints like "his file says that he likes to play chess" or "looks like he recently sprained his ankle". I was forced to restart this level because I made a mistake and the clues were all different, pointing me to four different targets. Seems like it'll hold up to many replays.

Hokkaido was just insane; this one I will spoiler tag, because it wasn't in the briefing. Basically, upon arrival, you're tasked with finding Patient Zero, an infected virus-carrier who must be eliminated to prevent an outbreak. After about five minutes, Diana informs you that the virus has spread, and a new target pops up on your screen. A moment later, so does another... and another... and then another. Before long, I had twenty NPCs throughout the level marked for assassination. Some were guards, but others were lab workers, waiters, cooks, receptionists, mechanics... everybody, and they're all over the place. Diana informs you that the ICA have given you clearance to contain the virus no matter what. They all have to be eliminated. Again, my first playthrough was a complete mess because of the chaos caused by my panic, but I can't wait to replay it and see what else is possible.

My personal choice for GOTY, most definitely... but Hitman 2 (with all the previous content installed and unlocked) might just end up being my game of the generation.

I've seen Hitman 2 around for €45 in the Christmas sales, and it's incredibly tempting. I just have a few questions before I decide to pull the trigger:

1) Are the servers stabilised yet? I saw you mentioned experiencing server problems while attempting the elusive target. I'm one of those people that if something out of my control breaks the game, it immediately ruins it for me. I always have a hard time getting myself to come back to said game, so I really need the servers to be stable!

2) I haven't played the 2016 Hitman game as I've mentioned before. Is any of the story content from the base game from that as well as Patient Zero absolutely need-to-know information? I saw you were surprised by quite a focus on the story in Hitman 2, so I would like to know whether or not I should know any of the story beats from Hitman 2016 or if it's fairly self explanatory.

Thanks in advance! @RogerRoger

@Tjuz No worries; I'll answer as best I can.

1) Since that downtime the day before the full launch (which, being fair, is kinda an understandable time for them to wanna make a few last-minute tweaks) the servers have been stable, yes. That probably means they're due a glitch, but that's me being a pessimist. They've been working and working well; I've only noticed one occasional instance of lag when reloading saves (because whilst they're stored on your PS4, the game distinguishes between "online" and "offline" saves and therefore needs to ping before showing you what's available to load from). This has only been an extra five or six seconds, mind, and only at peak times, like evenings and weekends, so it could equally be my own internet's fault.

2) The opening level of Hitman 2 starts with a "Previously on Hitman..." recap of the previous game's storyline, which I thought was helpful and covered most of the bases (the story from 2016 is relatively straightforward and deliberately vague, although the cutscenes drip with atmosphere). Patient Zero is a separate, standalone story unconnected to anything that takes place in the "core" games.

Whilst that stands as an answer to your second question, I would personally recommend getting the Legacy Pack for £20 (or the Euro equivalent) from the PS Store. It would then allow you to download and incorporate all of the levels, cutscenes and Escalation Contracts from Hitman (2016) into your copy of Hitman 2, creating one giant, continuing Hitman experience under one silky-smooth menu. You could also look to buy any of the "complete" versions of the 2016 game in a sale for cheaper (on disc or digitally, doesn't matter) and then access the Legacy Pack that way, because it's free for folks who owned the previous entry.

The new levels are excellent but whilst the story does a good job of recapping itself for newcomers, the gameplay arc from 2016's first levels all the way through to the end of Hitman 2 is much more compelling and has a better pace and structure than if you just parachute in halfway through. Since I hadn't played in a while, by the time I reached Hitman 2's third level I felt swamped and out of my depth, but taking my time and replaying the older levels suddenly made me far more confident when I returned to the new locations and tried new tactics. It isn't just a marketing gimmick that they've merged the games like this; it feels like the original intention all along (and if SquareEnix hadn't forced the episodic release structure on them in 2016, I think consumers wouldn't be so confused and sales would be stronger).

All that aside, though, if you were to just get Hitman 2 and enjoy what's on the disc, I'm sure you'd have a blast and end up being compelled to get the Legacy Pack anyway, so go with whatever suits.

Hope this has helped in some way!

@RogerRoger Thank you! I decided to buy it after your reply. I have seen all the levels of Hitman 2016 on YouTube (thanks to being too impatient for the episodic release), which is why I initially decided against buying the 2016 game. I definitely will look into getting the Legacy Pack after Hitman 2 though, probably when it goes on sale. Hopefully I'll be able to get to terms with the gameplay quick enough so that jumping in midway in the gameplay arc doesn't end up hindering me! I'll probably start it today.

@Tjuz Hope you enjoy the experience; do come back and let us know how you find it, especially as a long-term fan of the Hitman franchise (as I know you are).

And yeah, at least with having watched the 2016 levels, you'll have a better-than-nothing grasp of the story, but there are so many diverse and different ways to complete each assassination that I'd still definitely recommend that Legacy Pack when you're able. Watching one person try one approach is great, but getting to then explore and do things differently is where the real genius is.

@RogerRoger we will all be joining you on the Hitman train next month bro!

@themcnoisy Looks like it!

Although this topic is for Hitman 2, please do use it for the first season as well, as it's all connected. Am more than happy to help with any questions, give spoiler-free tips or nudges in the right direction, or answer anything else I can.

So... I got all trophies in Colorado. And yes, I am very proud of myself now.

It's actually a very decent map, which I liked a lot. I heard many people complain about it, but it is one of the most well rounded maps I feel. And maybe even the best designed.

The biggest downside is having four characters to assassinate, which makes a playthrough really long compared to the other levels, and thus less likely to replay. But I like that they experimented with that.

There's great Easter eggs, cool characters, brilliant level design and eye for detail... what more could I want, really.

@Kidfried Congratulations! You should be rightly proud, I don't think I've ever gotten all of the Colorado trophies across both versions of the list (and when I saw you listed on PSN as playing "Escalation Contract in Colorado" I may have whispered something to myself about your bravery).

Whilst I agree that having four targets does make the level seem daunting, it's actually the layered security which bugs me most of the time (the level's natural layout, favouring a realistic structure instead of a gameplay-focused constructed reality, makes it difficult to take action and to judge when you're gonna cross a line in the wrong disguise) and, as such, I'll be fascinated by your thoughts on Hokkaido. But you're absolutely spot-on with your other observations. I've grown to love Colorado; it just took me a little longer to "get" it than the other maps, I think.

Once I've mastered Bangkok, I'll be spending more time back there and your comments have made me look forward to doing so even more, so thank you!

I've started Hitman. This games no joke when it comes to having the right clothes on. You got trainers on? Go put your shoes on scruff bag.

I'm passed the training missions now. Great game and I love the size of the first level in Paris. I ended up playing it cool initially then accidentally getting spotted and blasting a good 10 innocent npcs away. Pity I've got work tomorrow else I would be up until the early hours trying things out.

Big problem I have with Hitman is I can see a solution but then can't act it out due to the limitations of the game mechanics. I think Rog you mentioned it, become one with the Hitman. Once you know what he can and can't do and where everyone is moving too options present themselves.

I may use the trophy lists and try to get most of the trophies before moving on to the next chapter. Else forget what was going on if I run through it all quickly.

@Frigate what's up with Mumbai?

I've finished the Paris level. Its really good fun. I love the way they put challenges and trophies in so you try new things!

I am trying to avoid using guides on my first few playthroughs. I had to use one in the training facility for the projector slides. I was gazumped and kept flicking the power on and off. I didn't realise the Russian would put the power back on and kill the chess player - he does that an age after setting up, so lesson learned, patience.