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Topic: Hitman 2 (2018)

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RogerRoger

themcnoisy wrote:

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.

Yeah, that's the most crucial part of the learning curve. You watch trailers and read reviews and hear about how "everything's possible" and then get shot to pieces because you're spotted trying to vault the wrong section of a seven-foot wall. Whilst the variety and choice is still staggering, you'll only see it all unfold once you learn how the game works and how 47 moves through the space.

From your follow-up post, though, sounds like you're getting the hang of it and I'm glad you enjoyed Paris; it remains a favourite for me, definitely. Hope you continue to have fun!

@Frigate I can sympathise with your reaction to Mumbai. Personally, I loved the atmosphere of the level in spite of the disjointed objective design to which you refer (which I agree with; my first playthrough took me well over an hour, stopping and starting with each of the three targets). If you're ever in the mood, though, do take a second pass and try some of the other Mission Stories. There are some moments of absolute genius to be had, and now that you've seen what the separate parts of the level are like, you might find it easier to return to (but I can understand if you'd rather not).

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Kidfried

I just beat Hokkaido, which has to be one of my favorite levels so far. It is structured brilliantly. It's an interior level, which is a plus. It has all these different sections to explore, but it all fits really well.

Now just need to go for the remaining trophies.

Kidfried

RogerRoger

@Kidfried Awesome. After your reaction to Colorado, I thought that might be the case.

Enjoy earning those trophies!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Kidfried

Just beat all the levels, and mastered all of them (doing pretty much all assassinations too). Some final thoughts:

Ranking the levels
1. A House Built on Sand
2. Colorado
3. Landslide
4. Hokkaido
5. Sapienza
6. Paris
7. Marrakech
8. Bangkok
9. Intro Pack
10. The Icon

(Might change every second, but still!)

Ranking this game, it actually struck me how I actually like pretty much every level. Some were just a bit more brilliantly designed than others. Really enjoyed my time, though I don't feel enticed to pick up Hitman 2. I played the heck out of every level, so in a way, and due to the episodic structure, it feels like I actually played 10 Hitman games instead of just one. And there's still a lot of content left in this game for me (some challenges, escalation contracts, extra difficulty).

I feel like i got enough out of it and eagerly anticipate the next direction this series is heading. Of course, it's already kind of a miracle they even got to make Hitman 2 now, so... we'll see about this serie's future.

Hats off to IO for this game though, they made a game with a lot of content, and I haven't had this much fun with a game in the series ever before.

Sayonara (for now), Hitman!

Kidfried

RogerRoger

@Kidfried Great ranking. I've never actually stopped and thought about the levels from Season One enough to properly rank them (and I've only really discovered large parts of them whilst playing them integrated with Hitman 2, so they're blended with the new levels in my head a bit).

And really glad to hear that you liked the game so much! With the way things are going, you'll probably end up being able to play Hitman 2 for free at some point, so there's no rush. Just know that you'll adore it when you get there, if these were your opinions about Season One! The gameplay quality of life improvements are wonderful, but the levels themselves are the stars. Given how much you loved the security layers of Colorado and Hokkaido, I think you'll be a huge fan of places like Mumbai and the Isle of Sgàil.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Tjuz

Been a while (thanks to my tendency to suddenly quit hobbies for months at a time)! In the last three months, I admittedly haven't gotten very far into Hitman 2. I've finished up until Mumbai, so I believe that leaves me with three more missions to go? I quite enjoy it! It's fun doing all the challenges and trying out every mission story, but I certainly do not have the patience to endlessly replay levels as much as I would love to. The gameplay is great, the graphics are very pleasurable to look at and the levels are well designed. I really have no big complaints with it, even though it's taken me this long to only get halfway through! I did finish the Politician ET this afternoon, which went much more successfully than the other one I played in Santa Fortuna (the military leader). Not to say that it all went without any avoidable messes! I'll never claim to be a good player, but it's always fun. I might finish the last three levels soon, depends on what I'll be in the mood for. I haven't played any games in, well, three months, so hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon enough (and then eventually burn out once again)!

Tjuz

Kidfried

@Tjuz That's absurd. I don't know if I would even last three months without gaming.

:')

Kidfried

RogerRoger

@Tjuz Welcome back! Your description of your approach to Hitman 2 sounds very familiar; whilst I'm usually distracted by other games and not just breaks in general, I too have suffered the "I think I remember how to do this!" pitfalls, especially with games like Hitman where it's a lot of trial and error and therefore easy to overlook something that'll make your plan fall apart.

Glad you're mostly enjoying it, though, and well done for completing The Politician! I took a shot at her last night and managed to get Silent Assassin, but only because I happened upon a clue which reminded me of my tactics from a previous Elusive Target.

Hope you'll come back and let us know how you get along with the last couple levels!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Tjuz

@Kidfried My habits in regards to my hobbies are without a doubt absurd! I'm glad you're able to stick to something better and more consistently, haha.

@RogerRoger It's especially fun if the something you overlooked ends up being forgotten controls, or just less fluid controls due to downtime, or generally just sucking, and accidentally press the wrong buttons or make the wrong actions happen.

"I'd like to disguise as.... oh, I just snapped his neck."
"Let's just throw the body in the window... no, don't enter without the body. NOW IT'S SPOTTED!"
"Let me talk to this NPC.... NO, DON'T SUBDUE HIM!"
"I'll just get my gun out and shoot this camera, aaand now I've thrown a distraction leading a guard right to me."
"Alright, here we go. Subdue this.... NO, I STILL HAD MY WRENCH EQUIPPED AND NOW IT MADE TOO LOUD OF A NOISE!"

The last one especially is a recurring action. I don't know if I'll ever learn! I don't think I've gotten a Silent Assassin in any of the missions or Elusive Targets. I got close with The Politician, but created a mess in the garage with around three unconscious witnesses. Not a chaotic mess, but still enough to lose my Silent Assassin unfortunately! I'll always have respect for the people who manage to get that score, especially in ETs where you only get one attempt.

I did play Whittleton Creek this afternoon! Messed about for around two hours in it trying to discover everything. I quite enjoyed that map. Very streamlined, but lots of things to do. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of houses and it being an entire block, but I suppose it's nothing like Mumbai. I managed to discover all the locations, poison Janus and take out Norman in the garage with his bodyguard. I actually I might have gotten Silent Assassin there if not for one unconscious witness. The bane of my existence. I did like the added clue mechanic. Even though it was essentially just extra targets, I liked being instructed to do something other than murder for once. I did create a bit of a mess in the construction next to Batty's house, but none of the bodies were found so I was golden! I didn't do any of the mission stories, because I wanted to figure out everything on my own for once. Played it Blood Money-style I suppose, and it worked! I especially enjoyed dragging Janus' bodyguard's body across the floor in his house right behind him without him noticing.

I did also create a bit of a mess in the house where the couple is having a BBQ party. I went upstairs, found a server doing whatever, and kept following him whenever he relocated. Unfortunately, there were guns in the floor in one room that he eventually kept reacting to. I figured I'd pick up the gun before he goes and snitch to Nolan's guards, but then he got mad I was walking around with a gun equipped. That just turned into a cycle, until he, oddly enough, decided to warn another civilian who then came to investigate. I then subdued said civilian and put him in a closet somewhere, but apparently some couple was also checking out upstairs and found my guns, who then also proceeded to warn civilians. Three civilians later I was finally free! I did find that same couple standing motionless in the wine cellar a little bit later, doing absolutely nothing. I guess I interrupted their rounds and the game glitched out and didn't know what to do with them anymore.

I still have the Isle of Sgail left, where I've actually been for the ET there a couple of months ago. I actually successfully eliminated that ET by dropping a chandelier on here, but then somehow I angered the guards, they went hostile and murdered me. I don't remember exactly what I did. I think I was walking around in a restricted area too long. So, call that a half-success? It was a good location though, so I'm excited to return and see it's proper mission. I believe Himmelstein is just a sniper mission?

Anyway, I might get to that tomorrow or I'll continue playing the Spidey PS4 DLC. Maybe both! I'll see what happens. My hobby related activities are always impulsive as all heck. No use in planning anything beforehand, haha.

Tjuz

RogerRoger

@Tjuz Hitman 2 briefly suffered because I played the new PS4 release of Hitman Absolution recently, too; games with identical characters but near-identical controls. Seriously, they're almost exactly the same, except to holster your current weapon / item in the latter, it's down on the D-Pad but in the former, it's up. No end of confusion! Me standing out in the open wondering why people are running and screaming from the smartly-dressed man in th... oh, it's because he's brandishing a bloody axe. Oops. Thought I'd put that away. Reload checkpoint!

Whittleton Creek is excellent; glad you enjoyed it. First time I played it, took me a long time, too! There's just so much to explore and experiment with. I do recommend following one or two of the Mission Stories at some point; one of them in particular has one of my favourite "uh-oh" twists of all time, really caught me off-guard (and wasn't too dissimilar to your approach, too). The nosy couple in the BBQ house caught me out a couple times, too! Always forget about them and, as such, posted a custom Contract to eliminate the husband.

Thanks for sharing your experiences; there's nothing quite like reading about how different people approach different Hitman levels, I love it! And yes, Himmelstein is a Sniper Assassin level; it's neat, but don't expect to lose hours to it. A short, sharp yet beautiful experience.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Tjuz

@RogerRoger Again, sorry for the late reply. I have tried Hitman: Absolution on PC years ago after loving Blood Money, but I couldn't get into it. I think I played the first few levels. None of the ones I played really stood out to me and I ended up just abandoning the game. The whole D-Pad shenanigans sounds like a pain in the butt! I'm quite easily confused by the Hitman 2 controls as it is, so suddenly changing one of the important controls while moving over to Absolution would surely make it all the more chaotic.

The nosy couple definitely deserve a contract on them. I would try the Custom Contracts mode myself, but I'm really not creative enough to come up with anything fun like how many of the featured custom ones are! I still haven't finished Isle of Sgail. I tried once, but then kept getting caught and I just stopped playing because I was frustrated. I haven't been back since. I'm sure I will finish it eventually, but I'm absolutely terrible when it comes to ragequitting games. Chances are slim I'll ever return to a game after doing so! In the case of Hitman 2 though, I most certainly will. It's just a matter of time.

Tjuz

crimsontadpoles

I had a go at that limited time one shot elusive target Sean Bean mission The Undying Returns, and successfully managed to slay Mark Faba and escape.

Perhaps I didn't didn't do it in the most elegant way possible. After using coins to lure away the two armed guards following him and then knocking them out with muffins (yep, lol), I then just knocked out Faba when we were alone in a corridor and then snapped his neck. After killing the target, I then ran so very fast away to the exit before anyone noticed the body.

RogerRoger

@crimsontadpoles That's a totally valid approach; that's basically what I did the first time, although I didn't lure anybody away and just shoved his face into that pen with everybody watching.

Silent Assassin ratings can wait. Sometimes, you've just gotta leg it!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

RogerRoger

"Welcome to New York, 47..."

Just finished completing all of the Mission Stories within the first of the full-fat Expansion Pass levels. I'm very happy to report that the New York branch of global financial giant Milton-Fitzpatrick is a worthy addition to this most excellent of games. It's a multi-layered, swanky puzzle box filled with opportunity, narrative, character and diabolical fun... in other words, it's very Hitman. The wait for this content has definitely paid off, and IO Interactive should be proud.

There's another attempt at objective diversity here. To begin with, there are fears of repeating Sapienza's mistake, as you're tasked with assassinating one target (Athena Savalas, the bank's director and a great Marlowe-esque villain who totally deserved getting shoved out of her office's window) but also retrieving some data from the bank's servers. Thankfully, the level presents you with multiple interesting ways to achieve this second objective; yes, there is a static server in the vault that you can break into the same way every time, but there are also copies of the information floating around the entire map, broken up into pieces. This allows you to stalk other potential victims (although they themselves aren't targets, so you'll be penalised for killing them) to cobble together what you need, avoiding a repetition of the same B&E sequence every time you wanna complete the level. It's a clever way of mixing things up.

Also, the story is a direct continuation of the core narrative from the launch game, so they're obviously not hanging around for the sequel (both appreciated and concerning, but hey). Whilst the new Sniper Assassin map in Singapore was standalone, this moves things along nicely, with all the right characters present and correct. It doesn't get around to any of the major plot twists we were promised, so hopefully they're still being saved for the trilogy's conclusion, but it expands and develops the backstory of Providence well enough. When all is said and done, it'll feel like an integral part of the game; for now, it ends on a big "TO BE CONTINUED..." and a tease for the next Expansion Pass location.

Whilst I did follow one particular Mission Story which perhaps gave me too much access to the bank's different areas (a disguise which basically gets you everywhere, with only a couple easily-avoidable enforcer NPCs who can see through it, making it far too tempting to abuse), the whole experience seems very nicely balanced. It's very difficult to get yourself lost, either, because it's such a minimalist location. There are some gorgeous graphical flourishes here and there, but it mostly looks very functional and stark; no spectacular sunsets or sweeping mountain ranges here. I described it as a puzzle "box" for a reason but, knowing where the next DLC chapter will be heading, this isn't a criticism in the slightest. There'll be plenty of time for palm trees later.

One odd thing, though. The trophies are listed completely separate from the Hitman 2 section; they're not just a sub-menu, they're treated as an entirely different game, and the splash page on the PS4 home screen now shows both "Hitman 2" and "Hitman 2 - Expansion Pass" beneath the game's start button. Makes me wonder whether IO Interactive hit some kind of arbitrary limit, given how many trophies and sub-lists were already in Hitman 2 because of the Legacy Pack. Weird.

Anyway, rambling aside, Agent 47 has never been better, and it looks like 2019 will continue to reinforce his latest as the definitive Hitman experience. Excellent work.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

RogerRoger

@JohnnyShoulder Blimey, no, I hadn't... thank you!

No vinyl player here, alas, but it looks like a gorgeous thing for fans. Mention of the digital version hopefully means there'll be a wider re-release of all four soundtracks soon. They contain some truly stunning music.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

crimsontadpoles

There's a new elusive target now available for those with the legacy pack, The Badboy. I managed to do it first try, but it didn't go so well.

After getting close to the target with a good disguise and having knocked out some nearby people all without getting spotted, I then found it tricky to separate the target from his last bodyguard. After luring away those two into a secluded spot, I then made the mistake of throwing a soda can at the bodyguard's head. That made a loud noise alerting nearby people, causing me to have to quickly knock out and kill the target, then run and hide. Once the heat had died down, I was able to replace my compromised outfit with that of a nearby techie, then calmly make my exit.

Edited on by crimsontadpoles

RogerRoger

@LaJettatura I found out about the employee who was due to be fired, took his place and shoved her through her office window. I'd explored one or two of the other Mission Stories (gave the investigative reporter those documents which crashed the stock market, without realising what that mechanic actually achieved at first) but settled on it when I saw the guy's sweater. 47 loves good knitwear.

How about you?

@crimsontadpoles Ooh, thanks for the heads-up. I was gonna move on with a new game this evening, but I might jump back on and give The Badboy a try first.

And don't worry, you're not the only one who's accidentally thrown a soda can / brick / wrench / knife / baseball bat / shuriken / fish / desk lamp / pool ball / snowball / suitcase / coconut at somebody's head and caused a panic. Far from it. Happens to me all the time!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

RogerRoger

@LaJettatura Wow, you touched upon almost all of the major Mission Stories in one run! Nicely done; I agree, to substantially scratch the surface of each location, you've got to replay it four times minimum.

And yes, I've got "Drop the Bass" from Bangkok, right? Although I'll readily admit that my method felt a little like cheating. I blame the game for encouraging me to think creatively. Are you working on it?

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

RogerRoger

@LaJettatura I deliberately tried to mix up my methodology when replaying the Legacy Pack, but then I hadn't gotten around to properly completing The Complete First Season before they announced what they were doing, so I just waited it out. It was great because I not only rediscovered an amazing game that I'd kinda overlooked, but all that content at my fingertips really helped me get the Hitman bug.

That's exactly what I did for "Drop the Bass" as well! Great minds!

It felt like cheating because I'd knocked them out, though, and then positioned them beneath the coconuts. Didn't get spotted. I think I lucked out because I always do the "silly" trophies on Casual, so either the guard count was lower or they didn't react as quickly as Professional / Master.

And what, you mean this moment...?

Untitled

I made that GIF when a fellow PushSquare user asked whether we were planning a party for their birthday. I thought it was a suitable response!

Now that I've unlocked the Hitman Absolution suit (my favourite suit) I'm going back and getting all of the Suit Only challenges that I'd previously missed. Some I've ended up making really needlessly complex. Once I've achieved it for myself, I'll look up other people's methods online for comparison; I think Sapienza took me almost half an hour, and then I looked on YouTube and there were people with six minute walkthroughs. D'oh!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

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