Hi, Iām 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 gameās episodic
nature ā the benefits of which I detail in this video here ā 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 beforeāa long-form analysis, examining each mission in the gameās 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 Hitmanās levels
play to the strengths of the gameās 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 themāthey 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 ā 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 Hitmanās design, is its absurdist sense
of humour. This affects everything about the way you
learn and interact with the gameās rules and systems. It essentially teaches you that you need to
view each individual as an AI procedureāas a piece on a board rather than a living, functioning
being. Now donāt worry, either this is sounding
like a lot or itās sounding totally reductive. Like I say, as we go into the levels themselves
Iāll explain how each of these core ideas is fleshed out through the levels 47 infiltrates. Letās briefly talk about the two tutorial
levels, as theyāre actually very good as teaching tools, even if they might not be
wholly necessary (and weāll 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, youāre
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. Donāt 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 itās playing itself. Even the ones that donāt directly end with
a character getting killed can lead a target to a particular area where theyāll 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 ālook! Our game is funny!ā 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, thereās
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 youāre not meant to. Theyāre fairly courteous about it ā itās
like they understand that some of the barriers between restricted areas and those that arenāt
can be somewhat intangible. That said, donāt stick around if you dare
to turn off a stove and thereās someone present ā theyāll 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 donāt 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 Iām saying is that whilst
I appreciate the purpose of the Opportunities system, Iād 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 Iām 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 youāre let loose on your second
playthrough of the boat level, itās 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
Hitmanās level design which is important going forward ā big does not always mean
expansive. In terms of actual size, itās 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 ā one on the ground
floor and one on the top. You enter through the main gate, and find
that youāre actually allowed to wander around the immediate grounds, as well as the mansionās
entrance, the fashion show itself and the crowded bar next door. This gives you the time and freedom to scope
out your surroundings. Itās 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 compoundāin
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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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
ā 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 ā 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 ā 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
ā 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 ā 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 botherāthey 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 Hitmanāeven 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 ā 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 targetsātargets 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 missionsāturning 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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
ā 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 didnāt feel scripted in any way ā 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) ā 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 ā 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 ā 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
ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā the recording studio and penthouse area. This is where you'll find your main target
ā 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 ā 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 ā 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 ā 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
ā 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 gamesāallow
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 ā 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 Marrakeshānothing 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 Marrakeshāat 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 pointāParis 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 areasāperhaps
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 tissueāthe AI controlling the facility,
KAI. In the spa area, this AI presents itself in
the fact that access to certain rooms requires certain costumesāthis 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 eitherāthe
guest rooms require 47 to don the robes of that particular guest. This actually presents some interesting challengesācertain
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 targetāhe'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 pointāusing 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 gameāthe 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 previouslyāit'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 takesāseemingly 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 environmentsāyou 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 humourāthe 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 Novacanooāthey 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 muchāyou'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.
Man I love long analysis videos like this. I try so hard to find good ones but I often get Angry Joe movie review style videos where it's just a long take of some nonsense rant about why Call of Duty sucks now, followed by 30 minutes of "It sucks because it sucks" or it's in podcast format. I'm fine with Podcasts I just want a bit more showing going on.
I get that it's pretty unreasonable to make an hour long video with total scripting/editing and survive on that, but... I like it, and it's pretty hard to search for.
Speaking of, anyone have any names? I'm familiar with Noah Caldwell, MisterCaption, Hbomberguy, and Chris Davis, but I could always use more.
This is such a good video and well worth the time.
Everyone should give this channel a sub, some of the best game design analysis videos on Youtube
I would like to add Thomas Ife to the list. Barely any videos but those that are there are pretty good.