HITMAN 3 - final chapter of the nu-Hitman trilogy - now available on Steam

[forumvisitor#451]

You're right why form your own opinion when you can turn off brain and extract it from youtube.

 

[kangaxx]

Isn't the whole point of the game to avoid combat?

 

[Kainan]

It is but combat still has to exist in order to be avoided. It's pretty tense in SA and complements the stealth well.

 

[kangaxx]

Yes fair point. And it is reasonably fun to gun down the entire map every now and then.

 

[Joggerino]

Isn't the whole point of the game to avoid combat?

You can play in two extremes and everything in between. 1. You only kill the target and you stay undetected whole time 2. You gun down everything in your path.

 

[kangaxx]

The game punishes you heavily for gunning everyone down though.

 

[maydaymemer]

They added two more levels to Contracts Mode from the Patient Zero campaign - Sapienza and Hokkaido - problem is no alternate starting locations and a character that disappears if you kill him in previous levels still has that scripting. So if you kill him in a contract in Bangkok you can't complete a contract in Sapienza with the same target. It sucks, hope it gets patched

 

[kangaxx]

Another sale on Steam by the looks of things. Base game for £25 and Deluxe for £37.

Worth?

 

[forumvisitor#451]

Another sale on Steam by the looks of things. Base game for £25 and Deluxe for £37.

Worth?

If its only 3 then wait just a little longer. If all 3, hell yeah its worth it.

 

[ADL]

$49.99 for the entire trilogy and another $17 for the 7 Deadly Sins. I think that's worth it but I think it'll go a little lower around E3 time and you're better off waiting for Hitman Freelancer anyways which is due by end of June.
Timecoded for Hitman Freelancer info

 

[maydaymemer]

I've started a "fresh file" on another account and am running thru the trilogy again playing it as intended for the first time in a while. It's great to experience it all again and frustrates me that we can't have like extra files on the same account. I'm currently almost done mastering Santa Fortuna and have been mentally reviewing the levels in my head. I'm gonna give my scores for the Hitman 2016 maps, I'll be ranking them on three quadrants: stealth (how fun is enforcer placement, intended paths and suit only), replayability (how fun is completing the challenges, exploring the levels and messing with the AI) and vision (how good is the atmosphere, the setting, the characters and the enviromental storytelling)
-
Paris:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 13/15
This is a level you really gain an appreciation for again when you go thru the mastery track. Paris really shines in how varied routes are for doing challenges and picking what you want to do in each level. The map enviroment is incredibly tight and quick to get around with little downtime. The only points I can knock it for is some mission stories that betray that pacing and have a bit of waiting to do. It also feels like the targets go around in public spaces so much it's not all that easy to isolate them for doing the muck around thing. But doing all the challenges to get to 20 was super fun and well paced
-
Sapienza
Stealth - 5/5
Replayability - 5/5
Vision - 5/5
Totall - 15/15
Sapienza is one of the perfect Hitman levels in how well its scripting and challenges are done. The level has so many little details you can take advantage of when ticking off challenges, and this also means you can use the scripting to mess with target's AI too to get unscripted kills done. For example I made the therapist sick and that makes him meet with Silvio early, which causes Silvio to meet Francesca which can mean you can get a double kill while in the suit and knock off a whole bunch of challenges. I think I still have about 20 to 30 challenges left to do which goes to show how many routes the devs made for this map and how well considered they made them. It's a level that pleases everyone
-
Marrakesh
Stealth - 3/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 11/15
Marrakesh is one of my favorites to muck around in but going back to do challenges highlights a problem it has that I have been able to ignore as a less casual player, the experience of getting to level 20 is a slog. It requires a ton of running around and repetition and waiting which is a shame because I feel it's underrated if you're just trying to find ways to kill the targets when people aren't looking. The map could've used more routes to get into the fortresses as well as more interesting gameplay between those fortresses, which Mumbai fixed. Marrakesh also has a problem where you run out of challenges for one character quicker than the other which means you now feel like your time spent with the other target is redundant unless you do some save scumming to double up on challenges for the other guy
-
Bangkok
Stealth - 2/5
Replayability - 2/5
Vision - 3/5
Total - 7/15
The level design for Bangkok is IOI's worst of the trilogy, the options you have are really poor for getting to Jordan. Suit only lacks routes and the cameras are a bitch. Enforcer placement is decent but Ken is such a boring target. Jordan can be fun to mess around with both casually and just brainstorming creative ways to isolate or kills him, there's even hidden scripted moments like sabotaging his mix to get him to drink a beer, but when you try to complete challenges Ken runs out of them before Jordan does. It's a decent enough realization of the hotel concept but it's not great. Half the hotel isn't inhabited with potentially interesting NPCs as hotel guests but instead exterminators, people cleaning out unoccupied rooms or members of the Class crew crashing there. There are interesting hotel-y things that happen like the guest who flirts with 47 and gives you a keycard at the bar, but this level could be set anywhere and it wouldn't change much. It could be set in an actual recording studio and it wouldn't change much because only one mission story takes advantage of the fact it's a hotel and that's the Ken Morgan suite one. I think I might dislike it more than Colorado, because it's the dullest experience I've had completing the challenges to 20
-
Colorado
Stealth - 2/5
Replayability - 3/5
Vision - 2/5
Total - 7/15
Colorado isn't a complete dud like people say but it's not good still. Half the targets lack long or interesting routes and there's a lot of flat spaces to this map so when you have a good disguise all you're doing is walking from target to target rather than doing any social stealth. There's also a clear best disguise that's super easy to get to that trivializes the traditional stealth approach a bit. However, the map is still frustrating and that's for all the wrong reasons. Like if you slightly panic any target alarms immediately go off. An entirely hostile map means saving and running are less viable options, not bad when you're doing pure stealth but when you play it as more of a sandbox - for example where you are mastering these maps to level 20 - it requires being able to save and survive bad decisions in order to be fun. Not that it isn't fun, I'd actually put it above Bangkok slightly because since it's a four target map you level up for the first half to three quarters really quickly and can chain kills together in different ways which is fun. However you start running out of challenges for Penellope, Maya and Ezra quick which leaves a ton of challenges left for Rose. So you have an ultimatum of doing the level multiple times doing safe kills for the three you've done and then just doing mission stories for Rose, or you start doing random challenges which Colorado has a lot of. I picked the latter, which wasn't bad but some of Colorado's challenges are a bit obtuse and pointless. Still, I think I've put replayability as an overall positive experience even marginally, compared to Bangkok which was overall negative if also marginal. Bangkok, however, is less boring to be in. Colorado is up there with the Japan levels of Silent Assassin for being boring
-
Hokkaido
Stealth - 5/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 14/15
Hokkaido's got a big flaw in that loadouts are locked behind max mastery level. This is bad for casual play because the one thing that would make this level super fun to route and burn thru 20 in is the thing you would be routing and completing challenges to do. In this replay of the trilogy as soon as I hit the cap I move on, so I'm not going back and experiencing the level in this new light when doing challenges which kneecaps it. This is the only major flaw and it is major, but not major enough to kill what is a very tightly designed and fun level. They make good use of a small space and cram a lot to do and a lot of variations to do it. It's just, like I said, locking loadouts creates a lot of redundancy and if you move on after 20 you dont get to experience the fun of finally being free of restricitons. Getting around is always a treat. IOI's level design is at its most genius here, where a level full of locked doors feels like it has so many routes rather than feeling restrictive. It's a shame they've never lowered the bar for loadouts, making mastery feel the grindiest out of the big three of the first game: Paris, Sapienza and this

 

[maydaymemer]

IO didn't put a roadmap all this month, good thing instead of waiting for news on anything to happen I've been replaying my personal favorite game of the trilogy Hitman 2. I've now gotten my scores finalized and have a lot to say:
-
"Nightcall" Hawke's Bay:
Stealth - 3/5
Replayability - 3/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 10/15
Nightcall is a really atmospheric and cool mission, it's a good interlude point for the story and there's a good amount to do which I feel ICA training lacked. I'd probably rate it higher, because there's so many kills that can be done with Alma, if there was a second exit. This kills the replayability, despite there being a good amount of challenges for such a small map to the point where you will reach the max before you do a good chunk of them because you are funneled towards the boat the end of each playthrough is very repetitive. This might be more forgivable if the act of sneaking back was fun in itself but it's really unengaging because there's no challenging paths or enemy placement in suit only and there's a lot of room to stay away from enforcers if you pick up the one disguise in the map. So you're just walking
-
"The Finish Line" Miami:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 13/15
Miami is probably one of the all time iconic Hitman maps, and for good reason because it's not only a unique idea but it's perfectly realized. There's also a lot of things to do in Miami and it feels like it lives beyond its mission like a lot of the great Hitman levels. Playing this mission back in 2018 is when I started to get what makes a Hitman target and a Hitman mission really good, and I feel it's when both targets feel equally important both to the narrative of the mission and when it comes to the amount of kills you have for a target. Robert and Sierra are both two of the best targets in a Hitman game and they're in the same mission, they both have tons of ways to kill them, varied and public routes, as well as interesting personalities and a relationship which feeds into gameplay with multiple ways to take them both out. The race is so brilliant because it's not only got a lot of ways to stop the race/kill the target while she's driving, but it also gives you the option of making Miami a one target map if you want to. It's got the quick pace and accessibility of Dubai with the depth and size of Sapienza. The one blemish Miami has is mastering to level 20 in such a big map got pretty annoying by the end because there's so much walking. A problem you don't realize as much when you aren't going for challenges. The design of the two halves of the map is excellent individually, but the problem is that due to the nature of it being a race track your two areas feel that they're only connected by those specific paths and walkways rather than something like Sapienza where everything no matter how dispirate feels locked in. Still a top five level but if they found a way to fuse those two areas together it would've gotten a perfect score, but that's a big enough problem to knock it down on both stealth and replayability
-
"Three-Headed Serpent" Santa Fortuna:
Stealth - 3/5
Replayability - 2/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 10/15
This map is too big for a mission that only really uses less than half of its size for the targets. Three-Headed Serpent when you're trying to master it can get really tedious because it's a lot of walking across very blank areas that aren't all that challenging to get thru in order to get disguises and items to set up other things across the map to tick off a couple of challenges for targets that are otherwise very boring. The shaman, drug smuggling and circuit board mission stories are emblematic of this flaw. It's a shame too because there are opportunities for challenges that could have been very fun to do and would've improved the mastery experience. For example, Jorge and Andrea got to areas they can be electrocuted naturally in their pathing, but there's no challenge for electrocuting either or all of them like there is in, for example, the next two levels. The map geography isn't bad, even target routes aren't bad, but this is a map almost killed by bad scripting and progression design. Mission stories rarely have multiple ways to do them, there are opportunities to reward the player for thinking up assassinations with challenges that instead are giving to fetch quests and Jorge himself has a fun gimmick where his routine is semi-randomized. That being said, it's not bad it's just almost bad. Suit only can be pretty fun, it's well designed and straight forward with a lot of blind spots. Another thing to praise about SF is it's a masterpiece of atmosphere. Great music, for one, great visual design for the mansion and I love how the sun goes in and out with the clouds moving. and all three are great characters with weird quirks. Rico reminds me a lot of Lalo from BCS, he's a jovial killer and his love for his pet hippo is a fun trait to kill him with. Andrea differntiates herself from most stern boss types in this trilogy by wanting a sense of normalacy despite being part of a cartel, the romance letter is a fun little quest with a great payoff in the form of a casually brutal kill. Jorge is interesting because his abrasive personality and third person style of speaking are geniune mental illness, which his VA is great at portraying. Only problem with the atmosphere is Hitman 3 has more visual glitches with the lighting I feel than Hitman 2's version. Other than that it's still got what it always had, a great atmosphere, decent stealth, shit replayability
-
"Chasing a Ghost" Mumbai:
Stealth - 5/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 14/15
Mumbai is the best level in Hitman 2. I always loved it but I had fallen out of love a little and didn't really touch the level lately. It's got some of the best scripting and best level 20 progression experiences in the trilogy. This map is big but unlike Santa Fortuna it only felt like a slog I think for a minute or two near the end. For the most part the level is so well designed, there's so many shortcuts and enough heavily guarded areas that you feel engaged all the time in most playthroughs. I think it's because the map is great for dealing with in segments. You can go to Rangan tower first, then that makes it really quick to jump to the Maelstrom section and then Vanya's section of the map. There's scripted opportunities like the smoke and the phone calls which place two targets in one place essentially turning this three target mission into two. The experience of completing this level is excellent because there's so many ways both in and out of mission stories to kill a target and get a challenge for it. The electrocution challenges come to mind. Not to mention this level has some of the most fun suit only routes because there's a suit only route for almost every mission story. You can suit only the Kashmirian, you can suit only the train kill, you can suit only the smoke, you can suit only the flag, you can set off the foreman then use a puddle Vanya goes thru to get the laundry to kill her suit only AND electrocute her for the Mumbai Electric/Blackout challenge. One I found out recently is Dawood drinks from a glass of champagne if you paint his portrait or help the painter without helping the Kashmirian. A good way to take care of tasteless, traceless as well as possible suit only. An excellent level, great atmosphere too tho I know it's a marmite level and I think it's because it's set in an unambigious shithole. Berlin is a shithole too but it's a cool shithole. I still think the contrast between rich and poor is excellent and all the characters are weird, unique and interesting. Dawood Rangan is a funny Indian Harvey Weinstein, The Maelstrom is a weird visionary villain who feels shackled by his own reputation and even Vanya is interesting because of how she's deluded into thinking she's royalty. There's also a theory I read that maybe Rima Shah was the real Vanya and the Vanya we kill is just a mentally ill woman she groomed to be a double. There's also the aspect people dislike of the Maelstrom being hidden. I think it's great because he is just a regular target with an incognito appearance, you can actually manipulate his route by using starting locations. For example the food stand start lets you poison him almost immediately. Another thing people dislike is the crowdedness and mazelike slums. I can understand disliking it but I feel once you learn it you will see just how well done this setting was atmosphere wise while still being well designed. There's also the aspect of there's so many ways to kill the Maelstrom in mission stories and by meeting other targets you could maybe make it to level 20 without touching the slums much. I still have the barber shop story left over after mastery, for example. I'd recommend anyone who dislikes Mumbai to give it another chance, it's one of the greats
-
"Another Life" Whittleton Creek:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 12/15
Another Life is a mission I often play because its atmosphere and design is so comfortable. I used to think of it as a bigger and better A New Life, but now I'm not sure. The map is pretty good but its held back not just by the obvious clue objective but it's just very small. The smallness can lead to a lot of repitition. You end up reusing routes that worked before since your targets are always going to be in the same place that requires the same tools. It's done really well, the enforcer and enemy placement in Janus' house specifically is excellent and is shown off in that cool nurse mission story. However, in a Mumbai if you want to electrocute Rangan and you know a water cooler is on the top floor your route is now inherently different now from if you just wanted to go to the floor with the fan. In Whittleton if you want to kill Janus with his smokes or with a muffin you just use the same route that always works. In my case either go through the basement or thru the bathroom window. Adding doing that, then going up the stairs isn't a big difficult task that changes the level like having to climb up an elevator shaft past guards and get a new disguise since the top floor has new permissions. I'm either using the window/basement for Janus and why would I use anything else but the open garage door for Nolan? That being said, there's a lot of challenges to do, a lot of interesting ways to do them and the atmosphere as well as just the designs of the houses themselves is great. Each house has some kind of purpose even beyond a single mission story. Helen's house has a clue but it also has poison in the basement and two disguises. The house for sale is used for a mission story but you can also find a wrench there, a treehouse for sniping and a paddle for the secret exit. The clues aspect is still a major flaw for replayability even tho it did attempt to have more variety than other objectives, I wish a patch would make it optional. Targets have detailed routes, Nolan's just an asshole but Janus is an interesting asshole. The only problem is that small space does give the mission a lack of variety that maybe a bigger map with more houses, more opportunities or even different target routes would problably end up with a better mission that doesn't have that repitition
-
"The Ark Society" Isle of Sgail:
Stealth - 2/5
Replayability - 3/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 9/15
Ark Society has a cool aesthetic and I love the writing of this level. It's very unsubtle but it's very much a takedown of the smug rich american elites. Taking aim at right wing coal barons and the like but also with swipes at smug limosuine liberals that could only ever come from european writers. A memorable instance is an ark member's only problem with the moonbase/artic bunker being she'd have to spend her time with a bunch of MRA's, Jebediah Block having a panic attack when The Constant points out if all the rich survive and the poor die and they'd have to rebuild society it'd be inherently communist since everyone has equal wealth, or one of the warehouse workers saying that believing Ken Morgan was assassinated is "an alt right conspiracy". The level takes swipes at rich wing politics, the Washingtons are black Republicans, while not being like overly reddity by still making you weirdly root for the coal baron to win purely to spite the twins. There's some geniunely funny, macabre and at times clever writing. I was always fascinated with Hitman 2's fascination with the afterlife, for example. As well as the humanization of the Constant while also foreshadowing his stint as the main villain of the third game, with 47 pointing out that he's clearly not all that humble as he claims if he wants to wield power while not having the responsibility of unanonimity. Problem is the actual level is boring and sucks. The Washington twins are boring targets with bad routes, suit only is a chore and the level doesn't feel like it was built right for what the mission actually entails. There's so much climbing that can be done but it's never used much for suit only or even for anything as the targets are placed mostly indoors and in places which you can get to just fine with not that much climbing. Such a strange level, and there's not all that much that you can do challenge wise beyond the mission stories. There's two fun challenges I remember, one for killing Zoe with the aztek necklace (her sister is the one you're actually supposed to kill with) and evacuating the constant and then killing them. I like those because they require some creativity. I wish there were more of that and less fetch quests as challenges like Magpie
-
"Golden Handshake" New York:
Stealth - 5/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 13/15
New York is excellent, despite the target not having much to her route challenge wise I mastered this level so quick because the design of the map is so fun to get around and it was so fun to route stuff together. I actuallly didn't even complete all her challenges which is funny. The map for something so small is so smooth to climb around and avoid sightlines with every eye being well placed. You can get around most of them but it's still a challenge. There's also novelty challenges that are still fun to do, knocking out Frank is unneccesary but it's still something that is fun to figure out how to do it effectively, usually a wet floor. The objective is also reasonably fun with a lot of ways to do it, I feel that Athena having the data disk can limit you to the vault if you want to kill her from a distance but there's so many ways that are neat to get these objectives done. One flaw I can say other than not many challenges for Athena - she does have some depth to her, despite what you may think, so I choose to point not many challenges specifically for a reason - is that starting with the third game this and Whittleton have 20 mastery instead of fifteen like in Hitman 2. Not a big problem with either but more noticable with New York because usually with a Hitman level you do maybe half to two thirds of the challenges in order to mastery it. With this you practically do everything IO wanted you to do in the level to get mastery which is weird to me. Every second level up in the last few levels of mastery are blank just to facilitate this. I think upping the XP of some challenges would've been better for pacing
-
"The Last Resort" Haven Island:
Stealth - 3/5
Replayability - 5/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 12/15
I think Haven is a great map but it's got a lot of problems. The biggest is the viewcones. They were bad in Hitman 2, still, but now they're bugged out the ass because now NPCs can see thru walls. A shame because I had some of the best fun in the second game going thru all the challenges. They were well considered and there was a lot of them without being repititive. Great atmosphere too. It's just that the levels problems it already has, a badly designed villa with not enough routes in it, long stretches of beach with no one guarding it with grass in there to give the illusion of stealth and Tyson himself having a merely okay route, are made unforgivable when your level's good points are weighed not against its flaws but instead against the game being broken as shit. I stand by this score being high, but keep in mind I'm scoring it based on not only my enjoyment but what score I would give to a fixed version of this level. I'd even go higher if they outright just made the viewcones normal sized like in every other level and just added more guards to the blank spots if they wanted it to be challenging

 

[Caim]

So how the fuck do you even buy this game. There's the base game, the deluxe edition (which is apparently shit), a bunch of DLC missions (who may or may not be included in the deluxe edition?), a standard and an expansion for Hitman 2, a GOTY edition and a GOTY upgrade for Hitman 1 (but you get all of that for free if you own the previous games?), a trilogy bundle, an add-on bundle, a seperate bundle for Hitman 2 but Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 also have their own DLC and-



So what do I get to get it on the cheapest, how do I avoid double purchases and what should I avoid like the plague?

 

[ferratilis]

Do you own anything already? Whatever you own is automatically imported into H3's engine once you buy at least H3 standard edition. What I'd do is buy Hitman 1 GOTY and Hitman 2 Gold editions on key reseller websites (you can find them at a relatively low price there, at least lower than whatever IOI charges for them on Steam), and then wait for a sale and get Hitman 3 standard on Steam. That way, you have access to all the missions, including some great DLC missions from H2, minus the extra missions from H3, which are shit anyway. Can't really think of a better way tbh.

 

[Caim]

Do you own anything already? Whatever you own is automatically imported into H3's engine once you buy at least H3 standard edition. What I'd do is buy Hitman 1 GOTY and Hitman 2 Gold editions on key reseller websites (you can find them at a relatively low price there, at least lower than whatever IOI charges for them on Steam), and then wait for a sale and get Hitman 3 standard on Steam. That way, you have access to all the missions, including some great DLC missions from H2, minus the extra missions from H3, which are shit anyway. Can't really think of a better way tbh.

So the Warhammer Total War approach is the way to go, then. And using key resellers and sales is almost mandatory as well, because otherwise the complete series with everything comes down to a rough 270 bucks.

 

[Mikeal]

So how the fuck do you even buy this game. There's the base game, the deluxe edition (which is apparently shit), a bunch of DLC missions (who may or may not be included in the deluxe edition?), a standard and an expansion for Hitman 2, a GOTY edition and a GOTY upgrade for Hitman 1 (but you get all of that for free if you own the previous games?), a trilogy bundle, an add-on bundle, a seperate bundle for Hitman 2 but Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 also have their own DLC and-



So what do I get to get it on the cheapest, how do I avoid double purchases and what should I avoid like the plague?

 

[Ryzer]

Games with such shitty business model don't deserve to be bought.

 

[Caim]

Games with such shitty business model don't deserve to be bought.

I've tried adding everything to my cart to see what happens, and every piece of DLC in the list for Hitman 3 shows up as being in your cart... except the Hitman 1 GOTY Edition DLC. Except you get to own that, and you can't even buy that seperately.

 

[maydaymemer]

So how the fuck do you even buy this game. There's the base game, the deluxe edition (which is apparently shit), a bunch of DLC missions (who may or may not be included in the deluxe edition?), a standard and an expansion for Hitman 2, a GOTY edition and a GOTY upgrade for Hitman 1 (but you get all of that for free if you own the previous games?), a trilogy bundle, an add-on bundle, a seperate bundle for Hitman 2 but Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 also have their own DLC and-



So what do I get to get it on the cheapest, how do I avoid double purchases and what should I avoid like the plague?

Don't buy any DLC. Buy Hitman GOTY edition on steam, buy Hitman 2 Gold Edition on steam, then buy Hitman 3 standard edition on steam. Avoid anything else, Hitman GOTY gets you Paris-Hokkaido, Hitman 2 Gold gets you Hawke's Bay-Haven and Hitman 3 standard gets you Dubai-Romania. The only thing you miss out on is some escalations in Hitman 3, which are at best okay but were filler made to pad out the game's support until year two. I'd recommend doing it this way because the DLC doesnt tend to scale down in price while the games themselves do
May Roadmap and the Road Ahead - IO Interactive
The new map is in July. Freelancer is delayed until fall. Not much happening between now and the release of the new map honestly. It'll be set on a fictious island called Ambrose Island and will be set before Hitman 3's story. So I would guess that this is right after Haven but before Dubai, which explains why it looks like they haven't left the Maldives yet

 

[Caim]

So how the fuck do you even buy this game. There's the base game, the deluxe edition (which is apparently shit), a bunch of DLC missions (who may or may not be included in the deluxe edition?), a standard and an expansion for Hitman 2, a GOTY edition and a GOTY upgrade for Hitman 1 (but you get all of that for free if you own the previous games?), a trilogy bundle, an add-on bundle, a seperate bundle for Hitman 2 but Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 also have their own DLC and-



So what do I get to get it on the cheapest, how do I avoid double purchases and what should I avoid like the plague?

Don't buy any DLC. Buy Hitman GOTY edition on steam, buy Hitman 2 Gold Edition on steam, then buy Hitman 3 standard edition on steam. Avoid anything else, Hitman GOTY gets you Paris-Hokkaido, Hitman 2 Gold gets you Hawke's Bay-Haven and Hitman 3 standard gets you Dubai-Romania. The only thing you miss out on is some escalations in Hitman 3, which are at best okay but were filler made to pad out the game's support until year two. I'd recommend doing it this way because the DLC doesnt tend to scale down in price while the games themselves do
May Roadmap and the Road Ahead - IO Interactive
The new map is in July. Freelancer is delayed until fall. Not much happening between now and the release of the new map honestly. It'll be set on a fictious island called Ambrose Island and will be set before Hitman 3's story. So I would guess that this is right after Haven but before Dubai, which explains why it looks like they haven't left the Maldives yet

I see. Well, if the game isn't complete for quite a few more months I'm just going to wait to see how it all turns out.

 

[maydaymemer]

I see. Well, if the game isn't complete for quite a few more months I'm just going to wait to see how it all turns out.

Good decision. I don't know for sure if this new map is going to be free but it makes the most sense to play it all in story order when it's a complete trilogy. Even if you dont care about narrative in Hitman I'd recommend running thru the trilogy campaign like a normal game when you get it, then replaying the levels you enjoyed the most from your first run until you reach level 20 and then work your way down

 

[Caim]

I see. Well, if the game isn't complete for quite a few more months I'm just going to wait to see how it all turns out.

Good decision. I don't know for sure if this new map is going to be free but it makes the most sense to play it all in story order when it's a complete trilogy. Even if you dont care about narrative in Hitman I'd recommend running thru the trilogy campaign like a normal game when you get it, then replaying the levels you enjoyed the most from your first run until you reach level 20 and then work your way down

Level 20? Uh, is this one of those games where you get arbitrary XP to unlock more and more tools instead of getting more gadgets each level until you have the full arsenal at the end and let you go back from there?

 

[Alphons]

So how the fuck do you even buy this game. There's the base game, the deluxe edition (which is apparently shit), a bunch of DLC missions (who may or may not be included in the deluxe edition?), a standard and an expansion for Hitman 2, a GOTY edition and a GOTY upgrade for Hitman 1 (but you get all of that for free if you own the previous games?), a trilogy bundle, an add-on bundle, a seperate bundle for Hitman 2 but Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 also have their own DLC and-



So what do I get to get it on the cheapest, how do I avoid double purchases and what should I avoid like the plague?

I miss Square Enix.

 

[maydaymemer]

I see. Well, if the game isn't complete for quite a few more months I'm just going to wait to see how it all turns out.

Good decision. I don't know for sure if this new map is going to be free but it makes the most sense to play it all in story order when it's a complete trilogy. Even if you dont care about narrative in Hitman I'd recommend running thru the trilogy campaign like a normal game when you get it, then replaying the levels you enjoyed the most from your first run until you reach level 20 and then work your way down

Level 20? Uh, is this one of those games where you get arbitrary XP to unlock more and more tools instead of getting more gadgets each level until you have the full arsenal at the end and let you go back from there?

Yea pretty much. It's not all that bad, it works in context, it's basically just so long as you kill people in different ways you'll get all the unlocks. And you tend to unlock useful items even if you play the levels once. Playing Miami once unlocks the lockpick, playing Berlin once unlocks the taser. And if you dont like the idea of a level up system there's also unlocks the game gives you for doing the levels Silent Assassin, Suit Only or with a sniper rifle. Like beating five levels with a silent assassin score unlocks poison. I've never felt it was grindy unless you have a bad level you're stuck with

So how the fuck do you even buy this game. There's the base game, the deluxe edition (which is apparently shit), a bunch of DLC missions (who may or may not be included in the deluxe edition?), a standard and an expansion for Hitman 2, a GOTY edition and a GOTY upgrade for Hitman 1 (but you get all of that for free if you own the previous games?), a trilogy bundle, an add-on bundle, a seperate bundle for Hitman 2 but Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 also have their own DLC and-



So what do I get to get it on the cheapest, how do I avoid double purchases and what should I avoid like the plague?

I miss Square Enix.

Unironically this. I wish Square had kept them around for longer until they could be sold along with Eidos in that recent bid

 

[maydaymemer]

Time for the last of these review things:
-
"Freeform Training" ICA Facility:
Stealth - 3/5
Replayability - 2/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 9/15
Decided to throw in a review of the ICA training facility. Freeform Training is okay but suffers from essentially having two main ways to beat the mission and that's it. You can either get Kalvin Ritter when he's with his wife, or get him when he's with Norfolk. There are other ways, of course, but in terms of completing challenges I can do half of them with the former and half with the latter. There's actually a really neat suit only route that the game doesn't reward or tell you about that I will praise for being a very entertaining way to play the level, but overall it's a weaker tutorial than Paris, Hawke's Bay and Dubai
-
"The Final Test" ICA Facility:
Stealth - 2/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 3/5
Total - 9/15
I'd say this is the weakest tutorial of the trilogy because it doesn't have particularly level design when it comes to getting in and out suit only and its theming is very dull. I think a big reason is it doesn't introduce and teach concepts to the player better than any other tutorial. Arrival + Freeform introduce camera and movement controls, crowds, instinct, enforcers and challenges. Paris introduces a large amount of verticality, using climbing or items to bypass frisk points and is the first map to have multiple, in-depth targets. Final Test introduces foliage and mission stories. However, better tutorials like Hawke's Bay and Dubai exist for teaching you that and what you're left with is a two floor box where nothing really happens. The catwalk area is really pointless and all the mission stories involve walking the target somewhere to kill him and they lack multiple ways to do them. Which is strange because even Freeform Training had more to do. Compared to the suit only route for Freeform Training, the suit only route for this map is really dull and easy to execute. The one thing it does have is a lot more mission stories than Freeform, even if the execution isn't as fun. You can poison the target, shoot a lamp, electrocute him, isolate him with the radio story, kill him with a plane ejector seat. It's a decent amount of kills which keeps it from being totally overshadowed by the more atmospheric Yacht level
-
"On Top of the World" Dubai:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 4/5
Vision - 2/5
Total - 10/15
Hitman 3 was the game in the trilogy I have struggled with for a while. Dubai is the epitome of this. I've pinballed from thinking of it as a fun level to replay thanks to its tight design to thinking it's a shallow and lifeless opener that feels like an unneccesary tutorial. Playing thru the mastery again I now know what this game does well and what it does poorly. Dubai is really fun to complete. It has very good challenge design, I hit 20 and was dissapointed because I found some good routes I wanted to use to do the four assassination challenges I hadn't done yet. It has very good map design that is quick to get around but also is fairly large for the amount you can do. Compared to Hitman 2's DLC, Dubai maintains about as many mission stories as those had: three main stories and a couple more shallow ones. However it pads the size of the level out a bit, this can be good because a larger level can be good but I feel that it can lead to some areas being underutilized. New York is a small map but you're always using the full buffalo. Dubai has areas that are only ocassionally relevent, like the kitchen and in fact most of the lower areas. The proximity of the targets to one another can make for fun, fact routing for challenges but if you're not actively trying new things with these challenges that's where Hitman 3's challenge design can be weaker. There's a lot more generic challenges. However I really like that because you can be creative with it. Fibre wire Marcus and throw him down an elavator shaft, take out two challenges at once. Or do Meet the Styuvesants and pair that up with the whisky challenge, for an example I just came up with. So the level is pretty fun to max out, but there's one problem that puts it from a really good level into the okay tier of a 10/15: this is one of the least atmospheric Hitman levels ever. I feel like this level is fun mechanically and has some good design but I actively dislike the mood it has. Now the music is pretty good but I dislike the shittiness of the backstage areas for example. I get what they're going for with the contrast of rich and poor, but I don't click with how this part of the level is designed and think it's dull. If the whole place was oppulant or they just expanded the areas that are oppulant and not have a backstage at all I'd be fine with that. The maitenance areas can be in the floors we don't go to. That does lead to another problem, however, which is part of my argument that this tower lacks atmosphere. With every other Hitman level it feels like a believable place. I can believe a real village could look like Santa Fortuna, a real town like Sapienza or a real vineyard like Mendoza. They have purpose as a location. What was the Burj Al-Ghazali built for? This may be the point, it was built for opulance first and practicality second. But beyond an art exhibit and two bedrooms what is this tower used for? Is there offices below? More art? Museums? Shops? Is it a hotel below? Because of that I don't really believe in it as a location and that does kill enjoyment where levels that are weaker designed win me over with better atmosphere
-
"Death in the Family" Dartmoor:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 3/5
Vision - 3/5
Total - 10/15
Dartmoor I really like to play occasionally because I admire its design. I like the use of verticality, like Paris. I like the fact its the first real map it feels to have just one target, and Alexa is one of the best characters in terms of complexity. She's also got great scripting, where she switches between roaming and dwelling rather than following a single archetype. She has a route and a half, almost. Very good target, I really enjoy the SASO routes you can do. For example CJ has a video of him climbing up into the top of the mansion and getting into her panic room to fibre wire her. I myself enjoy starting in the garden, getting a sniper and from the ground floor sniping the moose she stands under and killing her right at the start. However, when you level up Dartmoor I note three main flaws I have with it: repetition, challenge design and, a more subjective one, great expectations not being met. The repetition thing is with the side objective. On one hand it improves on New York's great objective design by having the choice of either knocking out NPCs to get items or going to a specific area to get a bigger item. The improvements come from not needing to have to pick the corpse of the target like with Athena's data disk and from placing the bigger item on the same floor Alexa starts in - behind a coded safe, a good way of showing how replayable the game is when you will go from trying to figure out what the code is to just punching it in instinctively. However, New York is still better because the NPCs you had to knock out had longer, in-depth routes and the bigger item you had to get not only had multiple ways to get it but also had an interesting puzzle of it being an illegal item. Briefcases are nearby sure but to you go to a briefcase and then head to an exit or do you get the key so you dont need to go get a briefcase. Both are detours but which is quicker or more preferable at that point? I feel like the case file doesn't have that same flexibility, and it didn't need to if they instead had a third way of getting the case file. I think a good, third option would be a second safe somewhere in the grounds that could be dug up with a shovel. More ways to complete an objective is always good but that'd fix the repitition that this objective feels like. The second is challenge design. There's a lot of times that I felt like my playthru was robbed of a more interesting kill. For example, there is fireplaces that Alexa goes near that you can throw propane tanks into from the above shaft and kill her. Did you know that? Probably not because it isn't a challenge. You can also kill Alexa with a pot when she goes into her brother's room. You probably didn't know that because the only challenge related to it is taking a photo of her visiting him. I instead took that photo and then did the lawyer kill. This adds to the criticism that Hitman 3's maps feel like they don't have as much to do, I feel that Dartmoor could have more assassination challenges and they could be fun and add different ways to play but instead most of Dartmoors challenge err on novelty or on the different ways you can do the famous murder mystery. I'm not gonna shit on the murder mystery, it's different and makes for a cool mission story that appeals to people who normally wouldn't like video games. My gran was invested in the murder mystery when she saw it, that's the sign of a cool experiment. However, a flaw of it is that it's not particularly different each time you play it. You can just get all the clues, then save and load for each outcome. There's no assassination challenges tied to it, which is good because that'd be redundant, but that does add to the idea that just getting the suicide kill is enough since that's the coolest one or just using it to get the versatile challenges. Another criticism I have with it is something I need verified. I was spoiled on the reveal, but isn't it obvious that Emma is the killer? Did anyone who played this the first time think it'd be anyone else other than the Butler, but even the Butler is because it's a supposed cliche that the Butler is the killer in murder mysteries. I feel there should've been a second red herring. Aside from my final point, another niggle I have is the second route that Alexa adopts after the family meeting is a cool idea but needed fleshing out with a route-exclusive mission story or just something else. It's cool to have a second route but Alexa moving around from top to bottom all the time is more interesting to deal with as a player. The last thing that bothers me about Dartmoor is that the map set itself up against Beldingford Manor, and unless you're Whittleton Creek or Mendoza trying to usurp a classic level is a losing battle but especially Beldingford Manor was a bad idea. Beldingford is on the same level as a modern Hitman level. The level design has a lot of depth, secret passageways and spaces that are there to add atmosphere. Beldingford's hedge maze with a hatch that takes you to a basement is more interesting than Thornbridge Manor's secrets that are mostly just on the second floor. Beldingford's rainy, hostile atmosphere is more interesting than Dartmoor's typical British sky. Beldingford's towering structure is more interesting than the Carlisle mansion's more symmetrical design. Not that Dartmoor's secrets and atmosphere is bad, I have praised the verticality and character writing, but it should've tried harder because this is not on the same level as Beldingford. Beldingford actually had a basement and an attic. Dartmoor is overall fine but I'd put it a little below Dubai and have it as the weakest of Hitman 3's proper levels
-
"Apex Predator" Berlin:
Stealth - 5/5
Replayability - 5/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 15/15
Going to get all my biases out of the way and say this level would get this score no matter what. Any criticism of Berlin I thought of was refuted by memories of other playthrus I could cite in my head, because I am very familar with this map. I just recently went back to the map after doing this whole review replay to do a featured contract and it wasn't even the contract I rememeber I just can remember simply enjoying the level design and fact I was here in this map I love. Berlin is a masterpiece, very replayable and fun to route map with great theming, music and kill methods that unintentionally innovates past a lot of the trilogy's conventions. The fact your targets have more of a dynamic AI system is great because when shit happens you don't know what they could do next because they're programmed to hunt like guards rather than go to pre-programmed spots in the map when alarmed. I feel like there could've been more challenges, for example a Berlin Electric and Berlin Blackout challenge would be fun to route but the mission is very fun to level up because you can do it in a different way every time. You could even try getting from level one to level 20 in one playthru SASO without reloading or doing anything overly grindy and I bet you could come up with a good route for it. It's one of those levels where every once in a while you'll find something that changes your perception of the map, from new kills to AI exploits. However I wouldn't recommend doing that. Just play the level casually or try doing contracts because the level design is no slouch. Lots of verticality, shortcuts and there's a lot of little ways the areas connect to eachother. Love for example you could go from the projection bar, use that vent to crawl down to the DJ area and then jump down into the owner's office and then shimmy up a pipe into the biker hideout. I also love having both a contracts-inspired biker den and a nightclub in close proximity to one another. Adds variety especially with how you could either play this like a club level and only take out the targets near there or only take out the biker targets since it's a five target level that has ten/eleven targets. I also love how Jiao and the soundtrack progresses to show off how cool you are. When I reviewed almost every Hitman level before what constituted a perfect level for me is if the only changes I could suggest was wishing there was more of it, I remember I decided to give Miami a perfect because of that. The only solid things I can suggest for Berlin unless I thought really hard about structural changes would be give me more. A great level
-
"End of an Era" Chongqing:
Stealth - 5/5
Replayability - 2/5
Vision - 4/5
Total - 11/15
This used to be one of my least favorite areas of the trilogy. After replaying it and just tackling challenges I'm surprised how it's jumped up to being my third favorite. My criticisms of Chongqing were that the blocks feel cramped, the ICA base is too symmetrical, target routes are too short and with a lack of kills, the camera gimmick is awkwardly done and it feels like it was a more ambitious level with everything except the essentials cut for lack of budget or dev time. However, when you engage with what you're told to play with it's very fun. The routes to get from one area to another are really well designed, for such a big area it's well paced despite being the level I take the longest with even at my fastest, it's pretty of course and the challenge design is actually really good. A good mixture of generic and specific challenges and I didn't run out of them before I stopped having fun like Bangkok, any ones I wouldn't have found fun like that disapointing mind control mission story I got to max level before I got around to then and thus skipped. I think this is a very fun SASO map. It's got an easy sniper route but I also really like for example using the tunnel to get down to the facility vents, where you can make your way into Royce's office for a fun fibre wire iso, or using the roof to slide down into the front door with a handy crowbar. I also think shortcuts, which are a feature I enjoy but haven't talked about yet, are well placed here. One of them kind sucks but the other add useful ways to get in. I really enjoyed pairing for example the fibre wire with the homeless assassination challenge, or to use an example from a recent speedrun rather than the level ups I liked getting Imogen to lock down by killing Hush with poison during the phone call then running down into the facility and poisoning her when she gets locked near the entrance. It seems like with Dubai it's a fun level to route within to get the challenges down, I bet I could pair electrocuting Royce and poisoning Hush with his therapy chair while doing it SASO and getting all the shortucts. I also like the way the screwdriver can be used in this level. That saves the awkward camera gimmick for me - for the most part. However I can't give it too many marks because even tho this is my previous bias against the level I still don't feel it has longevity as a level. It had potential, it could realize that potential if IO revisited it for a bonus mission, but for now it's a decent mission and a decent map that's fun to play but could've had more kills, more buildings, more rooms, more NPCs, it feels like the one level that would've been better if bigger. Not in a give me more sense like with Berlin, but in a realize your potential sense. I feel like the marketing for Hitman 3 got in the way of this level's quality for me. I expected Mumbai in China. I got a way better Isle of Sgail instead
-
"The Farewell" Mendoza:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 5/5
Vision - 5/5
Total - 14/15
Farewell is a really good level. Tho another level difficult to talk about as I can overwrite It's fun to route becaue it's got a ton of challenges you can combine, it's got a ton more kills beyond that to the point I think it could've done with more. Again, a propane fireplace kill shows up that you're shown but never rewarded for. In fact I feel like even tho propane kills on their own shouldn't get challenges because they're generic I feel like throwing propane tanks where targets smoke should've been a challenge. Tamara and Ingram in Dubai both have sort of hidden propane kills if you throw a flask down the part of their routine they light up at. Anyway, shortcut design is great and opens up way easier, new ways to infiltrate the villa. There's a great atmosphere, tons of disguises and shit to mess around with. I've got two criticisms, one is I feel there's not enough routes connecting the villa and the party area. Second is I feel there's a bit too many challenges based around the main event which is the combination of the tour guide story and the secret meeting story. However, unlike Dartmoor there's a lot more meat beyond that cool story-driven moment. Tamara and Don are not only great, fun targets to observe but they also have a lot to do kill wise. Don has starts with a short but sweet route but you barely notice it because there's so many other ways to kill him you don't interact with it all that much. Tamara's got a great route with a good amount of challenges/stories and you can set stuff up passively to deal with Don or other challenges too. I really liked doing sniper assassin here in this level because of the attic sniper. I also liked SASO where I believe I might've paired up either poisoining Tamara's asado with drowning Don by poisoning his wine after his speech, or maybe I electrocuted him with his mic while electrocuting Tamara with the water cooler. I don't know it was a long time ago. There's a lot of electrocuting in this level. Did you know you can electrocute both targets after the wine tour by using fire sprinklers? Cool details. It's a great level but I don't know what to tell you really, it's a hard one to talk about because it feels like it does everything well that previous levels did well. It's got big map design like Sapienza, a good small route a good big route for each respective target like Paris, good mission stories like Mumbai, good ways of using scripted kills for SASO routes like Miami. It's a very generically good level, just better than generic
-
"Untouchable" Carpathian Mountains:
Stealth - 4/5
Replayability - 1/5
Vision - 3/5
Total - 8/15
Undoubtably a bad Hitman level. There are two ways to play Romanian train level, as a shooter or as a SASO stealth level. Anything inbetween is way too similar to count as an entirely new playstyle. Those two ways to play are fun it's just that only having two is a bad idea and a waste of a good level concept. I feel even a linear train level could be more interesting. For example having carriages with two floors, or in a more high concept idea having each carriage steal some sort of iconography from a previous level. The hallucinations should've been more interactive, I think if all your targets tried swarming you and you had to kill them all to wake up that'd be a great narrative moment. I also feel like I do enjoy especially the idea of ghosting this level, near the end they start having kinda shit NPC placement that requires panicking people to do suit only. Never got that. It's not like you'll need to do it SASO as a kill all playthru will get way more challenges done and it only takes on playthru to max everything out. I think there's only about eleven challenges you need to do to get to level five, so I didn't even play it again in order to review it unlike everything else as there's no other way to play it and my opinion won't change and I wouldn't have any challenges to complete to judge this level off of because I already did my max run on my fresh file first try. This level isn't the worst of the trilogy when Bangkok and Colorado exist but it is a joke and IO was playing silly bastards calling this a full map. Bring on Ambrose Island, make up for this map's mediocrity
-
So that's me done. Now if I weren't lazy I'd try to do math to add up my scores of every map in every game and break them into per game, equalize them based on map amounts per game and then see which game truly got the better scores overall. But i'm not gonna do that because I'm lazy. If someone else wants to review every Hitman level I'd love to read that too, I liked getting all the positive reactions with all my posts so thanks for indulging me and maybe I'll review Ambrose Island or other maps later if anyone cares