Not every Hitman level is created equal, here are some of the most frustrating.
For the levels in Hitman (2016), Hitman 2 and Hitman 3, go here instead.
Hitman: Codename 47
- The final Colombia mission. Not only is the drug lord difficult to reach, he is extremely durable. This level is a lot easier once you know how to strangle all of conveniently-placed guards and circumvent Pablo's health boost. A sniper rifle (brought from the first Colombia mission) and a silenced pistol (which can be found in one of the tents) can finish this mission without ever raising an alarm.
- Don't be surprised if you end up stabbing your monitor with your keyboard during "Plutonium Runs Loose". By the time you finally disarm the nuke, eliminate Boris, and steer the boat to international waters, you'll be saltier than salt water due to the sailors turning off the engine at every turn (there are four of them actually, two in the engine room, one in the bomb's room and one in a room at the bottom before the main cargo bay).
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
- The first level, "Anathema". Guard AI is at its worst, and it seems like 47 will raise suspicion no matter where you go. Even people who kick ass in the other Hitman games find this level to be frustrating if Google is any indication.
- The second and third Japanese levels are quite tedious. They were specifically designed as an 'infiltration mission' in an attempt to inject some action into the game. You're given a crossbow and a healthy amount of ammo to snipe your way through the map, so it's not a hard mission when played as intended. But due to how rankings work, it's tough to play stealthily, let alone earn a Silent Assassin rank. General consensus is that it's just better to swallow your pride and shoot your way through it.
- Specifically, the third one, "At the Gates", has wide-open spaces that make you easy to spot. For added fun, the patrol routes of the guards are semi-random. Also, Dressing as the Enemy does not work in these levels, as each guard has an ID and if your disguise does not match the area you're in, the other guards start shooting at you. They're relatively easy once you know what to do, but good luck figuring it out! In a fan survey, the level was voted the worst level in the entire franchise.
- "St. Petersburg Revisited". You don't get to choose your weapons for this mission until it's beaten at least once, meaning that you only start with fiber wire. You are given a sniper rifle, but the thing is useless, as it only fires blanks. Your target can hear you sneaking behind him (in non-Windows versions, it's a piece of cake on PC), and if he does, he turns around which disables stealth attacks and a melee system wasn't introduced till Hitman: Blood Money, unless you count Pistol-Whipping — which can be done with your blank-loaded SVD, but it's damned awkward. If you manage to get a gun, it won't have a silencer, thus actually using it causes every guard in the building to rush to you with Desert Eagles and automatic shotguns. Even if you manage to kill him, you still need to get past of freshly-spawned guards to escape.
- "Redemption At Gontranno" has you start off with nothing but your Fiber Wire and the place is swarming with guards on full alert, making sneaking up and strangling them very difficult. Of course, it gets easier once you can get down to your shed where you can load up with every weapon you've picked up during the game and chew your way through the enemies, especially if you have the M60 in your possession.
- "Hidden Valley". This stage is notorious among Hitman fans of the series. The process of going after Masahiro Hayamoto Sr. is long and arduous. The map is HUGE. Snipers are everywhere, making certain open areas "no-go-zones", step inside them and you are dead. They'll often inexplicably see through your full-body-and-mask disguise as well. To compound issues further: those damn trucks. They can run you over as you try to stealth your way past the guards, and even worse, through no fault of your own, the guards themselves can accidentally get run over by them. Nothing is worse than being so close to the end, when suddenly alerts go blaring as they find a dead corpse, elsewhere
. Randomly costing you your sought after Silent Assassin achievement.
Hitman: Blood Money
- "The Murder of Crows" has three separate targets, only one of whom is labeled on your map. Of the two that aren't, one wanders the level through a massive crowd of extras that makes her virtually impossible to pick out and the other is situated in a randomly selected location, making the difficulty of getting to him based on how lucky you are.
- "Death On The Mississippi"; where you're tasked with eliminating 7 targets onboard a paddle steamer. It doesn't help that the ship has 4 levels and over 100 potential witnesses, which becomes Paranoia Fuel if you're going for the Silent Assassin rating.
- "Requiem" on higher difficulties, as your spawn is surrounded by a ton of enemies. 47 returns from the dead!... only to get turned to Swiss cheese three seconds later. Even the poor priest's body doesn't add much protection, and going in with dual Silverballers is a death sentence in of itself, as those take ages to reload.
Hitman: Absolution
- Birdie's Gift, which has 47 get his good ol' Silverballers back; the catch is he has to win them back from a female sharpshooter, Lilly; one so good that it requires the use of Point Shooting...which uses the Instinct meter, and has all the issues that entails. While the wooden targets are learnable so you can know when to use Point Shooting at the optimal times, as well as the targets granting you more Instinct to use; this will be a frustrating Difficulty Spike during the time you learn their patterns. And good luck if you're playing on a controller where time really is not on your side for lining up your shots.
