Accidental Aesop: Check your surroundings before lighting a cigarette, and never smoke near anything flammable. Also, check that there's no broken electrical devices near water.
Accidental Innuendo: Tempering with the pipe organ in "Landslide" causes the priest to come out of hiding and say things like "Hey, no playing with the organ" and "Who's playing with my organ?"
As per the series norm, an NPC can witness a bald assassin gun down their friends and collegues, yet go back to mopping the floor once the killer has disappeared for a few minutes.
Agent Smith doesn't sound too worried about having been locked in a freezer waiting for his organs to be harvested. It's entirely possible that he's just gotten used to it by now.
Annoying Video Game Helper: Some find Diana to be this. Unlike in the previous games, she occasionally talks during missions, such as when a target dies or 47 reaches a location pivotal to the mission. Some dislike the fact that she will inform 47 when the target crosses his field of vision for the first time, removing the challenge of identifying the target yourself and sometimes cutting off interesting dialogue. She is also one of the few things that cannot be turned off in the settings, so this one might be somewhat justified.
Arc Fatigue: A variation. While Sapienza is considered to be among the best maps in the game, some fans don't like how it has the most missions, feeling that other levels should get their turn. For example, with the GOTY version installed, each locationnote Excluding the ICA facility has 2 missions, while Sapienza has 4. (On PS4, the Sarajevo Six campaign rises these numbers to 3 and 5 respectively.)
Base-Breaking Character: Even if the characters are generally well liked, there's a few that have mixed reception.
While Francesca De Santis is not as popular as Silvio Caruso, she has some fans who like her seductive and cunning personality while some others argue she's a rather bland foe who doesn't add much to the level.
Some people like Yuki Yamazaki's humorously carefree and aloof nature and the fact that she's a good subversion to the stereotypical portrayal of Japanese women while others see her as a forgettable and tacked-on character who pales to the far more interesting Erich Soders.
Best Level Ever: All of the levels have fans, but Paris, Sapienza and Hokkaido tend to be the ones that stand out and rank near the top of Best Level lists.
In Sapienza, you can summon a kraken by playing the notes from Pirates of the Carribean 2 on bells with your sniper rifle. It devours the ship you did it on.
In Marrakesh, you can have the entire Moroccan Army, including General Zaydan, dance by dismissing all the soldiers as an officer and playing a radio on the intercom. Also, shooting the helicopter enough times causes a giant moose statue to spawn beside it and crush anyone underneath it.
In Bangkok, if you shoot all the little elephant statuettes in Morgan's suite, the giant elephant statues in the hotel entrance will cry blood.
In Colorado, wearing the scarecrow disguise and shooting 4 bells in a certain order will make anyone near you burst into flames and die. Also, if you feed 10 apricots to a toy dinosaur called Mr Raptor, he will become a possible escape route.
In Hokkaido, wearing the Ninja disguise and walking a very specific unmarked path on the hospital roof causes freaking Godzilla to appear in the distance.
The various challenge packs could count as this. They require 47 to wear a specific (often weird) disguise and use certain kills to kill a specified amount of targets. (Any target will count; be it story, escalation, elusive or contract.) The Sapienza sniper pack is the only major exception thus far.
Breather Level: Bangkok comes immediately after Marrakesh, which is a much larger map with both targets behind multiple layers of armed security, and immediately before Colorado, whose map design is specifically designed to punish Complacent Gaming Syndrome to make players think more outside the box. Ken Morgan has an extremely small loop right at the start of the level, while Jordan Cross frequently isolates himself. Other than the camera's, it's a level that's considerably easier to manage than what it's been sandwiched between.
Cant Unhear It: The voice actor for Jordan Cross; Jonny Cruz, uses a more subdued variant of the voice he uses for Lúcio, most noticeable when he's impressed by your drumming skills.
The aforementioned Colorado BLAM. After going through a map where everyone is hostile towards you in your suit regardless of where you are, having to kill four targets, and having to leave in a specific way, it's super satisfying being able to walk around in the open in a silly costume and with zero regard to stealth. This also becomes more cathartic the more challenges you do, especially if any of them are suit only.
It's been noted by many players that managing to use the "Hannah tape" opportunity in a suit only run of Bangkok is this. It's insanely difficult since you need to take extra steps to get the tape - but seeing 47 in his classic suit just sitting in Jordan's room waiting for him is an awesome sight.
As with previous games, security guards (especially the CICADA bodyguards in Paris and Sapienza, and the elite bodyguards in Hokkaido) will usually carry 47 through the majority of the level.
Kitchen staff disguises are also beneficial due to the ability to poison targets and NPCs, having fewer enforcers, and in some cases, having extra access in levels.
During Silent Assassin runs, poisoning a target is generally considered the easiest strategy. Almost all targets will have some sort of food or drink during their route, often in unguarded areas, most levels contain some sort of poison, and poison kills are always counted as accidents. In Morocco, infiltrating Zaydan's hideout can be skipped by poisoning a plate of food near the market and waking up a waiter.
Etta Davis, nicknamed the Angel of Death, is a kindly-lookingSerial Killer specializing in poisonings, blunt weapons, and violent accidents. A retired nurse, Davis was connected to 47 murders in retirement homes and hospitals throughout Great Britain, including a former member of parliament who she killed by sabotaging his wheelchair. Fleeing to Marrakesh to avoid police investigation, Davis proceeds to murder three men, including the local headmaster. When a troop of soldiers arrive to visit the headmaster, Davis manipulates them into escorting her around the city, all while planning to poison the commanding officer.
"Patient Zero": Oybek Nabazov, his second-in-command Sister Yulduz, and Owen Cage are the leaders of Liberation, who attempted to cause a pandemic by having brainwashed cult members inject themselves with a lethal virus and spread it around the globe. While Oybek is a fanatical "serial cultist" who has spent the last three decades founding cults and leading them down a self-destructive path that resulted in several mass suicides, Yulduz has secretly invested large amounts of money into security and pharmacy companies to profit from the ensuring chaos, and plans to leave Oybek and rest of the cult to their fates once they have set their plan in motion. When both of them are killed by Agent 47, Owen Cage willingly infects himself in order to become Patient Zero to wipe out all life with the virus, and when contained in Hokkaido, can possibly infect hundreds of others in the quarantined zone if he infected Agent 47.
Creepy Awesome: Bangkok allows you to sit in a target's chair and wait for them - and to make it even better, Jordan won't even notice 47 at first. Many see this option to be the most awesome way to take him out, since it showcases how creepy 47 can be.
In "World of Tomorrow", you can play a family tape to lure Silvio Caruso into the observatory. The music accompanying the tape is a beautiful love ballad that slowly becomes more and more Yanderesque, ending with the singer describing his rival as a "peasant" and "the swine" and swearing to "find 47 ways" to make his muse pay, all while still singing beautifully.
In "Landslide", you can kill Marco Abiatti by stabbing his eye out with a pen. The name of the challenge associated is "How About A Magic Trick?"
In "Club 27", if you arrange for Ken Morgan to meet Jordan Cross, the rock star will lose his temper and push Morgan off a balcony, in the same way he killed Hannah Highmoore. The name of the challenge for doing this? "Oops! I did it again!"
Many believe that Amos Dexter, a patient in Situs Inversus, is related to Blake Dexter, one of the antagonists of Absolution. It's not too far fetched, as they both are rich Texan eaglelanders, and obviously have the same surname. There doesn't seem to be any evidence towards this theory in-game, however Amos does mention having a brother.
Even Better Sequel: Paris was considered to be better than anything in Absolution, with the only complaint being that it felt a bit short, while Sapienza was considered to be better than Paris, and considered by many to be the best level in the entire Hitman franchise.
Fan Fic Fuel: Given Amos Dexter ambiguous connections to Blake Dexter, it certainly feels like he exists only so people could come up with a reason to kill him in Contracts Mode.
Giant Bomb popularized the nickname "Pitbull" for Agent 47, due to his resemblance to the musician (tall, bald, muscular, fair-skinned, sometimes wears similar sunglasses).
The Vampire Magician outfit is sometimes referred to as "The Dio Outfit", due to its resemblance to the infamous top hat and feathered cape look Dio wears when going on an alcoholic binge in the first arc. Combine with the knife for added hilarity.
The black ICA19 pistol gained the nickname "Blackballer" pretty much immediately after fans saw it.
After IOI upped 47's health in the June update, the nickname "Tank 47" caught on. The high health was later toned down during the combat balance updates.
The game is sometimes called Hitman: No Subtitle by players (originally coined by Andy Farrant of Outside Xbox fame back in 2015 when covering the games' trailer).
Fire extinguishers. You can carry them without causing suspicion. You can use them for non-lethal takedowns and you can shoot them for kills that count as both explosive and accident, with the latter meaning you don't even have to hide the body. All stages have them. There's a reason the first elusive target in Colorado disqualifies kills from fire extinguishers. note Professional difficulty nerfs it so that carrying around a fire extinguisher will raise some suspicion, and the sequel nerfed it further to only knock out NPCs instead of killing them.
Any starting location that starts the player in the center of the map, which allows reaching targets or important NPCs much earlier on their schedule than the default location. In some cases, this can reduce the time to complete an Escalation down to a few seconds.
Goddamn Bats: Cameras on Professional Mode. They're hard to see, detect illegal actions which alarm guards that are nearby, and are placed in large numbers in previously safe routes and locations. They're a minor annoyance at best on normal mode. However, destroying the security footage disables all cameras in the level, so this can be avoided.
Good Bad Bugs: Poisoning a drink (such as Francesca's wine glass in "World of Tomorrow") and placing a vial of poison in its place will result in a character drinking from the vial as if it were the original drink, as well as dropping the vial if they're killed. This glitch went unpatched in Hitman 2.
Harsher in Hindsight: The "Patient Zero" arc with Oybek Nabazov's plot to unleash a pandemic did not age well considering how the COVID-19 Pandemic first took off around the same year as the events of Hitman. Indeed, there was at least one doomsday cult, namely the Shincheonji Church of Jesus which has been blamed for the surge of COVID-19 cases in South Korea; South Koreans were none too pleased and petitioned the government to disband Shincheonji for its role in the pandemic.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The "World of Tomorrow" mission revolves around biochemist Silvio Caruso creating a DNA-specific virus to kill anyone who ever bullied him, even if they're better people in the modern-day, while Francesca De Santis oversees the project. The later-released James Bond film: No Time to Die, had a very similar plot of an organization creating a DNA-specific virus with nanobots with much the same purpose. Even the way Q describes the Virus to Bond is remarkably similar to Diana's explanation of the Virus to 47.
It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Purists have taken issue with the new "Opportunities" system: If 47 overhears the right conversation (which the game even notifies with an icon if you're approaching one), the game will essentially give the player a quest line complete with waypoints that will handhold the player straight to one of the targets. The Patient Zero campaign doesn't have Opportunities, oddly enough.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: The game is much shorter than the previous games, with 2 tutorial sandboxes and 6 story sandboxes. The bonus episodes reuse the level layouts, although change enough to keep the levels fresh (Just compare World of Tomorrow and Landslide). Past examplesImagine the Hong Kong missions in CN 47 and Contracts, St. Petersburg in Hitman 2, and the Chinese marketplace in Absolution That said, there is a lot of replay value; from the numerous escalations, a large number of challenges available for each level, and the practically unlimited amount of user-created contracts. In short, while the replay value might be among the highest of the series, prepare to see the same levels a lot.
Jordan Cross. While he has a massive ego, is rude towards other members of his band, and flies off the handle way too easily, he is very nice to most of the crew, has severe Daddy Issues, and is genuinely sorry for accidentally killing Hannah, although it's also implied that he was cheating on her. If 47 confronts Cross in his suite, he will actually break down in tears begging for his life and asking whether he deserves to die for a "stupid mistake". And to send it all home, it turns out the Shadow Client had him killed solely to draw out his father.
Matthieu Mendola. While he doesn't have the nicest personality, he is shown to be out of his depth and Properly Paranoid that Hamilton-Lowe would track him down and kill him. Add to the fact that he's noted to be a family man in his profile, the contract on him seems rather unnecessarily cruel, seeing how two Elusive Target contracts with a similar premise (the Fixer and the Entertainer) don't require you to kill the respective couriers.
Magnificent Bastard: Taheiji Koyama is a veteran of the siege of Sarajevo and the controller of the SIGMA paramilitary unit under CICADA. Haunted by the atrocities his unit committed, Koyama dedicated the rest of his life to charity and anti-war activism. After being diagnosed with Elyen's Syndrome, he hired the ICA to eliminate his five colleagues and finally himself as repentance for their war crimes, only seeking treatment at the GAMA facility to ensure he lived long enough to die by 47's hand. When 47 finally confronts him, Koyama thanks him for his timeliness before allowing the assassin to kill him. Having made arrangements for the ICA to retrieve and publicise the Sigma files and expose CICADA, Koyama dies in peace, having fully atoned for his crimes.
General Reza Zaydan crosses it when we learn that his plan to increase chaos in Morocco so that he can pull his coup includes sending people dressed in the uniform and weapons of a terrorist group to fire on the civilians protesting for Strandberg's rendition.
Marco Abatti crosses it when he pushes Father Francesco off the church tower if you let the two meet.
Craig Black plans on using a bioweapon to kill everyone at a fan convention for his successful Urban Fantasy novel series solely because he's frustrated that his "serious" work is consistently ignored in favor of the latter.
The Sarajevo Six crossed it when they slaughtered refugees in a gold robbery. Taheiji himself said they were "no longer men" after the massacre.
The mission complete theme. It comes as a relief, especially after completing a difficult contract or Elusive Target.
The subtle whoosh that plays when you get a Silent Assassin rating. It's like the cherry on top of an awesome run.
The theme that plays as soon as you kill your target. Especially the Icon version, which has an epic guitar riff.
Narm: Almost every character in Hitman 2016 speaking with an American or British accent is incredibly immersion breaking. Particularly grating examples are General Zaydan, who despite being a Moroccan educated in the United States sounds like a British General from a WWII movie, and Maya Parvati, who is supposed to be Sri Lankan, yet speaks English with a flawless American accent.
In Bangkok, Jordan Cross will die thinking that his father murdered him if you poisoned his birthday cake. This would be quite sad if it provoked any actual reaction from the partygoers. Instead his manager, Dexy Barat, just dismisses the partygoers and acts surprised when Jordan drops dead.
The devs acknowledge both the serious and sillier sides of the series; The story and (most) side missions are grounded on reality and are mostly serious. However, they balance this out by encouraging silliness with the disguises and gear, and the easter eggs can be really weird. It speaks wonders when the fanbase is pleased to hear that they can don Blood Money's clown outfit in any level, no matter how out of place it may be. In a game where you kill people for money.
Toilet Drowning. As your target vomits into a toilet, 47 knocks them down and holds their head inside. The victim helplessly flails as they drown in a mixture of toilet water and their own vomit.
47 can kill Penelope Graves by drowning her in a slurry pit. It's one of the most revolting ways to die imaginable.
Never Live It Down: The "Definitive Edition" of Hitman 2016 came with three exclusive suits based off of IO Interactive's other Franchises; the Freedom Phantom suit, the Lynch suit, and the Futo suit. Despite claiming the suits would make their way onto the other versions of the game (Windows and Linux via Steam, PS4, and Xbox One), that never happened, despite dataminers revealing the suits do exist in the code of all versions of the game, but aren't unlockable without cheats. On 3rd July, 2019, one year and three months later, the developers revealed they'll be added into games' sequel on July 30th, 2019, so long as you're willing to sign up for an IOI account.
Play the Game, Skip the Story: While there is a serious story in the game (a conspiracy thriller about A shadow client manipulating the ICA and Agent 47 to destroy "Providence", an illuminati-esque world order, while also trying to play both sides for fools.), and most of it can be picked up from listening into conversations throughout the natural course of gameplay, you don't have to pay attention to any of it. You'll get just as much enjoyment out of it if you don't care for the background plot. If there's anything IO Interactive learned after making Hitman: Absolution, it's that we should get the justification for why we're killing them, and leave the rest of the plot to optional cutscenes and in-game dialogue, not the reverse.
Ron the Death Eater: Father Francesco, the benevolent, ethical priest in Sapienza, is often written as a corrupt Pedophile Priest in contracts.
The Scrappy: Ken Morgan is the least liked out of all the targets, due to his bland personality, limited route, boring kill opportunities (excluding the popular opportunity of getting Cross to kill him) and weak story justification for him being a target. Some players wish Jordan Cross's manager Dexy Barat was the secondary target instead of him.
The game needs to be online to be fully playable but it's very much possible to play offline. Offline mode allows instant re-connection to avoid loss of progress and a patch on November 28th, 2016 made unlockable gear usable offline, negating the majority of the issues people had with the system. The only condition is that they still need to be unlocked online. Only Challenges, Elusive Targetsnote requires a connection to prevent cheating and for the menu timer, Contracts Mode note which is fair, considering the entire point is for the contracts to be shared online and Escalations are all locked away behind the Always-Online requirement. This came to a head in 2021 when the developers released the game on GOG, a service which prides itself on delivering only DRM-free games; presumably both GOG and IO interactive thought it'd be okay since the persistent Internet is technially not to prevent piracy, but gamers disagreed and the backlash led to it being pulled from the store.
Corner takedowns are really untrustworthy, since 47 is just as likely to stealthy pull the NPC into a choke hold, as he is to punch them in the face.
The Witness system is broken as hell, as NPC characters can become witnesses without seeing 47, as long as they, for example, hear a lot of gunshots. A target's bodyguards have a chance of becoming witnesses if a target lockdown is triggered, even if you are never seen, and in some extreme cases, triggering a fire alarm can make guards witnesses, even if they are halfway across the map.Example 47 is dressed as Novikov's bodyguard. He calls in code 17 while alone in a bathroom. His disguise is blown, since this triggered a Target Lockdown.
The fullscreen map now pauses the game because of how Instinct mode works. On the other hand, players can now turn on a mini-map on the lower left corner, which works in real-time, similarly to the original map. Additionally, Instinct is no longer limited either.
There is no longer any limit to the number of times players can save during missionsnote Professional difficulty allows only 1 save per mission.. The game even autosaves (separately from manual saves) regularly, in case of the unexpected.
Manual saving is back instead of Absolution's checkpoint saving. Additionally, it actually saves the map state instead of just mission progress, so you no longer have to reset any traps or worry about miraculously recovered guards.
Guard disguises now allow carrying any weapons openly, instead of just a select few in the previous games.*Note that this does not apply on Professional difficulty; guards will become suspicious if they see you with a weapon that no other guards are using.
Poisoning foods is now much easier than before, as wearing certain disguises allow using poison in public.
As the suspicion mechanics changed from universal to NPC-specific, someone discovering the body you took your disguise from doesn't compromise your clothes.
Speaking of disguise suspicion, Absolution's disguise mechanics (everyone can see through their own disguise) were dropped in favor of Death to Spies disguise mechanics (certain people can see through certain disguises), which is both more consistent and less irritating.
Things like the coin and lockpick are no longer standard. Considering that 47 can literally carry as many melee weapons and pistols as he wants, it's odd that he can't fit some coins and a lockpick in without sacrificing something else. Still, if you need a lockpick you can put it in a drop and get it later.
An unintentional example: Certain situations block saving, such as being in combat. Got yourself in a bit of a pickle, and now half the map's guards are coming for you? Hiding out in a safe location, and you really want to save in case a guard happens to stumble across you? Well, tough.
Subverted in one case. In previous games, direct action was an option as a last resort. Not this time. Attempting to get into a gunfight, particularly against multiple enemies armed with shotguns and automatic weapons will result in a rather swift death, as 47's ability to take damage has been reduced. The subversion comes from the fact that the developers started patching changes to make firefights more feasible in Summer 2017.
Slow-Paced Beginning: This game only represents a third of the main story of the World of Assassination Trilogy, and it doesn't really pick up until the latter half of Hitman 2, where the callbacks and prior story points are explained.
Special Effects Failure: The games' blood puddles when placed in a puddle of water (like in front of flooding sinks) come off as this as the two liquids don't mix at all, and nor does the blood disappear. The water is simply rendered on top of the blood. This applies to the World of Assassination trilogy as a whole.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: After the controversial Hitman: Absolution, Hitman (2016) is seen as a decisive step back in the right direction and in contention for best game of the franchise.
Silvio Caruso mourning his mother at her grave. He monologues about his childhood, rants at her for her abuse of him and eventually mutters he wishes she was there with him, so he could smother her all over again.
Dino Bosco, taking some time to himself, reflecting on the choices he made that led to the events of the mission. It’s rather depressing hearing the man who had previously been nothing but a mere Jerkass and egomaniac reveal that he is fully aware that he is ruining both the production and his career. At one point he even contemplates committing suicide just to put himself out of his misery.
While most targets rightfully have their deaths coming, the immediate reactions of their associates can fall into this if the target's body was found. Examples include Viktor Novikov swearing revenge for Dalia's murder if she dies first, Jordan Cross's crew in the recording area reacting with absolute shock (including guitarist Heidi, who he didn't get along with) and both Ken Morgan's bodyguard and Dr. Nicholas Laurent going depressed over losing their charges (even worse for the latter if you made him murder Soders while high on drugs, dooming his career). Also, in Hokkaido, if you make KAI, an AI, malfunction and kill Soders, they manage a broken "I'm... sorry... Dr. Laurent..." as they shut down.
Some of the dialogue when holding your targets at gunpoint is rather sad. Even though most of them are scum, the voice acting very convincingly assures you that these are real people, and that no matter how much they deserve to die, they still logically fear death.
"Stop Having Fun" Guys: There are elitist players online (often with several hundreds of hours in the game) who feel that Opportunities feel like a cheap way to do the more elaborate kills, equating it to an "easy mode" for the game. Their entire purpose is to be geared towards new players who otherwise may not know how a Hitman game works, and Opportunities eases them into that mindset of what to look for in a given level, and how to do specific things. Not helping is when people recommend turning them off to new players, which is just asking for trouble. While the games encourage freedom and exploration, many people don't realise there is no shame in having help, especially if it means they better understand the games' mechanics. This also ignore that you can turn them off if you really want to.
The Silent Assassin, Suit Only challenge for Club 27. Killing Ken Morgan is easy, just poison his food, as he will eventually eat from all the plates and die. Jordan, on the other hand, is surrounded by guards and crew, and almost never leaves the top floor, meaning that you either need to avoid several people and cameras just to reach him, or play out the party routine, which requires you to steal the cake-toppernote itself surrounded by kitchen workers, sneak past guards on the roof, and notpoison his cakenote the act of poisoning raises suspicion, placing the topper is legal, however, and then let the party routine play out. Only then are you left with Dexy and Jordan, ther former will eventually leave, and Jordan can then be smothered in cake and killed. And all that is on normal difficulty. On Professional Mode (Master Mode in later games), there's a chef right next to the food plates that Morgan eats from, meaning you can't easily poison himnote though crushing him underneath the hanging light decorations is still possible, while Jordan remains disproportionately hard to reach with all the same problems as before. You are also denied from using the easiest exit in the game, as the boat at the front of the hotel is guarded and requires a key, with the exit nearby being overseen by three guards and a security camera. Unlike Colorado, later iterations of the level were not altered and has frequently come under fire for it.
The Silent Assassin, Suit Only challenge for Freedom Fighters. All four of them are spread out across the map, and are constantly on the move. This is in a place where the entire compound counts as a hostile area in your suit, meaning you have to keep out of sight almost all the time. Unlike Club 27, the targets do have relatively simple killsnote All targets except Parvati isolate themselves at some point, and Parvati can easily be killed with a hay bale, but getting to them requires weaving through several soldiers and security cameras. The mission was even harder before the Game of the Year Edition, as Story Mode forced you to escape through the tornado shelter, which itself required obtaining Rose's body or his mask from upstairs.
Downplayed in the Hitman 2 and 3 versions of the mission, which adds in tall grass in various specific places on the map, so sneaking around the level is quite a lot easier, including adding it in spots specifically made to make this SA/SO challenge much easier to pull offnote For example, grass can be found outside the main house, so getting to the basement now relies on proper timing. It still requires a lot of waiting around, but it now at least feels beatable. The exits were also made available, so long as you had completed Colorado once before, and even the most die-hard haters of the level find the improvements pretty effective.
The "Slam Dunk" challenge for The Source requires creating an explosion that will launch Sister Yulduz into the canopy above the rooftop garden. The problem is that the explosion physics are fickle and depend on getting the right angle, and its entirely possible for the canisters not to explode in-sync. The challenge's difficulty is likely why it was cut in Hitman 3.
The Silent Assassin Suit Only challenge for Patient Zero. Neither of the targets are particularly easy to reach - Liebleid is located inside a room that can only be opened with a disposable scrambler, with the corridors leading to said room being guarded. Similarly, Cage's room is surrounded by various doctors, and killing him involves not getting spotted alongside not getting infected by him. The entire level is also a hostile area, with the morgue being harder to infiltrate due to there being additional guards and workers. Preventing the virus from spreading involves either reaching Cage in two minutes, or knocking out the surgeon (and potentially the doctor) who walks down the corridor, which is tricky due to three guards outside being able to spot 47 should he drag her body down. Finally, the only easy way of exiting the level is taking the snowmobile outside the garage, which is usually surrounded by two patrolling guards.
Before the game was released, the fanbase was surprisingly vocal about 47's lack of gloves, note Apparently removing them would somehow lead to 47 growing hair how his in-game model looked, note The lightning made his face look younger than in actual gameplay and even his walking animations. This got to the point that somebody wrote an article about it, noting how ridiculous their reactions were.note Remember, this was alpha footage; actually creating the gameplay was the developers' priority back then.
The removal of Dual Wielding (which was in every game prior to this one) and Human Shields (which were in Blood Money) are some of the most criticized changes, especially since human shields in particular were in the Alpha version of the game. Human shields were mentioned in an early survey but have been missing from the game since. Other criticised changes are non-working mirrors note NPCs can't see 47 behind them through a mirror like in the previous games; this was fixed in Hitman 2 and therefore, its Legacy Pack, blood puddles not causing suspicion, and the removal of Absolution's in-game silencer management.
Dexy Barat, Jordan Cross's manager, helped cover up Hannah Highmoore's murder and blackmailed his father with a tape of their final argument. Some fans state she was a far more interesting character than Ken Morgan and wished she was the secondary target instead of him.
Despite being a major character both in the past and present of the game's story, Erich Soders is given very little characterisation in general; An Obstructive Bureaucrat who hinders 47's progress out of a childish jealousy back when 47 was being enrolled into the ICA, and a straight-up traitor and mole for Providence in the present. While the game wants to steer him into the Hate Sink direction due to betraying his ideals for a heart transplant, he's actually no less immoral than 47 or Diana. Even in the prequel comic book series; Birth of the Hitman, Soders' past and motivations are similarly vague, he saves Diana who was being attacked by a Blue Seed executives' guards when her cover was blown, and recruits her into the ICA not long after, with the Hand Wave that Diana and Soders knew each other beforehand, and were on friendly terms, and he even knew her parents, with no further elaboration. Writing Soders as a Reasonable Authority Figure, mentor and father figure to Diana turned traitor in the future would have been far more poignant than the one-dimensional portrayal he has in the comics and the games.
Penelope Graves is considered one of the more sympathetic targets in 2016, betraying Interpol due to their internal corruption. However, the lack of information besides this, and the militia being an obvious extremist terrorist group makes it seem like she did a 180 on her ideals. Exploring Graves's past in detail or perhaps even sparing her and having her replace or work alongside Olivia Hall could've made her a greater character, rather than killing her at the start of what seems to be a Character Arc.
IAGO is a powerful spy ring selling classified information to the world's global elite. They would have been a worthy opponent for the ICA. Alas, after the deaths of Viktor Novikov and Dalia Margolis, the organization fell due to lack of leadership.
While Silvio Caruso and Francesca De Santis have both set plans to kill each other, you can't prompt either into actually doing so (or ordering their guards to do so). You can alert De Santis to Caruso's scheme and set an opportunity for her to be blown up at the fireplace, as well as poison her with a vial, but there's no opportunity involving the two going head-to-head.
The backstory of the Marrakesh mission introduces the idea that Strandberg is so hated by the population for his crimes that people are actively rioting outside the embassy. Unfortunately, the riot is ultimately a completely isolated backdrop from your actual mission, and because the point of mission is to avoid escalating the conflict, there's zero options to make them more involved.
There's tension between Jordan Cross and his guitarist Heidi Santoro. An opportunity involving Heidi learning Jordan's secret, confronting him and accidentally killing him in a fight would have been an ironic end for the murderous singer.
On a similar note, manager Dexy Barat is planning to give the tape up to Jordan's father. A similar "woman kills Jordan" scenario could be played out.
Penelope Graves and Maya Parvati, the two female targets in Colorado, never interact, barring an optional encounter if Parvati comes across Graves' unconscious body and reassures Graves that she is going to get help. Seeing Parvati's Jerkass behaviour and Graves being distrusted by the militia, it would have been interesting if there was an opportunity involving setting up a meeting, ending with Parvati wrongly suspecting Graves of being a traitor and killing Graves or Parvati pushing Graves's Berserk Button and getting killed by her.
Ezra Berg wears a mask and is dressed in a hoodie. Fans hoped that he could be disguised as for an opportunity involving Rose or Graves.
Wen Ts'ai has probably the most wasted potential for an Elusive Target in 2016. His bio and briefing goes to great lengths to mention his overblown Caustic Critic tendencies, who slams hotels and restaurants for trivial reasons, often causing them to shut down. You'd expect him to walk around the Himmapan hotel and do the same thing? Except, that's not what he does in-game. Instead he sits in a public area, surrounded by guards, and only has one detour to the kitchens. He does loudly complain about the hotel, but in one place to a waiter nearby, making his defining character trait of criticising everythingbutthe food come off as mis-handled. It would've been more interesting if he actually did walk around and critique the hotel with the hotels' manager.
Underused Game Mechanic: As mentioned on the main page, sedative poison is the worst "weapon" in your arsenal that you can unlock. It voids silent assassin as soon as it's consumed in a crowded space by an NPC or Target, negating any use in a proper stealth run, and it only comes in pill form. Not to mention knocking someone else out is better, and the other poisons can be used without any penalty and are more versatile. The sequel gave it a buff to reverse the latter, making a straight upgrade from decking someone with a crowbar. It is useful in one case, with Francesca De Santis during her private date, where it is the only opportunity you can knock her out during the date without exposing yourself to her. However, unless you were playing a contract where you had to kill her in a specific way (such as the solar system in the observatory) and couldn't destroy the virus to lure her to the lab, there's no reason to do so.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The cutscenes between levels look excellent, and the character models used for them are very detailed.
Like with The Warlord, The Gunrunner has a very odd to pronounce last name (not to mention wreaking havoc on This Very Wiki's formattingnote Seriously, his last name in this pages' source is just a bunch of symbols and numbers), that being "Đurić". If it's any help, Diana in the briefing for the mission, (and Vito in-game) says it like [Doo-rich] while the sergeant in the parking garage says it like [Durr-rich]. It's not uncommon for players to pronounce his last name as [Jur-rick] either.
The "Nne" part of Nne Obara's name can cause players to incorrectly pronounce it "Neigh" or "Knee". Diana says "[Narh]", with a long "h". Her first name; "Adeze Oijofor", can also be hard to say, most players say it as "A-Daisy Weejafor", not, as Diana says it, "A-deeze-ay Oh-joe-four".
One can easily mistake Dr. Frydel's name to be said "[Fry-dull]", when it's actually "[Free-dall]".
Wangst: While Silvio Caruso does have a pretty convincing Freudian Excuse involving abuse from a Beloved Smother, the fact that almost every time you encounter him involves overhearing some neurotic, twitchy slightly self-obsessed whining on the subject may affect how much the player sympathises with him. Especially considering that (a) he's developing a virus which will enable him to assassinate whoever he wants at will, and (b) he ended up murdering his mother anyway.
Win Back the Crowd: The developers made it clear that this would be closer to the earlier Hitman games in style, as the previous game in the series, Hitman: Absolution, was met with a divisive reaction from the fanbase for its Actionized Sequel nature and Grindhouse tone. Though, of course, at release this game had its own controversies over its episodic business model, as well as forcing people to play online in order to access challenges within levels, which pissed many fans off to the point of alienating them (having console exclusive content for the PS4 did not help either).
To an extent, Sebastian Sato. He clearly does not like the designs he has to create for Sanguine, and is only there because Novikov threatens to 'end him' if he does not comply. And while he is a bit of a Large Ham prima donna (as you can tell if you spend even a second backstage during the fashion show), his speech after the show shows his anger at being having to make and take credit for work that he personally detests. On the other hand, a number of challenges involve killing him as well, so he may be more The Chew Toy.
Secretary Hailey Brennan and model Helmut Kruger respectively agreed to spy on and spy for Dalia Margolis under the impression she was a successful fashion model turned agent with some unscrupulous business practices. Neither were prepared to discover she was an international terrorist ringleader with no problem killing anyone who stood in her way.
Silvio Caruso is a neurotic Italian nobleman who, despite having a great intellect and vast fortune, can't enjoy it due to his numerous psychological issues. He's developed his bioweapon not as a means of hurting other people but giving the weak the ability to stand up for themselves. The fact it can also be used as a weapon of tyranny seems to have genuinely not occurred to him.
To drive it home even further, if confronted directly by 47 with a gun pointed at him, he will absolutelybreakdown. Compared to other targets, Caruso would weep uncontrollably and struggle to form coherent sentences, all the while trying very hard to convince 47 that he has good intentions. He would also mention the bullying he suffered from his mother and Marco Abiatti. He ended up sounding like a scared little child rather than an adult begging for his life.
Caruso: Have mercy.....I-I-I....Society and my mother made me w-what I am.....deep down, I am a good person!.....Mary have mercy on me.....
Penelope Graves joined the Shadow Client's organization because she was disillusioned with Interpol stonewalling her investigation into UN corruption. From her reaction, she very clearly assumed that they were the "good guys" and she would be fighting against "evil." However, they are ruthless terrorists and have set up a test which will very likely get her killed if her reaction to 47 impersonating an Interpol operative is any indication. Either way, her story ends abruptly at 47's hands.
notes the similarity.
