Ascended Glitch: Strangling the ghost became an achievement/trophy in the remaster.
Best Level Ever: "Beldingford Manor." The forum voted it the best mission in the series in 2014. Aside from the rough start, the manor offers multiple approaches for infiltration and assassination of the targets.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The ghost in "Traditions of the Trade", the only supernatural moment in the entire series. Possibly justified in that the entire game other than the final level is taking place inside 47's head.
This is immediately followed by "Slaying A Dragon", which is by far the easiest mission in the entire game. The reason for this is because it's adapted almost entirely unchanged from Codename 47's first mission, even providing 47 with a very convenient Sniper Rifle with which to do the job.
While "The Wang Fou Incident" adds more targets to make it more difficult, "The Seafood Massacre" can be completed with little difficulty, as the Blue Lotus negotiator can ambushed in a back alley at the start of the mission, the Red Dragon negotiator conveniently walks down another back alley with access to the sewer for hiding his body nearby (if you pop him in the back of the head at the right time with a silenced Silverballer, he'll even fall right down the ladder, saving you having to drag him down there), and the police chief can be leisurely sniped without the other cops knowing. Once that's all done, all it takes is donning the Red Dragon disguise, taking the amulet, and dropping all your weapons before calmly walking into the restaurant and depositing the amulet near the police chief's body for a handy Silent Assassin rating.
"Lee Hong Assassination" isn't particularly difficult either, so long as you remember to spike the soup with laxatives instead of poison, which will leave you alone to deal with Hong and plenty of time before his body is discovered. The hard part is the randomised location of the Jade Figurine.
The returning levels. Some dislike them, as some of them barely resemble the original ones, and thus play very differently. Most notable offenders are the revamped Hong Kong and Rotterdam levels. Defenders note that they give console users the chance to play the original levels, they now require different strategies and that if they were identical, the missions would suddenly play even more differently to match Codename 47's gameplay.
The fact that most levels take place at night in rain. Some feel that it adds to the game's darker tone, while others feel that it's used a bit too much, especially since the original levels in C47 had much more color and light in them.
Any enemy wielding a sniper rifle. Getting shot by an enemy sniper does massive damage, leaving just barely a silver of health left. To make things worse, the snipers are hard to find in the first place due to being a good distance away and not using anything that would give their position away, such as laser sights.
SWAT Officers. Appearing in "Asylum Aftermath", "Deadly Cargo", and "Hunter And Hunted", these guys will absolutely wreck your shit if they spot you, since they're armed with automatic weapons, are clad in armour that actually averts the Armor Is Useless trope, and are actively hunting you in groups in both "Asylum Aftermath" and "Hunter And Hunted".
Disappointing Last Level: The first two games both had their final Where It All Began epic shootout levels against Ort-Meyer's army of 48s, and Sergei's goons respectively. Contracts instead records your performance in "Hunter And Hunted" like all its previous missions. You're playing 'cat and mouse' against the police to earn the coveted 'Silent Assassin' rating, and murder the inspector, in front of a crowd of bystanders.
Growing the Beard: Contracts seems to mark the point at which the series finally gets it together and figures out exactly what it wants to be, in terms of gameplay, level design, balance, and mechanics. There's a greater emphasis on sandbox, public space levels rather than sneaking around enemy bases filled with angry soldiers, and the stealth has finally been balanced out after the insanely twitchy and erratic A.I. of Silent Assassin. Lastly, stealth is a viable approach for the entire game, whereas Silent Assassin featured two Action Based Missions in the Japan chapter which were poorly received.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A portion of the fanbase finds this game to be among the weaker entries in the series, due to its status as a Mission-Pack Sequeland a semi-remake. Its gameplay is basically Silent Assassin with a few improvements and tweaks. It still has its fans, however — the fact that it has much more weapons available than Silent Assassin, including the minigun some people missed since the first game, helped quite a bit.
The bouncers in Romania: "You know procedure. I now feel your flesh!" That accent is very funny, as well.
The constant nighttime/rainfall combo sometimes comes off as this, as the game is plenty dark already; these two added to the mix makes the game feel like it's trying a bit too hard.
Narm Charm: Contracts had 11 'rain' missions to Silent Assassin's 3, and it's doubtful that atmosphere can ever really be captured again. Something about the draw distance fog really added to the mood.
The entire game, really. It has some of the goriest missions in the franchise and the most unsettling music to boot. "The Meat King's Party" and "Asylum Aftermath" are prime mission examples here.
The whole vibe is captured perfectly in the game's intro. A detailed description of how a firearm works culminates into a loudJump Scare, followed up by a blood-curdling scream.
Scrappy Mechanic: The feature from Silent Assassin where dropping a weapon in any mission means you lose it is still in Contracts, despite it being only possible after already beating the mission/the game being a dream with missions out of order, this potentially means having to repeat Silent Assassin Ranking to re-unlock weapons.
Unlike in the previous game, simply running won't immediately cause guards to open fire on you. You have to run around close to them for a prolonged period of time before they become suspicious enough to attack you.
Sneaking is much faster than in Silent Assassin, even if 47 moves like a mincing ballerina this time.
Contracts introduced "Last Man Standing", which occurs when 47 has lost all health. Time slows down, and the screen becomes whiter and whiter until, finally, you keel over and die. The player can still open doors, shoot at enemies, and even pick up items, but they must score at least 3 headshots to escape the mode. If the player succeeds, the game resumes with some health replenished. Additionally, if the player has completed all objectives and is very close to the exit, it is possible to escape while in slow motion.
Disguising yourself as a SWAT officer will give 47 increased damage resistance.
The remade Codename 47 missions are less maddening than before, thanks to the smaller maps and add-ons like the lockpick. And saving options.
Second verse, same as the first. You have to thwart Frantz's and Fritz's attempts to detonate a bomb again. In the hotel, the nice thing about Fritz's dental clinic is that the walls are lead-lined, so nobody outside (or inside, if you fire a gun next door) will hear your gunshots.
The thermal bath is reserved for Fritz alone, so the guest swimmers and scary Hungarian lady are all gone (although there's a cop watching him and civilians looking through the window from the floor above). Also, the bomb suitcase is now impervious to detectors, making your escape as quiet as the grave.
In Lee Hong's restaurant/fortress, the VIP/warehouse safes were moved to the basement and Lee Hong's office, both of which are well-protected. Luckily, the jade figure always starts off in the guard's quarters, and moves around only if you die and restart the mission. Having to break into the Codename 47 guard's quarters was a bad stroke of luck, whereas in Contracts it's one of the easier locations. Similarly, you don't need to go to the brothel since Lee Hong has the codes on him.
The requirements for Silent Assassin are slightly more lenient. You can kill two guards, provided it takes no more than one bullet to do so.
The opening two missions ("Asylum Aftermath" and "The Meat King's Party") are nowhere near as difficult as the equivalent missions in Silent Assassin with the objective of the former being simply to escape the asylum and the latter giving you a convenient disguise that will allow easy access to both already immobile targets and a melee weapon in the form of a butcher's hook provided by an already pacified butcher (just remember to ditch your guns first).
In order to throw off C47 veterans and build up the dark atmosphere, the police have roped off large sections of the hotel and made it overall a bit more claustrophobic. You have to lockpick to get to a few crucial parts, the knife is in a completely different spot and is better-guarded, and guests and employees will be spooked if you pocket the bellboy's key when they're in sight. Also, don't bother trying out the towel boy disguise; you'll just be ejected by the guard in 10 seconds.
Four more targets have been added to "The Wang Fou Incident", so your job doesn't end at blowing up the Triad limo. The other Hong Kong missions play out roughly the same as before.
In Hitman: Codename 47, you could just as well enter through the bathroom window and burst through the fish restaurant after everyone's sat down for their chat. In this version, the Chief has guards stationed right outside the fire escape. So not only can't you re-enter once the cops arrive, but you have to schlep all the way back downstairs to leave. Also, the dining area is fully exposed, and there's a sniper who spots you if you shoot the negotiator and Police Chief from the wrong spot.
In the original fish restaurant scene, you could safely drop the amulet before you go to the bathroom to get your gun or even drop it inside the bathroom on the window sill. Not this time: the Red Dragon amulet must be placed between the bodies of the Chief and the negotiator, and if you stupidly drop it while they're still alive, they will both reach for a piece and light you up at once.
If you try to leave the brothel the way you came, the brothel madam yells for help and the Triads open fire, so you need an alternate route. Mei Ling will also need a hand when jumping the balcony, as she's not quite as spry as 47. (In the original, she could climb ladders and run across rooftops with ease) If she lands on the sidewalk, she'll scurry away to safety and you won't get the safe combo. Or you can have 47 kill/sedate her and be done... but he'll still have to slip out the back and avoid the madam.
You can no longer bring extra weapons into a mission, this combined with no silenced Silverballer on Hard/Professional means simply shooting your target in the head with a silenced pistol isn't an option.
Signature Scene: According to the limited edition art book for Trilogy, "Meat King's Party" is the definitive Contracts level.
So Okay, It's Average: Ironically, despite being seen as the point where things really clicked for the series, it's probably the least-remembered and least-discussed Hitman entry in the series. Everything that it did right was done even better by later games (Blood Money especially as it came out immediately after it), and it lacks the memorable storylines of the World of Assassination Trilogy and Silent Assassin due to its not really having an overarching story — it's mostly a bunch of memories in an anachronistic order. At the same time, it isn't seen as being as flawed or clunky as the earlier games like Codename 47, or nearly as flawed as Absolution would later be, leaving it with a reputation as a very competent entry in the series, just not a hugely memorable one.
. A detailed description of how a firearm works culminates into a loud Jump Scare, followed up by a blood-curdling scream.