I am so terrible at this. I went through and played all the Hitman 1 and 2 missions in Hitman 3, then did the first H3 mission… I have no patience. I can rarely get my target alone, so I just pop them from a place where I hopefully won’t be seen and then walk away. Sometimes I’m noticed and sometimes I’m not. I did manage to push my target off the balcony in the first H3 mission. I had to time it right because the two guards both saw through my disguise so I needed to walk as soon as they turned their heads, push the target and walk the other way.
My plan is to play through each mission not caring too much how I get it done. If I replay missions after unlocking new options with XP, does it become easier to complete the missions in more creative ways, or if I suck now will I probably continue to suck? Do you get ideas by looking at the challenges?
You unlock new stash and starting locations, which can make it easier. You also can unlock new items that you can start with/stash which can also help.
100% yes. Try playing on the lowest difficulty and doing some of the scripted kills (aka mission stories.) They’ll walk you through the steps you need to do to get them.
Okay, I downloaded the H3 starter pack and after the 2 training missions (technically 3 because they had me go back and replay the yacht mission), I’m in! That was a ton of intense fun. I haven’t played stealth games in a long time, but I think I will like this.
I haven’t followed the series at all, but after watching that SuperBunnyHop video, it seems like the story is good if I play it all in order. So if I want to enjoy the story, I should buy H3 AND the H1 access…is that right? And start with H1? And then assuming I like H1, I buy the H2 access and then play through that before doing 3?
They don’t make this easy to understand. Or cheap, for that matter.
Okay, so to reply to my own question, they actually make it quite easy to figure out. At least on PS4.
Download the starter pack, giving you access to the training missions, which are prologue. The download is huge because it’s the entirety of all 3 games.
Try the prologue out. Optionally try the free map they provide too (though I didn’t do that).
From inside the game menus, go to the Store and buy the Standard or Deluxe edition of Hitman 3. I chose Standard for $59.99.
From that same store menu inside the game, buy the Hitman-GOTY access pass for another $29.99, giving you access to the entirety of Hitman 1.
From that same store menu, decide between Hitman 2-Standard and Hitman 2-Gold, take a deep breath when you decide on Gold and realize you’re about to take a $189.97 leap of faith, and buy the access pass.
Now you have the whole game and can see it as such inside the campaigns menu.
Eliminate the idea of buying a PS5 on ebay at $400 more than asking price since you just spent your gaming budget for the next 4 months.
I went all in on Hitman 1 to 3 a few months ago, based only on the training level, and didn’t regret it whatsoever. Best game experience in quite a few years.
Well, I played Paris, the first mission from Hitman 1. WOW. I’ll try not to spoil anything, and just say that I killed my two targets in very, very different ways. My first kill was inventive and strategic and I was feeling good, like I knew what I was doing. My second kill was a hot mess that I somehow survived. Sloppy, sloppy work that I stumbled into and couldn’t get out of easily.
I love how it played out and the replay-ability is off the charts. I don’t know whether to move to the next level or try again. I might try to replay it to get my feel for the game a bit more. There’s a lot to do.
I’ve probably played the Paris level more than 50 times. Even a couple of years after my last real attempt I know the map in my head, where all the items are, and the routines of the two principle targets.
Nice! I don’t feel like a one-off then. They really do make it easy once you download the massive starter pack. They just need to put something in the description of it that says “New to Hitman? Start here. Download this pack for free and launch it. It will all make sense.”
Also good to know. I’ve been reading the H1 and H2 threads and seeing your posts. I ended up doing Paris a few more times and probably will again this morning on my day off. Obvious statement for those of you who have played this, but there is so much going on, it’s basically an interactive story where each replay is a chance to see a scene from a different point of view.
Is it a bad thing to be replaying these levels and not worrying about whether I kill the targets? Should my plan be to always get them, or is simple exploration, trying stuff, and losing the mission a typical approach?
When I’m trying to figure stuff out, I’ll definitely spend a run just following the targets around trying to learn their patterns, or exploring the level. It’s a sandbox, so you can make your own fun. There are YouTubers who try to kill every single person in each level without being detected, or cause as much mayhem as possible and still complete the mission.
For those veterans of the series, are there recommended settings akin to turning off the map markers in Witcher 3? For instance:
Instinct: I’m not sure how I could play without it, but I’m still curious if some don’t.
Mission Story Guidance: Full / Minimal / Off. This is the setting that is causing me to ask. Full seems a bit too gamey, but Minimal leaves me wandering around a bit. In Marrakesh it’s a bit of a maze without it on Full.
Mini Map: On or off?
Etc. etc.
I finished up Sapienza (for now) and loved it. What a Bond-like map. Crazy good. Now I’m onto Marrakesh and, hmmm, it’s my least favorite of the opening three, by a lot.
It depends on your level of patience, but I personally prefer all the guidance turned off so I can wander and discover the story myself. I find it’s more rewarding to discover these places and people rather than have the interface methodically step me through everything. In fact, that’s what it took for me to finally grok the latest Hitman games. They’re about discovering the interactions among the characters and level design rather than simply executing them.
I found that I enjoyed watching Let’s Play videos of Hitman far more than I enjoyed playing it. Although this is because I lack the patience for stealth games rather than any kind of criticism of Hitman which is a superbly crafted game.
The youtuber manyatruenerd has some great Hitman Let’s Plays. He’s done all of the Hitman games I think so check out his other playlists if you enjoy this one.
Thanks! I watched his Colorado video a bit and I like it. I will check him out further. I am happy to report that I prefer playing it to watching it. In fact, it’s not even close. I absolutely love this game. I can’t believe I willfully looked past it when it was released. It’s brilliant.
I finished Hitman 1 (with the H3 engine, for those keeping score at home) with a plan to return to all the levels. I played all of them at least twice and have quite a bit of mastery to go on each (I think 8 is my highest mastery of any level, and I know 20 is the goal). Which also translates to: I am god-awful at this game. But it’s also what makes the game so great. I can be! I can be terrible at it and fail, but if I’m just a little better, I can stumble through it, creating some amazingly funny moments, albeit with a bad score. The game doesn’t overly punish me for being a mess. The insta-fail stealth approach is nowhere to be found here, though I have failed poorly enough to be killed, it’s rarely for game-y reasons. I love that so much! Most other stealth games have hurdles that ultimately turn me off.
My favorite levels were probably Paris, Sapienza, and Hokkaido, which I think are basically everybody’s favorite levels from H1. They are a master class in detailed, rich level design, but the game is somehow more than even that. Describing this game as a rube goldberg machine is exactly right. I can’t wait to play H2 and H3, though first I will go through the H1 DLC. Then maybe re-try a level or two before moving on.
Finished the Hitman III campaign and holy smokes, there’s some excellent map design in this game. The Chongqing map might be my all-time favorite in this series.
I’m amazed at the jump in map quality from H1 to H2, or even the H1 bonus missions. All of them are just so creative.
If IO could ever get ahold of the rights to No One Lives Forever, this is absolutely the perfect engine to release it on (the proper stealth, the conversation gameplay, etc.). Until I get such a dream DLC, I’ll just keep seeing the similarities and playing these endlessly replayable levels.
I did my first escalation and even that was insanely fun and different. It was sniping 2 people in Marrakesh and the lack of a save option brought the tension through the roof.
