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HITMAN |OT| Blood Monthly

CHC

Member
You've only done Paris? You ain't seen nothing yet

I'm just doing it over and over, trying to do challenges. I will probably move on at some point but I also started a new game with a friend of mine at his apartment, so we've agreed to save at least a level or two to discover in person over a couple of beers. The laughs we had when we discovered you could two-hand-hurl a fire extinguisher at someone's head with pinpoint accuracy....

Also is it normal to not save AT ALL? I really enjoy fully restarting the mission when I fail. Honestly, I haven't even tried saving so maybe that's how the game is designed, but either way, that's what I like to do.
 
I'm just doing it over and over, trying to do challenges. I will probably move on at some point but I also started a new game with a friend of mine at his apartment, so we've agreed to save at least a level or two to discover in person over a couple of beers. The laughs we had when we discovered you could two-hand-hurl a fire extinguisher at someone's head with pinpoint accuracy....

Also is it normal to not save AT ALL? I really enjoy fully restarting the mission when I fail. Honestly, I haven't even tried saving so maybe that's how the game is designed, but either way, that's what I like to do.

For me, I only end up using the save when I'm trying to go through a multistep process that requires a precision I usually lack. Like, if I'm in Paris trying to get up to the auction for a challenge and I run into problems, maybe I'll save just before the auction or something. It saves me a few steps that I've repeated over and over in trying to get the set up going.

Generally speaking the repetition helps with learning the level, but once you actually know it and the learning turns to boredom, saves can be useful if you're specifically challenge hunting.
 
So after 8 hours I've still only been playing on Sapienza.

I did the suit-only silent assassin run last night. Tense as fuck but so fun. Had to abuse saves a bit I must admit but still great fun.
 
For me, I only end up using the save when I'm trying to go through a multistep process that requires a precision I usually lack. Like, if I'm in Paris trying to get up to the auction for a challenge and I run into problems, maybe I'll save just before the auction or something. It saves me a few steps that I've repeated over and over in trying to get the set up going.

Generally speaking the repetition helps with learning the level, but once you actually know it and the learning turns to boredom, saves can be useful if you're specifically challenge hunting.

I try to limit myself when using saves if I have to use them. No more than 3 per mission, which was the equivalent of the "Expert" difficulty in Blood Money.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
I save all over the place. Especially before I execute the plan (and the target).
 
i hope io continues to push 47 as being an expert at everything in season 2

should have an assassination at a university where one of the opportunities consists of him teaching a calculus lesson
 
i hope io continues to push 47 as being an expert at everything in season 2

should have an assassination at a university where one of the opportunities consists of him teaching a calculus lesson

Which makes it all the more amazing when, in episode 6, you can discover the one thing that he is not an expert at.
 

louiedog

Member
i hope io continues to push 47 as being an expert at everything in season 2

should have an assassination at a university where one of the opportunities consists of him teaching a calculus lesson

I want an assassination at a race track where one of the targets is a driver and 47 can do every job on the pit crew.
 

jett

D-Member
I got the full season on black friday. Leaving the tutorial stuff, the amount of content available seems almost overwhelming. It definitely looks like a game developed for a seasonal/episodic release.

What's the recommended way of playing this? Turning off opportunities entirely? Anything else?
 
I got the full season on black friday. Leaving the tutorial stuff, the amount of content available seems almost overwhelming. It definitely looks like a game developed for a seasonal/episodic release.

What's the recommended way of playing this? Turning off opportunities entirely? Anything else?

I usually ranked up to Master Rank Level 20 before moving on to the next map. That way it feels like I'm not rushing through and was the closest way to making it feel episodic as intended.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
I got the full season on black friday. Leaving the tutorial stuff, the amount of content available seems almost overwhelming. It definitely looks like a game developed for a seasonal/episodic release.

What's the recommended way of playing this? Turning off opportunities entirely? Anything else?

Keep opportunities on. It's much more interesting that way instead of feeling like you're fumbling through things.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Keep opportunities on. It's much more interesting that way instead of feeling like you're fumbling through things.

If you are going to keep Opporunities on, at least turn it to Minimal, otherwise it will just take you step-by-step through the process.
 
Keep opportunities on. It's much more interesting that way instead of feeling like you're fumbling through things.

No way. I had opportunities on through Paris but then turned them off. I found that I would just be following waypoint icons on my screen and it became routine and unexciting. There's no better feeling than exploring the map, putting intel and conversations together to form an amazing kill on your own. I'll sometimes put opportunities on after my first run-through or two of a map though, but the first time felt like a disservice to me.
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
I'm just doing it over and over, trying to do challenges. I will probably move on at some point but I also started a new game with a friend of mine at his apartment, so we've agreed to save at least a level or two to discover in person over a couple of beers. The laughs we had when we discovered you could two-hand-hurl a fire extinguisher at someone's head with pinpoint accuracy....

Also is it normal to not save AT ALL? I really enjoy fully restarting the mission when I fail. Honestly, I haven't even tried saving so maybe that's how the game is designed, but either way, that's what I like to do.
Well you cannot save in escalation missions, so scave-scumming on the vanilla contracts while you're learning the layout doesn't seem too bad.

Personally I play with every aid turned off and will only (rarely) save mid-mission to reduce monotony of repeating steps I've perfected... I mean if I really feel like I have that stretch mastered, I'll occasionally skip the redo -- knowing escalation will test me on it later.
 
If you are going to keep Opporunities on, at least turn it to Minimal, otherwise it will just take you step-by-step through the process.

Didn't know this. I just barely played the Paris chapter, but what made me
dislike the super model opportunity
was exactly that: it felt so boring, because I had waypoints at every step.

No way. I had opportunities on through Paris but then turned them off. I found that I would just be following waypoint icons on my screen and it became routine and unexciting. There's no better feeling than exploring the map, putting intel and conversations together to form an amazing kill on your own. I'll sometimes put opportunities on after my first run-through or two of a map though, but the first time felt like a disservice to me.

So, let me get this straight: opportunities are either on or off, and if you set them to on, you'll be forced to play with the waypoints system?
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
Didn't know this. I just barely played the Paris chapter, but what made me
dislike the super model opportunity
was exactly that: it felt so boring, because I had waypoints at every step.



So, let me get this straight: opportunities are either on or off, and if you set them to on, you'll be forced to play with the waypoints system?
There's a minimal setting that's an in-between.

Personally I turn them off. Don't see the fun in a puzzle if someone else solves it for you.
 
So, let me get this straight: opportunities are either on or off, and if you set them to on, you'll be forced to play with the waypoints system?

On: Steps and waypoints. (Waypoints get a little more vague in the last episode - they might point you to a room but not the exact location.)
Minimal: Steps and no waypoints.
Off: Nothing.
 
Keep opportunities on. It's much more interesting that way instead of feeling like you're fumbling through things.
No way. Opportunities off + Intel is basically the same as Blood Money. The game offers more than enough breadcrumbs through dialogue and observing your target's actions, and those breadcrumbs tend to get marked as Intel that you can check If you need to.
 

Bladelaw

Member
Eh, I keep opportunities on the first time I run through a map. It helps me explore sensibly and gives me a couple things to pursue right away. I don't have a couple hours a mission to devote every time I want to play a new map so I think this is a fine compromise.

I get the sense of accomplishment that comes from an improvised plan and executing it perfectly, I started playing this game that way, but the payoff took far too long for the time I have available. Once I've cleared the map once I'll usually drop the opportunities to minimum and focus on challenges. The Ninja Assassin challenge on the last map is incredible to pull off. I actually screwed it up once before figuring out what I did wrong.
I didn't realize that if you sent the curator into depression to destroy the donor heart he would eventually kill himself which marks as a "non-target kill".
I had otherwise done everything perfectly without being seen.
 
Didn't know this. I just barely played the Paris chapter, but what made me
dislike the super model opportunity
was exactly that: it felt so boring, because I had waypoints at every step.



So, let me get this straight: opportunities are either on or off, and if you set them to on, you'll be forced to play with the waypoints system?

There are 3 options for opportunities. Off, minimal & full.

Off is straightforward, the game won't show any information related to the opportunities. Minimal will tell you what the next step is but won't tell you how to go about it (so it might tell you to get a chef's disguise, but will not tell you where to find the disguise) and full will give you all of the information. What to do and where to find it on the map.
 

Xenoboy

Member
I have finally finished all 6 episodes and boy has this game been great. Definitely going to get all challenges completed later on.
My ranking as of now has to be -
Hokkaido > Marrakesh > Sapienza > Bangkok > Paris > Colorado.
There was just something about Marrakesh that really reeled me in.
 
There are 3 options for opportunities. Off, minimal & full.

Off is straightforward, the game won't show any information related to the opportunities. Minimal will tell you what the next step is but won't tell you how to go about it (so it might tell you to get a chef's disguise, but will not tell you where to find the disguise) and full will give you all of the information. What to do and where to find it on the map.

Thanks, I'll try to set them off.
 

jett

D-Member
Too bad the challenges spoil every major assassination "set piece", though. I guess you still have to figure out how to get there, but it'd be better if the game didn't say shit.
 
Too bad the challenges spoil every major assassination "set piece", though. I guess you still have to figure out how to get there, but it'd be better if the game didn't say shit.

There's a balance here.

I like to start a mission with challenges set to off because, like you said, there are a lot of fun assassinations that you can discover on your own.

But you should turn challenges back on once you have most of the assassination challenges, because some of these are to do certain kills in a particular way. At that point you should know what you are being asked to do.

And even then, some of the best kills are still redacted. You won't figure out Dance Till You Drop in Marrakesh on your own.
 

Kaz42

Member
do you have opportunities set to on :smirksmiley:

Yea thats probably a good idea in this case. Sapienza is so large that I just run around everywhere blindly looking for him when I could've just had turned them on for that specific opportunity. Such a simple solution but I didnt even think about it.
 

CHC

Member
I like opportunities off, honestly. They're not that hard to figure out, especially if you take a quick peak at the challenges to get some ideas.
 

Stoze

Member
Too bad the challenges spoil every major assassination "set piece", though. I guess you still have to figure out how to get there, but it'd be better if the game didn't say shit.

It doesn't, you never have to go into the challenges section and you can turn the challenge notification once you've done something off.
edit: If you're saying you'd prefer things like (Paris spoiler)
"meeting up with Dahlia as Helmet Kruger"
in a different section than "kill both targets with a fiber wire", than yeah I'm on board with that. Some of the challenges and opportunities are definitely redundant in that manner.

There's a balance here.

I like to start a mission with challenges set to off because, like you said, there are a lot of fun assassinations that you can discover on your own.

But you should turn challenges back on once you have most of the assassination challenges, because some of these are to do certain kills in a particular way. At that point you should know what you are being asked to do.

That's basically what I do, except instead of turning challenges on or off I just choose not to look at them at all until I feel like I want to see options that I missed. Unless I'm mistaken turning them off just removes the description in the challenge section, which you can ignore and just glance at the pictures which has the same effect.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
To update my time on Hitman, I've just finished Sapienza and have been having a great time. A friend has been watching me play as well and we've simply laughed at all of the dumb decisions and unnecessary deaths I've had/caused.

I'm not personally sold on doing all of the extra missions with "nobodies" as targets, as I prefer even the slightest thread of context behind the kill. However, the story (and replaying story missions a few times) has been more than enough for my enjoyment. As for the Opportunities markers, sometimes I play with them, sometimes I don't. I'm very glad they're around as an option, but I do get mildly annoyed by them at times when I'm in the middle of doing my own thing. The unstable relationship has worked out so far.

I hope the upcoming levels have even more surprises in-store. Unique touches I've loved most with the changing stages include different (thematically appropriate) escape routes and kill methods.
 
Followed the advice from @tchocky and played the Paris level without pressure, just following the targets and exploring the HUGE map (when I thought "hum ok, this is pretty big, but I finally roamed everywhere", I stumbled with the attic!).

I managed to find almost every opportunity and, in the end,
got the guy by using the FSB agent and the woman by distracting her guards with noises in the bathroom, leaving her alone to be properly piano-stringed to the face (neck?)
.

It worked, but it is far from a clean run. Now, I'll explore some more to discover more about other opportunities and to refine my approach to the targets.

But yeah, I'm still overwhelmed. Great game, level design and stealth gameplay that expects you to really be smart.
 

Stoze

Member
I really like almost all the escalations I've played in Marrakesh, mainly because they heavily utilize areas that don't have too much use during the main mission. The Kilie Agitation is my favorite in this regard: In the main mission the shisha cafe is basically only for housing the
cameraman disguise
, but this takes advantage of practically everything that area has to offer and you really get to experience the intricacies in the design. Plus you get to off that lazy bum Jeff.

Not a fan of the one that takes place inside of the consulate with the masseuse, it seems hard to not turn into a clusterfuck without a ton of waiting and baiting.
 
Not a fan of the one that takes place inside of the consulate with the masseuse, it seems hard to not turn into a clusterfuck without a ton of waiting and baiting.

The easy way to do that one: give Strandberg his massage, and then you will be able to offer massages to random consulate employees and lead them to the massage room. And the guard never comes back.

But eventually that was taking too long. My preferred method was to put a noise distraction behind the desk in the side room with Strandberg's evacuation plans, and then turn it on when each target walks by the door.

Now if you're talking about the silent assassin route for level 5... that's in its own league entirely.
 

Stoze

Member
The easy way to do that one: give Strandberg his massage, and then you will be able to offer massages to random consulate employees and lead them to the massage room. And the guard never comes back.

But eventually that was taking too long. My preferred method was to put a noise distraction behind the desk in the side room with Strandberg's evacuation plans, and then turn it on when each target walks by the door.

Now if you're talking about the silent assassin route for level 5... that's in its own league entirely.

I got that first part down. It's hacking the laptop without being seen/starting combat that's the tough part now, last time I set off the fire alarm and lucked into people not looking at me for 20 seconds. I could try and get the intern's disguise if that lets me hack it without suspicion but that's a bit annoying to get as well, at least from what knowledge I have.

Yeah typically I don't go for SA on these if it requires doing things drastically different or makes things way harder, but I like to do these without ever going into combat and killing as few people as I can.
 
I got that first part down. It's hacking the laptop without being seen that's the tough part now, last time I set off the fire alarm and lucked into people not looking at me for 20 seconds. I could try and get the intern's disguise if that lets me hack it without suspicion but that's a bit annoying to get as well, at least from what knowledge I have.

Yeah typically I don't go for SA on these if it requires doing things drastically different or makes things way harder, but I like to do these without ever going into combat and killing as few people as possible.

Laptop hacking has been changed - now you just need to not get seen starting the hack.

The rest of the hack now works like blending in.
 

Stoze

Member
Laptop hacking has been changed - now you just need to not get seen starting the hack.

The rest of the hack now works like blending in.

Oh damn really, regardless of your disguise? That was the reason I gave up on the one in Sapienza in the underground lab. Was that a change with the latest patch?
 
Oh damn really, regardless of your disguise? That was the reason I gave up on the one in Sapienza in the underground lab. Was that a change with the latest patch?

Yeah, that one is now actually doable without random luck. This was changed some time in October.

Picking locks and poisoning now work the same way as well in that they stop being suspicious after a brief moment. It's less noticeable for those because they're much faster.
 

Stoze

Member
Yeah, that one is now actually doable without random luck. This was changed some time in October.

Picking locks and poisoning now work the same way as well. It's less noticeable for those because they're much faster.

Weird, I've only being playing since a week or two ago and I could've sworn it works like that. I guess I've just been unknowingly getting caught the times I've started it, because yeah the lockpick and poison definitely work that way.

I'll try those two again later and hopefully things will go smoother.
 
Is it just me, or do Francesca's bodyguards on Sapienza never leave her side? They don't seem to get distracted by dropped guns or noises. If they see something off, another guard from somewhere else runs along to fix it. Weird...
 
Is it just me, or do Francesca's bodyguards on Sapienza never leave her side? They don't seem to get distracted by dropped guns or noises. If they see something off, another guard from somewhere else runs along to fix it. Weird...

I think Colorado added special "personal bodyguard" AI that prioritizes protecting the target over everything else. So they will even call in other guards to investigate things.

Must have been retroactively added back to previous levels.
 
I think Colorado added special "personal bodyguard" AI that prioritizes protecting the target over everything else. So they will even call in other guards to investigate things.

Must have been retroactively added back to previous levels.

I was able to distract Yuki's personal guards in Hokkaido within the past few days, so it's weird that this behavior would only apply to certain levels.
 
Everyone should check out the new Featured Contracts today. Somehow I got first place on the Steam leaderboards for the poisoning one with a time of six minutes - that doesn't seem right.

Also, ages ago there was a Featured Contract to kill four of the Sapienza gelateria employees... and today there is a Featured Contract to kill five of the gelateria employees. Somebody at IO probably needs to start checking these for repeats.
 

MUnited83

For you.
I've played this game so much, yet only recently I've noticed this.

105BFEC12C98B7E8C4657D63556903791EFCE81A
 
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