Contract ID: 3-28-2960001-01
Platform: Xbox One
Submitter Name: Pootis.exe
Contract Title: The Green-Thumbed Monster
Briefing:
Thornbridge Manor’s gardeners are seen as the bottom rung of the ladder. They regard Madam Carlisle’s bodyguards with seething jealousy. Their fancy suits, their important status, their fatter pay-checks. They even get full access to the manor, while the lowly gardeners toil away in the cold and the mud. Why can’t the honest working man get some luxury for a change?
Well today, the tables turn.
Today, a humble gardener shall ascend the mansion’s stairs; his green-thumbs stained red with blood.
Brief Description:
My contract is themed around class-conflict; a common source of envy in the real world. Specifically, a class conflict between the gardeners (the lowest ranked disguise in the mission) and the bodyguards (the highest). The gardeners are dissatisfied with how they are treated; not even being allowed inside most of the mansion they help to maintain. They are jealous of the status and privilege the bodyguards have, and so decide to take some of it for themselves.
Appropriately, the title is a reference to 'The Green-Eyed Monster’, a metaphorical term coined by Shakespeare as the personification of envy. Similarly, ‘Green-Thumbed’ (or green-fingered) is an idiom referring to somebody who is very skilled and/or knowledgeable with plants. There is therefore a thematic crossover as green is not only the colour of envy, but the colour of plants.
In terms of gameplay, the contract takes inspiration from The Kotti Paradigm (my favourite escalation from Hitman 2016). The player is required to eliminate four bodyguards with a hatchet while disguised as a gardener. The bodyguards are all found within the mansion, but only one of them is on the ground floor, meaning players will be required to scale their way up the mansion through Trespassing zones to reach their other targets. However, this is not as simple as it may initially seem, as players will quickly discover that they are unable to climb any pipes, ladders, or ledges while carrying the hatchet (which is especially a problem as hatchets can only be found outside). Subsequently, the player is forced to carry the hatchet up the stairs; something that will prove difficult without an appropriate disguise. This plays into the themes of the contract, as the player must adopt the role of a bodyguard (traversing the mansion while carrying a weapon) while disguised as a gardener; fulfilling the gardeners’ jealous desire for a role reversal.
There are no complications for this contract as I deemed them unnecessary. I originally considered adding a ‘No Disguise Changes’ complication, but ultimately decided against it as I wanted to allow alternate strategies; such as equipping a bodyguard disguise and carrying the hatchet up, then traversing pipes and ledges with a gardener disguise. It also means that players are free to begin the mission from whichever entrance they wish. Ultimately, this contract will test the player’s map-knowledge, their ability to manipulate NPCs, as well as their ability to traverse trespassing zones undetected.
Location: Dartmoor (A Death in the Family)
Image Suggestion:
I think 47 attacking one of his targets with the hatchet would be a good image for this contract, such as the one seen at the top of the submission. I’ve added this photo, along with some others, in the drop-down menu below.
Photos