Just finished my first full playthrough on Master Difficulty, which took around 31 minutes & I noticed that these two guards are annoying as hell in this mission.
Guard #1: His head turning is annoying as you can get spotted easily when sneaking past the gates on the right side. Seems to be easier when he stares straight ahead.
Guard #2: This guy is way worse 10/10! Just like the guard in Colorado near the barn doors in Hitman 2016 before they patched him. Random & constant head turning with no consistent method/pattern to sneak past him when taking the picture of Lance Hsu in the cell without the need for distractions or the breaching charge which raises suspicions. But itās possible to get past him when timed right by using a lock pick. I tried only using the camera, without entering the cell, but the fail rate is ridiculous! Super High! Especially if you are going for a stealth purist playthrough.
cleanest sniper assassin suit only silent assassin ive done for a level like ever, only one k.o that i couldāve avoided to make it no koās at all. With sniper assassin being my final assassination challenge i needed
And it was fun, I expected to like this map way less but it ended up being middle of the road with some really big highlights. The biggest highlights are definitely the targets, their routes and the two areas they have. The colonial ruins with the underground satellite server thingamajig and the pirate hideout are the best parts of this map and im glad theyre such big parts of it. They have great guard patrols, layout, design and connect well to the rest of the map.
But for the rest i could not care less for this map. It looks great, but i donāt like the jungle/island aesthetic at night. I think a lot of the island is undercooked and couldāve used more time to become more interesting like the main two fortresses. Most of the public areas feel lifeless and really empty. The slapping contest is the only thing that makes ambrose feel like a real place rather than just a bunch of npcs placed on map_rockydugong_scene1_position:22.33.12. The shortcuts also felt more pointless than in any other level. After unlocking the pirate one it was a hassle to get to it and use it while another easier route with a free disguise was available from the start.
The unlocks are also certainly unlocks. the molotov is probably the best thing out of it as it brings wallbanging back but thats most likely gonna get patched. Iām always glad to get reskins of guns and melee weapons and the new lockpick looks nice but in the end the best thing about the unlocks is just seeing the mastery meter go up again. Which gave me a good feeling in my monkey brain.
Iām also glad i didnāt complete every challenge on this map in the first few days of it being out like i did with every single hitman 3 map. Made me appreciate the work they put into this thing more.
All in all, love that this map is free, love the targets and their fortresses. but im indifferent or dislike most other things. 6.5/10
Finally got a chance to play a bit of Hitman. Oh my! Ambrose is beautiful! Of course I started this new level the way I always do: No loadout, picking up everything I find, never change disguise and trying to subdue everyone except the targets. No map. No instinct. No HUD at all.
After subdueing almost everyone the game started crashing, couldnāt load any old saves. Anyway, by then I learned the map a bit, had a plan for killing the targets and started fast runs. Now Iāve done almost all of the challenges and still enjoy this map. Discovered a few bugs, but nothing too serious (lightning, clipping, and so on).
Still havenāt figured out a fast and easy way to destroy the console, reminds me a bit of the virus in Sapienza.
Here is my final review I wrote for my Tumblr Blog:
First of all, it should be said that this location does not reinvent the wheel. We already know a lot of what we see in the level from others. Nonetheless, Ambrose Island is a fine location and I had a lot of fun playing it!
Ambrose Island feels like a declaration of love to Haven and Santa Fortuna. And the island is brimming with pirate references! There are ancient ruins in which we can find an old prison or skeletons that can be found everywhere. And without giving too much away, we can find the Buccaneer disguise known from Haven and other funny pirate Easter Eggs. Itās like Hitman but make it Monkey Island!
At first I was disappointed that there are no mission stories. But in hindsight, Iām very happy about that. We get enough clues from Grey, but we have to figure out how to eliminate the targets ourselves. The good thing is that you automatically explore the location a lot more. And thereās plenty to explore on Ambrose Island!
Contrasting with the more serious tone of Hitman 3, Ambrose Island brings back the humour from Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2. Slapping contest! I like that the level again feels more like the levels from Hitman 2 as I personally think Hitman 2 is the best game of the trilogy.
About the look and Graphics: In some places I find the island almost too dark and there is some strange fog that covers everything like a filter. And on the other side, lights are sometimes way too bright.
But in general, I like the dark setting, especially the area around Farahās bar and the restaurant looks beautiful with the many colourful lights.
In conclusion, I can say that these are my pros and cons:
Pro:
Lucas Grey! So much Lucas Grey
Funny pirate references
The island has a balanced proportion of public and restricted areas
The targets are interesting and you can partially change their routes
Ambrose Island looks very pretty and has interesting places like the old ruins
Lucas Grey!!!
Con:
The lightning is not very balanced and the foggy filter that covers the whole picture makes it a bit grained
Fulfilling the challenges is kinda easy, especially when you are a long time Hitman player
Itās a bit of a shame that after the long opening cutscene, there is no ending cutscene that recaptures all the events
Is there any way to infiltrate the Pirate Base without a disguise? The ledge up to the Hippie meeting spot doesnāt lead to anywhere else and getting up there would leave me in full sight of the guard.
Thereās a lot of ways, but hereās a pic that might help. Red straight lines are climbable. Little arrow indicates you can jump down on the other side.
This is at the beach closest to the slapping contest.
Still got a Challenge or two left to go but now reached Mastery Level 20 and so happy to browse this thread without fear of spoiling Ambrose Island for myself.
Very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the map given that itās free for all H3 owners. Itās not a Sapienza or a Miami in terms of sheer size and variety of options, but itās a clear rung or two higher up the ladder than some of the mainline trilogy maps that weāve paid for and been very happy with previously, so Iād like to say a massive thanks to IOI for putting such a lot of work into a really strong entry into the WoA locations list.
Absolutely LOVE the art design of this map, and especially all the little pirate-y touches - things like a Bone Lockpick really set the mood perfectly and give Ambrose Island all the vibes you could hope for in this kind of setting. The ruins with its crumbling jail complex and the village/bar area are particular highlights. And for some reason the fire in this level looks better than it ever has done in the WoA previously - those glowing torches and braziers (once lit) are really pretty and convincing fire art.
I think the level is really well mechanically designed too. There are an absolute glut of available options to fulfill the Satellite objective, and just like the New York Data objective showed that IOI had learned and improved upon the World Of Tomorrow Virus objective, so the Ambrose Island Satellite objective demonstrates that IOI have upped their game again compared to New York. Just a really well designed problem for players to solve.
Another thing I like on the mechanical front is the default route of Akka. Crest is your classic roaming target looping around the publicly accessible snailhouse, but even though Akka is somewhat more of a fortress/dweller target, thereās still a small part of her default loop that brings her out into the public areas and prevents the player from being forced to infiltrate off-limits areas if they donāt want to. Likewise, there are lots of options to fuck around with Crestās routing and move him round the map, which is always fun.
The one question Iād ask (because I havenāt yet gone back through the thread and read all the posts before this one) is: how much can we make Akka move around the map? Iāve found several ways to make her go to the Meeting Room above the bar and/or the Watchtower overlooking the sea (plus the check on the jail cells within the pirate camp), and I was just wondering whether there are any ways Iāve missed of manipulating her loop so that she comes further out of the pirate camp?
I decided to use Kentās method of luring Orson to the village and I managed to refine it a little. I know that Kent used a leviathan sniper which has piercing rounds which get Orsonās attention. However, it can be a little inconsistent at times and the shot placement doesnāt work with non-piercing rounds (I tested it with the Sieger ghost). With testing I found that shooting the arch stones directly above Orson work just as well in bringing him to the village. Whatās better is that you can use any sniper rifle and piercing rounds arenāt required. I made a video below:
To make it more consistent, it is important that you do not travel to the right of the map after you have gotten Orsonās attention. Every time I did that, he would not come down to the village. Moving to the left of the map (towards the western beach) or even moving to the back (towards the stilt village) doesnāt cause this.
One final thing is, that it is possible to shoot the archway through the window in the room where Crest and Akka meet, in order to lure Orson to that room. It is quite consistent and Orson always comes running to the room. I managed to make him slip on the banana peel twice by placing it in the doorway.
Just like the guard in Colorado near the barn doors in Hitman 2016 before they patched him. Random & constant head turning with no consistent method/pattern to sneak past him when taking the picture of Lance Hsu in the cell without the need for distractions or the breaching charge which raises suspicions. But itās possible to get past him when timed right by using a lock pick. I tried only using the camera, without entering the cell, but the fail rate is ridiculous! Super High! Especially if you are going for a stealth purist playthrough.
. Il upload a video soon & try to do a No Loadout/No KO version too 
