Bonus Mission: THE LAST STAND

Creative Corner
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IOI has previously entertained the idea of doing bonus missions for previous maps as part of additional content for HITMAN 3.

“We’re more looking at using existing locations and reimagining them, twisting them. And this time around, we can use the whole trilogy. We can look back at Hitman 2016 maps, Hitman 2 maps - we have all the locations.”

I was reading through a thread discussing bonus missions. I got some ideas for this mission while scrolling through, particularly from a comment by @Urben, who suggested a mission featuring a military occupation of Santa Fortuna, with the Delgados holding their ground. I thought that was a cool concept for a level, so here’s my idea for a HITMAN 3 bonus mission inspired by that:

Bonus Mission: THE LAST STAND

  • The mission takes place in Santa Fortuna at night-time.

  • The Delgado mansion is under siege by Colombian Special Forces agents keen on taking the cartel down for good.

  • The town, the mansion, and parts of the submarine cave are the playable areas. The bridge leading to the jungle has been blocked off by police and is inaccessible. The submarine cave is accessible, but the sections leading to the coca fields have been blocked by cave-ins. The mansion’s coca field entrances have been barricaded shut to hold off the police.

  • The building where Andrea Martinez is normally found has been converted into a makeshift Special Forces base.

  • The town area in front of the mansion’s main entrance has been cordoned off and is only accessible for police officers (there are ways to sneak through, of course).

  • The construction site has been converted into a small camp for the citizens who’ve been evacuated from the town areas near the mansion. It is guarded by police officers.

  • The mansion is under strict lockdown and nobody is allowed in or out (with one exception, but we’ll get to that). There are mansion guards on the inside of the main gate that won’t allow anybody to leave.

So what’s the objective for this mission? The ultimate objective is to assist the Special Forces officers in taking down the cartel. The target for this mission is Héctor Delgado, who is now the cartel’s leader following his brother’s death. However, the twist to this mission is that you don’t actually have to kill him. The player has two options to resolve the conflict:

Eliminate Héctor Delgado

OR

Get Héctor Delgado to surrender

Either way, the already weakened cartel will be irreparably crippled and will most likely be forced to disband for good.

Héctor has changed quite a bit since we last saw him. Following the death of his brother, as well as his love Andrea Martinez, Héctor has become highly aggressive and is out for blood to avenge them. It is obvious that he has become much more mentally unstable (not to mention his markedly increased cocaine usage); so much so that a lot of the guards, many of whom would rather just surrender or flee than fight, are afraid to speak to him lest he become enraged. But Héctor isn’t heartless and does care about the lives of his men; something the player can potentially exploit to get him to surrender.

If Héctor does surrender, he will walk out of the mansion’s front entrance on his own with his hands up. Two officers will approach him and handcuff him. They will then take him to the Special Forces base in the building formerly used by Martinez where he will be locked in a cell. The objective will complete when he has been handcuffed.

Here are some mission stories I’ve thought of. They obviously aren’t fully developed.

The Negotiator

The Special Forces agents have brought in an expert police negotiator to try and talk the Delgados into surrendering. He can be found in the aforementioned Special Forces base. The player can disguise themselves as him and use this to gain access to the mansion, as well as gain an audience with Héctor (following a mandatory frisk, of course). This leads to a sequence where the player can speak to Héctor and are presented with a series of dialogue prompts. The player may or may not be successful in convincing him depending on what they choose (it could be like the Detective mission story in Dartmoor where you need to find certain intel items for certain options to be available). This meeting, or indeed its aftermath, could also provide the player with a good opportunity to eliminate Héctor, should they choose to do so.

The Good Stuff

Our old friend Torres Piombo (the hippie), who has been hired by the cartel previously, is in possession of a package containing the last brick of Jorge Franco’s so-called “Super Cocaine”. Héctor has requested that the package be delivered to him via the mansion’s back entrance near the construction site. Piombo is too scared to deliver it personally however, so the player has a few options: Find a way to get Piombo to deliver the brick, disguise as him and deliver the brick themselves (he’s at the construction site camp), or infiltrate the mansion some other way and place the brick on Héctor’s desk for him to find. This mission story provides the player with a means to infiltrate the mansion. Additionally, the player is able to poison the brick as a means to eliminate Héctor. Or alternatively, the player can spike it with the “Strange Substance” that can be found in a locked chest in Piombo’s room at the hostel (which is in the cordoned off area). Doing this will cause Héctor to suddenly become very ‘mellowed out’ upon snorting the cocaine, resulting in him suddenly not wanting to fight anymore. He will leave the mansion to try and ‘make peace’ with the police; resulting in him getting tackled and handcuffed.

The Mutiny

Many of the Delgado mansion’s guards are murderous psychopaths, but they aren’t fools. They see the writing on the wall: the reign of the Delgado cartel is coming to an end. The police severely outman and outgun them. Ramón Ortiz, the mansion’s head guard and second in command following Héctor, wishes to hand Héctor or himself in to prevent his men from being massacred. However, Héctor will not allow anyone to leave the mansion. The player will be able to manipulate a certain sequence of events which, depending on how the player goes about it, will lead to two possible outcomes. One outcome sees Ortiz convince Héctor to surrender himself for the sake of his men, to which Héctor reluctantly agrees. Alternatively, Ortiz chooses to kill Héctor, effectively assumes control of the cartel, and subsequently hands himself in (I’m not sure exactly how the player would manipulate Ortiz, but hey I’m not a level designer). This allows the player to accomplish either of the mission’s objectives without being forced to don any disguises; potentially useful for a SASO run.

There’d obviously be more ways to approach the mission than what is contained within these mission stories; like there usually is.

Here are some challenges that I’ve thought of. There’d obviously be more than this.

Assassination:

  • Little White Lines: Eliminate Héctor Delgado by poisoning the cocaine brick.

  • Family Tradition: Eliminate Héctor Delgado by feeding him to El Mijo.

  • Change of Command: Get the head mansion guard to eliminate Héctor Delgado.

  • Sleeping with the Fishes: Eliminate Héctor Delgado by feeding him to the piranhas.

  • The Delgado Special: Eliminate Héctor Delgado with El Matador.

  • A Shocking Turn of Events: Eliminate Héctor Delgado by electrocuting him while he’s in the Jacuzzi.

  • Divine Intervention: Eliminate Héctor Delgado while disguised as the Shaman.

  • Vigilante Justice: [REDACTED] (Eliminate Héctor Delgado after he has been arrested)

Here’s a new challenge category specifically for this mission

Negotiation:

  • Silver-Tongued Savior: Successfully convince Héctor Delgado to surrender after meeting with him as the negotiator.

  • Leadership Skills: Get the head mansion guard to convince Héctor Delgado to surrender.

  • Powerful Stuff: Get Héctor Delgado to surrender by putting something strong in his cocaine brick

  • Brotherly Love: Get Héctor Delgado to surrender by letting him find Rico Delgado’s diary. (Rico talks about how he secretly knew the cartel was screwed due to combined pressure from the police and the Moreno Cartel, and that they didn’t have long left. This causes Héctor to lose the motivation to continue)

  • Make Love, Not War:

    • Disguise yourself as The Hippie
    • Do not change out of the disguise for the rest of the mission
    • Get Héctor Delgado to surrender
    • Complete the mission without eliminating anyone

  • Last Man Standing: [REDACTED] (Get Héctor Delgado to surrender by killing or pacifying all of his men)

Disguises:

Itallic = Unique Disguise

  • Police Officer (The mansion and its grounds is a Hostile Area. They replace the Street Soldiers as the town’s guards)

  • Special Forces Officer (As above. Higher rank than regular officer, allowed in Special Forces base)

  • Mansion Guard (Everywhere outside the mansion and its grounds is a Hostile Area)

  • Head Mansion Guard (As above. Héctor Delgado can see through this disguise)

  • Mansion Staff (Allowed in non-restricted town areas and in the mansion, but must not be seen entering or leaving)

  • Gardener (As above)

  • Mansion Chef (As above)

  • Negotiator

  • Hippie

  • Shaman (Probably doesn’t have any real use. He can be found at the bar)

  • Bartender

Exits:

  • Barricade blocking the bridge to the jungle. 47 vaults over it and walks away down the road.
  • Fishing boat docked at the warehouse (Same as in regular mission)
  • Police helicopter in the construction site camp
  • Submarine in the caves
  • Armored van parked near the stage area (Requires key)
  • Speedboat at the mansion’s dock (Requires key. Exit is the same but the key has been moved)

That about summarizes it. For me, a good bonus mission should pretty much completely reinvent a level; giving it a completely different feel. This is what the good bonus missions do (e.g. - Landslide, A House Built on Sand) and is what I’ve attempted to accomplish here. They also sometimes utilize interesting twists, such as being able to disguise as targets in The Author, or the virus in Patient Zero. This is the kind of thing I’ve tried to accomplish with my ‘peaceful resolution’ option here. So, what do y’all think? Feedback would be appreciated.

28 Likes
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WOW!This is Really Good.I would love a Hitman Mission with a Pacifist Option.Interesting Concept,Fun Mission Stories,and a Good Pitch.Please do More

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Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say.

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Man that is a great elaboration of the idea I wrote about! Great job, I can totally see this being made. :smiley: Interesting idea to include a peaceful solution as well, would make it different as well.

I first thought about the idea to side with the cartel but I can’t really see how you could fight the whole military to a point they give up.

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I thought about doing something like having Hector as one target and, like, the Special Forces chief as the other target and the player could eliminate one or both of them. Something like that would probably be a nightmare to program though; especially if you actually want the police and cartel to fight.

Anyways, thanks for your feedback. I appreciate the kind words.

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Damn, this is one of the best thought out (and crucially well explained) bonus mission ideas I’ve seen on HMF. Great job :green_heart:

I’m 50/50 on the idea that you’re really a time traveller and just stole this idea from a real bonus mission in the future :wink:

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Thank you very much. That means a lot coming from the contract god himself

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Not a fan of hostage maps because they usually offer very limited options and disguise for the player. That said, this one is really well done. It probably helps that it’s not a real hostage situation but an armed standoff.

The biggest issue is the AI. Imagine if an explosion goes off in front of the mansion. The Delgados rush out of the mansion, the cops rush towards them and then they start searching the area together acting like they’re on the same team because that’s sadly how the AI works. :sweat_smile:

Also, I’m not a fan of every single mission story having a non-lethal option. I’m not against them, but I think one or two non-lethal methods are more than enough. Neither do I want non-lethal options for every target. This is still Hitman after all.

Finally, there’s the issue about getting inside the mansion. The front door isn’t an option. And I would assume that all entrances to the tunnel system have been heavily fortified with armed cops on one side and armed Delgado soldiers on the other. The only logical way for 47 to slip in would be the secret tunnel entrance in bar. And even then, the Delgados probably have placed guards behind the entrance in case the cops discovered it. Sure it’s not an issue when wearing a disguise, but you have to keep SA/SO in mind. Using coins as lure to slowly take out 10 guards standing together in a narrow corridor doesn’t sound like fun.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea, it’s just there are a lot of things to keep in mind with a scenario where you have two opposing factions.

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I had considered this yeah. I suppose you could program it so that mansion guards are programmed to never leave the mansion and cops are programmed to never enter it; but that would probably cause problems of its own.

In terms of accessing the mansion, you can still approach the gate. There’s nobody actually on the ramp itself leading up to the gate. The cops are keeping a safe distance further down the hill, so you can still slip around the side and climb up that vine. Although to be honest, I’m not exactly a level designer so I wouldn’t know how to place guards and such to make it fun and accessible. You could argue that the cops aren’t aware of the tunnels and so they aren’t guarding any of the entrances. There would probably be mansion guards in the tunnels positioned there just in case, but even I know it would be pretty poor game design to just slap them in front of the door with no way around. In terms of Suit Only entrances, the player has the vine near the gate, the cave entrance beneath the gate, the entrance under the bar, the cave entrance behind the construction side, and the back side of the mansion that connects to the hippo enclosure (which also connects to the construction site). As long as guards are placed reasonably and not just Colorado-ed, I don’t think competent players would have many problems infilatrating without a proper disguise.

I personally disagree on the non-lethal options. This level’s hole gimmick is the potential for a non-lethal resolution; something that never really been explored in Hitman. Besides, all it does is give you more options, and having lots of options is what Hitman is all about. You don’t have to do any of the non-lethal methods if you don’t want to; but the option is available if you do. I figure if each approach has a lethal and non-lethal approach, then everybody’s happy.

Nonetheless, thank you for your feedback. You’re probably right that the AI programming would be a nightmare, but this is more just a prototype idea. I’m sure IOI would change things around if they wanted to actually do something like this.

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It’s kind of hard to miss the tunnels. They aren’t exactly well hidden.

I mean cops created a makeshift shelter at the construction site but somehow failed to notice the huge tunnel leading straight to the hippo pen? Or the nearby door leading with the “Keep Out!” sign on it?

I know Hitman isn’t the most realistic game, but come on! :sweat_smile:

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Like I said, I’m not a level designer. I dunno how you’d actually pull off a level like this; if you even could. This is just getting the idea to paper. That said, gameplay should always take priority over realism, so I’m sure there’s a way you could arrange the cops so that it isn’t unfair and/or tedious to deal with. Failing that, you can just say the cops are dumbasses.

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I suppose you could close that bit off like they’ve done with previous bonus missions and i would assume if they were to do a mission like this, the whole underground and possibly the drug farm would be closed

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My suggestion that would also solve this

Would be the Cartel have rigged the tunnels with explosives. It’s too dangerous for the cops to risk going down there. But a stealthy assassin like our 47 could sneak his way through the minefield if he so wished. Think that works interesting story wise and mechanically

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There could be a disarm devices hidden in obscure place nobody would look and when you equip it you don’t get blown up.

Why do I suddenly have flashbacks, to so many HITMAN 1 Escalations? :grin:

Jokes aside, this is good idea.

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Yeah, that could also be a good way of getting around indundating the tunnels with guards. A lot of them don’t wanna go down there and risk getting blown up. It could also explain the convenient ‘cave-ins’ I used to block the entrances to the coca fields.

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Nice idea bro, i would love to see all the maps in Day/Night version, especially Santa Fortuna would be amazingly dope

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Assassination add on:

Memory Lane:
Assassinate Hector in his brother’s museum while he’s lamenting his loss and remembering the good times.

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I just had an idea

Say Hello to my little friend
The Morenos, who found an opportunity to strike their biggest rivals down, has hired an assassin to kill Hector Delgado. The assassin has been given Intel about how Hector wishes to avenge his brother and lover. Knowing Hector, the Morenos know that he would want to do anything to kill the man who murdered his brother. The assassin starts of the mission somewhere in the village inside a house, he will have documents and one of those boards with notes and strings like the Colorado tornado shelter one.

Either prompted by the player or by himself, he will infiltrate the compound and take out a guard to use his disguise. He will then talk to the head of security about this mission. The head of security, knowing how Hector himself wants to kill the assassin, will comply. He will call Hector who will then go to his brother’s former office. Hector will sniff on some cocaine on the table before the fight, allowing for a poison kill but once he does this, he gets “stronger” and prepares himself for the confrontation.

There the assassin and Hector will begin talking to and taunting each other (similar to another former drug Lord). Hector will then quickly open his safe, get El Matador, and shoot the assassin dead. He will then taunt on the body and lean next to the balcony, allowing him to be pushed over. If El Matador has been taken out of the safe before the confrontation, the assassin will kill Hector and succeed in his mission. He will then hide the body and flee from the area towards the bus station starting point.

Alternatively, you can take his disguise. The scenario will play out similarly, but Hector and 47 will have a different conversation (and even mention how he killed Fernando and Manuel). After this, 47 is able to shoot Hector to start a firefight, but Hector will have more endurance compared to other targets (similar to Dino Bosco). Hector will also taunt 47 during the firefight (Preferably having similar lines to another drug Lord from Colombia). If El Matador is taken away, Hector will behave similarly to a civilian where they kneel down and say some lines (Hector will instead taunt 47 to kill him). He won’t call guards or move out of the room, knowing his time has come. (unless 47 walks out if the room, to which a target lockdown will happen and he calls his guards.)

This is just an idea that I had for a bonus mission in Santa Fortuna, but I think this might fit this mission.

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IOI really needs to start hiring you lot