Honestly, I am in the camp that have wanted a train-based Hitman level for years, which is why this was such a letdown, there’s so much opportunity for a great sandbox wasted.
On a regular train, with a variety of means of approaching your targets, such a mission setup basically comes pre-prepared, you just need to add the assets and the scripting to realise that ready-made conceptual vision.
It has so many opportunities for things like time-limited windows of opportunity as the train pulls in to different stations and certain passengers board or depart.
Your basic suit start is in a third class coach blending in at a seat. You have unlockable start locations and disguises working in a mail car, as a cook in the dining car, providing trolley service in the lower class cars, up in first class serving refreshments, or up at the top of the mastery unlocks, undercover as the conductor, normally a disguise which takes a bit of work as he’s walking around in full view most of the time, but worth it as he will get suspicious if you don’t show the correct ticket for where you are and call security, and can walk around the train freely.
Plenty opportunities for stashes for smuggled gear, in a package in the mail car, in a luggage rack, in a refreshment trolley, etc.
Nice tactical approaches available. Need to get to first class? Send an emetic up the train in a drink from the dining car, let a first passenger get sick and come to the nearest toilet where they drop their ticket, etc. Silent Assassin? You’ll need to work for it as the train has cameras at every door, so you need to destroy that evidence before getting off.
The opportunities for mission stories are great too. Maybe at one point a passenger close to your target gets sick and staff ask over the PA system if there’s a doctor on the train. One of the passengers is a doctor, so if you can get close and grab that disguise before he gets there, you can go in his place. Maybe there’s an argument going on over a passenger’s improperly stowed bicycle (which you can later also steal as part of an exit on it if you got the lock code during the mission) and 47 can learn that with the right staff disguise he can call one of the targets to that part of the train to come and do something about theirs.
There’s so much we expected a train mission COULD be. That’s why we’re as disappointed with what we got.
Yes, it’s a callback to classic Hitman finales, and sure, maybe it sets up prior form for a Bond game, to show that IOI can do this sort of thing as well as the sneaky deceptive stuff. But it will always feel like a wasted opportunity to really shine.
