Alright, I’ve only played Chongqing once, but I’ve got some nice first impressions about it. It’s like a mix of Marrakesh and Hokkaido and I love that.
[holy shit this is one long impressions post. get ready to read a lot when you open those drop-down menus]
This map – just in aesthetic – is dope and the unique mechanics for the camera in the ICA Facility area are very cool.
It’s raining everywhere, 47’s got an awesome popped collar, the NPCs mostly have localized accents now (odd since I haven’t heard many in the last few levels) and there’s some evil secret experiments going on – because of course there is.
For the targets, I like the idea of them being a pair of ambitious, delusional techno-geeks. But unfortunately I think they seem to lack depth (keep in mind I've only played it once, so I haven't really uncovered much about their characters.)
One is a person who strives to create a mind-control device and the other is basically a living cyborg, but apart from that didn’t find much that makes them have interesting routines or info dumps. Hush seems to have the most potential for mission storytelling, though I don’t know if he goes away from his office floor at all.
Imogen Royce is an interesting mysterious person – one whom agents often are afraid and curious about – how she’s got the perfect physique, peak physical performance, and essentially omnipotence over all information, but despite this seemingly high-profile character and someone who is definitely a “one-in-a-billion” person, she certainly doesn’t act like it when there’s someone on her tail. She frequently patrols the ICA Facility with no guards, going down large, isolated staircases with no one around, and the only time she goes outside to look at her tablet (and that’s all she seems to do – I don’t know if the nearby KO’d guards had anything to do with that) she only had one measly guard with her.
–
Chongqing itself is pretty nice.
From what I explored of the above-ground Chongqing, it all looks fine to me. Yes, it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t seem to have a “Sapienza-like” approach to its level design, with Pottery Shops that are closed, a Barber Shop that goes unused by any main targets – and let’s not forget the “Here’s a tiny, random art store that doesn’t have anything of use inside”.
The place in Chongqing is pretty big, not too packed and full of drab, same-y alleyways like Mumbai and makes some good use of what buildings it has open. There’s a large apartment complex connected to another, a restaurant nearby, and a huge lab beneath. Plus, there’s some cool surrounding walkways if you want to sightsee or find some isolated Contracts mode targets, I guess.
–
I don't agree with people's criticism of the ICA Facility.
I’ve seen a lot of people criticize the ICA Facility area for being too white and pristine – or bland – and I don’t necessarily agree. The difference between the public downtown area and the secret HQ beneath was such an awesome thing to find and uncover. I unfortunately knew of the ICA’s presence and facility in Chongqing before I played this level – I flew too close to the sun / or this website and spoiled that) but hearing about it and seeing it with my own eyes is something else. Following the Dumpling Chef’s intel, I didn’t expect that’d lead me straight into the ICA where I’d be scanned and allowed to put on an Analyst suit. Damn that was one cool reveal. The chefs are normal people by day and by night they secretly work for the ICA. (I was confused when I first entered, but luckily there’s an announcement to “follow the grey line” and that got me a nice little tour and easy access to a more freeing disguise. <— Now that’s helpful level design.
The Facility itself is cool and unique in that you actually use your camera for a lot of it. Hacking open doors, vents and TVs, which was super neat. I’ve got a few issues with the handling of this feature, since other game mechanics seem to get in the way.
- You’re using your camera a lot to get into locked doors and new areas with the right clearance – this is a problem for people with large inventories, having to frequently scroll through the long list to find their camera – it would be very useful to keep your camera near your selected item, or better yet give players an “quick camera swap” button to have easy access to it.
- Another kinda weird thing is that you’re going around the whole facility collecting different Access Dongles, but they only serve to upgrade your hacking abilities with the camera. As mentioned above, this can get annoying – especially with doors. Even if you’re going into an area that you have legal access to, you have to scan it with your camera. It would be easier and faster to scan the dongle by hand with the action button or unlock the door automatically like with disguises in Hokkaido.
Other than that, the ICA Facility is small, but nicely compact. I do wish Imogen Royce had some interesting hidden kill opportunities, as I couldn’t find any of note (comparable to the Golf Ball kill in Dubai which has a great set-up.) I simply followed her around, and the most interesting unguided prompt was when she leaned over a rail in the server core. Pushed, dead, very easy and simple. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough or took the right Mission Story…
–
As for the story...
by this point it’s okay. I like the increased cinematic presentation of it – and I like how that becomes optional with future playthroughs/other starting locations, but the story itself is kinda meh and a bit confusing.
47 and Grey kill the partners, the ICA finds out they’ve been breaking the rules and hunts them down, leading 47 to have to DDOS and Doxx them, killing their integrity for good. Meanwhile, the Constant has Diana kidnapped and also makes her be the next Constant – turning her against 47 (in a moment that honestly was a bit too quick – here’s 47’s file on your parents. We’re not going to show any of your reaction to this highly-anticipated moment.)
Right now, she seems like she’s on board to join Providence and bait 47 out right into the Constant’s hands (or his goons’ hands), but honestly I don’t buy it – probably because of the lack of her reaction to 47’s long lost betrayal. I think she’s just playing the long game and she’s doing this because she knows that she’ll be leading 47 right to Providence where he can do what he does best and get one rung higher on the kill-ladder hierarchy, closer and closer to the Constant.
Bug wise, I did encounter more spotting bugs than other levels here. No idea why people (or myself) are getting spotted through the environment, but it’s really too bad. I didn’t get nearly as many bugs in the other maps of H3 as I did here. Something is broken in the level geometry or AI behaviour or something… it’s strange.
(also lol Patient Zero is now totally canon. I definitely saw Nabazov and Owen Cage in the list of targets at the end of the level. Also yeah, that end-of-level was pretty cool. Don’t think I’ll use that default location again just to bypass that long cutscene for the core – though I’ll have to to listen to the Commentary track; By this point I really wish the Director’s Commentary track wasn’t tied to the default starting location for this reason – but regardless that was a fun, unique ending, blocking off areas of the facility with shutters or literal, deadly fire…)
