I wish the games didn't have a story and had more cold blooded hits

Hitman: World of Assassination
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Also what could you do to keep the levels interesting? Like what can work? How would the guards work? More average targets would not have guards or at least only one with little security detail. Also the stories within the levels would take a huge dip in quality.
The Classic games where there was more ambiguity, the more well remembered targets were those who were quite horrible or grim.

I do think one or two morally ambiguous targets can work as bonus missions but anything more kinda just blend together and get more and more forgettable.

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I don’t see Hitman really working without a story or even interesting. 47 have never been this character and he needs some kind of redeeming quality in form of humanity. Which is why I find a game like Silent Assassin so fascinating, due to it’s portrayal of 47. Unlike Blood Money’s betrayal of his character.

Non the less a “cold-blooded psychopath trying to get his next pay check.” as you put it, sounds like wish fulfilment and seems similar to the edge lord game ‘Hatred’.

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Novikov was more humanized by his desperate plea for approval in the cutscene with Grey, how his own security detail don’t take him seriously and his relief when he thinks he’s finally escaped the consequences of his past.

The whole trilogy is full of little humanizing moments, often things you lever against the targets so as to stress that 47 is as ruthless as them, but also he is different from them in his ability to suppress all emotion and forgo conventional weaknesses.

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The Characters of Kane & Lynch, or better said the chemistry between those are like the only redeeming Quality both games have imo.

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While at first I really liked how Hitman 2016’s first four missions felt isolated from each other—which made a lot of sense considering the episodic format—the story of the new games and the greater plot of it has grown on me with Hitman 3. Hitman 2 was very clumsy narratively speaking especially after Mumbai, but this game has me invested.

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So you want stuff that leans more towards Death of a Showman but where the Target is more innocent.

But all these things are relative. Even your example of the gold digging wife seeking a divorce… There is a minimum of tension required to make a contract feasible.

In fact in BLOOD MONEY, 47 has done the opposite. He helped a gold digging wife end her husband’s life… on the same day as their wedding.

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that whole broken digital aesthetic was ace tho

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Back on the old forum there was a thread about making our own bonus missions (missions that use a variant of an existing map) and I came up with one using Colorado called “Hot Air” where 47 is contracted by Chinese industrialists to eliminate a Native American environmentalist.

Now at face value that sounds very much amoral… but I planted a couple of twists.

For one… you learn the target “Geronimo” Reynolds is actually not a real Native American… and that he’s not exactly honest about protecting the environment. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Thinking about it, though, quite a lot of the hits in the World of Assassination trilogy are pretty cold-blooded. Quite a few haven’t committed any crimes worthy of the death penalty. And some are only executed because they happen to simply be in 47’s way:

  • ICA Training: Kalvin Ritter is a target because he’s an infamous cat burglar, but does that really justify the death penalty?

  • Bangkok: Ken Morgan is only a target because he’s a defense lawyer who successfully did his job of defending his client in court.

  • Hokkaido: Like Ken Morgan, Yuki Yamazaki’s greatest crime seems to be being a lawyer who’s good at her job.

  • Whittleton Creek: Nolan Cassidy is only a target to cover up the murder of Janus. He didn’t do anything wrong except be a bodyguard.

  • New York: Athena Savalas is only a target to cover up 47 stealing the bank records that will lead him to the Providence members. Maybe she’s an unscrupulous banker, but is that worthy of being killed?

  • Haven Island: All 3 targets are killed simply because they’re in the way of tracking down Providence. Yeah, they run a resort that gives new identities to rich criminals. But, again, does that deserve execution?

  • Himmelstein: Like Kalvin Ritter, all 3 targets are killed for being thieves. Again, does that deserve the death penalty? Not to mention all their bodyguards, all shot for simply being bodyguards.

  • Berlin: 47 kills up to 11 ICA agents simply to send a message. What’s their crime? Doing the same things as our hero protagonist, but just less skilled at them?

  • Chongqing: Hush and Royce are only targets because 47 and Olivia want access to the ICA data core. Like the Haven Island targets, these 2 are only targets because they’re in the way.

And that’s just the main story missions. The special assignments have a few more questionable targets, too:

  • The Icon: As far as I can tell, Dino Bosco committed absolutely no crimes, whatsoever. He’s a target solely for being an egotistical actor costing his studio money. He may be the most innocent target ever executed in-game by 47 over the past 20 years.

  • A Silver Tongue & A Bitter Bill: Two targets who are executed for… running a multilevel marketing scheme?

  • Snow Festival: Dmitri Fedorov is a target for the crime of negligence and skimping on safety standards. He’s on par with the Swing King from Blood Money in this regard.

Some of the Elusive Targets are questionable, too:

  • Sergei Larin. Art forgery is deserving of death?

  • Anthony L. Troutt. A right-leaning populist congressman who’s executed basically for pissing off the deep state.

  • Gary Busey. Similar to Dino Bosco, he’s committed the greatest crime of all: costing a movie studio money.

  • Gabriel Santos. Executed for being an extremely demanding celebrity chef? In real life, that’d be the equivalent of murdering Gordon Ramsay.

  • Wen Ts’ai. Executed for writing mean things on the Internet?

  • Pavel Frydel & Akane Akenawa. Executed because a medical malpractice lawsuit would be too cumbersome?

  • Kieran Hudson. Targeted for being an annoying celebrity paparazzo.

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You’re missing out on some serious fun then. It’s not as easy as you think. It also helps you learn maps very quickly.

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Are you replying to OP or my undying love for contracts post? :laughing:

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Depending on your stance, literally nobody deserves the death penalty.

There is a varying level of grey in all these but I do worry when people do things like try to rush and say a Yakuza lawyer who is helping a professional assassin have a stolen heart implanted in exchange for information stolen from an assassin agency’s servers is “just a lawyer”.

The vast majority of these targets are not “guilty” targets because of a particular action that they did, but rather because they entered into a business where they essentially consent to extrajudicial enforcement - they chose to work as professional criminals (and presumably so did their “bodyguards”) and most of them are happily aware that they’re facilitators.

He also stole a baby from a candy store.

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Silvio Caruso placed a hit on Marco Abiatti cause he was his childhood bully and got pushed down a well.

THE LORE

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I’m going to be a tad controversial here and say that Silvio is probably not the ideal “shadow client” who orders all the hits in any Hitman game.

I mean, I hate bullies but I don’t think any of us want to watch the progress of the explanations for the hits:

“The target gave our client a wedgie in the third grade.”
“The target told our client she wasn’t interested in seeing anyone right now then went out on a date with a jock a week later.”
“The target took our client’s favourite crayon in preschool and, when pushed to return it, ate it instead.”

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Silvio Caruso was just petty revenge at most due to his own Childhood Trauma, but didn’t outwardly admit to it.

It’s amazing how the ICA will accept hits on just about everyone. Can’t wait for the Elusive Target who placed a hit on their elementary school teacher just cause they took the crayons away.

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“I don’t want to be bothered to think about moral implications in video games and would rather be an edgelord badass who guns down people en masse”

Fixed the title for ya. :wink:

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And the reason that we know about that - because they hire incompetent hitmen who are essentially the polar opposite of 47.

Another great thing I love about Berlin is how it shows how the other ICA Agents are not only far less competent and skilled than 47’s god-tier status, but that their main strategy - blending in with disguises - is ripped straight from 47’s playbook. And these are the hitmen chosen by the Agency to go after 47, meaning that they’re probably some of the best they have.

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ICA Training: Kalvin Ritter is a target because he’s an infamous cat burglar, but does that really justify the death penalty?
Himmelstein: Like Kalvin Ritter, all 3 targets are killed for being thieves. Again, does that deserve the death penalty? Not to mention all their bodyguards, all shot for simply being bodyguards.

His backstory mentions that he had no problems killing any unfortunate security guard standing between him and his goal. The mission briefing for The Last Yardbird also showed them storming the casino with assault rifles. My impression was they they’re basically the Hitman’s universes version of the Payday gang.

As for the bodyguards: They were just at the wrong place and the wrong time as far as we know. So you’re right about that.

Bangkok: Ken Morgan is only a target because he’s a defense lawyer who successfully did his job of defending his client in court.

Didn’t he bribe people and use other illegal means to get his clients of the hook? Hardly the worst person in the game, but he’s not just a lawyer doing his job.

Hokkaido: Like Ken Morgan, Yuki Yamazaki’s greatest crime seems to be being a lawyer who’s good at her job.

Guest in Hokkaido: “Remember that janitor witness she couldn’t crack during the trial? He disappeared!”

Bodyguard in Hokkaido: “This is better than working for the mob. Remember dissolving witnesses in acid?”

The implication is that she’s not just good at her job. She also killed witnesses so that the Yakuza bosses – to which she had ties – could walk away as free men.

Whittleton Creek: Nolan Cassidy is only a target to cover up the murder of Janus. He didn’t do anything wrong except be a bodyguard.

He’s the most boring target in the trilogy. That’s reason enough to kill him. :grin:

His backstory mentioned him working as a security advisor of a drug cartel. That’s probably bad but still on the lower end of the naught scale for a Hitman target.

New York: Athena Savalas is only a target to cover up 47 stealing the bank records that will lead him to the Providence members. Maybe she’s an unscrupulous banker, but is that worthy of being killed?

She also stole money from the bank and made it look like a robbery. But yeah, like Cassidy she’s probably one of the least evil targets of the games.

Haven Island: All 3 targets are killed simply because they’re in the way of tracking down Providence. Yeah, they run a resort that gives new identities to rich criminals. But, again, does that deserve execution?

Ljudmila and Bradley planned to betray and potential murder their partner and then erase their identities which Bradley claims will also wipe out patient records and criminal databases. Meaning a lot of innocent people are going to get caught in the crossfire if they succeed. Ljudmila also plans to betray Bradley to and make him the fall guy. Williams is probably the most innocent one and he has a tragic past: Was attacked with a knife, killed his attacker by accident and then somehow got convicted for murder. Must’ve been the same judge as the one from Con Air.

Berlin: 47 kills up to 11 ICA agents simply to send a message. What’s their crime? Doing the same things as our hero protagonist, but just less skilled at them?

47 is hardly what I would call a good person. Killing people for money is bad. So they aren’t innocent people.

Chongqing: Hush and Royce are only targets because 47 and Olivia want access to the ICA data core. Like the Haven Island targets, these 2 are only targets because they’re in the way.

While Royce seems to be nothing more than a bad boss ala Athena Savalas, Hush is far far worse. Previously holding a high-ranking position in a dictatorship? Check! Using his skill to help criminals like organ harvesters? Check! Trying to murder Olivia – his apprentice – when she discovered the truth? Check! Conducting experiments on homeless people that erases their memories and then throws them back out into the streets as broken shells? Check! Trying to developed a way to mind control people for the ICA? Check!

He’s just getting killed because he’s in the way. But he’s still a very, very, very horrible person. Probably one of the worst targets in the trilogy.

The Icon: As far as I can tell, Dino Bosco committed absolutely no crimes, whatsoever. He’s a target solely for being an egotistical actor costing his studio money. He may be the most innocent target ever executed in-game by 47 over the past 20 years.

Klaas Teller and Rick Henderson would like to have a word with you. :wink: But yeah, he’s probably the most innocent target and the only one not committing any crimes.

A Silver Tongue & A Bitter Bill: Two targets who are executed for… running a multilevel marketing scheme?

They are con men. Trying to sell tape water claiming it can cure cancer. Probably the most realistic targets in the franchise. I don’t know many drug dealers or terrorist. But I’ve heard of deadly sick people who lost a lot of money because some “doctor” sold them a miracle cure.They are preying on peoples fear to get rich.

Snow Festival: Dmitri Fedorov is a target for the crime of negligence and skimping on safety standards. He’s on par with the Swing King from Blood Money in this regard.

You can also add horrible, inhuman working conditions to the list. People like him are modern slave owners.

Sergei Larin. Art forgery is deserving of death?
Anthony L. Troutt. A right-leaning populist congressman who’s executed basically for pissing off the deep state.
Gary Busey. Similar to Dino Bosco, he’s committed the greatest crime of all: costing a movie studio money.
Gabriel Santos. Executed for being an extremely demanding celebrity chef? In real life, that’d be the equivalent of murdering Gordon Ramsay.
Wen Ts’ai. Executed for writing mean things on the Internet?
Pavel Frydel & Akane Akenawa. Executed because a medical malpractice lawsuit would be too cumbersome?
Kieran Hudson. Targeted for being an annoying celebrity paparazzo.

Overall ETs seem to be less evil that most regular targets, often only committing relatively minor crimes.

The congressman, however, did open fire one his own men during a war. Probably not the reason why he has to die, but it makes him less likeable .

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47: *busy drowning a single father, who wasn’t able to pay back his business loan, in the toilet*

Diana:

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1_PUAQ-gHTJ6piHyzuCL6bcA@2x643×544 70.7 KB

Seriously though, I get that some people want 47 to be a “cold-blooded psychopath” but I genuinely think if you’ve read the character that way then you’ve fundamentally misunderstood who he is, and more importantly who IO wants him to be

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The last few lines of Hitman 3 make it abundantly clear what their vision for the character is, and it’s not “heartless assassin” at all.

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