It was simply the best ET you’ve done. I like these more substantial ETs over many smaller ones. Quality over quantity.
Good:
One of the best targets because: Mads Mikkelsen, the character of Le Chiffre from one of the best Bond movies. Simply great.
The ambitious redesign of Paris
The number of options was great, from dialogues, to the three invite holders, the games, the mission story. It felt almost like a new level
The dialogue with references to past Hitman and 007. Many chuckles here!
Mr. Smith role reversal was brilliant! Good to see him on top for once.
Paris(!) Still the best Hitman level, and weirdly underrated amongst fan (likely due of overexposure)
Bad:
I think the team covered a lot of the scenarios that players will inevitably get themselves in, like KO’ing Smith etc., but they could have gone further with this and really filled in all the options.
I don’t mind the timer on Le Chiffre’s escape, but I second other people here that a kill option on the chopper would have been cool.
I wish Le Chiffre would have ended up in the basement again, and we could do a kill like the prisoner in Marrakech or with the rope somehow.
And also, more incentive to actually buy the DLC. It would be a win win for IO and fans. To get to have the full mission experience with saves etc. will be worth more to people. I second this!
% I tested this out & if you go this path, you must put Agent Smiths disguise on to carry on with the rest of the mission. When this first occurred, I went around the map to find Agent 47’s suit, which is located in the locker room area on the bench, i put it on, but I was not allowed to go & talk to the Card Dealer or proceed with the Poker Game. Once you put Agent Smiths Suit on, you can change back to Agent 47’s & then proceed. But obviously if you want Suit Only with no disguise change, then just get the Antidote in time & that path with Agent Smith helping you does not play out.
The good: the map redesigns were absolutely gorgeous. I really enjoyed the story mission as well, and all the various easter eggs as others have said.
The bad: I wish there were more creative kill opportunities.And I do agree that this really should have been a special assignment if you buy the DLC. There was just too much to explore and having the target just leave, doesn’t give you enough time to really take in all the map changes.
And for me personally, I really liked the added Safehouse decorations, I just really wish they weren’t all in the gym area. I want 47 to have a workout space, but I also want him to have a sick-ass bar and casino and home theater. It would be nice if the decorations were a bit more spread out to other areas of the house.
I do get why these are ETs rather than Special Assignments, both The Splitter and moreso The Banker have quite a few issues going on when you save/load in them. Keeping them in the ET container means IO doesn’t have to bother about all these issues since officially you can never save in them.
Less work required, makes them a little cheaper to produce.
My usual process with a new Hitman mission is to explore all the options and then make my own head-canon kill. It will usually be the one I find coolest and the most probable in terms of 47’s character.
For this one I find it really cool that 47 poisons Le Chiffres eye drops in a preemptive move before engaging in the poker game, only to get poisoned himself by the champagne.
A cool little game of cat and mouse.
47 breaks out of the basement with the help of Agent Smith, but he never needs to visit the 3rd floor again because Le Chiffre will have had a good dose of lethal poison right to the brain while 47 calmly makes his escape.
I enjoyed this mission but I’m of the opinion that it shouldn’t be an elusive target since that inherently discourages exploration and limit testing.
Count me among those who restarted during the poison countdown because I didn’t want to lock myself out of the mission (whether permanently or for 12 hours in the arcade).
I’ll definitely be replaying in the arcade and trying out different approaches.
The mission is a great redesign of Paris with a good story. I have to reiterate with a lot of people that it being an ET is not a good choice. A replayable mission with a set of challenges that show off the different methods of taking out the target would be way more fun and actually make buying the pack worth it instead of just playing the arcade version while it is free which is what I’ve done for every CelebrET.
Future Safehouse decorations arriving with Celebrity Elusive Targets definitely should be spread more around the Safehouse, like for the Garage, 47’s office and bedroom etc
I’m sure several other people have posted about the magical properties of Le Chiffre’s right arm, but in case you missed it, here’s a clip.
(This was all without me touching the directional stick.)
The voice acting is generally very good. Mads does his best here, and while I don’t think he’s perfect, I’ve heard far worse than what’s in-game.
The glow-up of the Palais de Walweska to turn it into a casino is phenomenal. I’m not unconvinced many of these assets have been backported from First Light. Excellent work on the job, design team!
There’s some reused scripted events, but they are used in unique ways that I enjoyed; the poisoning of 47, while reused from Patient Zero, has a different set up, and also challenges you to run out to the car park to heal yourself in record time. And the eye-drops makes sense for the character to include, which is a nice touch.
I was not expecting Vincente Murillo back. Easily my least favourite mission (but one of my fave ET characterizations), but I’m glad we get to learn more about him and his “new world order”. It’s so good to tie into the games’s story like that!
The Bad:
I grew to dislike the scripted intro, and I wish there was a way of muting the exposition and suppressing the PiP view at the start. Make the Paris red carpet entrance the “Canon” start route, like with Berlin’s bus stop or Mendoza’s viewpoint, and the rest of the entrances remove that sequence. Especially since in ETA, when I restart (which is a lot because I’m always experimenting on there), I have to listen to Vincente being angry.
The voice acting feels a little…rushed? A lot of the conversations happen very quickly, with nobody pausing for breath, and it’s quite jarring. Mads also sounds…a bit bored at times. Not all the time! Just…sometimes.
The rules for trespassing are inconsistent, which is likely an oversight. The library (where Agent Smith spawns) has some leftover trespassing zones back from when this was an entrance to the BTS of the fashion show. The parking lot also changes legality when you get poisioned versus walking about (and again, the gate considers it trespassing).
Not picking up an invite and going into the side-entrance (the kitchens) to get to the party counts as a trespassing zone unless you have an invite. There should probably be an invite check there, like there is in the base game, especially since there is one outside the casino’s main floor (which never occurred for me to check, and actually found out about this via OutsideXbox). This does not break S/A, but it is a weird bit of game logic still.
The Ugly:
This should probably be a special assignment, not an ETA contract, especially since the second level is just an enforced SA run. Either add complications or don’t; this feels like a bad compromise otherwise.
Several interactions just aren’t accounted for, such as trying to kill Vincente causing him to T-pose. This makes the level feel a bit unfinished, implying that the player shouldn’t trail away from scripted events too much, so it could do with some more polish.
I hope this was helpful Thank you for taking the time to listen to feedback.
Ye thats fair. As someone has played poker alot it still annoying however.
Also we start on the big blind, yet are not allowed to raise preflop, thats not how the game works!
I understand that for people who never really played poker this seems incredibly minor, but its honestly the only real complaint i have for this ET^^ Making it a great one.
% 
I tested this out & if you go this path, you must put Agent Smiths disguise on to carry on with the rest of the mission. When this first occurred, I went around the map to find Agent 47’s suit, which is located in the locker room area on the bench, i put it on, but I was not allowed to go & talk to the Card Dealer or proceed with the Poker Game. Once you put Agent Smiths Suit on, you can change back to Agent 47’s & then proceed. But obviously if you want Suit Only with no disguise change, then just get the Antidote in time & that path with Agent Smith helping you does not play out.
