These have been popping in my recommended recently. Some takes are hot, some are cold. Some are just lukewarm.
Hard to do one of these to be honest, some of these are hard to compare. Like I think the tutorials are really good tutorials, but putting the Final Test on B seems wrong when you see the missions it would share that position with.
Dartmoor is great, in part thanks to the really original PI-mission story, how to I compare that to other missions that aren’t as original, but have more stuff? I don’t know.
Chongqing really suffers from that fact that Hush and his building has a limited number of interesting assassinations and fun stuff in general, but I truly love the aesthetic and mood of the map. How to I balance these two?
Anyway, my best stab at it.
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I decided not to rank ICA, Hawke’s, and Carpathian just because they’re simply not on the same caliber as the other missions. I would say I did enjoy Hawke’s as an experimentation level. It helped me a lot to improve at the game.
I’ve always hated Bangkok. Ken Morgan is an awful target, the layout of the hotel is bad, I don’t like how the camera work here, and SO is a restricting nightmare. The music is reused from Paris, the hotel is a pretty lame setting, and the kills aren’t too great. Bangkok is everything the trilogy should not be. It’s limiting, boring, and uninspired.
Colorado is just drab and having four targets means none of them are fleshed out or memorable, especially Parvati. SO is ridiculous as well. This mission is impossible to connect with or relate to and I think the all guards thing is the big reason. There are no suit areas to speak of. Even with the right disguise, this mission is annoying to play.
Whittleton Creek is full of missed opportunities with all of the blocked off houses and how no part of it really stands out to me. The gathering clue thing is very tedious as well. Houses are nearly identical with slight differences, like an oxygen tank in this room, a tunnel that you won’t use in this basement, a fumigation unit here. The targets have lame routes and aren’t fun to take out. While I like Janus’ character quite a bit, it’s hard to enjoy him when his coolest kill requires you to turn on a gramophone.
Marrakesh is just disconnected. I hate Zaydan and the school, and he doesn’t really interact with Strandberg in any interesting ways. The town in underused and there aren’t too many ways to infiltrate the two fortresses. Nothing in Marrakesh feels practical or makes much sense.
Colombia is the one map where size is its biggest fault. There are entire areas like the construction site that are throwaways outside of the mission stories. The targets are very spread out, don’t interrupt with each other much, and the only one I’m a fan of is Martinez. It’s just time consuming to play this map and it doesn’t feel that justified.
Sgail is probably one of the best maps in the trilogy in terms of design and concept. But the targets are terrible. They have long and public routes, no personality, and no good kills outside of the scripted ones. SO is a nightmare as well. The Constant feels very gimmicky in this mission as well, especially since he doesn’t contribute anything after your first play through.
New York is a very interesting case. The target has a very limited route, yet she’s very fun to take out and has a surprising amount of methods to do so. However, being only indoors and having a tedious secondary objective brings it down for me.
Dartmoor never really clicked for me. I feel like the detective story doesn’t really fit in as seamlessly as I would have thought. The setting just isn’t my favorite either. Maybe it’s how old it is and the dreary weather. Not my thing. Alexa Carlisle is a fantastic target in every respect though. Haven Island has a really gorgeous setting, but Tyson Williams feels a little tacked on and the targets don’t have the best routes. It also just doesn’t feel all that new. Nothing really stands out to me besides some of the server room shenanigans. It’s all good fun but not that memorable.
Paris is really really solid. So many options, such great design, it’s really something else. I think there are a few mission stories that don’t make much sense like the Sheik and the laptop hacking. I also think a lot more could have been done with the cameras. The targets aren’t too memorable personality or route wise either. But Paris is where it all started. I can see why many people love it.
Sapienza is, in my opinion, very overrated. While it makes for really great contracts, the town area is underutilized since the three objectives are concentrated in the same area. The virus genuinely ruins playing the mission for me. Walk in, shoot the stalagmite, get in the plane. Over and over again. I wish it could’ve been a one time thing. But the targets are both really fantastic and the level of detail here is off the charts. It’s no wonder it’s one of the most iconic missions in the series. To a lot of people, this is Hitman.
Chongqing wasn’t my favorite, but it really grew on me the more I played it. It has very Marrakesh-like design. Two fortresses, one city area. Once again this city area is underutilized but it does have a lot more detail and practicality. The location just has such a good cool factor for it. The neon lights probably help. I love Royce as a target and I think the Data Center was really well done. Hush’s fortress was a lot like Zaydan’s but the futuristic, creepy vibe and Hush’s insanity really elevate it. Also this one is gorgeous. And having rain is wonderful here.
Miami is just so intricately made. It all connects really really well. While I wish Sierra had more SO methods when she’s in the car, I think having two routes with wildly different approaches is wonderful. The map is gorgeous and dense. So many great kills, so many great areas, so many great opportunities. Miami is a classic.
Now it’s time for the top five.
Starting with Dubai. Dubai’s gorgeousness comes from the building itself not the surrounding landscape. The gold hanging everywhere, the modern art, and the garden all create a stunning mission. The targets also have great routes with plenty of methods in any disguise. My only complaint is that some of the best kills, like the sun installation, are tedious to do on repeat play throughs, but that’s obviously very minor.
Hokkaido is no doubt my favorite mission from 2016. Having a stationary target is an excellent change of pace and I love the difficulty—disguises open doors, limited load out, etc. Both targets have fantastic kills and backstories. Yamazaki might be one of my favorites in the trilogy. The location is also beautiful—the futuristic hospital and the delightful resort area blend together very well. The lighting works really well here too. The only real issues with the map are how limited Soders is SO and how difficult it is to get the surgeon disguise without the starting location.
Mumbai was my favorite until Hitman 3 and will always hold a special place in my heart. The map is so interconnected—tons of shortcuts, target meet ups, and traps waiting to be set up. Each area feels like it belongs and serves a purpose. Even the ones that aren’t that important—like the hideout—still have tons of stuff packed in. Sneaking through the slums using Hitman 2’s crowds is a blast and makes the location very tense. Mumbai has excellent targets as well. Kale’s identity being hidden worked really well and I love how many ways there are to find and take him out. Eventually, you’ll either be able to recognize him or set up a trap that will take him out consistently. I also like how he’s a fun twist on a “public” target. He’s out in the open but nobody is there to guard him. It’s up to you to find him. Shah’s train yard is a really good fortress with great kills, but it’s also a lot of fun to draw her out. Rangan is no doubt one of the best targets in the series—his fortress is amazing, his route is amazing, his character is amazing, and his kills are amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Top all of this with the Kashmirian and all of the awesome proxy kills and target meet ups he brings to the table, and you have a definite Hitman mission.
Mendoza has one of the best settings in the trilogy. The winery is intricately crafted with tons of detail and shortcuts everywhere. Both targets have excellent kills and play a great role in the story. Having Diana in the mission is fantastic and when she steps in to help you out, there’s nothing quite like it. Mendoza has the best mission stories in the trilogy, no doubt. The tour, the meeting, the wine pump, the sniper, there really are no duds. And despite being guided kills, you still have a lot of freedom and they still bring a good amount of challenge. There are some phenomenal moments here as well. The tango, Diana’s reaction to Vidal’s death, brutally double-teaming Yates, 47 presenting the world’s most expensive wine, and many, many more. Mendoza has two big problems, however. For whatever reason Vidal is a pain SO. It probably has more to do with her long route before her main one starts than her being a very public target. The mission is also extremely buggy. Lots of challenges don’t work, targets won’t be highlighted in instinct, contracts doesn’t work, and the AI is very wonky. Hopefully these technical issues are resolved in the future because they really do hold an otherwise amazing map back.
And finally, my favorite map in the trilogy, Berlin. While hand-holding has never bother me personally in the trilogy, it was still amazing to be completely on your own here. This mission is so intense. The setting is dark and pretty messed up. The eerie music adds so much atmosphere to map that already had plenty. There are ten assassins—enforcers no matter what disguise you where—hunting you. Yet despite this, the mission is still goofy and tons of fun. Disguise as a drug dealer to lure unsuspecting party goers into a back corner. Poison your target’s fast food and ring the doorbell as the delivery boy. Serve a target poisoned “juice.” Drop the beat so hard that the light rig sends two targets flying off the balcony, engulfed in flames. Disguise yourself as the owner of the sketchy club and have a brutal shootout in his office. The map is so well crafted too. Sneaking around on the vents, hopping through windows and on top of storage containers, descending a massive staircase and discovering a pipe that takes you to the owner’s office, these are only a few of the excellent shortcuts and routes that make Berlin something truly special. What really makes Berlin the best in the trilogy is the targets. There are ten on the map and you have to kill five. This gives the player an insane amount of freedom especially since each target has three or four awesome ways to take them out. Going for all ten (or 11 depending on your starting location) is an awesome challenge too. The targets also have guard AI and are usually on their own, giving you more ways to manipulate their AI and craft the perfect kill. Also that club music slaps.
Well there it is—my ranking of every map in the trilogy!
6 Likes
I like all levels. It’s hard for me to divide them into good and bad. Therefore, I divided them by the amount of time spent. Perhaps time is the best indicator 
Rank S - 50% of the time. F, D - 20%. A, B, C - 30 %
1 Like
Here is mine
Except the Sniper Assassin maps, the two first Special Assignment and of course the Colorado, it was quite hard to rank the maps because there are all good (except the ones listed above)
Every mission ranked here.
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This looks about right to me:
Paris, Hokkaido and Miami are the clear top three for me, but I also ranked Berlin and Sapienza as S tier. I like the mid-sized levels with a spy feel most of all. A tiers mostly follow this idea as well. Whittleton I just love the setting too much.
Santa Fortuna, Haven and Mumbai really suffer from being too big and the targets being too separated, in my opinion. I still love them and 100%'d them, don’t get me wrong, but that’s why they’re B tier. Dartmoor is too simple, Marrakesh… I dunno, no specific complaints but it’s just not A tier.
Colorado and Bankok’s faults are well known and much discussed, so them being in C needs no real explanation. Hawke’s too small and simple obviously. Dubai… I dunno it probably deserves B, but it just feels too samey for me, too much like what we already had.
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No map is bad, but I prefer others over the rest.
Whittleton Creek id consider the worst solely cause it’s one big remember this level from Blood Money.
I’ll just reserve a Spot here to post my Tier List here, after careful consideration.
I did something different. Decided to make an alignment chart. Hope others make some with different xy values.
7 Likes
As I see it, each game of the trilogy has three really great maps, and then varying quality among the rest.
In the end it was pretty easy to choose my favourites. Paris / Sapienza / Hokkaido immediately came to mind as the best ones in H2016 for me, they’re just great “classic Hitman” levels overall and also the most aesthetically pleasing out of H2016. Miami / SF / Haven were my favourites from H2018 for pretty much the same reasons, perhaps SF and Haven aren’t the best-designed levels in some aspects, but again the aesthetics & atmosphere do me in. It’s like taking a virtual vacation whenever I play these levels. 
I was a bit surpised that there aren’t any H3 levels in my top category, but they’re still very good levels on average, perhaps just not as striking as some of the others have been. Mumbai & Sgail are also great for atmosphere and visual reasons, but also feel like rather good levels gameplay wise.
The rest of the levels were pretty difficult to rank with some levels. There were times when I enjoyed Bangkok for example, but it just doesn’t gel that much overall. Wish it indeed had more of a proper hotel vibe, rather than being half closed-off and so on. WC feels like a remake of one previous level ( 
), so perhaps it feels a bit like treading on too familiar ground for me. NY is just a bit boring to be honest, and feels too much like a claustrophobic concrete maze. Chong… Choc… that level is a bit dissappointing in some regards, I just wish the streets portion was more elaborate & bigger overall. Cool cyberpunk-ish visuals though, and finally some rain!
Marrakesh, Colorado & Hawke’s Bay were pretty easy to drop into the Mediocre category though. 'Kesh just feels like a bit of a drag, and the targets are pretty far apart from one another. It has kind of a cool vibe, but just feels too much like a chore to get through somehow. Colorado is just bland visually, and feels more like a level from Absolution somehow. Well, there’s obviously a heck of a lot more freedom and classic Hitman vibes, but it’s still pretty meh. HB is very cool visually & atmosphere wise, but it’s a bit too simplistic and barren as a level.
Carpathian Mountains is obviously pretty linear and so on. It was fun going gun blazing first time through, and visually it’s a rather impressive level. Just not any real replayability value, and in some sense the whole thing is somehow pretty reminiscent of Absolution (which isn’t a good thing).
Here’s mine.
If I had to pick one map as the best… It would be either Sapienza or Berlin… The worst is Romania.
2 Likes
Sapienza is so naturally reusable compared to Berlin bc it’s a little piece of a town. It’s harder to repurpose the Berlin space. Landslide had the market up top and the concert stage at the beach. Icon had the move set up top. Author had the book reading in the church. They could do a couple more levels in that map and not make it feel old and tired. Berlin would be interesting to rework. They could make the space into an industrial factory but that would be a huge rework! Other than that they are kinda stuck with some variation of “this is a night club.” The ability to reuse it makes Sapienza a better map to me. Even though Apex Predator might be a better level then some or all the levels in Italy.
1 Like
No doubt that Sapienza as a location has much more replayability.
But both levels are the ones that have put the biggest smile on my face. For me atmosphere of a level is very important, and Berlin really is awesome in this regard. I love just walking around inside the club. It is so immersive.
2 Likes
Okay, here’s my Tierlist. Now, I know this might look pretty controversial, because god forbids I don’t have A World of Tomorow in S, but that’s just my opnion.
I also do feel the need to add that my ran every Map through a 6 Step Process, which contains the following.
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Mission. How good was the Mission in General?
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Targets. How good were the Targets?
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Replayable. How replayable was the Map?
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Music/Atmosphere. How good was the Music and general Atmosphere?
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Story Ties. How good does the Mission ties into the Story. I didn’t rated that Point for the Special Assigments and Bonus Missions, because it wouldn’t be fair.
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NPC Model Usage. How well were NPC Models used. I know that this is a Point many wouldn’t take into consideration, so that’s why we can all create our Own Tier Lists.
Lastly, every Category rewards a Maximum of 10 Points, so here’s the Rundown.
Berlin 53/60
Mumbai (Sunset) 52/60
Sapienza (Sunset) 40/50
Hokkaido 49/60
Haven Island 48/60
Marrakesh (Night) 38/50
New York 47/60
Mendoza 45/60
Miami 45/60
Sapienza 44/60
Dartmoor 44/60
Dubai 44/50
Whittelton Creek 42/60
Siberia 32/50
Bangkok (Night) 31/50
Marrakesh 41/60
Chongqing 39/60
Santa Fortuna 39/60
Isle of Sgail 38/60
Paris (Christmas) 27/50
ICA Yacht 35/60
Colorado 34/60
Romania 34/60
Hokkaido (Day) 23/50
Whittelton Creek (Atlantide) 22/50
Mumbai (Day) 22/50
ICA Final Test 20/50
Sapienza (Movie Set) 19/50
Hawkes’s Bay (Halloween) 19/50
Hawke’s Bay 28/60
Hantu Port 17/50
Miami (Atlantide) 16/50
Sapienza (Night) 14/50
Hokkaido (Snow Festival) 12/50
Santa Fortuna (Fog) 12/50
Bangkok 20/60
Himmelstein 10/50
Colorado (Day) 6/50
If you’re intrested in a Full Rundown on Points, let me know. I’ll do one for 10 Likes. (Not that this brings me anything, just though I know theres enough intrest 
)
2 Likes