If anyone says otherwise, just tell me
Items like the “ICA Crowbar” and the “Handyman’s Wrench” shouldn’t be unlocks at all. I think any request for tools like screwdrivers and fuse cells to be unlocks is ridiculous and overpowered.
They completely ruin the point of actually interacting and exploring the map to find them, and make the game way too easy than it already is. I feel like the WoA trilogy specifically is all about exploring and using whatever you can find af your disposal, and those unlocks ruin that.
To me, you’re supposed to learn the map and memorize where these tools are. Having these tools only be found on levels gives players an incentive to actually explore and master the level.
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Not saying I disagree really but by the time you unlock stuff like that you surely know where those items are in the level. So really it’s just about saving you time from going to get them, which is what a lot of unlocks are focused on (including the new shortcut unlocks).
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Eh for that it depends. The wrench and crowbar unlocks could be unlocked in Hitman 2, so I already had them at my disposal for when I played Hitman 3 for the first time. That’s just my experience tho.
For shortcuts I feel like they’re interesting but some of them are way too overpowered. First one that comes to mind is the shortcut near the entrance of the nightclub in Berlin, why would you get frisked at the main entrance, when you can take a conveniently placed side door that’s always open? It’s too easy.
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Having them take up 1/3 of your item slots is a fair balance. It’s a trade-off. Do you
- start the level with the wrench you need for your run and save time?
OR
- waste time finding a wrench in the level but using that extra item slot for a more useful/unique item?
I think they’re great unlocks tbh
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Hmm that’s actually a pretty good point. Never thought of it like that but yeah I see what you mean.
Personally I always bring a lockpick and coins lol, and occasionally something else for fun
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ICA Titanium Crowbar has stolen my love from the lockpicks! 
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Think people dunk on the WOA soundtrack too much. Especially since it improved in Hitman 2 and then further still in Hitman 3. Some great tunes.
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I don’t think it’s bad, I find it forgettable. I can’t recall any melodies inside my head from the trilogy, well expect from the two cinematic trailers. It’s kinda like listening to a Disturbed album in the background, you won’t notice when it’s a new song. I would describe it as serviceable, then again I feel it’s an unfair comparison when we look at what came before.
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I find it really hard to be interested in the story since HITMAN™ 2. Apart from being more unrealistic, it took all of the intrigue and mystery out very poorly, in my opinion. The characters such as Grey or Olivia What’sherlastname don’t really interest me at all, and The Ark Society was just too exaggerated for my taste. It feels like it was written by two entirely different writing teams. The cutscenes didn’t help either, but that was the least of my concerns.
Even if HITMAN™ 3’s story is really good (I haven’t seen anything about it yet), I won’t be as interested as I was with the previous stories to see what happens. I just hope it’s a good conclusion, and that it’s way better than what we got in the last game.
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agreed, though the exception is the h2016 menu/theme music which is actually burned into my brain. even slight references to it in later games make my ears prick up like meerkats.
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Hitman Contacts has the best storytelling in the Hitman series.
I do think the ingame WoA had a lot of great story stuff and a good sense of humour. But Contacts has the most interesting cutscenes. Although it’s half a remake, which brings it down artistically, it’s weird blend of dreamlike sequences and simple premise elevate it above the other games.
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more like the plot is great than it’s barely existent story.
I don’t see how the “remake” levels bring it down at all. they are well delivered.
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It brings it down “artistically”. As in it’s recycling content from two games past instead of doing something original. Not saying they aren’t done well but half the game is a rehash.
absolution’s trite story nuked its own gameplay.
not sure i follow that rationale. correct me if i’m getting the wrong end of the stick, but would it then follow that 21st century performances of, say, mozart or shakespeare or beckett are less artistically valuable than the original performances…? 
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Hitman 2 is the worst game in the trilogy. Don’t @ me.
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Well that’s a different scenario since you’re talking about live performance from an era where recording was impossible. I’m not into that scene but I could see an argument where you haven’t truly heard Mozart unless he’s conducting it - but I think it’s a very different scenario than what we’re talking about. We’re talking about remakes in a more modern sense like film and television. There you’re talking about replaying sheet music written hundreds of years ago.
Here were talking about remaking half a game that’s just 4 years old. I mean you could argue recontextualising these levels with the rainy, moody, nighttime aesthetic has some artistic value. But it doesn’t do it particularly interestingly. The game pretty much just becomes a remake of Codename 47 halfway through. And it doesn’t really move its own ideas forward with it.
fair enough, though i’d say it’s the same ballpark. both are following a ‘blueprint’ (sheet music/level design) and ‘remaking’ it.
regardless, let’s do a couple of more modern examples: how does, say, john carpenter’s ‘the thing’ fit into this (choice wording there - ew 
) or jimi hendrix’s version of ‘all along the watchtower’? what about mario, which owes a huge debt to an old pac-man platformer? what about the new demon’s souls?
do these lack some ‘artistic’ merit because they aren’t to varying degrees original…?
video games as a medium are hugely iterative and derivative, and very much dependent on the work, breakthroughs and ideas of those that preceded. lots of great art fits into specific traditions and originality is a fairly recent consideration of artistic merit (as is authenticity).
contracts isn’t quite a straight remake. as you mentioned, it changes the atmosphere entirely via new graphics and sound, but it also introduced gameplay elements from h2:sa into the c47 ‘remake’ levels, which would suggest tweaks to the level design were necessary to make them fit together. do those changes not merit any consideration?
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Maybe my “unpopular opinion” is that there’s not really much difference between 1, 2 and 3 when it comes to game quality. They’re basically the same, and all three have great maps and less great maps. Whittleton is a disappointment but so was Bangkok IMO.
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