I liked Grey, but at the same time I’m kind of glad 47 is back on his own without being attached to anyone. I know he’s with Diana still, but having having him working alone like in Contracts and Blood Money is good for me 
2 Likes
I was never sure what sparked this idea that Grey, the most determined and unshakeable character in the story, was mysteriously going to turn traitor.
Aside from it going against his established character - the “47 vs another super assassin” trope has never worked well in any of the games.
48,17, “Mysterious Female Assassin”, Angelina Mason, Raymond Kulinsky, Eve, Maynard John, Sanchez, The Saints, Layla Stockton - all of them end up the same way, being essentially humiliated by 47 and appearing absurd in their ambition to even compete with the legend. He was always the best, nobody ever came close.
On top of that, Grey is not defined by his ability to be some sort of badass that would make for a satisfying video game boss - he’s a sneaky bastard who can frame someone and fake their murder as a suicide even if they’re in the middle of an ultra-secure office. Not exactly the making of a fantastic boss level.
Ultimately the story we got gave Grey the best ending he could be expected to receive - he got his revenge and then he didn’t get to live long enough to regret having focused on revenge to the point of self-destruction. He died to prevent himself being used again, but he also got to save his brother and was spared his disappointment with trying to be happy with being the most wanted fugitive.
10 Likes
It’s mainly because the brother vs brother/clone vs clone aspect is one of the only ones that was left to do from the old games. Most of the other story aspects from previous games were paid tribute to in various ways throughout the trilogy in great ways including most prominently Diana betraying 47 being revealed as a plan all along. The fact that they reused the Diana betrayal plot line in a different way suggested to me they may have done the same with others too.
And I loved all of those targets you mentioned to be honest and thought they were all very well done, except Sanchez and the Saints because I hated the style of Absolution.
And I disagree, although we aren’t directly shown Grey in combat much we know that he is a trained supersoldier much like 47. He took out a few targets himself before the events of 2016. There was even a backstory comic released where we see 47 and 6 (Grey) working together killing targets and they had similar abilities judging by that. Based on this experience and the fact they went through the same genetic modification means Grey would’ve been the biggest threat to 47 of the series.
With all that said though I still really liked the way they went with it with him sacrificing himself to save his brother but the point is the above certainly had potential as an ending. I just wish we would’ve got a level where Grey was physically involved.
3 Likes
Copying in my take on Grey’s fate in H3 from another thread:
IMO there was no way that Grey could or should have survived the game unless they had made him into an antagonist character: you can’t have a near-equal of 47 who is supposed to be a bad-ass operative with “impossible skills” but who - in a single player game like Hitman - is required to sit around doing nothing while 47 actually does all the work in a mission. The fiction of his character is too powerful to be anything other than either an alternate protagonist or a boss-baddie, so he had to go. And I think that his exit was handled as well as it could have been given that requirement.
3 Likes
I disagree.
Grey died in vein. There was no need and his death did not seems coming out naturally but rather forced for story. Luas Grey would have lived and there was no impact on events that happened after his death if he did not died.
Do you really think two powerful people can not coexist in any story?
Story has been a disappointing thing in Hitman since after Silent Assassin. Blood money’s story was also rather rectangular. Don’t even wan to bring up Absolution.
The writers did their best, but in the end nobody cared for the story, not even die hard fans.
Whatever happened in H3 would not have been possible story to go in that particular direction.
Who is even operating ICA now? Every time 47 had to betray ICA or vice a versa and go back to it again. What even is this? Are they telling us 4 and Diana left ICA for good this tie around permanently and started their own cult burning Effigies? What the hell?
2 Likes
I don’t think you can have a character as bad-ass as Grey is supposed to be hanging around on the periphery of a Hitman narrative unless he’s either going to end up as a boss-baddie, or someone that the player can play as in some kind of alternative protagonist mission (which I don’t think would be a good fit for the Hitman games).
Moments where Grey conveniently ducks off-screen and leaves all the heavy lifting to 47 rather than living up to the “impossible skills” billing that the writers have given for him are IMO completely unsatisfying narratively, and so he couldn’t stick around without seeming like an impotent third wheel character. The worst example was the pre-mission cutscene to A Golden Handshake (“We?”… “You.”), but because Hitman is a single player game he also had to sit on the sidelines during Whittleton / New York / Haven in particular, and even during the missions where he was supposedly helping out in the mission (Sgail / Dubai / Dartmoor) it’s nearly completely off-screen and does very little to demonstrate the kind of top-tier agent that he’s supposed to be.
If he wasn’t going to get the chance to show his skills as either an alternative protagonist or a boss-baddie, then he was always going be left feeling redundant as a character, and so he had to go. Vogt and Price got it completely right in HITMAN 3.
2 Likes
What stopped IOI from making coop game mode where both players enters the game and take out targets/ help other player take out both targets. They had the technology. GM kind of confirms it would have been possible.
Missed opportunity and missed game mode, now that Grey is gone.
A co-op game mode would have been interesting and I could see a case for not killing off Lucas Grey if such a game mode was introduced in H3, but from the perspective of IOI having to create that mode I have no idea how workable that would be on both a technical level and a business level (would there be a sufficient cost/benefit ratio for IOI to put in the work to implement this?), so I can’t really offer an informed opinion on whether not creating such a mode was a missed opportunity or not.
1 Like
A co op mode is never not worth the investment. Look at old console split screen games. I would pay additional price just to play Hitman coop with my friend.
This.
I was surprised how touched I was by the scene. I also like how honest and relieved his “Thank you, 47” sounded when 47 killed Ingram and Stuyvesant in Dubai.
John Hopkins is pretty good at conveying the weight that rests on Grey’s shoulders, and even though he gets obligatory witty one-liners throughout the trilogy, I think his performance is pretty damn excellent.
As well as the writing.
Actually I wouldn’t mind a documentary about the writing process of the trilogy with Michael Vogt and the other writers.
I know there are some but I need more! 
Didn’t he die protecting his friend?
47 was standing there, ready to fight to save his brother.
Grey knew 47 was outnumbered and outgunned and took the bullet to save him.
Maybe I am misreading the scene, but when I watched the scene a second time that is exactly what I thought happened.
I don’t think 47 killed the other soldiers afterwards, right?
10 Likes
Ye I thought it was a bit strange. It reminded me of those old Resident Evil and Dino Crisis games where 2 main characters meet who you know are badasses and you’d think they’d stick together for a while but then at the end of the cutscene the other guy just runs away not to be seen again until the next cutscene and you know it is because it would be a nightmare for the developers to program them fighting side by side 
I think there were a couple of ways they could’ve gone with this such as 47 luring a target to be sniped by Grey in just 1 mission as part of a mission story similar to the way Diana is used or perhaps even 1 small mission where we play AS Grey just to reinforce the fact to the player that Grey is doing his part too as well as covering the Intel side. The exclusion of such a built up character physically from every mission leaves a bit of an empty feeling for me.
1 Like
I remember reading once that the writers considered him to be 47’s emotional base. He really does just express everything he’s feeling, be it cockiness when the herald asks if he has any family or genuine regret when he apologizes to Diana for what happened to her parents.
I like to think that he waited for them to drop their guard and then started picking them off one by one like the trailer so that they wouldn’t touch his body.
That exchange just made me laugh. What a little brother thing to do
3 Likes
You left out a big one, the talk about who’s going to take over after the Washington twins, with one faction wanting the ‘boring guy’ that Janus chose initially, then a hint at Constant pushing for that adventurer to lead. And then they talk about how the twins were killed and how their ‘think-tank’ father was hellbent on revenge and ‘assembling a team’ to go after 47 and that they’d find out how ‘untraceable’ “that guy” would really be. Sounds like an active challenge.
I imagine this as something like the Berlin mission, except you could throw it in any other map. You vs a whole team. It’d be funny if it’s a map invasion thing that randomly occurs, being raided.
1 Like
Like you’re just minding your own business, going after a target and WHAM! Mercs are suddenly flooding the area on high alert looking for you? Amazing.
1 Like
@Mini will have a field day with this thread. 
I loved Grey and early on it looked like he was going to the main villain instead of Edwards. I always loved the interactions between them both especially the cutscenes in season 2.
Would love to see some future content focused on Grey and his backstory whilst 47 was globetrotting around the world.
4 Likes
Yes I have the comics and enjoyed them, but even in them Grey stays true to what he tells Hajun, the herald in the parking lot, “I fight dirty, that’s how you beat a stronger opponent. Strike from behind.”
There’s no good way to implement that into the game that wouldn’t feel cheap and end up with players finding ways to humiliate him as a target, destroying the whole assassin persona.
I am pretty sure that it was the limitations of mechanics that prevented him from doing so. They had to move Heaven and Earth to get Diana to be able to participate.
The issue wasn’t coexisting but rather the narrative.
If Grey just escaped with a few booboos then there is a lack of tension due to them being untouchable.
There is a long list of reasons why Grey’s death was thematically appropriate, but the main drive was escalation and cementing the cost of their war.
Not really, GM had a short life and never reached a state of wide spread appeal. There are simply so, so, many problems that come up.
There’s some dialog later about it. 47 didn’t get the chance to pick them off right away, they had a train to catch.
3 Likes
True but I’d say technically 47 fights dirty too. He hasn’t had a man to man with anyone since Sanchez in Absolution as far as I can tell 
The thing that planted the seed for me was when Grey looked like he was about to shoot 47 after Freedom Fighters in Colorado. I took that as possibly meaning that he was going to use 47 to take out the partners and anyone else in his way before turning on him. But it turns out that he was just really that much of a good guy after all.
Yep. Undoubtedly. It still worked out great either way. Just an extra idea of a possibility I would’ve loved. Like I was saying above it feels a bit missing that one of the most awesome characters and badasses in the whole thing was never physically in a level in some capacity. It really makes my plums tighten when we see a character built up so much and then we experience their character and ai in the flesh in actual gameplay in some way.
1 Like
That’s a great idea actually. There is a bit of a gap where Grey is taking out several Providence targets himself before aligning with 47 namely Eugene Cobb, Hajun and Thomas Cross.
-
Eugene Cobb was killed on a plane by Grey so that would make a great small and unique level
-
Hajun is shown during a cutscene being killed by Grey in Ether’s lab in Johannesburg but I can’t see any reason why this couldn’t be expanded into a small level where the level ends when we get into Hajun’s car
-
Thomas Cross is technically kidnapped and killed by Grey’s militia but again I can’t see any reason why thy couldn’t expand this to involve Grey
1 Like
Okay. I’m not getting tired to say this (I learned from the best @MrOchoa @badeaguard) but for me his death was just annoying. And that’s because of many reasons (that’s just my opinion):
-
The whole trilogy wouldn’t exist without Grey. He was the one who got the stones rolling; he was the Shadow Client who pulled the strings. And than in the third title, he was literally blown away at the very beginning of the game and never really mentioned after that. It was just very anticlimactic.
-
His death maybe heroic because he safed 47 and he’d decided to rather die than to be kidnapped and used by providence. I’m glad he died as the good guy, but still, his death felt rushed and it didn’t make much sense if you see the whole context. The first two games were set about 47s past, the constant even tried to catch Diana with informations about 47s past. But in the third game they didn’t even mentioned it.
-
There would have been better scenarios where he could have survived. They could have captured him, and in Romania they could have healed him from his injuries and the constant used him as a super soldier, wiping away his memories- he would have made a great villain against 47 than, with their sides switched, an emotional ending fight. Or there would have been a possibility for a coop mission where Grey acts as a sniper (someone here mentioned this before). Or 47 would have to go on a mission to safe Grey. Etc. Etc.
I think his character and story had much more potential and I’m really disappointed that they killed him off so early.
I still have a very very veeeeeery little hope that they will make some DLCs with him or a spin off game, because the time he spend between his escape from the institute and the start of the trilogy sounds really interesting and has much potential.
6 Likes
Nah, much happier with the way they actually went. But I agree his death was rather rushed. In my opinion what would’ve helped it land was if any of the characters felt like they actually took time to grieve his death. 47 and Olivia just sort of… move on. I’m sure 47 dealt with it in his own way and the dream sequence helped flesh out his emotions about Grey a little. But I still think they could’ve have Olivia react to it a bit more
I agree this would be the best time to set a Grey DLC. Especially because the writers wouldn’t be constrained by events we heard about in H2016
2 Likes