lead pipe is no longer illegal in Hitman 1 and Hitman 2 now also.
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The smoke is definitely new this game. Itâs handy for remembering which glass youâve spiked.
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Something interesting I just noticed about the smoke emanating from poisoned food/beverages is that it only shows up when you poison something. For example if you follow the steps for a certain opportunity in Dartmoor thereâs smoke whatsoever comes off the glass even though itâs been poisoned.
Alright, Dubai looks freakin amazing.
A few changes in H3 Iâve noticed in my first playthrough here:
- Cameras no longer are highlighted yellow in Instinct, this can make some of them hard to spot.
- Cameras also only seem to spot/record you if youâre in their line of sight for 2-3 seconds. Iâm not sure if itâs still instantaneous when trespassing.
- Keypads with codes to enter are a nice addition. The first one is 4706, or, Agent 47 and Subject 06, on-the-nose, but it really helps you remember its simplicity!
- Thereâs either a lot of new vibration effects added to various actions, or theyâve really turned up their intensity! My hands are really feeling the vibration in this entry!
- The sound that plays when you enter a trespassing zone is neat.
- 47 has some tweaked animations again. He feels kinda slower, in a way? Not sure if I like it or not (Iâm probably just not used to it).
- The lack of a shoulder-swap is not cool. I hope itâs a bug and that IO will plan to fix it.
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The average level size is a lot smaller than it was in the previous season, and I believe I have a hunch as to why.
Colorado, Santa Fortuna, and Isle of Sgail were all developed by Sumo Digital. So, two of H2âs absolutely enormous levels were outsourced, leaving the team to focus on 2 giant levels, 2 small levels, and 2 DLC levels.
This time around, on the other hand, all the levels seem to have been developed in house. I imagine that prevented them from making levels on the same scale.
That said, the quality is high enough thus far that I canât complain. If anything, having the game be less of a massive timesink is a good thing for me!
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I canât believe I didnât think about that code being 47 and subject 06.
I knew the code and I was sure it meant something, but I couldnât figure it out. I just told myself it was agent 47 and 06 for 2006 (release of Blood Money), and thatâs how I remembered it.
Since they do 2006 again in another level that was my brainâs thought process.
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To be fair, heâs usually referred to as Grey.
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So itâs not just me!
It must be a bug because you can still assign a key to shoulder-swap in the keyboard settings.
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I know! Itâs infuriating sometimes!
Shoulder-swapping is perfect for when
- youâre following someone, and you want to walk alongside them. No shoulder-swapping makes being forced to walk on their right-side annoying!
- Thereâs also needing to use it to see around corners or over obstacles from a certain angle.
Ok. So the key still being available for it must just mean itâs a bug, or else it would have been removed.
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A lady said the lyrics to âlast night a dj saved my heartâ when walking past as the djâŚ
H3 suits are definitely better than H2 ones, but H16 suits will always have a special place in my heart 
Not you, VIP Robe. Youâre ugly. White Yukata all the way.
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I think youâre right. They sacrificed level size to make way better levels. All of the levels this time around were better than SF, Colorado, and Sgail. Itâs still a shame we didnât get the big bustling city of Chongqing, though.
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Shoulder-swapping button works while aiming
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I donât exactly know why, but Dubai seems a bit spoiled to me and I have no passion playing it. Maybe itâs because there were too much of playthroughs. Despite the fascinating graphics there, I donât fell playing it ever, and I go for Berlin or Mendoza in priority.
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I think climbable (is that a word?) pipes are also not highlighted anynore, or at least much less highlighted?
I think you may have the wrong thread there friend 
Try this
I personally like SF a whole lot more than Dubai, but yeah. Dubai is the one map here that feels like a by the numbers S2 outtake to me. Still great, though.
I am of the opinion of liking all the Hitman levels because they are all starkly different from each other.
Colorado may be not everyoneâs cup of tea, but it is intense out of the gate without a real safety zone. My biggest issue with Colorado is that all the military outfits look the same, and it isnât obvious from the outset what each outfit gave you access to which area. Colorado is the only level where you can go around collecting and throwing apricots as the Scarecrow, and then watching all NPCs spontaneously combusting into flames. In what other map can exit the map by a 3D printed mask or drag Sean Rose and his face to the sensor of the tornado bunker,?
Santa Fortuna has got the âsiestaâ laid back feel in the main town area, but is super sprawling. What is not to like with a level containing Indiana Jonesâ Golden Idol, cocaine hippos, a narco-submarine coke delivery system and museum dedicated to the eccentric life of the âKing of Cocaineâ (Delgado) based on Casa Museo Pablo Escobar in Columbia, run by his brother Roberto Escobar.
You have to appreciate the âEyes Wide Shutâ, hidden society of rich people on the isolated North Atlantic Isle of Sgail. There is just so much to this level, and a monstrous number of NPCs. My only issues with Sgail is that it is so vertical and I am often turning in tight circles climbing up or climbing down staircases. The audio background really sets the mood and is highly unique and atmospheric, but is really conspicuous and somewhat annoying after the 100th play through.
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I love verticality. Always a big plus for me.
But yeah, Iâm not a Colorado hater. As someone who even found a lot to like in Absolution, I canât say there are any levels in the WOA trilogy that I dislike (though I havenât played the last 2 levels of s3 yet⌠and ok, I donât particularly like Embrace of the Serpent). Some click for me more than other, just vibe-wise⌠for instance I vastly prefer the vibe of SF, Mumbai, and WC to Miami and New Haven. But theyâre all a blast to play. I wouldnât have minded a bit if Sumo had done more levels, but I think itâs cool they stayed in house this time.
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Now that I played for a few hours, here is my first impression. The game is pretty much what everyone probably expected. An improved version of Hitman 1 and 2.
I like that they have gone back to including less targets in the main missions and reducing the map size from Hitman 2. The latter had some great levels, but when ever Iâve feeled like going into mission X,Y or Z I had this bad feeling about at least one target, that was either boring to kill or just annoying to get to in some way. It also makes the levels quicker to replay with less downtime in between targets.
I also liked how they have gone about including objectives that are not targets, especially making them optional on repeated playthroughs. I enjoyed the more cinematic, absolution-lite story segments and the escape from the burning ICA facility was very impressive and I would like to see more dynamic elements like this in future games (as long as they are optional on repeated playthroughs).
The new unlocks are much better then In Hitman 2 and I am glad that the reskins have a unique look. The sound design also seems to bit much better and I feel like different sound sources bleed less into each other which makes everything a lot more pleasent to listen to, when being at very busy places. Iâm no audio engineer so maybe what I say sounds completely stupid, but the different sources felt more âseperatedâ from each other if that makes sense. I also like the new audio cues for entering restricted areas.
The game played a lot more like the pre-Absolution Hitman games, because the targets expose themself more often without having to resort to playing mission stories to make it happen. This was one of my biggest grievances with the other two games and Iâm very happy that IOI âfixedâ this.
In Hitman 1 and 2 the modus operandi often was:
- Get the disguise
- Talk to someone
- Escort the target to somewhere
- âHey, can you leave us alone for a bit?â
- Kill
Now to the levels themself.
Dubai: Great as an opening level, but it played it very save and it doesnât shine as bright as the other missions because of this. To me it felt like a worse paris with more boring targets.
Dartmoor: I enjoyed this one much more. Iâm a sucker for old english mansions in videogames and IO didnât disappoint. Before playing this one I was afraid that the kill methods, aside from the detective mission story, would be less developed, but I was positively surprised. The entire atmosphere reminds me a lot of family gatherings. Eveyone present just wants to go home, but feels obliged to be there and is just waiting for the moment to leg it. I found it really funny and Iâve never seen something like this in a video game before. Alexa is an amazing target with a very complex route and great personality. She is my favourite providence member and gives me the feeling that she is a very dangerous person unlike the other two, which makes the whole family gathering atmosphere even funnier.
Berlin: I didnât like this levels at first, but it has really grown on me with repeated playthroughs and it might be my favourite level in the entire trilogy. The diversity of the different areas is seriously impressive, maybe not quite as much as Mumbai, but I wouldnât want that anyway as it would most like coincide with a larger size. This is the most oldschool Hitman level the new team has ever made, both from a gameplay and a story perspective. There is no global conspiracy or larger then life villans, just 47 and some bad guys and you have to pick them off one by one. The kills are very understated compared to the rest of the trilogy, but every target has enough opportunities(no not those) to strike to make it not boring on repeated playthroughs. The level felt like better version of âHunter and Huntedâ, which was already one of the best missions in Absolution. I also loved listening to the coms of the ICA assassins, it really added to the predator feeling. The map is also one of the best when you want to make use of your sniper rifle.
Chongqing: I would like it just as much as Berlin, if it wasnât for the ICA facility. White corridors just arenât that interesting, no matter the story reason. The city streets are everything I wanted from a china level and the experiments that are happening in the run-down apartment just add enough spice to it, to make it not a retreat of older hitman games. The targets Hush and Imogen are one of my favourites in the series, when talking about personality alone. Chongqing has a great amount of verticality to it and the scripted event that is happening at the end of the mission proves to me that IOI can make a more story focused Hitman game without sacrificing replayability. Very impressive. I would like to see a bonus mission in the vein of season 1.
Mendoza: The best traditional WOA level in the game. It is sapienza, but better, because of no virus. I donât have much to say to it, because it is just so much like other levels in the trilogy. Also very fun to do Sniper Assassins here. Cool mission.
Romania: Your standard action setpiece that you get at the end of every hitman game. Not as good as in Codename 47 or Blood Money. Maybe on the same level as contracts. I got tired of it after my second playthrough. I liked the gimmick with the one time use items and the idea of a level on a train, but there is a lot of missed oppertunties to do some story telling given the history of the train. The documents you can find are cool, but I wanted more. I hope they make the secret ending canon, because I do not want 47 to become some kind of arbiter of justice.
Level ranking (subject to change): Berlin>Chongqing=Mendoza>Dartmoor>Dubai>Romania
Ranking of the trilogy (subject to change): Hitman3=Hitman2>Hitman1
What I did so far: 31 hours of playtime, playing tourist on my first playthrough, then all the classic challenges and the deluxe escalations (very fun btw). Everything I played was on master, except the escalations I think they default to Pro.
Edit: typos
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