The third episode of the new Hitman [official site] will launch next Tuesday, May 31st, Square Enix have announced. Ian Hitman’s next assignment will take him to the city of Marrakesh in Morocco, where someone wants a banker and a general dead. Given how much of an improvement the second episode was over the first, this is jolly exciting.
Death comes to Morocco on May 31 as Agent 47 heads to Marrakesh for Hitman's third episodic mission. This time he's on the tail of an investment banker (boo, hiss) and an army general.
The former is holed up in the Swedish consulate. I'm envisioning the embassy scene from Casino Royale with better air conditioning. The general has his own headquarters, and an army to back him up. Perks of the job, y'know?
Whereas Sapienza was a sleepy seaside town with a dark underbelly, Marrakesh is a poorly contained panic attack. There's a full-blown riot in progress, the military is mulling over a coup, and the bazaars are packed with pesky civilians trying to go about their lives.
Surely the arrival of 47 will calm the situation.
If you're in the habit of purchasing Hitman's levels individually, Marrakesh is priced $10.
Hitman [official site] recently introduced ‘Elusive Targets’, people with contracts on their heads who’ll only appear in the game for a short period of actual real time before vanishing forever, and who will also vanish if you fluff the assassination. Alex Spencer flipping loved the tension that brought, but I saw a fair few people note they didn’t even know it was coming. Well then! Consider this one week’s notice that the second Elusive Target will be strolling around sunny Sapienza next Friday. He’s a Congressman.
Only 53% of attempts last time were successful, you know.
Hitman's first Elusive Target has hardly started decomposing and Io is sending another VIP to slaughter. The Congressman is marked for death, and he'll be holidaying in Sapienza next weekend, starting Friday, May 27.
The brief is much the same. You have one shot at the Congressman mess up and he'll go to ground for good. After the event is over, he'll jet off, never to be seen again. Instinct mode and the minimap will do you no good whatsoever. The key difference is the need to own Sapienza before you can hunt there.
Last week, only 53% of players had the skills to take out the Forger and make it out of Paris alive. However, PC players proved themselves the best hitmen, so there's something to take pride in. Most of the PCG team managed it, but only because Samuel is a dastardly cheater.
The first Hitman Elusive Target has come and gone, and just over half of the digital assassins who took on the job 53 percent, to be precise managed to avoid screwing it up. Even more shamefully, less than ten percent earned the Silent Assassin rating, the mark of a true master. There is a ray of sunshine cutting through all the clumsy, Clouseau-like darkness, however: The best Hitmen in the world are all on the PC.
Numbers don't lie:
Io Interactive said it's still digesting the data and deciding how it will adjust future Elusive Targets, but promised that more will be coming. Here's hoping we can all be little more professional about it the next time around.
(But hey, don't feel too bad about your ham-fisted hits: 50 percent of PC Gamer editors botched the job, too.)
This weekend saw the first Elusive Target in Hitman, a limited-time event that drops a new doomed soul into one of the game’s sprawling locations and gives you a single chance to bump them off. Within the modular structure of this Hitman game which is constantly adding to the content available in its monthly-release levels that’s not too unusual, but the way Elusive Target bends the rules of the game turns it into something genuinely fresh and exciting.
So let’s talk about my own experience a little to show why. It’s early Sunday afternoon and I’m eagerly ushering the final hungover remnants of last night’s Eurovision party out the front door. Over on Hitman’s menu screen, a clock is ticking down. Two hours remaining to find Sergei Larin, an infamous art forger, and dispatch him in whatever way suits.