Turfster

@Turfster

he/him

Coder, pun perpetrator
Grumpiness elemental
Hyperbole abuser

Tools programmer
Writer-wannabe
Did translations once upon a time
I contain multitudes

(TurfsterNTE off Twitter)

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Github

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Turfster @Turfster3/5/2024, 10:57 PM

Alex Zandra @zandravandra

Aura @MOOMANiBE2/24/2024, 1:16 AM

Deconstructing Hitman's Mission Stories

I've played hitman a whooole lot over the last year or two, but it's been almost exclusively the roguelike mode. It was only very recently that I decided to properly go through the singleplayer campaign - and not just go through it, but do every mission story on every level.

Having just finished Hitman 1, I feel like I've started to see some interesting design throughlines and thought it'd be fun to talk about and pick apart the mechanical decisions involved. Just be warned; this is going to be very, very long.

#aurambles #hitman #Hitman World of Assassination #game design

Turfster @Turfster3/5/2024, 10:57 PM

An amazing read

Colorado really is fucking boring.
In Hitman.

#I'm sure it's a lovely place

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in reply to @MOOMANiBE's post:

632146K~P @xenogears2/24/2024, 1:32 AM

reading through all this makes me want to dive back into these games so badly. never really realized how much the mission stories had in common. great post!

Aura @MOOMANiBE2/24/2024, 2:13 AM

Thanks so much!

Bruno Dias @bruno2/24/2024, 1:50 AM

This was fascinating, and I really want to see what you make of all the ways they twist and bend the formula in the subsequent games (also the very good DLC for the first game that adds Maldives and Nee York)

Berlin and Dartmouth are both wild twists on the formula and that def extends to the missions.

Aura @MOOMANiBE2/24/2024, 2:12 AM

:D I'm also reallllly curious to see how they develop on the formula as things go. Thank you for reading!

Foxtrot ΘΔ🐺@Foxtrot682/24/2024, 2:34 AM

this was really interesting, I've put hundreds of hours into these games and never thought about how they'd break down the opportunity designs. I heard I think from a noclip doc that the devs at IOI tend to think of targets as either roamers or more stationary inside their Fortresses (or sanctum), so they always have to sprinkle in several routes and opportunities to let you infiltrate fortresses or isolate roamers like Novikov. Colorado is bullshit in roguelike or standard mode but I think Marrakesh has something to it but it's really boring that the best way to infiltrate the embassy is always jumping the fence and going down to the garage or that there's no good or fun way to infiltrate the school. anyways really enjoyable read!

Aura @MOOMANiBE2/24/2024, 2:37 AM

Honestly I wonder if you could map the "roamer vs stationary fortress" dynamic 1:1 to the outfit security requirements vs opportunity requirements situation! At least from the parts I've played comprehensively these days

Thanks so much for reading!

Foxtrot ΘΔ🐺@Foxtrot682/24/2024, 2:51 AM

I think so! I think they got a ton better at doing this in Hitman 2 and 3, maybe a little excessive in 2 with adding tons of fortresses in levels like Mumbai and Santa Fortuna, but the routes are all there, infiltrating the Delgado mansion is more satisfying than either Marrakesh fortress, same for Rangan's tower in Mumbai. It's been a really long time since I've played the mission opportunities in these 3 games but I can remember some good ones like having to become the celebrity tattoo artist to get into the Delgado mansion (you can't unsee the fact that 47 somehow rips the tattoos from the guy's skin like magic) or become an important actor to infiltrate the tower with the bollywood movie set, it's super neat to think of all those levels as clockwork sandboxes, the opportunities really are them asking you to poke around and have fun, sometimes I felt like opportunities were "too easy" since a lot of them hand you free kills, but your breakdown put that into a different perspective for me, you can always replay them and diverge at any point or ignore them completely once you learn the ropes.