Here we are again, engaging in amateur discussions about the level design of IOI's maps in 'Hitman: No Subtitle'. Once again I will be going off about what works, what doesn't and try to learn a little something about world design as I go. Before I get into it, I am self obliged to warn you that I will be diving into spoiler territory in this blog. Narrative events and story points will be freely discussed so if you are unfamiliar with the game or this level then you should play it right now. That disclaimer is especially true today as I will finally be delving into the overall narrative. (Out of necessity.)
For their fifth episode of 'Hitman: No Subtitle', IOI decided to move the action to the good old US of A. I'd imagine that a certain portion of the audience must have been excited about that one, (personally I'm still waiting for a hit set in Croydon Whitgift centre.) or at least they were before we found out the level would be set in Colorado. Now, I don't want to throw shade on Colorado or anything, but there is literally nothing iconically American there. It's all mostly farmland and rural towns. I guess it's fitting then, that this particular level takes place at a farmhouse in the middle on nowhere.
The reason that 47 finds himself here is linked to the overall story of Hitman. So far I have avoided the specifics of the overarching story because it hasn't been necessarily relevant, however now it takes the forefront. You see, after 'Club 27', Diana meets with 47 in order to discuss a trend developing over his recent hits. Each of them were perfectly legitimate contracts but each client was incentivised to hire the ICA via anonymous hints from an unknown source. It wasn't until the Jordan Cross hit, after which his famously reclusive father was kidnapped at the funeral, that the ICA started to see the writing on the wall. Seeing as how the ICA is neutral, and that's the reason they they can operate without getting spitefully outed, it is against their best interest to continue being pawns of someone else's plan. Therefore the board has sanctioned 47 to track down this 'Shadow Client' and enlighten them about the agency's displeasure. (Everyone still with us? Good.)
ICA's army of capable white hat hackers (that the ICA has for some reason) manages to track the anonymous data packets back to one Olivia Hall; brilliant hactivist and hoody teen who looks like she just missed her casting call for 'Mr. Robot'. The ICA followed her 'Digital trail' back to a small farmhouse that looks to be some sort of militia training ground. Scouts have managed to place the leader of the militia as an already registered target (That's convenient!) called Sean Rose. One of the ICA heads, Erich Soders, has immediately called for the man to be executed alongside three of his lieutenants; former Mossad interrogator, Ezra Berg, Ex Interpol agent, Penelope Graves and prior assassin Maya Pavarti. Diana is a little bristled by this hasty decision and so orders 47 to conduct some extra-curricular snooping in order to get to the bottom of this militia once and for all. That leaves you with 5 objectives, time to put 47 through his paces.You may start to see the problem that most people have with this level: you are asked to do far too much. 47 is tasked with the eye watering prospect of handling four individual targets and is also forced to do some excess infiltration before he is allowed to leave. There are no freebies here either, each target is regulated to their own corner of the map, each requiring different disguises in order to successfully infiltrate. This is an excessive workload that makes repeat playthroughs, a staple of this Hitman game, an absolute chore. This is doubly annoying as in the original 'Hitman: No Subtitle' you were required to fully complete a level in order to register the completion of a challenge. (I don't even want to think about the amount of times that I went through the elongated ending cutscene.)
But that is only the icing on the cake when it comes to people's grievances with this particular level. You see, Colorado is unique amongst 'Hitman: No Subtitle' levels as it is the only that demands a full stealth playthrough. Sure, this makes sense in the world's fiction, you just rolled up to the training grounds of a secret militia, it would be weird if they did let the bald stranger mosey on around; but Hitman has always been a game that held itself up on the weight of it's social stealth. Admittedly, you often spend your time infiltrating no-go areas, but you also have those targets who wonder about the safe areas and require you to solve a logistic puzzle to neutralize them, rather than a stealth puzzle.Colorado's targets require you to get a militia disguise off the bat and also make sure to keep that outfit updated (By choking and stripping more people) as you move from person to person. Penelope and Sean have the common decency to a least wonder about a little, giving the player a variety of approach angles, but Ezra keeps staunchly to the high level security area by the manor house and Maya spends most of her time training in the barn for another smash-and-grab job. Usually this would present a diverse challenge that I would find exciting, but given all the other jobs that this mission has you doing, every extra level feels like a fresh needle in the face.
That may sound like an over exaggeration, and it is, but I only resort to that analogy because I was one of the fools stupid enough to attempt to Silent Assassin/Suit Only this map on the master difficulty. For those who don't know, the extreme challenge of any hitman map, and one consideration that must make designing these levels a nightmare, is the task of completing a level without donning any disguise and raising any alarms. This means that players need to find their targets without getting seen, by people or cameras, kill their target in a way that doesn't raise an alarm, by either making it an accident or hiding the body, and do it all without removing your signature suit. Quite the challenge alone. But coupled with master difficulty, a mode which is eye-wateringly tough, and you are in for a doozy.
Colorado's Silent Assassin/Suit Only master playthrough broke me. Something deep inside me will never be the same after completing this task. Usually, these challenges require a mastery of the level and exploitation of that knowledge in order to reach your targets. Exactly what you would expect from an end-game challenge. Colorado's iteration of this task pushed this to a whole new level. In order to sneak through the entire map without being spotted you had to essentially know where every NPC would be in every second, exactly when every conversation would end, how far everyone's sight/hearing range is and how many seconds it takes them to investigate a distraction. Once you start getting this deep into mechanics, the game stops being immersive and you enter speedrunner levels obsession. You no longer see guards and start seeing ticking time bombs as you plan everything to the nth possible result. Some people may enjoy this level of challenge but even I, self proclaimed video game masochist, draw the line at this level. This was literally the third most distressing video game task I ever had to go through. (I should likely tally up my top five for one of these blogs sometime.)Difficulty is mostly self-imposed, however, so I'll return to more universal gripes, like the inferior thread of narrative. You might remember how in previous Hitman blogs I praised the way in which IOI managed to marry the backstory of the targets with the gameplay opportunities you have with them, allowing casual fans to figure out who what sort of person their target is without being forced to read their codex entry. (Take notes Bungie!) But Colorado is sorely lacking in this department. I suppose it should be expected with twice the amount of targets as other levels, but it is still a shame to see these characters be mostly one dimensional. The most character-driven opportunity is the one in which 47 messes with the clock's hands and Sean's pencil organization in order to set off his OCD, but this feels more like a exploiting a character quirk rather than delving into who that person is.
What else haven't I talked about? Oh yeah, the visuals. I wonder why that could be? Hmm, perhaps because it is set in a farmhouse in 'the-middle-of-nowhere', Colorado. Graphically I suppose it all looks pretty enough, but there is only some much that a world designer can do with the prompts; Rural, American, Farm house. I suppose the militia fortifications are supposed to be the element that makes this location unique, but even they seem rather lackluster. The Militia didn't even bother to set up makeshift guard towers or barbwire fences. (How do you expect to keep out bald headed men with these pitiful defences?) Overall the map is visually uninteresting and forgettable.I know it sound like I dislike this map, and I do, but I won't tell you that my experiences with Colorado was totally devoid of enjoyment. Some of the Elusive Targets were fun and the escalations allowed players to forgo that annoying ending cutscene. I even got some sick sense of relief once I finally conquered the SA/SO master playthrough, but that might be my masochism talking there. For the most part, however, people disliked this map and hoped for a complete shift in direction for the future, luckily that is exactly what they got for the Season 1 finale; Which we will discuss next time.
P.S. I will grant IOI credit for being good sports about the general dislike of this map. They even went so far as to dedicate an entire Easter egg to OutsideXbox's Andy Farrant for his complaints about this level. I think having the humility to laugh and learn from their mistakes speaks volumes for the kind of company that IOI is. Okay, this is getting too mushy, I'm outta here.
Oh, and I have no personal images or capture from Colorado. Go figure.
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