Hitman 2: The Last Resort

Time to fulfill our purpose.

Okay, this is the final Hitman blog, I swear. After this I will literally have no more content to cover as I'll have gone over every single released mission and analyzed every feasible part of this game. (Apart from the competitive online mode but I hardly feel that's worth mentioning.) This has been such a fun series to cover and I find myself feeling a little blue knowing that it'll soon be over. Luckily, I do have an idea of something to come, but I'll need to settle into my usual schedule first. (As well as cover some lingering research blogs that I've had on my slate for a while now.) But before any of that, let's travel to paradise to wrap up Hitman 2. (Spoilers, duh.)

After securing the money accounts of the Partners in New York, Olivia has managed to track some recent transactions made towards a place called Haven. Haven is a retreat in the Maldives that pretends to be a rehabilitation centre on it's public face whilst in reality it is a sophisticated identity reconstruction hub that caters to criminals of all kinds. Clearly this is the last bid from the Partners to disappear into the ether. Their last resort, if you will. (Oh, that's what the title of the mission is referring to. Clever...)

Olivia is unable to get into the Haven servers as the admins are proud practitioners of proper server safety procedures, (They reset the password every 10 hours. Take notes, Randy Pitchford.) so the reward for their diligence is getting designated as collateral targets for 47's crusade. (Oh. Bummer.) This means that 47 is tasked with finding and eliminating, Tyson Williams, CEO of Haven and Ex-PI; Ljudmila Vetrova, client handler and practising con artist; and Steven Bradley, who is a dick. And a hacker who helps to run the servers, I guess. This will pave the way for Olivia to prevent the Partners from vanishing themselves and track them down to their home addresses. (Let's hope they all stay put until Hitman 3, huh.)

Once again we find ourselves reaching our finale on the shores of an exclusive Island escape, however, the Haven resort could not be further away from Isle of Sgàil in literally every other way. The island is tropical and warm, with sandy beaches and reclining chairs as far as the eye can see. You'll also notice the impeccably serene weather accompanying a full midday sun as you arrive on the scene. This is the type of locale that people dream of living in, and 47 gets to drop of there for work, how lucky is he? The perfect serenity of the day practically begs to be broken with the devious machinations of a psychotic killer as we get one last chance to show off our assassination skills. (Watch out, paradise, here I come.)

The Last Resort is surprisingly vanilla as far as Hitman levels go. Despite the lore and setup mentioning something about accessing servers (and the map literally having a huge underground server complex) you are only personally required to kill your 3 targets and hoof it. It's as if IOI wanted this game to go out on a mission that is as straightforward and to-the-point as humanly possible. Although that does not mean that the level itself is a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination. The developers may have wanted to tickle our nostalgia bones with the set-up for this level, but they didn't want us to sleep walk through it. (Like we did with 'Golden Handshake'.)

From a layout perspective, The Last Resort manages to hit on the 3 different types of targets for a Hitman level. You have one who mingles with the guests and who can reached with little effort, but will require more effort to kill quietly. One target who languishes behind an army of soldiers and requires excessive amount of infiltration to reach. And one target who fliters between the two, letting the player decide how they want to approach them. Even without taking special opportunities into account, this diversity makes up for the fairly standard set-up and ensures that players have a chance to flex all their stealth muscles in this undertaking.

The targets themselves are decently realized too, with the player having the opportunity to learn a great deal about each if they so choose. Sometimes when IOI offers 3 targets you have that one character who gets left behind, but the only target who gets ignored in The Last Resort is Steven Bradley, but that's because he's so shallow that what you see is pretty much what you get. For the other two targets you get an interesting power struggle as Steven tries to enforce his dominance over the operation and Ljudmila attempts to manipulate every man that she can to get out. It's a curious dynamic that has no ultimately sympathetic figures nor any completely damnable ones. Vetrova is a pathological liar, but you can tell that she fears for her safety around her unhinged boss and Steven is a tyrant but he is clearly suffering from some terminal illness and it's causing him to lash out. (No, I still don't know what the illness is. The level just came out, cut me some slack!) I appreciate the way that IOI can make their targets relatable without making you feel too bad for killing them off. (Apart from Penelope Graves back in Colorado. I still don't sit right by that hit.) 

In terms of opportunities, IOI have once again done a great job in tying them together with the narrative of the characters. Much about the interplay dynamic between the runners of Haven can only be gleaned by becoming an active instrument in that relationship, and putting the players in that position is a great way of making them feel involved. Of course, there is much that can also be learnt just my eavesdropping, as it true with any good stealth game, along with some pretty weird flavour dialogue. (I hope to never hear the story about that woman and her cat ever again.) My favourite opportunity is defiantly the one in which you become Vetrova's thief-for-hire and help her further her plans to escape the island. Of course, that allows you to isolate her, however with a little more effort you can finish the other half of her plan and have her secretly meet up with Steven to finalize her escape. (Two for the price of one!)

Of course, as this is the third secret recluse for the elite that has featured in these Hitman games, IOI had to do some things to differentiate it. My personal favourite addition is the dynamic environment changes that reflect your progress across the targets. As the level takes place in the Maldives, tropical storms are no freak occurrence, however, you'll find that one will start brewing as you begin taking out targets all the way up until you leave. It's a really cool little thematic device that really shows the kind of cool ideas that IOI could work on for Hitman 3. Another cool little Easter egg, although this one is not so much a new idea, is the return of one of my favourite side-characters; Jason Portman, who I'm sure, at this point, is some kind of loose parody of Jack Dorsey. (Still trying to figure out the specifics there.) It is a little unfair that the man needs to be knocked out for an opportunity again, but at least this time he gets to keep his clothes. (We'll see how lucky he'll be in his inevitable return in the final 'Hitman: no Subtitle') Also, I love the fact that IOI went so far as to have the game's subtitles accentuate the word 'THAT' whenever Diana introduces a target. (Someone's been consuming memes from the Hitman Reddit...)

I will say, however, that the map itself does leave something to be desired. Not in the traditional way that Hitman maps may be disappointing, either, but in a manner that is partially subjective, the visual layout. For me, I find that the setup of Haven is needlessly cluttered and all over the place, requiring a lot of running around to get to key places. I don't mind this kind of busy work in a visually diverse location like Marrakesh or Mumbai, but when your running amidst a bar area and around pools, it can start to grate. Also, I wonder as to the utility of many of these inbetween areas. The main assassination uses them as little more than a meeting spot for 47 and Ljudmila, but they don't appear to have enough space/versatility to them to support any player made contracts or escalations. (I suppose we'll find out whether or not I'm proven wrong on that issue in the near future.)

The Last Resort makes for a fitting conclusion to Hitman 2, bringing everything back to a simple hit and ending the story on a satisfying cliffhanger. Storywise, there were no significant developments, (apart from the escape of the Constant after this mission.)  but I feel it's fine for IOI to just set the stage for their conclusion. I'm sure it's readily apparent, but I absolutely love Hitman and the team that diligently work on it. In today's gaming landscape, with all their greedy monetisation tactics and selfish recurrency hooks, it's refreshing to have a developer dedicated to honing their craft and working to make a game as good as it can be. As I discussed earlier, I do have an idea of what I should cover next; or more specifically, what series I should cover next, but that concept needs a little more time in the oven before it's ready. You want a clue? Let's just say there might me some odd-shaped sandwiches involved and leave it at that...