YMMV Navigation: Franchise | Codename 47 | Silent Assassin | Contracts | Blood Money | Absolution
World of Assassination Trilogy
2016 | Hitman 2 | Hitman 3 | Freelancer
World of Assassination Trilogy
2016 | Hitman 2 | Hitman 3 | Freelancer
Hitman (games)
- Accidental Aesop: The last moments of your life can come at any time. Don't spend them doing something shameful.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: See here.
- Annoying Video Game Helper: Diana in the later games can come off as this, as there is no option to turn off her dialogue, so you have to hear her repeat the same lines when you replay a level. IOI did alleviate this by making it so certain lines of hers (such as when announcing a target or location) are turned off for 48 hours after it has been played and a level is finished.
- Anti-Climax Boss:
- The promos (and the intro itself!) to Blood Money played up the rivalry and ultimate confrontation between 47 and Mark Parchezzi III. However, in the actual game the two never cross paths at all until the end, and the ultimate result is a 5 second cutscene and a brief and anti-climactic shootout. The most you get with tension are the Agency's operatives getting killed...
- Inspector Albert Fournier in Contracts. Actually getting close to him, though....
- Blake Dexter in Absolution. The chapter where you kill him is a short, timed (5 minutes, or less on harder difficulties) A -> B sneaking level that's pretty easy. When you get up to him, you immediately enter point shooting, giving you the opportunity to put a good amount of bullets in him right then and there. Alternatively, wait until his back is turned, and you can sneak right up to him and garrote him like any standard mook.
- Ortmeyer from the original game, provided you don't listen to his posturing for too long.
- In Hitman 3, the final level can come off as this, and has 47 on board a train making his way through to the front, and he eventually confronts Edwards. The guy goes down pretty easily, and has no other contingencies in place (aside from the Serum that would render 47 an amnesiac — which he refuses to take). Hell, you don't even have to kill him, you can use the serum on him, rendering him useless. After this, Providence collapses as soon as Diana takes power as Constant, which happens in the final cutscene of the game.
- Audience-Alienating Era: While most will begrudgingly credit them for bringing the franchise out of Development Hell after Eidos had ordered it sidelined in favor of the Kane & Lynch series, fans look back on Square Enix's ownership of the series with very little fondness, seeing how it saw the release of Absolution — widely considered the worst game in the series after the first — and the questionable episodic model that Hitman (2016) used.
- Audience-Perceived Paranormality: Despite the extraordinary premise, Hitman is a comparatively grounded game series with no supernatural elements beyond the occasional easter egg. However, some theorists like to suggest that Agent 47 isn't limited to his peak physical fitness and conditioning, and actually has some kind of full-blown superpower he's not consciously aware of, usually as a means of explaining why 47 can somehow fit in every outfit, why nobody recognizes him despite his distinctive tattoo, how he's able to excel at just about everything he does, or how the map can tell him where the target is. Depending on the theorist, this power can be precognition, a Jedi Mind Trick, clairvoyance, or even a mild form of shapeshifting to account for how the stolen clothes fit. Dialogue in World of Assassination trilogy suggests he may also age slightly slower than a normal person, as he's frequently described as looking 10-20 years younger than he isnote .
- Awesome Music: Has its own page.
- Better as a Let's Play: Seeing players online do crazy and hard to pull off assassinations, such as using AI tricks to make a limosine full of guards kill a person they're trying to protect, flawlessly killing four targets in the middle of a hostile militia compound by weaving in and out of guard groups, and assassinating five targets out to kill the player character in the middle of a packed nightclub, is very gratifying. Just watching a person with tons of knowledge be extremely competent at a level, or even a whole run of a game, which can often be daunting to pull off, is basically a draw in of itself.
- Best Level Ever: The series is well known for it's excellent level design, but some levels stick out more than others:
- "Traditions of the Trade" is by far the most fondly remembered mission of the first game. There's a good reason it turned up again in Contracts.
- In Silent Assassin the "St. Petersburg Stakeout" (where 47 moves from the subway through the sewer into a locked-off apartment building to snipe a general in a meeting) and "Shogun Showdown" (where 47 sneaks around a Yakuza leader's private castle to steal a missile guidance system).
- A bunch from Blood Money:
- "Curtains Down". Not only is the opera house huge and very detailed, but it's the first time you really get to experiment with all the new mechanics. In addition, there's numerous ways to take down both targets, including one of the best "accident deaths" in the series: switching a fake prop gun for a real loaded one, and watching your target get his head blown off on-stage.
- "A New Life" has you in a rich neighbourhood with loads of places to explore and a lot of stuff to do to help with your mission or just to fuck around.
- "A Murder of Crows" is a great level because of it's variety and time-based structure. Unlike previous levels, your targets here have a goal to complete of their own. Thus, you must race through the level attempting to track them down. What makes it fun is two elements- the first is that the level is randomized, so the locations of the targets and what they do change per level, and the second is that the targets are two assassins themselves, leading to a Hunter Becomes The Hunted scenario that really makes you feel like a badass.
- "Amendment XXV" where you must infiltrate the White House.
- Absolution has several as well, with "Attack Of The Saints" being one of the best.
- The entire World of Assassination Trilogy also has some simply stellar levels:
- Paris is a welcome return to form for the series, being considered by fans as better than anything in Absolution, works as a nice tutorial sandbox to ease players into the mindset of the game's stealth mechanics, and is reasonably hard for first-time players as the targets move around quite a bit, and Dalia is almost always on the top floor of the Palais de Walwesca. The opportunities system allows for multiple satisfying assassinations (such as dropping the lighting rig on Victor Novikov, or sabotaging the auction upstairs to isolate Dalia Margolis). And the level looks stunning on top of that, with the sunset outside providing a nice contrast to the blue Color Motif of the fashion show, as well as the fancy palace vibes.
- Sapienza is considered to be the best map in 2016, and according to later marketing, the whole franchise (though fans naturally dispute this). This is due to its massive size and the many different ways to kill the targets. The map is a large section of a bright-pleasant looking Italian coastal town, with a huge mansion as its centerpiece, and has several notable landmarks, like the church along the coast, or the clocktower across from Villa Caruso that's perfect for sniping. It's not without its criticisms, the main ones being that a lot of the location is wasted as the targets in the main mission are centered around one section of the map, that being Villa Caruso, while the side objective of destroying the ETHER Virus makes replaying the level feel quite linear as, by IOI's own admission, it funnels players into one place as it is an enforced objective, something which they've consciously avoided doing again for later levels.
- Hokkaido is one of the most atmospherically strong levels in the series, being set on a beautiful mountainside high-tech hospital at dusk. It's densely packed with numerous pathways, tucked away areas, and more to explore. All the doors are tied to specific disguises, so getting around the level feels natural, and what makes it so memorable is that at first, it's a No-Gear Level- 47 must find his way to his target, hidden away in the most guarded corner of the facility, with absolutely no weapons or tools aside from what he can get his hands on. The kills you can get for Eric Soders are also awesome, with the standout being simply walking up to him and causing him to die on the operating table from the stress of knowing you're even there.
- Miami is simultaneously large and closed off at the same time without feeling like it's limiting the player. The map is split into two sides; one side being a race event, another side being an expo building, with both targets on either side, making great use of the space. You are able to kill one of them as they race around the track!
- Santa Fortuna is some lovely Scenery Porn and makes great use of the space it has; it is also one of the biggest levels in the trilogy and contains several landmarks (the bar, the huts, the construction site, Andrea's house, Rico's mansion etc.) so it never feels confusing to navigate.
- Dartmoor received a lot of critical praise for its intricate murder mystery plot, which centers around 47 and Diana working out who killed Zachary Carlisle, while also killing off Alexa in the process.
- Berlin is a favourite for long-time fans for its gameplay twist; the people you kill in the level are actively hunting you, and 47 must take them on one at a time in a nightclub in Berlin, which is set in a messy and rundown power plant. The level is really tightly designed, and the gimmick never feels stale despite having a pool of 11 targets to choose from.
- Broken Base:
- Absolution is the most divisive game by far, and it probably wound up hurting the sales of the sequels that followed. It represents a trend at Square Enix where they take a well-known game series and strip away players' control in favor of cutscenes and a more "cinematic" experience. The same thing happened to Thief (2014) but even worse.
- Hitman (2016) was released as an episodic game initially, with Paris and the ICA Facility as the first episode, with a new location added every month or so, and more content was added throughout that year via free updates. "Summer Bonus" episodes were also made to fill in the gaps too. The episodic format did not do anything to help its sales numbers as interest dwindled throughout the year, and many players interested in the series simply opted to wait for a compilation of the episodes and/ or wait for the price to drop. On the flip side, there are people who feels the game could work with an episodic structure, since the missions are, by design, standalone experiences with very little connecting them, and was a perfect way for future seasons to be added. What happened was that the general audience just ignored the game until the aforementioned compilation releases, suggesting big-budget episodic games don't do very well. Making things worse was Square Enix's complete lack of interest in marketing the damn thing (despite releasing content at least once a month), the implementation of the "always online" requirement which also contributed to the lower sales of the game. Square Enix also let go IOI due to what they perceived to be poor sales.
- Common Knowledge:
- Despite their uncanny resemblance, 47 is not modeled after his voice actor David Bateson. Bateson himself has asserted that it's just a coincidence.
- 47's iconic barcode tattoo was not given to him by the ICA. It was tattooed onto him at a young age by his creator, Dr. Ort-Meyer, which is even a minor plot element in Codename 47note .
- Many fans claim that in canon, Agent 47 always gets a Silent Assassin rating, with some also adding on that he does it in his suit. The "suit only" part is disproven by the many references characters make to Agent 47 being a Master of Disguise, while the "Silent Assassin only" claim is a bit more complex due to each game having different criteria. Most fans go by the World of Assassination Trilogy rules, which state no bodies found, no evidence left behind, and no non-target kills. Of these, the only one that can truly be considered "canon" is that Agent 47 leaves no evidence of his involvement in any given hit; however, he is willing to kill witnesses and eliminate guards that get in his way. For example, the tutorial of Hitman: Blood Money incentivizes killing multiple guards and an innocent witness, and the Cutting Off the Branches in Hitman 3's final level indicates that the "Lights Out" mission story in Paris is canon; said event results in a large number of bystanders being killed alongside the target.
- Complete Monster: See here.
- Creepy Awesome: Agent 47.
- Designated Villain: Jade in Absolution doesn't really do anything evil and never does anything to directly harm Agent 47. Though he comments that she could have been a valuable ally and she might have betrayed Travis and flew right to avoid punishment, she ended up becoming a loose end to be tied up...
- Fan Alternate Title:
- In Russia, the title of the series is sometimes jokingly subjected to "Blind Idiot" Translation by translating "hit" and "man" separately, then combining them into a single word. The result is something like udarmuzhik (Удармужик) or udarmuzhchina (Удармужчина). Just like the English-speaking fandom, this also leads to jokes about hitting men in a game called Hitman.
- Hitman Conviction is quickly becoming one for Absolution, as both are Actionized Sequels that feature the protagonist fighting against their former employee, focus more on the plot and cinematic setpieces, have a mechanic that allows you to mark targets and have the protagonist automatically kill them, and created a controversy within the fandom due to how different they are from previous installments.
- Fashion-Victim Villain: The Saints, who dress in fetish nun outfits.
- Fountain of Memes: Diana has become this in the World of Assassination trilogy - her role was expanded to provide intel, commentary and occasional snark during missions, but the Welcome to Corneria nature of her lines pushed her otherwise normal commentary into memetic status; she went from 47's enigmatic ally who provided him with sparse intel on his targets, to a sarcasm-filled Girl Friday who loudly announces 47's targets to him over his headset before giving him their full biography.
- Game-Breaker:
- The RU-AP explosives from Blood Money are undetectable by metal detectors and frisking and can be smuggled anywhere. If you don't care about collateral damage, they can save a lot of hassle in certain missions and, in one case, using one is the best way to get a Silent Assassin rating. Plus, the nature of the remote control is that you don't even need to be nearby when setting one off. They can even be thrown as improvised grenades.
- The ICA Electrocution phone in Hitman 2 trivialised any mobile target (which is to say, all but one target), by throwing a phone at their feet, pressing the detonator to make it ring, and when they answered, it electrocuted them for a clean accident kill with no collateral damage. Notably, when progress transferred from Hitman 2 to Hitman 3, the phone was left behind, most likely due to the controversy it generated, and was essentially replaced by the ICA Remote Micro Taser, which still grants an accident kill, but only works in puddles or bodies of water, akin to a car battery, making it much less overpowered as a result.
- Genius Bonus: Mark Parchezzi III wields a customized Colt M1911A1 with ivory grips. 47 wields customized AMT Hardballer(s). The Other Wiki describes the Hardballer as a "clone of the M1911". Parchezzi is a defective clone, while 47 easily kills him. The funny part? The Hardballers are often described as defective clones of the M1911A1.
- Good Bad Bugs:
- In Blood Money, attempting to garrote people on an uneven surface (say, stairs) leads to an instant kill rather than being forced to make the victim struggle for five seconds. It's very useful on the wedding level.
- Also in "Blood Money", equipping the detonator of the RU-AP Mine while holding a sniper rifle, or any other large, long weapon, makes the weapon legal to carry openly. This is one of the only ways to use these sorts of esoteric weapons while maintaining good scores, and has been exploited by speedrunners since release. Surprisingly, this exploit still works in the "Enchanted" port for Switch and Mobile, where that was specifically made to have gameplay changes to make it closer in gameplay to the WoA Trilogy, suggesting the developers are aware of its use as an exploit, and do not want to change it.
- In Silent Assassin, opening and closing the map instantly completes certain actions, such as changing clothes, lockpicking, strangling with the fiber wire and using chloroform. Also in the same game, it's possible to abuse a bug with the double silver ballers to dual-wield any pistol with any other, resulting in unbelievably fast fire rate and no need to reload. Useless for a stealth approach, but undeniably fun.
- Tapping the start button while the game is saving on harder difficulties in Blood Money will cause the game to preserve the number of saves you are allowed to make, at least on the Xbox platforms. This allows unlimited saving as if the game were on Rookie mode (Professional difficulty cannot be saved at all however).
- In Absolution, during the cutscene that plays in the last part of the Orphanage mission, 47 will point whatever weapon he has in his hand at another character. This results in 47 pointing any number of objects—a shotgun, his fiber wire, a book—like it was a handgun. It makes what is otherwise a very serious scene utterly hysterical. For bonus points, you can threateningly point a loaded bible at someone while dressed as a priest.
- Growing the Beard:
- Hitman: Codename 47 had a good concept, but suffered from very twitchy AI, a buggy disguise system, and no ability to save during missions (apparently as a way of artificially lengthening the game). Silent Assassin added the ability to save and made improvements on the shortfalls of the original, as did each installment afterwards. Contracts added better non-lethal takedown methods and toned down the insane twitchy paranoia of the guards, and Blood Money used the environment to your advantage, making some kills appear accidental.
- If anyone ever uses the term "Hitman Trilogy", they're referring to 2-4. The first compilation pack of the series and the HD re-release came with those three games, omitting the original. Although the fact the original game was never ported to consoles probably plays a large part in that.
- Hard-to-Adapt Work: The series has received two entirely separate film adaptations (one in 2007, another in 2015), and neither of them were very well-received. Despite the spy/assassin Conspiracy Thriller premise of the games seeming fairly easy to adapt to film, the tone of the games is heavily informed by much more interactive elements than something like James Bond or John Wick — namely quiet, stealthy gameplay, meticulous planning and interactive scenarios built around Replay Value, and a quiet sense of schaudenfreude juxtaposed against Agent 47's stoic professionalism — and with neither film managing to retain those elements, they were both criticized for being too unlike the source material, instead resembling generic action thrillers that don't do much to the genre than the bare minimum.
- Heartwarming Moments:
- In a series as dark and cynical as Hitman, the cutscene before the final level of Absolution stands out considerably. It shows Diana explaining her motives in taking Victoria from the ICA earlier on in the game. As she is talking, you can feel that she was being selfless and motivated by a genuine motherly love in regards to Victoria. The fact that she was willing and brave enough to do so despite knowing that Benjamin Travis would come after her doubles as a Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!.
- 47's brief interaction with Diana after shooting her. He doesn't finish her off immediately, and actually kneels down to comfort her as she bleeds out. To longtime players of the series, his line "There's still time" speaks volumes about the affection he had for this woman that he only met a handful of times.
- The first part of the orphanage where 47 carries Victoria. Biggest in the series, bar none.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- 47 is sometimes nicknamed Mr Clean. Guess why
. - Apparently, History Repeats.
- Both CN47 and Absolution are Narm-filled awkward test runs, that saw divisive reception; nevertheless, both were liked enough to warrant a sequel.
- Silent Assassin and 2016 took the good parts from the previous title, and while not perfect, was received well enough to keep the series afloat.
- Contracts and Hitman 2 are both Mission Pack Sequels that remake an earlier game. Both are seen to improve on the previous games, despite being a bit too similar to the previous game.
- Blood Money and Hitman 3 were critically received the best.
- Several missions of the series, and 47 himself, have often been compared to James Bond (and took some inspiration from that franchise). IO Interactive is now developing an official James Bond game, "Project 007".
- 47 is sometimes nicknamed Mr Clean. Guess why
- I Am Not Shazam: A couple of times he had gone by the alias Tobias Reaper, but otherwise no name apart from 47.
- Though the player character is Agent 47, it's not uncommon for people to refer to him as "Hitman".
- Even the box of Blood Money seems to imply that the main character is called "Hitman".
- In Absolution however, Blake Dexter and the police refer to 47 as "the Hitman", meaning that it is at least a nickname he's earned. This is a possible case of Fridge Brilliance — canonically, until Absolution outed him, 47 prided himself on killing his targets without anyone knowing he was there, and in the rare cases when someone did, he killed everyone that knew that he was an assassin and destroyed all evidence of it. As a result, hardly anyone outside of the Agency even knows 47 exists, and knowing his codename, at most 47 is an urban legend. If people both don't know his codename and also manage to see 47 trying to kill them, what else would they call him but a Hitman? Even in Absolution, it's notable that only the people working for the Agency refer to 47 as such; members of all other factions refer to him simply as "the Hitman".
- The manual for the first game uses "Hitman" to refer to the player character, despite his "real" name being right in the title.
- It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Some fans think this of some of the newer entries, mainly due to the lack of level gimmicks that would drastically increase the challenge (such as heavily armored SWAT teams, guard dogs and other elements missing entirely from World of Assassination) as well as the addition of regenerating health.
- Magnificent Bastard: See here.
- Memetic Mutation: The series has its own page.
- Narm Charm: Some of the disguises are this (especially in Blood Money). You'd think dressing as a giant red chicken would be stupid, yet it feels completely natural on the level it appears in. Other examples being a birthday clown, a chipmunk, a plague doctor, and a "Vampire Magician".
- Nightmare Fuel:
- The entire franchise is this. You the player are the world's most dangerous assassin. Remorseless, cold, calculating, dexterous, etc. You're given the tasks and tools and many methodical ways of killing people. How far you're willing to go is up to you. But, it might mostly lead to an understandable case of But Thou Must!.
- Among many examples, the aforementioned Psycho Knife Nut female assassin in Blood Money and the highly deranged Meat King's Party in Contracts.
- In Absolution, during the Vixen Club mission, you can hear strippers talk about the "Hawaii" room with dread and before entering the club, you can see a police officer questioning some bouncers about "Hawaii". Later, you discover what the "Hawaii" room is: A room in a desolate building with just an armchair that has duct tape attached to the arms, a metal apparatus that is meant to hold and spread a person's legs apart, a camera, and a backdrop of a beach. Some women are killed later; others survive.
- The chilling underground shrine in the Vixen Club mission, filled with candles and covered with pictures of missing children...
- Absolution is absolutely packed with this trope. The above-mentioned "Hawaii Room". Wade's massacre of Rosewood Orphanage, leaving blood slattered all over the walls and executed nuns littering the hallways. The Agency's elimination of the Waikiki Inn, complete with faceless mercenaries slaughtering innocent, begging civilians. The filthy, dank, rotting Hope County Jail, where a corrupt police force regularly beats prisoners to death and forces others to fight each other for their own amusement.
- At the time, Contracts was the darkest installment in the franchise. Most of the original levels for the game are rather dark in both theme and lighting. Aside from the aforementioned Meat King's Party, the starting Asylum level is a maze of dead bodies, lab equipment and heavily armed S.W.A.T operatives gunning for you. You also end up going to a rather eerie British manor who's owners love practicing Hunting the Most Dangerous Game. There is also a rather horrifying outcome to failing the last of the Rotterdam missions. You get treated to a cutscene of Rotterdam going up in a puff of nuclear smoke.
- Nintendo Hard: In the second and third games, it's very hard to achieve a completely stealthful mission, because the guards are extremely skittish and will instantly raise the alarm if they see you doing anything even remotely suspicious. Blood Money tones this down a lot; so long as you have the right disguise and don't commit any criminal acts, the guards will generally ignore you.
- Older Than They Think: Some older fans feel the games released after Absolution are made too easy, but what usually goes unmentioned is that every game in the series is easier and more accessible than the last - in fact, when Absolution broke this trend, it faced heavy criticism for being too hard.
- Silent Assassin gave players save slots instead of checkpoints, making missions less frustrating than those of the first game. 47 was given nonlethal weapons. Weapons could now be unlocked for regular use in any level, without having to pay for them.
- Contracts made movement less of a hassle by speeding up sneaking speed and loosening up the previously ...aggressive NPC reactions. The overall AI behaviour was also improved so the player could actually stealth through missions without having to worry about random modifiers.
- Blood Money removed almost all restrictions on running (which were never even present in the original Codename 47, only being added from Silent Assassin onwards), added ways to tell what locations you could enter in which disguise, changed enemy AI so they no longer instantly open fire when they find 47 tresspassing, allowed hiding bodies in containers, removed the timer from sedatives, and added in accidents that allowed one to kill people without counting against their score or arousing suspicion.
- 2016, 2 and 3 all improve on the games past by not only refining previous mechanics like poison (which now comes in pill and needle form), made the maps larger in scope to justify the use of Instinct, as well as making the melee options have more versatility (Melee's can be blunt, as well as lethal). 2 and 3 added the PiP view back to be a popup box whenever special events occur (instead of taking up the whole screen), the briefcase returns to store anything you want, and the controls themselves are much more refined.
- Pacifist Run: It's possible to finish the game without killing anyone other than your intended targets, which is reflected in your overall game stats. This is somewhat complicated in Silent Assassin by the fact that Mr. 17 in the second-to-last level counts as an unnecessary kill, even though killing him is required to finish the mission. However, this can be cheesed out by using anesthetic to knock him out, then dragging him into oncoming traffic to be run over by a bus, albeit with insanely-specific timing (he has to be in the 'regaining consciousness' animation for the collision to damage him). But it doesn't count as a kill. This can only be done revisiting the mission in New Game Plus, since when you first play it, you're barred from bringing any items apart from the strangulation cord.
- Play the Game, Skip the Story: The franchise has a pretty odd relationship with its games' plots, in that while many agree the plots themselves are perfectly fine and compelling, the actual gameplay and the emergent narratives found from carrying out missions are much more interesting. Part of Absolution's divisive reputation stems from how it emphasized its linear plot beyond the highly-replayable sandbox gameplay Hitman fans desired, with the lesson IOI seeming to take from it for the World of Assassination trilogy being that the plot should provide context and justification for the player missions, not the other way around.
- Polished Port: The series is known for having consistently high-quality HD remasters/Updated Rereleases, with nearly every one being considered the definitive way to play the games. Notably, even the posters on the walls in Blood Money are redrawn, making them look better than on PC, where they remain rather pixelated.
- Scrappy Mechanic:
- Codename 47 and the direct sequel, Silent Assassin, are full of targetless filler missions that extend the game's length. They are meant to cripple the target and pin them into a corner. One, they're much less of a sandbox, featuring linear 'get from point A to point B' maps. Two, it takes away the actual contract killing part.
- In Hong Kong, this is accomplished by killing off various Triad emissaries. But in the next mission, you'll suddenly notice that several objectives exist mainly to pad the game's length.
- In Silent Assassin you have to disable all kinds of "security systems" while avoiding seemingly-psychic guards, and the ranking system discouraged you from simply shooting your way through it.
- Many fans were not amused when they found out that the hand to hand fighting sequences in Absolution were reduced to Quick Time Events. This feature returned for the 2016 game, but the buttons are no longer randomized and end after one hit unless it fails.
- Codename 47 and the direct sequel, Silent Assassin, are full of targetless filler missions that extend the game's length. They are meant to cripple the target and pin them into a corner. One, they're much less of a sandbox, featuring linear 'get from point A to point B' maps. Two, it takes away the actual contract killing part.
- Scrappy Weapon:
- Unsilenced firearms in general, as even a single shot will cause all nearby guards to run to your location. Unless it's a sniper rifle and the map has a spot with no guards nearby, you'll typically only use them to create a distraction with gunfire or disrupt guard schedules by dropping them into their path.
- In the first 4 games, most non-concealable weapons are not very useful, as they are often deemed suspicious even in disguises that allow visible weapons. It isn't until Hitman (2016) that wearing any guard disguise allows visibly carrying any weapon(s) you can get your hands on.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: Many of them, but Suit Only, where you do not use any disguises whatsoever, is so popular that it eventually became an official challenge.
- Sequel Displacement:
- The series really started getting noticed with its second installment, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, due to the game getting a wide release on consoles. Several fans falsely believe it to be the first game in the series despite the fact that it clearly has "2" in the title, and are surprised to learn about the original PC-exclusive Hitman: Codename 47.
- The "Blood Money Trilogy" as it came to be called, referring to Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts, and Hitman: Blood Money, has in turn been supplanted by World of Assassination Trilogy. This is due in part to the abysmal failure of Hitman: Absolution, which resulted in a de facto ten year gap between "good" Hitman games and a subsequent Newbie Boom. The other factor was that the World of Assassination Trilogy was released episodically, allowing for more continuous presence in the public's minds as well as each "sequel" installment being fully integrated into its predecessor so that players could keep the progress and unlocks they had with each new installment. Another big reason was the incorporation of Anti Frustration Features from Absolution like the Instinct System and the Opportunity System, which combined to make level playthroughs require less trial and error. Tellingly, the gameplay and aesthetic of the World of Assassination Trilogy has been so impactful that even the franchise page image uses the World of Assassination style Agent 47explanation rather than the Guns Akimbo Blood Money Trilogy Agent 47.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel:
- Hitman: Codename 47 was a lackluster and buggy shooter, but Hitman 2 Silent Assassin was a sleeper hit that put the series on the map.
- Absolution proved to be the most controversial installment in the series, and in many ways felt like a step back from Blood Money due to its linear level design and focus on gunplay over stealth. Then came the 2016 reboot, which went back to the Blood Money "stealth sandbox" formula and improved it in every way, with huge, open-ended maps offering near-endless possibilities and enormous amounts of replay value. While the episodic release schedule was questioned, the actual gameplay is near-universally seen as the best in the entire series by far, with its sequels simply going the Mission-Pack Sequel route because fans thought the formula was already perfect.
- Tear Jerker:
- The bad ending of Blood Money, where failing to twirl your control stick or press W despite no on-screen instructionsnote will result in 47 being cremated alive. The beautiful rendition of Ave Maria playing over this does not help.
- Silent Assassin manages one in a brief cutscene of a clearly distraught Hayamoto Sr attending Hayamoto Jr's funeral. Even if they're leading figures of the Yakuza, no father should ever have to bury his son.
- There's a rather somber Easter egg in Absolution. If you go through the vents in the courthouse, you'll find Kane writing his last letter to his daughter before his scheduled execution. Hearing the tell regrets of all that he's done within his voice and his dream of having another chance to form some sort of connection with his daughter is heartbreaking to eavesdrop.
- In 2016, it's possible to have a doctor kill Erich Soders for you by pulling some strings to send him a document revealing that the target assassinated his father in 1978. The doctor is left incredibly distressed by this information and has a crisis over whether to kill him for the sake of his revenge or let him live to preserve his principles and career, but a couple of pills later he's worked up enough to sabotage Soders's operation and leave him to die in agony on the operating table.
- That One Level: Two pages that cover the levels; One for the first five games, and another for the World of Assassination Trilogy
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Some fans are disappointed that Lei Ling hasn't appeared since Contracts, and chronologically since Silent Assassin. A cutscene in Contracts implies that 47 retrospectively has somewhat taken a liking to her, and some fans have speculated that the mysterious ending scene of Blood Money is 47 about to see her, which has resulted in sporadic discussion regarding a future cameo appearance.
- Even those who dislike Absolution have expressed some disappoitment about Birdie and Detective Cosmo Faulkner just disappearing from the series afterwards - not because they are necessarily loved characters, but because they are loose ends that would make excellent targets for a mission. Birdie in particular is seen as a serious Karma Houdini whom many players wouldn't mind coming back if it meant 47 gets to silence the guy.
- Tough Act to Follow:
- Silent Assassin, Contracts, and Blood Money were very well-received by fans and critics alike and have a lot going for them. However, while Absolution was also well-received, it did not do very well in the core hitman userbase (to this day it is the second-most profitable game for IOI, while also being one of the most despised in the fanbase). The complaints regarding Absolution are in context to the previous games; "the previous games were less linear", "disguises worked better before", "I can't choose which weapons I want anymore", etc. It's not that Absolution is a bad instalment per se, the prior games were really tough acts to follow.
- Jesper Kyd was for the longest time considered to be the Hitman composer, with anyone else derided as being unworthy to that crown. This made things very tricky for Niels Bye Nielson, who was frequently accused of making music that was not in Kyd's style, with fans claiming that that's the only type of music befitting of Hitman, and many claiming that Niels was an unknown composernote . This is despite the fact that Niels was told by the developers to make Spy Thriller-esque music for Hitman (2016) to begin with, so he had very little control over this new style. The complaints against Niels died down after Hitman 2 released, where the music was more varied (and more crucially, less prone to being reused between levels) where players warmed up to his music, and Hitman 3 basically defies this trope altogether, and was outright praised for his talents.
Novels
- Complete Monster (Enemy Within): Ali bin Ahmed bin Saleh Al-Fulani, known to the public as a benevolent philanthropist, actually runs a child prostitution ring fronted by his orphanages, which he himself frequents. In the orphanages, scantily clad children are forced to perform a perverse "talent show" for the customers before they are taken upstairs to be raped, a sight that even disgusts the stoic Agent 47. Al-Fulani also runs a drug ring inherited from his father and had top members of the Tumaco Cartel killed when negotiations soured. A board member of Puissance Treize, Al-Fulani is introduced torturing Professor Paul Rollet for information about 47 and having his bodyguard Marla execute Rollet despite promising to spare him. Al-Fulani forces Marla to have a threesome with him and a child before they flee to Chad, where he makes a stop to buy more child sex slaves, separating a brother and sister in the process.