-When playing "Hitman" games,
it's easy to lose yourself in the theatrics of a kill.
-Huh? Unh!
-Mission complete.
-But "Hitman 3" introduces a mission
so inventive and enticing,
in which you put on a detective's hat and jacket,
solve a mystery,
that you may forget you're there to commit murder at all.
At least, that's what happened when we played
"Death in the Family,"
the second mission in "Hitman 3,"
that sends you to a British manor in Dartmoor, England,
to kill one of the long-running villains in the series,
Alexa Carlisle.
You can kill her immediately, sure,
or you can take a more creative approach:
subdue or kill a private investigator to take his place
and solve a mysterious murder herself.
-You asked me to find out what happened to Zachary.
Would you rather not know? -No.
No, go on.
-Eventually, you go back to killing Alexa,
but that becomes almost secondary
to the engaging murder mystery.
Creating Thornbridge Manner,
filled with secret rooms and tiny details,
and making the murder mystery click
within the confines of "Hitman"
were no easy feats for developer IO Interactive.
"Hitman" levels are meant to be replayed over and over,
so you can try out different ways to kill targets.
But the somewhat linear structure of a murder mystery
came at odds with the design.
Why would you replay the mystery,
once you knew who the culprit was?
IO Interactive had to rethink certain systems, mechanics,
and narrative pasts to make it work.
At one point, they considered adding in randomized culprits
that would change every playthrough,
but that conflicted with the canon story,
and it would mean IO Interactive
wouldn't have been able to build as deep a narrative.
So, instead, the team went with what exists in the game now:
a final encounter where you can accuse different characters,
leading to different outcomes.
The entire intel system needed to be rethought, too,
so that it could be used to keep track of character alibis
and found clues,
in comparison to the intel interface of "Hitman 2,"
that was much less organized.
It was also difficult to balance player freedom
within the context of a murder mystery.
"Originally, in the first version,
you could go and explore rooms and you could talk to people,
but you would have no idea who you could talk to.
You would have no idea which rooms are relevant.
And as a result, I took the blunt force approach
and put a little icon on everyone and everywhere
that was relevant, which resulted in playtesters
going from one little icon to the next
and just exhausting all interaction prompts,
which, as others on the team rightly pointed out,
was actually not that much fun".
IO Interactive found middle ground.
Rather than telling the player
exactly where to go with every step,
they had to strategically place dialogue
between guards, staff, and other characters,
and make sure each clue could be found in a nonlinear fashion.
Considering the sandbox structure of the level,
the crying maid is a perfect example.
Her breakdown helps confirm Patrick's alibi,
which you can hear before or after speaking with him.
Piecing it all together is up to you.
Sound was also used to help guide players,
including a subtle draft that rolls through mansion rooms,
and it can help guide you to a specific hint.
"We did have quite a bit of fallback
writing for what would happen
if are not on the path to solve the murder mystery
and suddenly you find a dead body in a room.
What does Diana say, what does Agent 47 do?
What happens if you scan the body?
All that stuff had to be thought up because it's a sandbox.
We have this sort of linear experience,
but if you do it in another way, it starts to pull together".
The idea of Thornbridge Manor
was conceived early in development,
IO Interactive told The Washington Post.
And, contrary to popular belief,
it wasn't a direct inspiration from "Knives Out".
-I would like to gently request that you all stay in town
until the investigation is completed.
-We spoke with five lead developers.
Some of them still haven't seen the movie,
despite there being an actual "Knives Out" Easter egg,
a baseball on the grounds, in the level itself.
Instead, inspiration comes from decades-old detective fiction.
The mood of the level is dark, somewhat literally,
with the cloudy sky, but not too dark,
and lead and senior environment artist Hilde Sunde
had to stop herself for making it too creepy,
as an avid horror fan.
The premise of the level came from a desire
to have players see an interesting side
to the antagonist shadow government providence,
of which Alexa Carlisle is a part of.
A murder mystery felt like the perfect way
to delve into Carlisle family history
in an entertaining format.
The mansion is massive, with a ton of secrets, dialogue,
and little details.
The story was, at one point, even more ambitious,
but IO interactive had to make some cuts
because the sheer volume was getting way too unruly.
For example, at one point, you had a secondary target,
in addition to Alexa.
If you blamed Emma in the final sequence,
you could confess your true identity as Agent 47
and Alexa would hire you to take Emma out.
This was, of course, scrapped in the end,
but there are still tons of fun details within the manor.
In the trophy room, for example, you'll find the bear from
"Hitman: Absolution," which acted as a jump scare
in the Terminus Hotel level of that game.
"For the sounds in the house, it was more like
a representation of Alexa in a way.
I spent a lot of time making each floor
feel like its own thing
and then also just making sure that the mood of the house
made sense with Alexa as a character".
Reaching the top floor, in which you find Alexa's office,
the mood changes, ever so slightly,
from a mellow music track to a stark,
empty feeling that is felt through the sound design,
to help portray that Alexa is cold and calculating.
-Just want to keep Madam Carlisle safe.
As fun as the murder mystery is to complete,
players don't have to finish it to succeed.
Really, your main objective is killing Alexa,
and you can do that whatever way you wish.
One of the mission opportunities,
which are essentially optional,
narrative-driven kill opportunities,
was designed backwards.
IO Interactive came up with the ending, first,
then worked from there to fill in the rest.
"I think one interesting aspect of the burial
was that we started with like,
'We want you to be able to push Alexa into her own grave.
' And I think that was the basic pitch of it.
We started from the end of the story
and had to figure out the challenges
and what it is that makes you come to this end".
But, even with the many, many ways you can kill, IO
Interactive still wanted to give players the chance
to solve the mystery, if they so wished.
They even admitted themselves, calm and collected Agent
47 probably wouldn't waste his time with solving a murder,
but it was too fun of an idea,
and it ends up working pretty well in execution,
so they decided to make it, anyway.
And that unusual design decision makes for one of our favorite
"Hitman" levels to date.
-Don Yates, Alexa Carlisle here.
You need to explain yourself.
♪ Whoa ♪