Hey, this is Game Maker's Toolkit. I'm Mark Brown.
My first attempt at Hitman 2016's Sapienza mission was a disaster.
My mission was to kill two people - Silvo Caruso and Francesca De Santis - and destroy
a virus. But I ended up killing this security guard. And this woman who saw the body. And
this guy. And this guy. And this guy. I dropped a church bell on a priest. I killed this woman.
I got arrested. And I got shot.
I did finish the mission, after loading a previous save. So don't worry, the world is
now a safer place. But I wouldn't exactly call my performance "slick". I didn't feel
like the meticulous killer seen in Hitman's flashy CGI trailers.
And this is a challenge that plenty of game designers face: if the main character in a game is supposed
to be an expert in something, or supernaturally skilled, how do you make sure the player feels
as smart or as fast or as strong as the hero on screen?
One solution can be found in the Arkham games, where the detective mode, which lets you see
through walls, is supposed to give you the same powers of observation as Batman.
In Mirror's Edge you get runner's vision to highlight interactive objects in red - which
is designed to mimic the way parkour expert Faith reads the world.
And in Red Dead Redemption, John Marston can slow down time to make the player feel like
a gunslinging cowboy badass.
But Hitman achieves this in a slightly different way. Using something that's usually seen as
a negative in game design. It makes you feel like Agent 47 through repetition.
During your clumsy first attempt at the mission, you will inevitably stumble upon opportunities
and ideas that you didn't take advantage of - and these will encourage you to try the
mission again.
And iO Interactive makes sure this happens in a number of ways.
For one, it lets you see which props can be used - even if you're not currently carrying
the right tool. So if you walk up to Caruso's golf balls you'll see "place golf ball, missing
explosive golf ball". No one could avoid the temptation of coming back on a second playthrough
to try that kill.
While there's only one explosive golf ball in Sapienza, other items have duplicates to
boost the chances of you stumbling upon them.
You can find expired spaghetti sauce in at least two locations, and they both hint at the possibility
of poisoning someone.
And this gunpowder in the observatory is just to nudge you to check out the antique cannons
at the fort. There's a bag of gunpowder right next to the cannons at the fort, so the first one
isn't actually needed. It just nudges you in the right direction.
And opportunities can expire. The ability to ambush someone by hiding as a dead body
in the morgue will pass if you're not quick enough - but you'll know what to do next time.
So all of these things - these opportunities, props, tools, and accidents - encourage you
to play the level again. And again. And again. And you'll want to finish the mission in a
unique way each time because not only is it boring to do the same kill twice, but you
also unlock new toys, starting locations, and places to sneak in weapons by completing
different objectives.
All this time, with each attempt, each creative assassination, and each unique exit, you're
learning.
You're learning the level. You know that you can get into the mansion by dropping down
here or climbing over here or popping in this window or going up from the pier or using a
keycard, or blowing up this wall, or just walking in the front door.
You're learning the schedule of your targets. You know that Francesca will come down to
the lab on her own if the virus is destroyed, or that Caruso will come to the observatory
if the roof is opened up.
You're learning which disguises will let you into which parts of the mansion, ways to separate
the targets from their guards, where to get keys and key cards, and which exits you can
take.
Your extensive knowledge of how the level works may come from an unrealistic, Groundhog Day-style
repetition of the events, but this advanced knowledge helps close the skill gap between
you and Agent 47, and turns you into a scheming agent of death, capable of doing perfectly
silent kills or making murder look like an accident.
So eventually, after you've exhausted most of the options in the level, you might turn
your attention to the challenges. Like sniper assassin, where you have to kill the targets
with a sniper rifle. Or silent assassin, where you can only kill the targets, have to hide
their bodies, and can't be seen doing either.
These turn the game into a mad, complicated puzzle of trying to figure out which signature
kills, which routes, and which disguises you could use to pull off these bonkers bonus challenges.
So on my sixth or seventh attempt at the level, I went for a silent assassin run and fared a lot better.
I pinched a guy's work uniform, poisoned Caruso with expired spaghetti, and then strangled him and dumped
the body. I switched Francesca's smokes with some cannabis, and then drowned her in the
toilet when she went to throw up. And then I distracted the technicians in the bio lab
and overheated the virus to destroy it.
This slick, silent assassination felt fantastic. And I got a great score to back it up. And
it was only possible because I had built up enough knowledge about Sapienza by playing
it so many times.
Not failing at it - I might add. In games like Dark Souls you fail at a section, then
repeat it until you succeed. In Hitman, you succeed at a mission, but then repeat it until
you finish in the most satisfying way possible.
So my first time in Sapienza was a disaster but I still finished the mission and had a
lot of fun doing so. And every go after that was just as much fun as I tried crazy ways
to kill my targets, pushed the boundaries of the AI, and improvised new ways to get
away with murder.
Some players go even further, coming up with their own challenges like this guy who killed
both targets with an absolutely ridiculous chain of explosions.
And then, when you know the level so perfectly that you could kill the targets with your
eyes closed, iO Interactive mixes it up further.
The elusive targets, which show up for 48 hours and give you just one chance to assassinate
them, heighten the stakes which were lost as you got comfortable at playing the level.
And other bonus missions, like the five-step escalation challenge and the player-made contracts,
are set in those same locations you now know so well, but feature new and unpredictable targets.
Which means you feel like a scheming, silent assassin with a supernatural ability to see
opportunities for murder in every corner of the world - but you still need to improvise
and think on your feet and there are high stakes if you fail. Which makes you feel like, you know...
This guy.
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