Hitman WOA - Bangkok, Colorado and Hokkaido
Howdy folks, and welcome back to Hitman WOA!
So, after our big mega-post, we're now gonna be playing through the entire game in stages, getting ~2-4 destinations done at a time.
Today in fact, we're looking at the rest of Hitman 1. Or part 1. Or just "Hitman". Or Hitman 2016. Er, yeah, that.
So, let's not dawdle around and start right off with....
-Bangkok-
Jordan Cross, the frontman of a famous band who drunkenly murdered his girlfriend some time ago, and Ken Morgan, an utterly unscrupulous lawyer/fixer who got Mr. Cross off the hook in that whole murder affair.
So, the hotel feels much more compact than previous levels. Feels like everything is just a short few steps away at all times, and with it being largely indoors, it generally feels very close-in and intimate.
That said, it -is- very beautiful to look at!
In terms of location variety, the hotel can be broken up into a few different parts: There's the waterfront and gardens immediately around the Hotel, which are lovely to behold:
Now, as for the actual gameplay of the main mission, Bangkok feels a little hemmed in. Feels like it's quite heavily built around the mission stories.
They're perfectly good to do and while there's not as many as in previous destinations, there's enough of them to find some variety. It's just that if you wanna go "off-script" and just do things a little more free-form, you'll find little opportunity to do so.
Without using mission stories, both targets are pretty much always in very public areas with plenty of witnesses around. Where there's a will there's a way, sure, but other missions felt a bit more open in this regard.
Also, anyone who likes doing sniper stuff probably hates this destination, just because there's barely any good spots to get an angle on your targets, and when you do, it just feels like you're having to "snipe" them from like 20 meters away.
One of them feels a bit too simple, honestly. At the highest level, you have to take out 3 targets in any way you see fit, then drag them all into a certain room, which is fairly close-by to where the three targets hang out. So..... yeah, okay, but not too exciting.
The other Escalation was a fun nut to crack, though. It's a straight-up hatchetman mission, where you have to take out 3 targets. Theoretically, you only have to take out one of them with a hatchet, but once you pick up the hatchet (Which is neither concealable, nor legal to carry), you immediately fail if you drop (or throw) it. So it's a bit of a romp! If you're -really- hardcore, you could probably still figure out a way to do this with a silent assassin rating, but as for us, we kinda love these escalations because when you're made to play in wrong, awkward ways, you can really embrace the chaos!
So yeah, Bangkok is cool, but not super-well utilized. Despite being relatively compact, decent chunks of the destination are barely used, and there's no bonus missions to remedy that.
Also, it perhaps feels a little too easy to access secure areas. A basic guard uniform will give you free passage just about anywhere except the recording studio and penthouse above it.
Anywho, why don't i hand it off to Michael, so he can tell you about the next location:
-Colorado-
Leaving the exotic opulence of Bangkok behind, Agent 47 travels to an old apricot farm in Colorado, which is being repurposed as a base of operations by a domestic terrorist group.
Here, he is tasked with taking out pretty much their entire leadership. 4 targets, all of which are actually quite interesting!
And it's really interesting that this destination happens immediately after Bangkok. Because it truly feels like it's opposite in many ways. Where Bangkok is exotic, Colorado feels quite rustic, though with touches of modernity. Where Bangkok was opulent and luxurious, Colorado feels dusty and dilapidated.
The farm feels old. There's crooked fences, old sheds, and rusting farming equipment. In the buildings, you find old pictures on the walls, crates of collected detritus, well-used tools and even old toys laying around.
In terms of geography, this map again feels like the opposite of Bangkok. It's very open and wide. The farm is a pretty big space to explore, and you feel very unrestrained. There's a couple of areas that you're not allowed into without the proper disguise, namely the explosives testing grounds and the practice area for the special ops team.
And then, there's the farmhouse, which contrasts with the rest of the map. It's still dilapidated and old, but unlike the rest of the map, the farmhouse is made up of some very tight, cramped spaces. This is also where the group have set up their intelligence centre, meaning that among the dusty family pictures and creaky floorboards, you also find laptops, server stacks and general paramilitary paraphernalia.
Another big thing of note about this destination is that well, it -is- a terrorist camp. So practically everyone is armed and dangerous, and there's absolutely no public areas we're allowed to traverse without disguise.
The only unarmed characters we found are the hacker guys in the farmhouse, as well as the targets themselves.
Everyone else, from the elite soldier-dudes all the way to the camp cook and car mechanics, carry shotguns, SMGs and assault rifles. It creates a rather different vibe than other destinations, where you're free to traverse some areas in your suit, and the few security guards all have pistols, maybe an SMG at most. It also makes this map an interesting one to go loud on. Y'get plenty of ammo for the big guns, but that's because -everyone- has them!
Now, that brings me to the actual content for the map, and it's.... not a lot, actually. Aside from the main story mission, there's a single escalation, and that's that. And that one escalation isn't particularly memorable, really. It's a case of taking out two of the hacker guys in the Farmhouse while disguised as a hacker guy yourself, and hacking a laptop for 20 seconds. A laptop which, at first, is in a very awkward place, but then in a later stage of the escalation actually gets moved to a more convenient position. Very strange.
The reason for the low utilization for this destination is clear though: People seem to hate this map. We've looked up some rankings, and Colorado is consistently in the bottom 5, sometimes even dead last.
Dunno, we kinda liked it. Sure, it's not as good as Sapienza or anything, but it does have it's moments. I suppose that, with the map having long, open sightlines and everyone being quite well-armed, it might be supremely unforgiving for certain (sloppy) playstyles, but well.... sorry, but that sounds like a genuine skill issue, there.😜
(Well to be fair, i suppose it'd also be extra-hard for the silent-assassin-suit-only challenge crowd, considering the entire map is hostile unless you're in disguise.)
But yeah, let's get outta Colorado and move on to the final map of the 2016 Reboot:
-Hokkaido-
..... which -i- shall tell you about!😛So, Hokkaido, or more precisely the prestigious and luxurious Gama hospital, is the final destination of the 2016 reboot, and they finished very strong with this one!
Agent 47 is sent here to eliminate two targets: Erich Soders, a mole within the ICA (Your employer), currently undergoing surgery at the facility, as well as Yuki Yamazaki, an infamously corrupt lawyer (again) working for Soders' "other" employer, who is here to obtain information from him post-op.
So, being situated on the snowy mountains of Japan's northernmost island, the Gama facility is a beautifully designed blend of traditional japanese aesthetics, ultra-high tech facility management and understated luxury. Sounds like we're trying to sell you the place, but it's really just an apt description, honest!😉
So geographically, the place is actually fairly small in comparison to previous destinations. However, it's a very varied and complex layout.
You've got the fancy, almost resort-like areas around the patient rooms, with a sushi restaurant, bar and spa, complete with sauna and artificial hot springs...
The more utilitarian, but still very organized staff areas....
And the pristine, very sterile hospital area.
The whole place is very high-tech, being run by an AI (Remember this game came out before GenAI really exploded, so it wasn't a dirty word, yet.😜), and one curious part of that is that many doors in this map will only open if you're wearing the right kind of disguise, because all the clothing people wear has RFID chips sown in.
In addition, with this facility being rather high-security, you're not allowed to bring your own equipment (Until you max out the destination mastery level). You can have one item smuggled in to an agency pickup location, but on your first playthrough, you of course haven't got any of those unlocked, yet.
So this destination mixes up the gameplay quite a bit, which is cool. It also makes the place -feel- quite high-security, with doors simply not allowing you to trespass in areas where you shouldn't be, and the feeling of being underequipped at all times.
In this destination, it actually feels quite difficult at first to do anything -naughty-. It's well-guarded and you'll have to figure things out first. But don't worry, once you get to know your way around, the map does allow for shenanigans, too!
As for how the main mission is set up, it's a pretty interesting one: Yamazaki is a relatively normal target. She roams around the public areas of the facility, has scripted interactions with certain NPCs and there's some mission stories to create good opportunities.
Soders, meanwhile, is stuck on the operating table, undergoing a pre-op procedure. He's completely stationary and, ignoring all the security surrounding him, he's completely helpless.
You -could- theoretically walk in there and shoot the guy, but with security being so tight, you're unlikely to find a way to do so without things getting messy so really, taking care of him is more about sabotaging the operation in various ways.
It's a pretty cool setup.
Beyond the main mission, there's a bonus mission, the "Hokkaido Snow Festival", but it has to be said, this one's pretty simple.
Your target here is the owner of an unsafe Fireworks business. One of his factories recently blew up and he's looking to cash in on the insurance, while his (surviving) employees put a contract out on him.
The target has exactly 0 voice lines, there's no mission stories and in general the whole thing feels very simplistic. Don't wanna complain about bonus missions, but yeah, this one just doesn't add much value.
However, there's the escalations. Any Hokkaido has 3 good ones!
First, there's a funky one where you have to be dressed as a cowboy, take out another cowboy, then lure some people into your suite, at which point they're marked as targets and you have to take them out. Very weird, very interesting.
Then, there's an escalation that tasks you with taking out one target, breaking into a safe and then, within 60 seconds of taking the safe's contents, taking out another target. Oh, and you're limited to eliminating the targets with shuriken or a katana, and you have to do it all dressed as either a ninja or motorcyclist. Yes, really. We love that one. Makes you play the game so entirely wrong.😜
And finally, there's an escalation built around one of the mission stories, where you have to knock out and dress up as one NPC, lure another away using mission story dialogue, eliminate them, take their clothes and eliminate the NPC you knocked out earlier. And you have to do it all with unsupressed guns. And if a camera spots you, you're suddenly on a tight time limit. It's a very weird and technical challenge, with very odd, arbitrary steps. But that's what makes it interesting and fun!
..... frankly, as someone who's not into football/soccer in the slightest, we're getting a little worried about the people who are. It seems to be getting sillier each year.😉
Well in any case, until next time folks, stay safe, continue not being assassinated and have a good one!
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