Hitman, and the Art of Repetition | Game Maker's Toolkit

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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