Making Hitman 3's Best Level

If there’s one thing you can say about Hitman 3,

it’s that it’s not afraid to mess with 
the franchise’s established formula.

In Dartmoor, you swap from assassin to detective, 
in an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery.

In Mendoza, you need to take care 
not to harm your handler, Diana.

And Dubai really amps up the 
Bond-style cinematic flair.

But another level has, I think, the 
most daring twist in the entire trilogy.

So, welcome back to On the Level: a 
series about gaming’s greatest stages.

And this time, we’re looking 
at Apex Predator, aka Berlin.

♫ Dance Music ♫

So this level takes place in a nightclub, hidden 
in the depths of an abandoned nuclear power plant.

If you manage to get inside, you can 
strut across a packed dance floor.

Or, you can sneak behind the scenes to 
find a secret biker hangout and drug lab.

And, okay so far, so Hitman. But it’s the targets 
that make this one different. Instead of having

one, two, or even three targets… there’s

eleven. That’s right, in this one, eleven ICA 
agents are tasked with hunting down Agent 47,

and are dotted in and around the club. And so 
it’s up to you to find them, and take them out.

This ends up giving the level 
a completely unique feel.

Like, typically, you know everything 
about the targets in a Hitman level.

You’re given a glitzy mission briefing 
about them, and their exact location

is shown on your map. As if you’ve 
dropped an AirTag in their pocket.

But Berlin is very different: on your first 
playthrough, at least, the targets are not

initially identified, and not highlighted 
on your map or in your instinct vision.

So you need to scope out the level, 
look for suspicious characters,

and wait for them to call into their 
handler to confirm they are an agent.

AGENT THAMES: "Thames here,
no update.

Target probably bailed".

Okay, so the fact they’re all enforcers - 
you know, the guys with white dots over their

heads - does give the game away a bit. But 
it’s still an excellent twist on the formula

that prizes careful observation. We first saw 
something like this as one of the objectives in Hitman

2’s Mumbai level - but expanding it to cover 
every single target makes it even more exciting.

Also, it’s usually your job, in Hitman levels, 
to work your way through tiers of escalating

security… until you breach the level’s inner 
sanctum, and find a way to dispatch your target

from within their tightly-locked fortress. But 
Berlin is different - the agents are tourists

there, just like you. So every part of the stage, 
from highly public areas to secure back rooms,

could potentially hold a target. This 
really rewards thorough exploration of

the entire level, because you never 
know where you might find a target.

Another big change for Berlin is 
a move away from mission stories

and highly scripted assassinations. Sure, one 
of the targets - Agent Montgomery - does have

a small storyline that ends in a shootout. 
And there are some of the excepted scripted

kills - like electrifying Agent 
Banner with dodgy DJ equipment.

But most of the guys are more low-key affairs. 
Which is cool: there’s plenty of elaborate,

point-and-click-style puzzle kills in Hitman, but 
Berlin’s agents put a stronger focus on 47’s more

routine tools, and the systemic sandbox that 
underlies every Hitman level. Things like guns,

distractions, poisons, and traps. Offing 
these dudes feels less like solving a puzzle,

and more like solving a problem.

Another big change for Berlin is 
just how open-ended the level is. Hitman

always puts a huge focus on replay-ability and 
player expression, but you’re still having to

kill the same targets every time you play. In 
Apex Predator, though, you only need to kill

five of the eleven targets 
in one go. Making for, what,

over 400 different combinations? So, the level 
is going to be different, every time you play.

Plus, after taking feedback from Hitman 1

and 2, IO Interactive lets you skip the linear 
story section after your first playthrough.

You can also pick different targets 
for different playstyles. So,

five are well-placed for the sniper 
assassin mission. Another five might

be best suited for suit-only. A further 
five might be great for speed-running.

An extra wrinkle is the way each target drops a 
useful item - like Agent Tremaine, who drops a key

for the radio tower. This can make certain targets 
more useful than others, depending on your goals.

Finally, this set-up changes the way Hitman 
feels. Typically, the targets are unaware of

your presence, as you slip through security 
unnoticed and then leave without a trace.

But in Berlin, they’re actively hunting for 
you. And as members of your old organisation,

they’re... somewhat formidable foes. 
They’re all enforcers, they’re all armed,

and - like mini Agent 47s, they’re disguised 
as bikers, club technicians, and party goers.

This cat and mouse game puts 
you on your toes - and makes it

even more satisfying when you 
show them who the real agent is.

Now, it turns out that changing the Hitman formula 
so dramatically wasn’t an easy thing to pull off.

For this video, I spoke to two level designers on 
Berlin - Bjarne Kristiansen and Håkan Almer - who

talked me through the many iterations and design 
decisions they made on the way to the final stage.

So, for starters, the level was originally 
supposed to be more like a typical Hitman stage.

Håkan: “In the beginning, we were aiming to 
have a primary target as always. Montgomery,

the only one with a body guard in this 
level. And then having the other as

optional. But then in the end we kind of 
found that… let’s just make everything

optional so you have more freedom as you 
explore and do the level as you wish”.

They also wanted to have all the targets show 
up in your instinct vision from the drop.

Bjarne: “We tried out earlier where all of 
the targets were marked from the beginning,

but the first time you ever played the level it 
could actually feel really overwhelming. Like

you had this big level, and you could see ten 
marked NPCs that were several floors below you,

they were several floors above you. So you’d 
come out in this area and just be like ‘okay,

there’s so much going on’. It felt 
really overwhelming. So that’s why

we also wanted to go with this you 
have to find them and identify them”.

The designers also had to figure out how to

introduce more dangerous targets 
than we’re normally used to.

Bjarne: “I think Berlin is actually the first 
level that tried working with armed targets

that would fight back. Which was also a big 
thing to figure out: how would we make that

work and how would we design for that? You 
wouldn’t have them running into lockdown,

right? They wouldn’t have bodyguards as such. They 
would just immediately start trying to kill you”.

Håkan: “We tried out at one point, as well, to 
have them very aggressive. When they saw you,

just pull out their gun and instantly shoot 
you. But that was not great. Super punishing”.

Bjarne: “It was just so difficult, like they 
spotted you once and you were just dead”.

“In early versions, I think they were 
walking around in pairs, as well,

trying to protect each other so you had to 
deal with two targets at any given time.

But I think that felt like it was a bit too 
much. Right? You got busted by two people…”

Håkan: “And you got two targets, almost always, 
at the same time. They didn’t protect each other.”

Bjarne: “You might also expect that if 
one target starts engaging with you,

that he would call all the other targets to 
come to one place. I think we prototyped that

as well at some point. But that was just 
like, well, one target sees you and then

suddenly you have all the targets in the same 
location and you’re done with the mission”.

Håkan: “It kinda comes back to that stealth trope,

in a way. Like, that guards stand down. 
Feels silly on paper but it kinda works”.

Bjarne: “Because there’s also one of those 
blueprints for a Hitman level is that there

are many ways that everything can break. But the 
level always needs to be able to find its way back

to being functional. The machine needs to be 
able to keep running, no matter what happens”.

The team also needed to figure out how to 
introduce players to this new concept - which

was partly the reason for this introductory 
sequence where you get to kill one agent for free.

The designers describe him as a “snack target” 
intended to tutorialise the concept. And then, how

to update the player with information in a level 
with no handler? Well, you pinch the first goon’s

earpiece, and can listen in on their handler.
Good work, 47.

So, there we have it. In the first two games, 
Hitman had some incredibly memorable levels.

I highlighted my favourites from 
those first two games - Sapienza

and Miami - in videos on this channel. 
But rather than just dropping in a bunch

more standard stages, IO Interactive 
decided to mix things up for Hitman 3,

with twists and escalations on the formula. 
It didn’t always work - but when it did,

we got some of the best stages in the trilogy. Like 
my favourite level from Hitman 3, Apex Predator.

Thanks for watching.

This video contained just a small snippet of 
my conversation with Bjarne and Håkan - we

actually played through the whole level 
together, and chatted about everything from

crowd technology to cut content. GMTK 
Patrons on the video tier can check it out,

right now. Thanks so much for 
supporting what I do here.