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Hitman III |OT| I bet Agent 47 is making a Killing

R6Rider

Gold Member
I've logged 7 hours in this so far, all on the VR. My god does it add alot to this game. Potential GOTY in VR.
I remember years ago people swooning about "wait until VR gets full AAA games instead of short experiences."
Its here, and Hitman really fits adds to the list in a big way.
Main complaints I have is the fiber fucks up sometimes and some pop in. Some grips with the tracking but few and far between. Other than that it's the definitive way to play... and its not even close.
Just shooting people up close is fucking badass, blind firing. Sogood.gif
I'm getting used to the full motion VR and managed to play a full hour with no nausea at all. Could have went longer, but my controller died. Shooting is much more fun in VR, although I am terrible at using the sights and prefer to use the "laser" and hip firing. Shotguns in general are extremely satisfying. Using square to reload is throwing me off though and I drop my guns all the time. Melee is great and the fact that you can one punch anyone is hilarious. Peaking around corners, above objects, etc feels great.

My biggest gripes are the area of when the game determines if you want to put an item into your inventory and the sniping. The default zoom level needs to be much lower as even turning the right analogue stick can completely throw off your aim. I wish there was an option for VR crouch instead of using a button, but it's not a big deal.

I've done Paris, Dubai, and Mendoza in VR so far and can't wait to play more.
 
Haven't posted an impression yet. But been playing since launch. And the game is fantastic!

I am almost lvl20 in every map now. So I have played each map dozens of times to complete most of the challenges.

Mendoza is amazing! My first run through of Mendoza I thought it was just ok. But the more I saw, the more I was impressed! The amount of unique dialog they recorded for story telling through gameplay. And the intricacies of how each scenario can play out is outstanding. It is a hitman masterpiece! Has to be my favorite in all the hitman games. I want more of this!

Dartmoor and Berlin are fantastic too.

I am mixed on the addition of access codes and shortcuts. Some maps like Dubai and Chongqing are much harder without them and become way too easy and trivial to get around with them.

Also having to look up access codes even after you have found them is annoying and inelegant. It should auto input the code or something if you have already learned it and used it once.
 
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Romulus

Member
I'm getting used to the full motion VR and managed to play a full hour with no nausea at all. Could have went longer, but my controller died. Shooting is much more fun in VR, although I am terrible at using the sights and prefer to use the "laser" and hip firing. Shotguns in general are extremely satisfying. Using square to reload is throwing me off though and I drop my guns all the time. Melee is great and the fact that you can one punch anyone is hilarious. Peaking around corners, above objects, etc feels great.

My biggest gripes are the area of when the game determines if you want to put an item into your inventory and the sniping. The default zoom level needs to be much lower as even turning the right analogue stick can completely throw off your aim. I wish there was an option for VR crouch instead of using a button, but it's not a big deal.

I've done Paris, Dubai, and Mendoza in VR so far and can't wait to play more.

I agree about the shooting 100% in VR. Theres just something much more satisfying about blasting someone close range with the blood splatter and physics that's amazing in the headset. Especially after you've plotted effectively.
Have you tried blindfiring yet?
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
I agree about the shooting 100% in VR. Theres just something much more satisfying about blasting someone close range with the blood splatter and physics that's amazing in the headset. Especially after you've plotted effectively.
Have you tried blindfiring yet?
Not much, except maybe a few times using the pistol around a corner or something. I might have to adjust my camera more and give it a try.
 

MAX PAYMENT

Member
I've logged 7 hours in this so far, all on the VR. My god does it add alot to this game. Potential GOTY in VR.
I remember years ago people swooning about "wait until VR gets full AAA games instead of short experiences."
Its here, and Hitman really fits adds to the list in a big way.
Main complaints I have is the fiber fucks up sometimes and some pop in. Some grips with the tracking but few and far between. Other than that it's the definitive way to play... and its not even close.
Just shooting people up close is fucking badass, blind firing. Sogood.gif
It is definitely fun. But I hate that they choose motion dualshock for the aiming. I feel like I can never properly aim down the sights.
 

bender

What time is it?
Finished it tonight. I liked it but it feels like it's the weakest of the three campaigns. Only level I really loved was the one inspired by Knives Out.
 

BigLee74

Member
Can confirm if you get Hitman 2 in that sale, the levels unlock in Hitman 3. I didn’t even have to download anything, so they must be included in the Hitman 3 download already (not sure how I feel about this...obviously no respect for storage space or folk with download caps)
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
The game is superb, exactly what I've always wanted from an espionage game.
I especially like the minigame that involves you buying all three titles then trying to get the DLC to work. Took me a few days that one.
You can tell the devs went overboard when game guide sites make separate pages how to transfer your profile and maps from previous games. ;)
 

BigLee74

Member
By putting all levels in the download instead of pieces they cut the total install size from 100-150 GB to 60.
Doesn’t make any sense, unless you are including the games as separate entities? Regardless, it’s on them how they package it. Why should people that don’t have Hitman 1 or 2 be forced to have the disk space allocated for levels they will never play?

Ah well, I’m not TOO concerned. I got to play the Hitman 2 levels sooner than expected 😀
 
Game is 3-for-3 so far. Three great levels, all feeling very different from each other in design, story and mission objectives. All very enjoyable to replay a lot.
 
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Chongqing is the first real "miss" so far for me. I wouldn't call it a bad level, but it's not in the same league as the first three. There are too many parts of the level where nothing really happens, a lot of the main target assassination opportunities aren't particularly interesting, and many of item/enemy placements don't seem as thoughtful. But what really hurt Chongqing is the distinct lack of polish compared with the prior three missions. Lots of audio and visual glitches, NPCs that don't react to distractions with any consistency (or at all), inconsistency with environmental objects that you should be able to take cover behind (but can't) or ledges that you should be able to push enemies off of (but can't). There's at least one area in the Block where there just aren't any walls as far as NPCs are concerned, because they could always see what I was doing through them. Or maybe they're all using instinct, lol. Much of what's going on in the Block revolving around Hush felt buggy in general; that area is just really unpolished.

More surprisingly was how glitchy the Mission Stories were. If any important character's dialogue is interrupted or missed, the whole thing just breaks. And on Master difficulty, you just can't do much of the mission story content. Even with Mission Stories disabled, you've always been able to still do most of the mission story activities. For example, if you're disguised as Pritchard there's no prompt available to start the tour. A lot of these things made replaying the mission really frustrating at times, because I couldn't do stuff I really wanted to do because it didn't work, even though it should have. I saw some gripes about Mendoza specifically being unpolished so I'm a little concerned heading into that. Chongqing was the glitchiest I can remember a Hitman level being since playing the Beta ICA Training levels back before the first game came out. Makes me wonder - especially with a January release - if this game would have been better served going back to an episodic model and putting more time into the later levels.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Wait until you start playing Mendoza before complaining about glitchy, unpolished missions. ;) It's very visible that the studio didn't playtest the map well enough and there are also some artificial blockades preventing you from doing some stuff the easier, more obvious way.

Like:
- why can't you climb some of the brick walls in front of the mansion
- why do you have to use a certain disguise to mark the target for a sniper
- why can't you use any knife / sharp object to cut the grapes
 
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Ladioss

Member
I'm at 85% completion and I'm probably finished with this game for the time being - maybe I will come back to it to replay some H1/H2 maps in a couple of months.

Still a good Hitman, even if the weakest World Of Assassination game. I couldn't help but think it would have been better if the devs didn't took inspiration from the weakest bits of Absolution.
 
Shoulder Camera
Removing the option to change which of Agent 47’s shoulders that the game camera is located behind was intentional and it’s still possible to do this when in combat. We’re aware of player feedback on this choice and we’ll share any updates here
Absolute boneheads at IO making game design decisions right now. I wish they'd at least explain their mentality regarding this decision, because it makes no fucking sense to remove it.
Game designer at IO: "hey guys what if we reduce the awareness of the player so they can't look around fucking corners like in the last two iterations of this game?"
Game designer 2: "BRILLIANT!"

Edit: also it's funny how they don't regard the bug fixes as bugs in the patch notes, they call them "location changes" lol
 
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No Discovery For You!
We’ve resolved an issue that could cause the ‘Discover [Location]’ challenges to not complete. The issue was caused by players discovering areas whilst in the ‘Contract Creation’ mode and those ‘discoveries’ were not being added to the total amount. With this fix, when discovering locations in Contracts Mode, players will see that the areas have been discovered when they launch a mission in that location and then complete (or quit) the mission.
This explanation isn't accurate, as I've never used Contracts mode but these challenges didn't unlock for me in Berlin and Mendoza. That said, their fix still fixed it. After running through each of those missions once, the challenge unlocked for me.

It's unfortunate that there was no blanket "We Fixed Mendoza" update. I'll share more thoughts on this once I've really dissected everything in the level a few more times, because the pieces are in place for Mendoza to be the best map in the whole trilogy, but the execution (and I'm all about execution) is slipshod across the board. Chongqing felt unpolished, but not unfinished. Mendoza feels unfinished. Very disappointing.
 
This game has gripped me again. I played through the first 3 missions when it launched and kinda went cold on it. Now it blitzed through the last 3 missions in 1 day and I've been going back to the old missions doing escalations and contracts trying to get more unlocks.

Whats the best sniper rifle to go for that doesnt require mastery level 20? I have the (I think) the Jaegar and the Jaegar version 2 but the zoom sucks. I failed one of the escalations in Sapienza because headshots were a requirement and the guy was too far away to line it up. I havent really messed with snipers too much before now but it seems like you cannot stabilize your aim by holding the trigger half way like you can in the sniper assassin missions? How do you steady your shot?
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Whats the best sniper rifle to go for that doesnt require mastery level 20? I have the (I think) the Jaegar and the Jaegar version 2 but the zoom sucks. I failed one of the escalations in Sapienza because headshots were a requirement and the guy was too far away to line it up. I havent really messed with snipers too much before now but it seems like you cannot stabilize your aim by holding the trigger half way like you can in the sniper assassin missions? How do you steady your shot?

I personally like the Sieger 300 'Tactical' (I think) the most so far. I don't remember how you unlock it though and there are several other variants that are probably just as good. There's a new rifle you get at Mastery level 20 in Chongqing that gets you a new rifle that is really good, but slow rate of fire.

You can slow down your aiming, but I think for only certain sniper rifles. It for sure works with the Sieger 300 mentioned above using the R2/trigger button.

I did the Samurai missions last night an the train. A lot of fun. Hacking and slashing a bunch of people.

That Escalation was a ton of fun. Hopefully future escalations have some unique objectives like that.
 
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There's a new rifle you get at Mastery level 20 in Chongqing that gets you a new rifle that is really good, but slow rate of fire.
That's probably the ideal sniper rifle (for me anyway) going forward because it has a silencer + piercing + an additional level of zoom that the Sieger doesn't have.
 

AJUMP23

Member
That's probably the ideal sniper rifle (for me anyway) going forward because it has a silencer + piercing + an additional level of zoom that the Sieger doesn't have.
You can also get a new Sniper when you do the new Escalation of the train dressed as a ninja. 4 levels of zoom and silenced. Can't remember about the piercing.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
That's probably the ideal sniper rifle (for me anyway) going forward because it has a silencer + piercing + an additional level of zoom that the Sieger doesn't have.
Yes sniper rifles with a silencer and piercing rounds are the best ones. I had one from the player profile transfer so I don't really remember where I got it.
 
I've come around on Mendoza after playing it a lot over the last week. I think it's a very fun level with a lot of assassination opportunities, and in general a lot of fun opportunities for creating mayhem. Diana's role in subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) helping you was a nice touch after being hands-off all this time. I still find the map itself to be one of the strongest in the trilogy, and I think with more time in the oven it could have been one of the best levels in the whole series. And that's why its issues are so disappointing. On the one hand, some of the seemingly-arbitrary limitations force you to think outside the box a bit, and this can be rewarding. But on the other hand, some of the opportunities just aren't fun to replay, and in general when things don't work like they're supposed to it's frustrating.
The Tour: Unlike the Undertaker/Photographer mission stories in Dartmoor, why can you not set things up so the tour starts without you being present? It's lame enough that you can't get the Winemaker to start the tour without getting a worker disguise, a grape knife and then cutting the grapes. But I wanted to kick the tour off and then wait in the security room to gas the barrel room, but you can't do this; Tamara and Corvo won't follow the tour if you're not there. Speaking of the computer in the security room, what the fuck? Instead of building off of the similar panel in Royce's office in Chongqing, this felt unfinished. It seemed like it made sense to be able to put lethal poison in the ventilation system, sound the alarm, open the security door so Diana could escape the barrel room (as she normally does around your traps), and then gas everyone else at once? But this doesn't work either. NPCs don't react to alarms at all in Mendoza, which is bad enough on its own, but Diana just stands there and dies. This is a potentially cool way to take out Yates, Vidal, Corvo, Cortezar, Flowers and Vargas all at once, or any combination thereof. Instead, I guess you can make them all vomit...

The 1945 Grand Paladin: Why can you not just poison the bottle of wine and take out everyone that way (or, if you don't want to kill everyone, just poison Yates' glass only)? Why do you have to poison each glass individually? Why does Yates drink first so that if he gets poisoned, no one else will drink? Everything about this felt like a huge missed opportunity. When I initially ran through that area, I thought you'd be able to get really creative and take everyone out at the meeting (including Yates and Tamara) and find a way so that Diana doesn't drink the wine. It's also lame that you have to do the poisonings as a mercenary before anyone is present in the room (and it's an illegal action for the guards always present there). The sommelier should be able to serve the wine and/or poison the glasses without being caught, just like a server. This took something that should have been fun and made it more difficult and less interesting than it should have been.

Eyes on Target: This mission story is just glitched as fuck. I get that these missions have a lot of moving parts and things can go wrong, but for fucks sake, the mission stories in Chongqing and Mendoza were the least polished parts of each level. How does that happen? Anyways, the mission story fails if you complete it successfully, which is just embarrassing. I had to look up on Reddit that if you order the sniper to shoot and then push Vidal over the rails before he shoots, then the mission story completes successfully. It's annoying that you have to wear the gaucho disguise to call in the hit, and this made talking to Diana in the tasting room more difficult than it should have been. Also, the first time I did this Diana's dialogue got interrupted as she was talking about going down to the gardens, so they all walked back to the party and I was confused as shit. Additionally, I think it's probably too much to ask them to allow every NPC to be scanned, but you'd think they could have let you scan some of the other key NPCs (i.e. Corvo, Vargas, etc.) and you could get creative with how you can make use of those snipers.

Over the Top: There's a worker always right there mopping in front of the power strip and he sees through other workers' disguises, which makes this an annoying mission story to replay. Ideally, he's the worker you'd want to eliminate and take his disguise, but there's nothing there to distract him with like a radio or fuse box. So you always have to do something stupid like throw an item past him and then tamper with the outlet. Another example of taking something that should be fun to carry out and adding unnecessary annoyance to it.

The Asado Torch: Unless you start the mission already disguised as the older chef, blending in during the dinner party isn't as fun as it should be. You can take out the younger chef, but his brother sees through your disguise (obviously). There's no real good opportunity to take out the older chef, as he just stands there and you can't take him out without being spotted (if only you could scan his face for the snipers!). While the chefs won't see through your waiter's disguise, most of the other waiters in the area will.

In general, disguises don't seem balanced at all in Mendoza. Some disguises feel completely useless in areas where I feel like they should be fairly airtight, while others seem to make you invisible in spots where I feel like someone should be suspicious. Reminds me of Bangkok for all of the wrong reasons.
There's probably more I'm leaving out. It's just really frustrating because while I still ended up getting a lot of enjoyment out of this level, Mendoza felt like it should have been the ultimate culmination of the whole trilogy and deserving to be compared favorably with Sapienza, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to have gotten the same attention as the earlier missions did. It's Exhibit A for why episodic was the way to go with Hitman and that they should have stuck with it. A finished, polished Mendoza level releasing in the Summer/Fall would have been worth it.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
They didn't fix the glitched ending of Eyes on Target yet? Damn. Or were you doing it before the big patch?

As for the disguise requirement, I think the devs realized too late that the mission story (and doing a SASO attempt) would be too easy without one. So they added it even though though it doesn't make any sense as you communicate via radio.

I agree that Mendoza had the potential to become a good final episode of the trilogy.
 
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They didn't fix the glitched ending of Eyes on Target yet? Damn. Or were you doing it before the big patch?
I completed the mission story a few days before the patch came out, but the latest patch notes didn't mention it so I'm guessing it's still broken. I couldn't believe that mission story just straight up doesn't work, haha.

There were some obvious issues with mission stories in Chongqing/Mendoza that I'm surprised weren't addressed yet. At least they fixed the invisible washing machines! :messenger_tears_of_joy:
As for the disguise requirement, I think the devs realized too late that the mission story (and doing a SASO attempt) would be too easy without one. So they added it even though though it doesn't make any sense as you communicate via radio.
That makes sense, although they didn't use that same logic in Chongqing as the All-Seeing Eyes mission story gives you an incredibly easy SASO, with an exit right next to the sniper's perch too. I actually was going for Sniper Assassin and got SASO by accident. :messenger_squinting_tongue:
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
March Roadmap video is out. Posted PlayStation video due to Age Restriction on official channel video.



Coming to HITMAN 3 in March:

  • The Lesley Celebration / Escalation
  • Easy Allies x Chongqing / Featured Contracts
  • The Stowaway (Isle of Sgail) / Elusive Target
  • Eurogamer x Mendoza / Featured Contracts
  • The Satu Mare Delirium / Deluxe Escalation
  • Berlin Egg Hunt / Seasonal Event


Seasonal Event: Berlin Egg Hunt
The first seasonal event for HITMAN 3 will be free for all players and sees Agent 47 heading to Berlin, where the location has been transformed for the Berlin Egg Hunt. This exclusive Club Hölle event has a strict dress code, so you’ll need to dress to impress. Your knowledge of the club’s exterior will be crucial because the event is at capacity when you arrive and all the action takes place in the less-explored surrounding areas.

The Berlin Egg Hunt will be playable from March 30 – April 12 for all HITMAN 3 players and brings a seasonal twist to the Berlin location with new decorations and graffiti, a series of unique objectives, new gameplay items to collect and use, unique targets and an unlockable suit to add to your permanent inventory. We’ll share more details about the Berlin Egg Hunt event later this month.

Deluxe Escalation: Satu Mare Delirium
For owners of the Deluxe Edition or Deluxe Pack, the sixth and final Deluxe Escalation will be arriving soon. This one is inspired by Agent 47’s deep past and the aftermath of the events in Codename 47.

Featured Contracts, Escalation and Elusive Target
This month, Easy Allies and Eurogamer are taking on the challenge of creating Featured Contracts in Chongqing and Mendoza respectively. Look out for their creations in the coming weeks. We’ve also got an Elusive Target in Isle of Sgail and an Escalation in Berlin.

Game Update
Finally, we’re getting ready to release another patch for the game to further improve the overall experience, resolve issues and prepare the game for new content that’s currently in the works. This is your HITMAN 3 March Roadmap.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Don't know why the large eggs remind me of the xenomorph ones. Sounds like an easy idea for a Halloween mission. ;)
 
I didn't have super high expectations for the Carpathian Mountains level. With the max Mastery Level only being 5, I figured it was going to be akin to Hawke's Bay. But my initial impression was "Wow, what a shitty final level". They really ended this awesome sandbox stealth trilogy on this terrible, linear, shoot 'em up on this boring ass train that just goes on and on, and without any real interesting ways of eliminating the target? It felt like a waste of the Romania setting considering its importance to the series backstory, and a really weak payoff to the story buildup over the last three games.

BUT....as I replayed it a few more times to get SASO and to do other challenges, I discovered that there's a lot more depth and strategy to the level than it first appeared. While you're not offered a lot of creativity when it comes to taking out the target, it does offer a fair amount of variety in terms of how you make your way through the train. There's a little something to each car that can be used to your advantage in a meaningful way. In the end, there was actually a lot of fun to be had here. It's still the worst level in the game, but for what it is, I don't dislike it.

It still does feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity, though. If this was a two-part level (i.e. with a mini-sandbox area either preceding or following the train section, and you'd have the opportunity to eliminate the target in the first part of the mission or you could allow it to play out in full) I probably would have liked it a lot more. I still feel like the target and the setting both deserved a full-scale sandbox level to end the trilogy, but it just wasn't to be.

I'd probably rank the missions like this:
  1. Dubai - Just a classic Hitman level. Perfect size, tremendous level design, densely packed with stuff to do, and lots of fun & creative ways to eliminate the targets.
  2. Berlin - An awesome murder playground. It revisits some of the Colorado ideas, but does everything so much better. One of the most replayable levels in the series.
  3. Mendoza - A great map, a ton of fun assassination opportunities and lots of neat little nods to earlier missions. With a lot more polish, this would be higher.
  4. Dartmoor - A unique style of mission for the series, it is brilliant with all of the different ways the detective story can play out, but there's not that much to do outside of that.
  5. Chongqing - This is a "ho-hum" level I'd put in the same class as Bangkok or Mumbai. It's fine and certainly not bad, but not particularly memorable either.
  6. Carpathian Mountains - Not what I'm looking for from a Hitman level, and a missed opportunity overall, but its got its positive qualities which allow it to be pretty fun.
I definitely enjoyed this game a lot more than Hitman 2. I would take the top 4 levels here over any of the ones in H2 aside from Miami. It really does come close to Hitman 2016 for me. Where I feel Hitman 2 learned the wrong lessons from Hitman S1 (apparently that Colorado was one of the best levels instead of the worst), Hitman 3 gets nearly everything right. I love that they've separated the "story playthrough" into its own thing which doesn't force those requirements on you for replays. I think this makes the game better in terms of replayability and in terms of providing a better story-focused mission structure for each level. For example, in Hitman 1+2 you would have always had to hack into the Chongqing data core. It's cool to do this on the story focused run, but it's also great that you don't have to do it when replaying the map to do SASO, sniper challenges, etc.

Overall, the second half of Hitman 3 is weaker than its first (to be fair, this trend applies to the whole trilogy) and while I feel Dubai/Berlin/Mendoza/Dartmoor is a really strong Top 4, I would have it just a notch below Sapienza/Marrakesh/Paris/Hokkaido. Hitman S1 also has six full sandbox levels vs. five, in addition to the ICA training levels which are more substantial levels than Hawke's Bay/Carpathian Mountains, imo. So at the end of the day, for me it goes H1 > H3 >>> H2. Going to revisit H1 levels in VR next.
 
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xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Carpathian Mountains level would work better as an introduction to Hitman 3 or even if they put it somewhere in between the bigger levels. I enjoyed playing it twice (first run and SASO run along with a different ending), but I don't really want to keep coming back to it. Not to mention the final confrontation after playing three games is a low-key one.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
cqONrMZ.jpg


Prince Harry looks balder than usual. :pie_diana:
 
Finally unlocked a proper sniper rifle. Silenced with 3 stage zoom makes it a much more viable option now. Also for some reason I started playing Colorado and ended up getting level 20 mastery (first map mastery). It gets much easier to do the challenges once you get the wicker man power and just fry everyone as soon as they get close.
 

vpance

Member
Got this with the recent sale. Finishing up mastery on Dubai. Fairly simple layout but nicely designed with the useful shortcuts. Dunno why they put the helicopter key where they did, makes no sense. I was trying to figure out for the longest time which guard would be holding it. Had to check a guide to find it.

Graphics looks better than I was expecting too. Love all the HDR usage.
 
Got this with the recent sale. Finishing up mastery on Dubai. Fairly simple layout but nicely designed with the useful shortcuts. Dunno why they put the helicopter key where they did, makes no sense. I was trying to figure out for the longest time which guard would be holding it. Had to check a guide to find it.

Graphics looks better than I was expecting too. Love all the HDR usage.

I stumbled across the helicopter key. It is in a weird spot. I havent stuck around but I assume there is (or suppose to be) some dialogue about someone dropping it.
 

vpance

Member
I stumbled across the helicopter key. It is in a weird spot. I havent stuck around but I assume there is (or suppose to be) some dialogue about someone dropping it.

Usually they are good with stuff like that but I never heard any dialogue related to it. Seems like some cut content there though, with no opportunity for the targets to escape via chopper.
 
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