An In-Depth Look at The Showstopper - Hit Me Baby 47 More Times: Episode 2

the first full mission of hitman is titled the showstopper and is set in paris it was released march 11 2016 along with the tutorial missions as a starter pack for the episodic release of hitman this was the first content released for the newly rebooted series each mission of hitman begins with an optional mission briefing which can be viewed from the menu i highly recommend watching these as they're not only slickly produced but they do an excellent job of setting up who the targets are and why

they're being taken out the paris level is set at a fashion show for the world famous line called sanguine the targets are famous fashion mogul viktor novikov and retired supermodel dalia margolis the two fashion superstars secretly moonlight as the heads of secret spy organization iago who acquire any and all top secret information they can get their hands on and sell it off to the highest bidder novakov is the face of iago while margolis is secretly the brains the two have acquired a list of

british secret agents their locations and their assignments and are secretly holding an auction among the world's elites on the top floor of the sanguine fashion show mi6 are not too happy about this idea and have hired the ica and 47 to take out novakov and marcolis and stop the secrets from getting out mi6 have specified that margolis is the priority target taking novokov out is also a mandatory part of the contract but he's less of a threat than the crafty spymaster margolis the sanguine fash

ion show is an incredible first impression for this game the tutorial missions already felt populated but the second you walk into the entry hall of the mansion where the fashion show is taking place and see the crowds filling the room you realize the scale this game is going to be working at the color palette and design of the mansion is stunning the twilight dusk which the game takes place in emphasizes just how gorgeous the game can look hitman is that rare blend of technically impressive gra

phical fidelity and top-notch art design that makes it one of the most impressive looking games i've ever seen usually i find games with realistic art styles boring but hitman doesn't use its realistic art style as a crutch to ignore design the flash bulbs of reporters as you enter the way fabric flows the incredibly smart sight lines and thoughtful set direction all work together to make an incredible looking location i am for the most part unless otherwise noted playing the game including the

older missions in the pc version of hitman 3 which has had some noticeable graphical upgrades from the original release but everything i'm saying here is still true in the 2016 game okay i'm going to give this my best attempt once and then strategically avoid saying the name of the mansion for the rest of the video dewalevska i'm sorry the showstopper is set in a large mansion called and its surrounding gardens the mansion's bottom floor typically serves as a museum but it's been converted for t

he sanguine ice fashion show the bulk of this level is set inside the mansion when you first start you'll be dropped in front of the main doors with the fashion show and party going on just inside straight ahead of the entrance is the catwalk itself with the densest population of nbc's you'll find in the level it's the first area most players will explore and it's the densest and most overwhelming place in the level the looping music beat that you can hear leaking out of this room is the core au

dio identity of the mission when i think of the showstopper that beat is the first thing that comes to mind [Music] the first time you see the catwalk and realize just how public it really is it seems impossible to take anyone down there but it secretly holds some of the best opportunities to the left of the entrance you can find the dressing room for the fashion show where sebastian sato in charge of the models directly patrols in charge of the show to the right of the entrance is the bar where

you can find people mingling curiously in this area is one patrolling guard who is a universal enforcer who will become suspicious of 47 even in his basic suit there are very few of these universal enforcers in the game and they're usually justified in the game's story like the members of the maelstrom's gang in the mumbai map being suspicious of outsiders there's no real reason why this guy should be a universal enforcer so i'm pretty sure it's just a bug also in this area you can find the mus

eum gift shop below all of this is a staff area and one of the first areas to enforce the strong aesthetic difference between the public areas meant for the wealthy and the more utilitarian steam tunnels below meant for staff this distinction will be a motif through the entire game down here is the kitchen security room wine cellar and other various staff rooms there are a few opportunities for assassination down here but it's excellent for finding tools getting costumes from secluded npcs or qu

ickly crossing the level unseen it also contains a useful escape route into the catacombs which paris is famous for one nice touch down here is that in the locker rooms in the basement of the mansion you can find one woman who has broken down crying because of the cruelty of the uppity rich people she's expected to serve what's wrong with her everything's fine no everything is not fine they are treating me like dirt out there part of the job kitten okay being treated like crap by popping [ __ ]

easy now it's gonna be okay just you know what just imagine that they're all naked it's an old self-help trick i learned it works i promise i can't go out there i just i can't come on i'll be right next to you as much as i can and i won't let those rich idiots get to you you promise i promise now let's go out there and serve the crap out of them and maybe spit in a glass of champagne or two thank you it's a nice touch that the game doesn't only humanize the villains but also manages to add chara

cter to the anonymous unnamed npcs that make up the majority of each map on the second floor of the mansion are mostly more staff areas this is generally the most sparsely populated floor of the mansion mostly populated by av crew catering staff for the iago auction above and security there's also the sheik's room on the right side of the mansion and more museum storage on the left the main point of interest on the third floor is the iago auction where the world's elite meet to bid on black mark

et secrets guarded by bodyguards from the cicada pmc also on this floor are margolis private room and private office as well as the attic which has been converted into cicada's base of operations overseeing the iago event this attic is also where the scaffolding for the main lighting rig above the catwalk is available if you're able to do some creative climbing without being caught outside of the mansion the parking lot and gardens are accessible surrounding the building although very few of the

se sections will be available without a disguise behind and to the left of the mansion is a hedge maze secured by cicada bodyguards sneaking back there is a great chance to get a cicada uniform that can take you all the way to the top floor of the mansion straight behind the mansion is a helicopter landing providing another useful escape and the entire back of the map is bordered by a river with fireworks barges intended to send the fashion show off with a bang to the right is a garden supply sh

ed and a river access route containing an elevated platform perfect for potentially sniping targets if that's your speed but what of the targets the first novakov is easy to access but hard to isolate the game's schedule is set so that the first time 47 enters the fashion show the first thing you'll see is novikov in a spotlight descending the staircase to join the party i love how the game immediately puts your first real target quite literally within reach but in such a public area that trying

anything will almost certainly get 47 killed the puzzle of taking novakov out ends up being how to lure him away from the party or else how to get rid of him while he's surrounded by literally hundreds of people preferably without being seen it's unrealistic to take out every last person along novokov's patrol route and what's worse he has a private bodyguard shadowing his every move dalia margolis is harder to reach hidden away on the very top floor of the mansion running the iago auction she'

s in a much less public area than novikov and once you reach her she's relatively easy to take out but getting to her is the challenge as every obvious entrance requires making it through two to three security checkpoints as well as having an invitation to the auction in the first place so with the task of taking out two heavily guarded and extremely public fashion moguls ahead of you how can 47 possibly succeed the highlight of this mission and perhaps the most famous opportunity from the entir

e trilogy is becoming helmut krueger almost as soon as you enter the fashion show for the first time you'll see large banners with the face of the star supermodel of the show helmet krueger you'll also notice that helmet kruger just so happens to look exactly like agent 47 npc's gushing over how handsome krueger is will even comment on what a striking resemblance 47 bears to him [Music] if you track down helmut krueger you can find him agonizing over a meeting he's about to take with dalia margo

lis yeah dan it's me oh no you're watching the live feed no not anytime soon actually i'm i'm doing this thing for dalia margolis it might take a while don't ask of course you'll get your 10 dan look we both know that i'm past my prime there's no way but down dan and it's not like i've been an ascetic here but this way if i do this i can leave the game with some startup cash a lot of startup cash actually and i can go into business on my own well i'm i'm thinking facial products uh maybe underwe

ar anyway i gotta go dan i'll see you in cali okay all right yeah ciao take him out and you can become helmet krueger take his cell phone and call margolis yourself before your meeting she stresses you have to walk the catwalk so you go get 47's makeup done and head out the comedy of 47 being able to solve a chess puzzle that stumped a master in the tutorial was relatively underplayed but this is the first time we get to see 47 being absolutely competent at something he would have no reason to b

e of course 47 can convincingly do a strut on the catwalk as if he spent his whole life doing so he's agent 47 it's hilarious to see a master assassin walk down perhaps the most public place possible and even better to see it work the entire game is built around the idea that people see uniforms instead of faces an idea that is to some extent true and i bet you could get surprisingly far into a surprising number of places in real life doing so but the game has the smart idea of pushing that idea

to its illogical conclusion almost immediately if you doubted the power of disguises in this game before you won't anymore after 47 does his little turn on the catwalk you can go upstairs and meet with margolis the subject of the meeting it turns out was her recruiting kruger into her supermodel spy ring it's all very zoolander she needed kruger to walk the catwalk to catch the eye of jessica highmore as she explains the plan to 47 he picks it up instinctively as it happens i have the perfect a

ssignment for you jessica highmore highmore consulting the very same that's why i wanted you in the show so jessica would notice you now i want you to go to new york seek out jessica and do what you do best the girl is bright young beautiful it should be right up your alley and yet she's not the mark my you do catch on fast no that would be her father ceo john highmore jessica is your way in befriend him get his trust highmore consulting is planning a merger i want to know with whom and at what

price all right consider it done and that's for you keep it on you at all times last resort cyanide good choice just after giving 47 the pills margolis receives a phone call and turns her back to 47. this offers the perfect opportunity to slip the pills into her glass of champagne once her phone call is over she'll propose a toast to their new professional relationship and she'll be done for hilariously if you wait long enough you can follow the real helmet krueger as he eventually makes his way

to the catwalk and up to the meeting with margolis everything 47 gets right in the conversation krueger gets wrong so you accept my offer uh yes but i get to pick and choose i do have standard stylia naturally as it happens i have the perfect mark jessica highmore that jessica highmore didn't her sister fall off of a roof or something i see you read your gossip columns now pay attention i want you to go to new york seek out jessica and do what you do best the girl is bright young beautiful shou

ld be right up your alley so what did she do to you ah do try to connect the dots helmut jessica is just a means to an end the real mark is her father john highborn befriend him get his trust i'm or consulting are planning a merger i want to know with whom and at what price that's it for now that's for you keep it on you at all times the last resort the last resort you you must be joking that's that isn't what i think it is is it horrified at the implication of handing him cyanide tablets as wel

l as generally confused about who the target is and why margolis viewsome is absolutely incompetent a drink to die for is the only mission story which takes you to the staff areas in the basement it's also one of the most straightforward in the level outside the party you can hear two members of the staff talking about how novakov keeps requesting a specific and obscure drink called the bare-knuckled boxer you can also hear novikov harass the bartenders for not knowing his favorite extremely obs

cure cocktails if you weren't convinced he needed to die for all the murder and espionage he's done this will do the trick if you steal a wait staff uniform and sneak into the basement you can find the recipe for this obscure drink pop back up and mix the drink and leave it on the bar for novakov the next time he makes his way by the bar he'll see it sitting there and take a drink if you've legally poisoned it he'll be handled right then and there otherwise you can be hiding in the nearby bathro

om waiting to drown him novikov has a criminal history and while he's publicly gone straight intelligence agencies around the world are preparing a case against him specifically there is an fsb agent named max decker milling about the bar area of the party who has been told to wait for a bodyguard to escort him to meet with novikov if you become a cicada bodyguard you can escort the agent to his private meeting with novikov in the hedge maze behind the mansion it turns out the agent has brought

the last remaining copy of the file on novikov which an fsb agent named kamarov had been creating and has ensured all backups of the file were destroyed in exchange for an unspecified sum of money decker knows novokov's behind the death of kamarov and tells him whoever you hired i want his number novakov assures him that he does not after the file has exchanged hands novikov dismisses the entire security detail from the gardens as he wants a moment alone to savor his victory this gives the perfe

ct opportunity to snap his neck and dump them in the river if you follow novikov earlier on you can hear more specifics about what the deal was that saw kamarov dead you can eavesdrop on a conversation with his personal assistant about how he exchanged the entire iago dossier with someone in exchange for him killing kamarov and setting him up as an american spy the conversation also notes that margolis is unhappy with this exchange upstairs in her private room you can hear margolis discuss her t

ake on novakov's deal with the mystery man in exchange for the entire iago dossier with her own personal assistant one of the main named characters in the map is valerie st claire the owner of a magazine named showstopper which has been trying to expose and discredit viktor novikov for years you could first hear this mentioned by the reporter immediately as you enter the level for the first time sinclair legendary editor-in-chief of showstopper magazine has long been one of the most vocal critic

s of victor novokov's quote-unquote thuggish stranglehold on artistic integrity and has defiantly boycotted sanguine shows in the past on the first floor of the auction you can overhear valerie sinclair and one of her reporters named liza mckenzie talking about losing contact with haley another reporter who has been planted as their mole inside iago valerie and liza know about the iago auction upstairs and liza is freaking out that they're all going to be killed valerie however has been trying t

o expose novakov's criminal activity for years and sees the opportunity talking liza into infiltrating the auction as a representative of the van orton tobacco company in order to get evidence of the auction's activity if you follow saint claire after this conversation she can be seen talking directly to novikov and taunting him with the dark secret she's uncovered you can then hear novkov call margolis and tell her they have a situation if on the other hand you follow liza and eavesdrop on her

as she goes to the bathroom you can hear her make a phone call to another employee at showstopper telling her what's going on admitting that she's not actually going into the auction and telling her where to get the file and send it to the police if anything happens to her or to say claire it's also a nice touch that if you take out liza she drops an invitation to the auction there's no real reason to do this the easiest spot to figure out is the bathroom directly adjacent to the one that has an

invitation just lying there but again it's nice attention to detail on the top floor of the iago auction you can overhear margolis secretary haley talking to one of the cicada bodyguards about how scared she's become of her employer this is of course the same haley who is working for saint claire as her mole and is terrified of being discovered and killed you can also discover the laptop which is running the entire system for the auction in margolis's private room stealing a bluetooth usb that

kills the laptop lets you take down the system once you've done this haley will panic that margolis is going to have her killed for the system crash the bodyguard jared tells her he's figured out who she really is and if he can figure it out margolis probably has as well he tells her that he's going to escort her out and help her escape the two of them leave which leaves margolis's office mostly unguarded with the auction down margolis will angrily march into her office expecting haley to be the

re and get chewed out when haley isn't there margolis decides to try fixing the system herself which leaves her alone and easy to take out in the gift shop area of the mansion you can overhear a reporter lana caprice talking on the phone about being in urgent need of a camera lens she scored her big break an interview with victor novikov but needs the proper lens for the camera before the interview can begin play dewalevska it's downtown at yes the sanguine fashion show no one will bring her one

on such short notice and she's panicking that her big break is going to slip away in the parking area just outside which is off limits to partygoers you can find a news van from another outlet sitting just inside of the van is the exact camera lens which lana needs if you smuggle remote explosives in during your mission planning or sneak up to the cicada post in the attic and retrieve remote explosives you can conceal them inside of lana's camera and then give her the lens excuse me miss i coul

dn't help it over here is this what you're looking for oh god yes yes thank you so much uh what do i owe you just glad i could help thanks mr you're a lifesaver she will excitedly thank you for your help and go to interview novakov you can overhear the bodyguard who calls novikov refer to lana as the other one the nobody presumably referring to novikov expecting a later interview with the reporter from the entrance whose camera lens you stole wait until novakov is close to the camera and you can

blow him up one of the guests at the fashion show is the sheik salman al-ghazali a famous recluse he's retreated so far from the public eye that no one is even quite sure what he looks like sounds like he could probably be a six foot tall bald gentleman with a south african accent and a barcode tattooed on his head right this route is definitely one intended for later playthroughs the sheet can be found on the second floor in his own private office bedroom once you're in the room with him he's

easy to take out with only a single guard in the room but the trick to this is the window of opportunity closes very quickly as the sheik leaves his private room and heads up to the iago auction almost immediately after the mission starts the best way i've found to become algozoli is to start as an av tech which sets you a short jog away from the private room once you've become the sheik you can go nearly anywhere you please none of the security staff are going to question an honored guest you w

ant to go to the staff area go right ahead backstage with the models you're welcome to with no enforcers this makes it the best disguise in the level for some basic exploration or poking around and learning the level more importantly though dalia marcolis is expecting algazzale upstairs at the auction and no one would dare frisk a foreign prince you can stroll upstairs with whatever concealed weapons you like attend the auction as al gazali and even bid on one of the lots of black market informa

tion if you do so margolis will ask to see you in her private room to express gratitude for your business directly under a chandelier probably the most elaborate and easy to break mission story in paris is lights out you can overhear npcs in the level talking about how ramshackle the massive lighting rig above the fashion show is and how easy it would be for the entire thing to come crashing down this would be a great way to take out the target if only novakov was going to be on stage unfortunat

ely he's put sebastian sato the lead designer of the show on the dock to give a speech during the show rather than himself if sato were unable to go on then novakov would be the next in line to give the speech sato can be found patrolling the dressing room to the left of the entrance because of his highly public location he's very difficult to take out luckily while killing sato will do the trick if you find an opportunity you don't necessarily have to you just have to keep him from being able t

o go on stage sato is extremely stressed between the demands of the show and novakov's abusive behavior he's also just been announced as novikov's successor as the head of sanguine as you can overhear from a reporter at the entrance of the level to make things worse because the mansion normally operates as a museum the room which sato patrols contains a diorama of an old battle one which loudly plays a recreation of the battle complete with a deafening overture if you insert a coin pick one up o

ff the ground or use one of the ones you brought into the level and play the diorama's show and sebastian will lose it and immediately start drinking to cope if you've used a medic poison on the drink then he will immediately get sick this ends up being the last straw sato needs to abandon the show and go sit in the gardens if this is completed then when novakov goes to fetch sato for the speech he'll be unable to and will take the stage himself instead sneak up to the attic and onto the catwalk

for the light raiding and you can break the supports dropping a rig that must weigh thousands of pounds directly onto novkov's head along with the heads of half the crowd if dropping the rig involves a bit more collateral damage than you're comfortable with then note that there is also a challenge for taking novakov out with a headshot while he has his big speech which would have a similar setup but reduce the body count while you're backstage you can hear two texts discussing how excited nobuk

ov is about the fireworks barge for the end of the show and telling each other to be careful not to bump the remote and set the fireworks show off early if you get a tech costume you can easily grab the remote and trigger the show earlier on purpose novakov will be extremely upset and will rush to the back of the mansion to watch the show which gets him isolated enough to take him out fairly easily which is the most obvious end of this mission story above novokov however margolis will also want

to watch the show from the iago auction if you sneak into the auction this is a very easy way to take both out at once as you can push margolis from the upper levels down onto novkov's head both targets are down great work now head towards an exit you can even hear margolis making fun of novakov as he throws a tantrum below this is also the easiest way to take the targets out as a sniper as sneaking a rifle up to the elevated platform behind the mansion and triggering the fireworks show gives yo

u a perfect line of sight on both targets there's a challenge to take out both targets with a sniper rifle within 15 seconds of each other and this is the easiest way to do it whichever method you choose it's a fun way to get rid of the targets that's the last mission story in paris but there are a ton of other fun ways to take out targets in the level hidden upstairs in the attic you can find a costume called the vampire magician most of these levels have one of these high suspicion outfits tha

t are extremely goofy and essentially worse than just wearing 47's suit usually tied to some sort of challenge for example one paris challenge is to assassinate margolis by dropping a chandelier on her while dressed as the vampire magician these high suspicion costumes are a lot of fun especially once you've learned the map backwards and forwards it's also really fun to drop the chandelier above the iago auction onto margolis head during her big speech although it's public enough to almost certa

inly get you killed one unmarked way to get into the auction is to attend as yourself or rather as 47's favorite alias tobias reaper united good evening i don't believe we've had the pleasure mr um reaper tobias reaper i'm a friend of victors i see i wish i had been informed well no matter do enjoy the auction mr reaper i will see you later looking forward to it some attendee of the auction accidentally forgot their invitation in one of the ground floor bathrooms and if you're willing to pass a

frisk check 47 can use the invitation to get in if you can manage to pull novakov's personal bodyguard away from him and take him out without being caught you can get his cell phone this lets you call in a code 17 which puts both novokov and marcolis on lockdown evacuating them to a storage room on the west side of the mansion's second floor you can make this work to your advantage by planting a remote explosive here and taking both out in one go paris is the first full level of the game and als

o introduces the concept of mastery a level system for each map of the game typically going up to level 20 with rewards varying from extra mission starting points to items which can be taken and used in other maps i'm not going to talk about all of these mostly because i don't want to say and here's another gun you'll never use over and over again but i am going to talk about some highlights alternate map starting points and agency pickups work almost like a fast forward function for the game fo

r when you want to set up a kill but don't necessarily want to go through the trouble of getting all the way into a restricted area often letting you skip forward to a later location in a useful disguise this mission gives you several useful tools as mastery rewards to take into other levels such as a sedative poison vial at level 2 which will instantly knock out anyone who drinks it a lethal poison vial and a sedative syringe at level 15 and a remote explosive at level 20. you can get two alter

nate silenced pistols at level 11 and 20 which are two of many many many unlockable weapons in the game the weapons all have unique perks and characteristics but honestly with a few exceptions such as sniper rifles i pretty much just think of them as alternate skins the most amazing and hilarious item you can get is napoleon blown apart at level 10. this is a remote explosive shaped like a small toy napoleon which plays music and distracts targets into picking it up when noticed also since it's

shaped like a toy you can walk right through a frisk with it in your pocket it's great i love napoleon blown apart highly recommended the experience to gain these mastery levels is earned by completing the challenges i've referenced before incentivizing playing the game in a number of interesting ways of course my personal favorite thing of any hitman level is looking at the easter eggs and the insane details hidden in plain sight let's take a look if you step between the cameraman and the repor

ter at the very beginning of the mission they'll get angry at you for ruining the shot yeah thanks a lot man real considering am i staying out of my shot if you step away and do it again they'll get even more upset and decide to take a smoke break until you leave i'm standing outside what the hell is wrong with you go away come on come on don't encourage this [ __ ] lindsay let's just go for a break probably coked out of his mind the sheikh salman al-ghazali later reappears in the miami mission

and another member of the al-ghazali family sheikh omar al-ghazali is the creator of the burj al-ghazali or the scepter the mega skyscraper setting of the dubai map of hitman 3. the briefing mentions that iago has sold secret flight plans to the delgado cartel which they used to take down a plane holding one president hernandez members of the delgado cartel appeared as targets in hitman blood money and appear again later on as the targets of the columbia map of hitman 2. andrea martinez a member

of the delgado cartel and one of the targets of hitman 2's columbia map can be found at the iago auction you have exactly 12 measly bucks we've got eyes in washington too to say hey is it really true that your village was burned down by a gang of outlaws when you were 12 you can push a piano closed to lure an auction staff member in as a distraction then knock someone unconscious with the same piano as they try to set it back up that's great i i love it in the bedroom next to where all gazali c

an be found you can find a gun under one of the pillows on the bed as you tell margolis you can eavesdrop on her talking about other spy situations she's got going on such as one to infiltrate the church of ascension if you take out the guard in margolis room she will say something is a mess where one guard's short so sloppy it's a nice touch emphasizing how sharp she is especially compared to novikov who won't even notice if you take out his private bodyguard you can get a challenge for throwin

g a coin in the fountain at the entrance that's it that's all it's a fun touch there is a man on the top floor named tren poe who will call jordan cross one of the targets of the bangkok level later on and ask for his band the class to write a song for his coronation which every citizen will play twice a day under threat of forced labor when helmut krueger refers to jessica highmore's sister falling off a roof this is a reference to jordan cross's murder of hannah highmore a key plot point of th

e bangkok level one of the women at the auction is trying to pay margolis to see her favorite candidate win an upcoming election margolis tells her it will be handled and shortly afterwards you can hear her get a call that thomas cross has donated a large sum of money to her candidate obviously nodding to margulis and cross being connected through providence backstage you'll be able to find one of the tech crew awkwardly trying to flirt with one of the supermodels at the show while she complains

about some of sato's more absurd outfits such as a literal straight jacket mine looks like real clothes that intestines show i did with sato last year not so much and then there was a straight jacket yeah i think you'd look good in just about anything they tested straight jackets you name it oh look i gotta run but i'll see you later okay unique dialogue exists for both novakov and marcolus learning that the other has been killed in an accident interestingly novakov will be skeptical of the acc

ident and upset if he learns that margolis has been killed while margolis will take novokov's death in stride i'm oh i'm fine look you can let in the police but we keep them downstairs i'm not closing down this auction when i arrived at the location and stupid poetic justice let's get one thing clear victor wrote the checks but this is my operation always was good now keep me posted the logo on the trucks for mini sushi catering the party is the same logo used by one of ioi's previous games 2009

's mini ninjas you can hear two npcs outside of margolis room discussing a book on the fashion industry which details her backstory as the black sheep daughter of an israeli military leader [Music] [Music] just as her career was slowing down nouveau wished russian a bad boy reputation looking to turn over a new leaf so dalia persuaded him into buying something you can eavesdrop on novikov's personal assistant phillip having several phone conversations at once mixed in with things like ordering m

ore champagne for the party you can overhear him repeatedly putting his father on hold who is in the middle of a heart attack not now dad the best cocktail on the world heart attack are you sure it's real this time would just be another cry for attention would it just hold on cordelia talk to me guess dad dad dad dad dad stop rattling i can't hear a word you're saying oh god hold on phillip mr holbrook yes yes i can confirm the transaction paris is a powerful mission statement for this game five

years and countless runs later i can still replay this mission and discover new details every time it's actually one of the smaller maps in the series especially compared to the next map sapienza but it's extremely dense and full of memorable characters details routes and moments it's certainly one of my favorite levels in the first game i'm focusing a lot on the mission stories here because they are some of the most interesting and compelling content in the game but it's worth noting that taki

ng the targets out without using those more scripted methods is extremely satisfying in fact master mode difficulty disables most of the mission story methods and requires extreme familiarity with the map and how to manipulate the ai within it in order to succeed it's incredibly satisfying and a lot of the most fun moments come from finding your own route to success though the game didn't necessarily account for but which is allowed for the paris map is great for that with pipes that let 47 shim

my up and around the sides tunnels that let you slip around the map on scene and plenty of heavy objects to drop on npc's heads i don't think there could be a better first level for the game if the paris map were as large as some of the later maps like sapienza or miami it would be overwhelming as an introduction if it were smaller or felt more sparse like colorado or hokkaido it wouldn't so effectively conveying the tone of the game overall paris is the perfect way for the series to kick off af

ter the mission a cutscene titled the secrets of the global elite plays set one day before agent 47 arrived in paris viktor novakov meets with the mysterious man from the prologue's title sequence the man says he's arranged for someone named kamarov to be killed and to make it look like he was an american spy in exchange novakov hands him a file containing the secrets of the global elite which makes wikileaks look like a gossip rag the player sees this man texting someone that he's retrieved the

file and sees him open the very same contract on novokov which agent 47 was supposedly fulfilling for mi6 no loose ends the pen beats the sword huh i have found that whoever wields the sword decides who holds the pen smile victor your reputation is safe now run along i'm sure you have pretty dresses to attend to victor good luck with the show i have a feeling it's going to be the one you will be remembered for this is interesting because it reveals that novakov was the real target all along whi

le the mission briefing made it clear that mi6 were more concerned with margolis being taken down with novikov being more of an accessory so begins the story of the shadow client a mysterious man who is secretly behind the seemingly disparate contracts forming the bulk of the first hitman the mystery of who this is and what his goals are is the core question of the meta story of the first game next we move on to italy and the seaside town of sapienza