Since we're closing in on Hitman 2's release, I figured I'd lower my 47 fever by having this thread ready. Plus the first Elusive Target is going to happen relatively soon (17th day) after the game's launch anyway, so it's good to be prepared, right?

1. Sean Bean/Mark Faba
2. Vicente Murillo
3. Miranda Jamison
4. The Fugitive

...and we have a new-old target, The Fugitive.

Say what! Sort of makes perfect sense in a way though.

Also makes sense since he was narrating the first trailer.

Kind of figured he would be more than an elusive target but that's still something worth getting excited about.

Sean Bean in video games is always a plus. I like his work in the CIV games, if this ends up with Sean Beans virtual head on a pike that would be great :D.

I really want to get into Elusive Targets in Hitman 2 since I fell off of them so quickly in 1, despite loving the concept. Feel like I’m practically obligated to do this one.

Also, this trailer was really good. Though that could just be because I love the idea that Sean Bean has played the same character in every movie and just faked all those deaths. How he managed to fake 2 horses quartering him in Black Death is beyond me, though. Disclaimer: don’t watch Black Death, it’s bad.

Optional Objective: Kick Bean off Cliff, beheading etc.

I look forward to watching clips of these and missing the event entirely.

I hope he can die of old age.

I would love if they could figure out a good way to have it so you are being hunted by an assassin figure while targeting out a target.

This is so fucking dumb.

LET'S DO THIS!

Starting off strong, I see.

@sumbog: That’d be dope.

While I found what they've showed of the multiplayer to look cool, I really wish the one vs one thing would be a Spyparty/The Ship/AC multiplayer thing where you need to act like an AI and try to find someone’s that’s not an AI so you can kill them.

I’m sure it’s not a new idea and it would need significant work, hence why it’s not there, but I still can dream.

This is a level of self awareness and the right ratio of serious-dumb in tone that IO have kinda nailed. I hope they can keep it up

@fear_the_booboo: What I would have liked to see is a co-op story ala the ones in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Double Agent (Xbox version) and Conviction. The kind that adapts the core gameplay of the single player but makes it work around cooperation. So in the context of Hitman, you'd have two assassins working together to kill a target, where they can help each other out doing that.

Yup, that's good stuff.

Ha, that's exactly the sort of mode I didn't want to play in this game. I like that what they went with seems to actually be about who's the better hitman, rather than who can hide/spot the best. It's kinda fucked up to say (but also incredibly appropriate for this franchise), but the 1v1 here seems a bit more sporting (ew i feel gross now).

However, having an AI that hunts you would be great. There were enemy assassins in Blood Money that would kill you if you followed their, well, what this game would call an opportunity.

Huh. When I heard him in the trailer I thought that he'd replaced the VO for the Shadow Client, but this is somehow better. I really hope the available opportunities to kill him track with all the way's he's died in movies and TV.

Also, my Dad has that exact same robot toy. I'll never look at it the same way again.

We've got about 24 hours to go. I hope there'll be some @brad Vs @danryckert competition streamed this week.

I just did this and my suggestion is to not use the micro-sized bomb, unless you want to do it really easily. I'm not sure why I went that route, guess I figured it wouldn't be that easy!

It's a shame they didn't make this replayable after you've completed it. Or maybe do it so that you'd get a 24/48 hour cooldown after blowing it before another try. There seemed to be so much effort put into this that I'm kinda bummed I never get to see it again.

This was surprisingly easy as far as Elusive Targets go?

The route he takes is incredibly small so it's pretty easy to get a hold of his movements and patterns. Using the robot is an easy way to get Silent Assassin since it counts as an accident.

They did a lot of cool things for this ET so I'm interested in how they'll continue. Would love for them to bring him back again.

I did it today, my big takeaway is that it seems very hand-holdy.

Just finished this. Blasted him with a shotgun and then just fucking booked it out of there. Like only a master assassin can.

@glots said:

As @burncoat said, the way they set up this elusive target, I could easily see them bringing him back again, as long as Sean Bean is game. It would be kinda neat to have a target that appears multiple times over multiple levels. I agree with other posters that this one was pretty easy, but they probably did that to ease in players just jumping into Hitman who haven't seen ETs before. If he does come back, maybe make him progressively harder to take down each time?

Also, they could always do what they did with the first game, and "reactivate" the targets after a year or so.

Some of the Silent Assassin challenges are bugged, so beware. Avoid... doing what I did, I guess?
Maybe poison was the issue, or maybe the game didn't appreciate extracting so quickly after the kill. Others have also reported this issue, but didn't provide specifics on what they did to get the kill.

Probably. This also had so much dialog in it (that conversation between you and him in the meeting especially was great), that they might've just wanted to make sure that folks would get the most out of it.

I don't think they ever reactivated the Gary Busey one, but could be different with this, 'course.

This was definitely a weird tutorial-like ET, it even had a "mission atory"

So this wasn't bad. I didn't get SA because I knocked too many people out and ran out of space to put bodies, but I like how this was handled with way more flair and unique dialog than previous Elusives. Did they lower the bar significantly? Yeah, but I think that's the point as they likely want more people playing the elusives.

One thing to note is that you really don't need to know Miami or have any unlocks at all to do this Elusive. There's zero barrier to entry. I don't doubt that if they do more specific elusives, they will provide the necessary gear.

As for my run and mild spoilers

I followed the guided path for the hell of it, knocking out an engineer, heading upstairs to listen to the meeting and tracked the target's route.

After a couple of loops between his three main points (conference room, side room, lab room) I knocked out both his guards and put them in a trunk (hence no room for more bodies) as well as the lead scientist bloke, then slit the target's throat in the side room.

Exited by hotel sewer (there's a crowbar nearby) after making sure to wipe the camera feed in the security room that overlooks the med bay area.

It's pretty easy as assassinations go, but the trick would be in figuring out how to deal with both guards on him at all times. Unfortunately the two extra bodies (even though no one would have walked through there) I had meant I missed out on SA.

I kinda doubt they would bring in someone with the clout of Sean Bean and only have him for this one thing and given the whole shtick of the character, I expect we'll see him a couple of times more in the other Hitman 2 locations.

@glots:

Feel free to add this chart to the OP

https://www.hitmanforum.com/uploads/default/optimized/3X/6/b/6b7ee387670707c0cd9dbc49d452950aeee0d5de_1_690x388.jpeg

Here’s my run of the target, I noticed a lot of people went with this strategy as far as Suit Only goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX8snBUfDmM

The Undying is dead. Silent Assassin.

Went up through the parking garage, got Timothy Yu in the bathroom, took out the other two researchers in the back room, got the bomb detonator. Then distracted the one bodyguard with a coin when Faba started inspecting the bomb. Boom. Done.

I kinda wanted to kill him with that pen, but I would've needed to take care of the other bodyguard as well to do it safely.

I believe they couldn't use Gary Busey again because of a rights issue.

I also missed that conversation you reference. I took him out by sniping him from the Press Box to get Silent Assassin. This is why they should totally allow re-runs of these targets at some point.

The very loud Assassin has logged on.

Sean Bean is such a cool pick for the first target. Hitman 2 is good yall.

I'm disappointed that I just sniped him from across the track and left without a trace. I didn't see him up close or hear any of the conversations.

I followed him around for a bit, I'm glad I ignored my instinct to snipe him from the booth because you miss out on some really good dialogue if you do.

I followed the track of dressing up as an engineer and sitting in on the meeting. I resisted my second urge when he's sat right in front of you on a table asking "How would you kill me?" to just stick a screwdriver in him. Ultimately I followed him and his guards around for a bit and decided to just be silly. I threw two muffins at his guards and then shot him in the head from behind, ran away being shot at by guards, slid down a pipe and then escaped via the speed boat.

@zolroyce: Incredible! I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed your elusive target kills. I get so caught up in getting a Silent Assassin rating that I forget to have fun, it seems.

They started with an easy one it seems, which is fine.

Would love to see Brad and Dan take a shot at Mr. Faba.

Haha thank you! It's very nice someone remembers from before! Silent Assassin kills feel so good when you pull them off, fun to be had there too, when you stroll out the exit gate knowing that you didn't screw up once feels goooood. I just like using the elusive targets to be extra dumb and loud.

The frame rate did not like your explosion.

Awesome video - I remember how great the last set were too.

Yeah, Hitman 2 is a good game.

@captain_insano: Thank you! Almost without fail when I do the test runs for these elusive targets, things tend to go off without a hitch, I do the target and *something* has gotta happen, I'll take a momentary pause/dip in my frame rate over it not working at all though haha. That's on me though, on the test run I had less explosives, but on the real run I was like, yeah but what if more explosives.

Seconded, I'd be all over watching that content.

@zolroyce: Dan already did it last week (on his own), not sure if Brad is saving it for UPF.

Both Brad and Vinnie did the Faba - The Undying - Elusive here:
https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/11302018/2970-18619?autoplay=1

SA for me. I followed their little plan.

First I took out one of the guards that follows Faba around in Yu's office by coining him over, then dressed as that guard. I went back over to the meeting room and scaled the pipe by the outside patio up to the top level, and disabled the cameras. Then I went back down into the room with Yu and took out the researcher that goes into the room in the back and put him in that closet.

I let Faba cycle through with his one guard again, then took out Yu in his office and filled that crate in there. Then I closed the door on the guard outside the room so I could take out the second researcher, and I dragged him into that back room and filled that closet. Knowing I didn't have another box to hide a body in, I didn't really want to risk taking out Faba's other guard, so I dropped the first guard's pistol on the ground.

Guard comes in and picks it up and takes it upstairs to the security room. This was my window. I closed the door on the guard again so it was just Faba and I left in the room. I went all Dark Knight Joker stabbing his face on the pen, which was a brutally great and fitting way to take him out. I dragged him into the back room and left him over by the closet, hoping that no one would randomly walk back there. I sprinted out the front door to help make sure. SA.

Next Target is coming on the 21st of December.

I did the elusive target in the very sneaky way of having Sean Bean catch me dragging a body, someone fail to kill him with an explosive before shooting him a bunch and fleeing

(slow clap)

That was great. I fully appreciate what went into that, from both the kill itself and the video. I love the hard cuts in the editing, BTW. Just out of curiously, what platform are you on? I haven't really tried stress testing the Xbox One X version yet with massive body piles or chained explosions. Keyword there is "yet". :)

@rocketblast0063 said:

Vinny's inner monologue during his run:

Damn, I failed. I was committed to not just imitating what I saw on UPF. So I went through the meeting and eventually used Yu's badge on the robot. Which I expected to have a bigger, different reaction. I thought it was a melee robot. That eventually got a guard very suspicious of me. And I shot him and Sean Bean. I almost got out of the building.

@notnert427: Thank you so much! Appreciate the kind words! I really love editing the videos down nice and tight the most, hard cuts are so fun to do for some reason.
I'm on the PC now, the old videos were all on the base PS4, since the last Hitman though I upgraded my PC enough to run it, it's no powerhouse but it does a good job. My biggest problems have mostly just been fps loss when creating all the chaos which is understandable, and in about 84 hours of playtime, 3 crashes. Though I haven't pushed every map to it's limit.
Good luck with your own field testing haha, if you make your own vids of anything you get up to I'd love to see 'em.

Oh nice, okay I missed it, and now it looks like Brad attempted it too. Nice.

I'm sure I'll do some fun/dumb stuff with it at some point, though it will probably be in screenshot/story form. I have some video editing experience, but my current video capture stuff is an old Hauppauge HDPVR that's component, whereas the Xbox One only does HDMI, so I'd have to figure out some kind of workaround there. I know there's converters and cables and stuff, but I don't know that I trust them. Also, it would be cool to upgrade to a 4K capture device, but that's a whole different animal. I digress.

I'll have some time over the holidays to take more of a deep dive into HITMAN 2. I'll come up with some more dumb challenges for myself, just like with the last game:

Murdering all of Sapienza & The Bell Tolls for Silvio.

A special drum solo.

Sylvio's great escape.

Man, my game glitched and he got stuck looking st the mysterious pen thing. And did not move for about 15 minutes. So I really had no choice but to force his face into the pen and run for dear life! I failed but still had a good time.