IO keeps supporting this game fairly well with escalation missions and this new addition: elusive targets. With elusive targets

• Are available for a limited time only in gameIntel on the target will be limited
• They are available for a limited time only in game – this first Elusive Target will last 48 hours
• Intel on the target will be limited
• They will not appear in instinct mode, or the mini map and their locations will not be revealed to you – you’ll have to go and find them
• Plan accordingly before you engage your target
• Your target can only die once
• If you die during the mission, that’s it
• When the time runs out, they are gone for good
• If you fail, there are no second chances:

Last season one target is out from the 14th to the 24th. Catch it!

I've been waiting for this. I'm excited to give it a try. I'll report on personal success/failure.

Yeah, I would be interested hearing how well people do as well as general opinions on the elusive target concept.

Full details of how the Elusive Targets differ from the rest of the game (from the Square press release):

• An Elusive Target is a once in a lifetime experience
• They are available for a limited time only in game – this first Elusive Target will last 48 hours
• Intel on the target will be limited
• They will not appear in instinct mode, or the mini map and their locations will not be revealed to you – you’ll have to go and find them
• Plan accordingly before you engage your target
• Your target can only die once
• If you die during the mission, that’s it
• When the time runs out, they are gone for good
• If you fail, there are no second chances

I'll certainly give it a go, but I'm not generally a fan of the "one run and done" concept (especially in a game like Hitman that rewards taking / offers multiple interesting routes).

I'm going to choke and get caught like taking out the first person I need for a disguise

@stordoff: i think it's just a fun one off thing, the majority of the content doesn't work that way. Maybe they can split the difference and have a similar challenge but let it be repeatable.

Also at this point i'm muttering hitdan:brad money in my sleep. I need my fix!

@dudeglove: the elusive target is a new NPC going through his own routine. You couldn't really prepare the assassination. Playing the level a hundred times is useful in the sense that you will learn every room, every camera and every disguise.

Haha, I'll probably play this one straight. Unless things go awry.....

This is a really cool idea, and a nice bonus for people buying the game before it's complete.

This sounds pretty neat, it's the first thing that has even remotely interested me in Hitman.

This sounds cool, but I don't know about the 48-hour time limit. They could just make it a daily challenge / tavern brawl type regular mode.

I wanna see Brad take on the challenge, too bad it's happening over the weekend, right?

This is a great concept and is exactly the kind of thing that will bring me back to Hitman. I'll give this a shot, for sure.

@probablytuna: they're saying they are starting the event some time on Friday on European hours so it's definitely going to be out during UPF.

I'm guessing you won't be able to save and reload if something goes wrong even if you don't die?

If you don't know who the target is, I guess there's only one way to know for sure that you got them.

Seems cool, like a Daily Challenge type of thing. Maybe Brad will play it for UPF?

It'll be up in two hours.

I already know where the fellow's going to be in the mansion, based on the trailer above.

There's something satisfying about scheming out a hit for a mode like this. Feels high-stakes.

Two hours, huh? Guess I might give this a try before Dooming...also an excuse to visit Paris again.

There are, like, a thousand NPCs in that Paris map. I really hope you get more to go on than just the picture of the dude and some limited information

I'd say he has a distinct look to himself. Kinda reminds me of one of the inFamous games, where you'd get a photo of a guy who you had to go zap or something, just that the minimap did have a certain radius for where he/she could be. But that was a big open-world, the mansion is still relatively sized in comparsion. I'd personally prefer it, if I have to work with minimalistic information, 48 hours is still a whole lot if you take your time and swap around disguises for exploring the whole place.

Also like it was suggested above, @brad or @danryckert should definitely consider this on UPF! At least if the servers hold up this time...

So there was a short window like a week or two ago where they released all of these at once before pulling it down. So I actually have played one of these missions and it was quite interesting. When you have the stakes of "you can never do this again" it becomes very nerve racking. It seems like all of them have specific videos to give you clues on who the target is and I actually noticed some dialogue that hinted at the person I was looking for. Looking forward to playing this again.

I wonder if we'll get to select our loadout and starting location. Part of me hopes not, to make things a little tougher. I'm pretty sure I know where he'll be as well, which is kind of a cool "reward" for those who spent a ton of time in the Paris map. I've already got a plan in mind as to how to pull it off. Now, it's all about the execution.

You can, though I decided on using the main entrance...aaand it took me around 10-15 minutes to do the whole thing! Definitely nothing to get too excited about, at least in the Paris map. Kinda the same as the Sarajevo Six missions on PS4. You get unique briefing and this time even some voiceacting from your target if you catch him at the right time, but it definitely wasn't hard to follow him up and snap his neck in a relatively isolated spot. Granted, I know my way around the first map pretty well at by now, but eh.

Fun little addition, nothing else.

Yeah, I think I'm with you on using the main entrance. I'm glad I get my toys, but using one of the locations that starts you off disguised seems a little cheap for this. I'm also going to try to kill him in an interesting way if I can. I still think this is a cool idea because it raises the stakes. I can't wait to give it a go tonight.

(Also, let's make an effort to keep this thing spoiler-free or tagged until the 48 hours is up. Finding him is going to be half the fun.)

I would definitely suggest anyone doing this to use the main entrance. I picked a spawn and spawned almost right next to the dude and had the mission finished within maybe 5 minutes which was kind of a bummer. Cool idea though.

Hmm, not really a fan of the mission. I spent nearly 20 minutes randomly searching around areas he could be, only to randomly come across him on a staircase. Felt frustrating more than anything.

Well, I did it. It wasn't pretty, but I got him. I feared failure/got lazy and killed a guard for his clothes unnecessarily instead of choking him out. Then somehow a body got found in a place I've never had a body found before. I did subdue his guard and threw a screwdriver at Larin, though, so that was cool. I didn't consider that there was a challenge of SA for this. I wish I had. I could have pulled it off if I'd been more patient. Anyway, I thought the Elusive Target was cool. It added some tension to everything. Looking forward to the next one.

Well I just completed it and I did what I guess most people would do in that I started as a security man, made a b-line for the Sheik, took his outfit and started searching the place. Diana said he had a private office upstairs which I managed to find but he wasn't there. So I went downstairs, found him, went to take out his guard and because I play HUDless I didn't notice I had a screwdriver equipped so I accidentally stabbed the guard ruining my one chance to get that challenge. I then stabbed the target and went out the front entrance without being spotted.

The mission was a bit of a whimper, I hope they get more elaborate in future missions. The one and done idea also makes it feel like these should be daily missions not bi-monthly. If that's all they intend Elusive Targets to be they're mightily disappointing. At least the main missions are still fantastic.

EDIT: Also is it just me or is anyone else getting a bit tired of IO's reliance on guards bumhugging the targets wherever they walk? I hope we don't see this in every single mission. The more it happens the lazier it seems.

I followed them down to the museum room where the sword is, busted open the case and stabbed the dude in the face with a sword.

Felt good.

After watching the video I made a guess that he would be top floor, in the attic/storage area I started off in the kitchen, made my preferred path to where I thought he would be, got noticed by a guard, had no choice but to run or fought, ran, hid in a corner, murdered like 30 damn guards, then because I had already messed up so bad started a process of elimination in which I just sort of went around the entire floor I was on using the Hitman-o-vision and killed every single last person I could find, when they were all dead I went to a staircase to go to another floor, saw him on it, popped him in the head with a machine gun and ran back down to the kitchen.
Total score 0.

I got cocky, BUT I GOT RESULTS.
I love this game. The regen health and cover system does make it way to easy to mow down a hoard of dudes if you are just patient enough though, which feels a little cheap at times, but I thought this mission/the idea for these missions are great.

ended up missing the entire thing because I have to work friday and saturday on the road. Figured they'd start it friday evening and run til sunday evening, not kill it sunday morning. bummed i didn't get to try it out

I found it a bit of a disappointment to be honest. From the briefing video they practically spell it out where he'll be if (like many of us now) you are familiar with the Paris map. I started undercover as crew and basically walked across two rooms, shot him and his guard and walked to the helicopter to exit. Took like 2 minutes tops :/

Turboman wins.

@mikey2d: yeah same for me, started as crew, headed for the room and shot them both, threw them in the cupboard for good measure and strolled out the front gates.5 minutes tops, which is a shame for what i thought might take a bit longer...

aaaaaaaand.... that is exactly what I did... lol. Made my way to the 2nd floor... doing well. Was disguised as a Crew guy... forgot, picked up a knife. Everyone freaked out. I tried running away and ended up getting shot...

In fairness, it appears y'all intentionally chose the easiest way, so complaining that it was easy and short is kinda weak. The beauty of this game is that you can make things as difficult as you want. There are a lot of ways to have made the contract tougher, i.e. starting from the Main Entrance so you had to find/steal a disguise, going for Silent Assassin, bringing/using no guns or tools, trying to take him out in atypical ways, etc. I'm sure people did suit only silent assassin runs of it, which is really difficult with no saves. Granted, I understand where you're coming from in that maybe they shouldn't have made it to where it even could be done easily, but it's not like that was the only way to do it, either.

I'm not trying to tell you how to play the game, but maybe consider upping the challenge for yourself on the next one if you found this one too easy. I was sweating bullets during the contract because I had to take down some guys for outfits and I knew I was screwed if it went badly. I'm still upset at myself for panicking on a guard and killing him to ruin SA on it, so that's my challenge for the next one. Upping the stakes is pretty much the point of this mode, so if you want to get more out of it, try making the next one tougher than it has to be. I find it's more fun that way, but maybe that's just me. Ultimately, I'm just glad people are playing and enjoying this game in what has otherwise been kind of a niche-y series. It's a really great game.

@deinos: better than me who read timezones wrong so I never got to do.

I failed before I turned the game on!

Was busying playing Uncharted 4 and then DOOM that I totally forgot about this.

@notnert427: quit being so level-headed, this is the internet.

How often are new ones supposed to come out?

@notnert427: hey, I do hear where your coming from but i don't feel it should be on me to make the game challenging for me, kind of the job of the developers. Especially when i'm using all available tools to complete the mission given to me etc. Maybe if the video at the top of the mission hadn't given such a huge hint as to where the Forger was hanging out then I would have started at the Main Entrance.

In fact they could just enforce all Elusive Targets to be a vanilla run so to speak. Start at the standard beginning of the game with normal equips (or maybe with nothing at all) and off you go having no idea where the target would be!

@crazybagman: here here :P !

I wouldn't be surprised if they make the next one tougher and make the hints less obvious. I like the idea of forcing a vanilla run, but that would probably piss people off and make this into more of a "hardcore" mode that would have less appeal to the casual gamers. Having the equivalent of permadeath in this mode is a fairly bold move these days anyway when most games go for something along the lines of "you're winner!". It's a delicate balance, and I can understand why they made the first one the way it was, so I'm just glad they've made a playground awesome enough to where I can tailor my own experience.

I think I heard bi-monthly previously mentioned, but the Hitman twitter is being a bit coy about it as if another will drop pretty soon. They were a bit delayed on the first one, so who knows what schedule they might be on now. I'm expecting one in Sapienza prior to Marrakesh's release.

PSA: The second Elusive Target is "The Congressman" in Sapienza, out May 27th.

Yup, @brad's UPF segment for next week confirmed!

@grulet: Man I'd be nowhere without you reminding me when these things are coming out. So hey cheers for that!

@dudeglove: What. The. Fuck.