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Playing these bonus missions, it’s hard not to wonder how many of the Hitman team have read Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Or maybe Tom Shone’s Blockbuster. Or just watched Fitzcarraldo. How else to explain the insane ranting and raving of Dino Bosco, the perfectionist, hair-trigger director/star of The Icon mission, one of the two remixes of older environments found here? Bosco, channeling 70s-era Francis Coppola and William Friedkin and Klaus Kinski, and the James Cameron of the 80s and 90s, isn’t an arms dealer or murderer or even accused of any crime other than going way over budget. It’s a testament to the playfulness and dark humour of the series that sending him to his doom via mechanical jaws seems less horrific and more, well, appropriate.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about this Summer Bonus Episode, outside of the kills (which we’ll get to in a moment) is how well ‘old’ levels have been repurposed. Setting Sapienza and Marrakech at night is just the start – there’s no mirror mode-style shenanigans here. The Italian manor itself is inaccessible, as is the church and the surf. Instead, the beach town finds the square outside Caruso manor invaded with robots, film crew, and other terrifying beasts of no known origin. Gaping-mawed, mechanical foes stomp around shooting fire. Burned-out cars, charred rubble, and tired technicians make a mess of what was an idyllic seaside setting. In Marrakech, the military presence is minimal, and the consulate is closed. Even the secret tunnel that acted as an escape route for it is gone. Where there was once revolution, there is now recreation, as people shop and hit the shisha pipes.
These changes – framed as archive missions – adjust the focus of the original stages, and are all the better for it. They also introduce some great hits, many of which are comprised of multi-part setups which rival some of the best Hitman 2016 has to offer. A favourite sees you sabotaging the metal teeth of a giant prop in Sapienza. By then adjusting the pressure of the jump pad that poor Bosco is to be launched from, you’ll see your target fired into the literal jaws of doom.
The infiltration, sabotage, and execution stages of these types of hits is superb, and by having fun with the setups Io has allowed itself to have fun with our expectations of the targets themselves. Bosco, for example, is playing a superhero, and his commitment to ‘excellence’ means that the suit is actually bulletproof. Which, of course, means you’ll have to find another way to kill him that doesn’t require a gun (unless you’ve ever watched Robocop and wondered why they don’t shoot him in the mouth). One of your two Marrakech targets also has a penchant for fortune tellers, leading to a hit in a fogged-out booth which treads the series’ signature line between hilarious and hideous expertly.
Of the two missions, Marrakech’s A House Built on Sand is the weakest, by virtue of it not being as outlandish and inventive as The Icon. But even it has some great moments, once again rewarding player ingenuity and planning while also showing how well Io itself has adapted to two and three-stage setups which feel logical and rewarding. There’s less time hunting for a screwdriver or wrench or other vital, tiny component that will make it all work and more time observing, planning, and (literally) executing. The release is marred somewhat by the fact you need the season pass to play them now, but these are two strong hits in locations that feel both familiar and different, and also feature the challenges and feats you expect from a ‘proper’ episode. Cheers, Dino.
Version Tested: PS4
