This expansion adds 2 new Sniper Assassin missions - The Pen and the Sword and Crime and Punishment. It also adds another 2 regular Assassin missions - Golden Handshake and The Last Resort.
The locations are nicely varied, as always, with the Sniper Assassin missions taking you to Siberia and Singapore, and the regular Assassin missions taking you to New York City and The Maldives, all with a plethora of new targets to go after.
Due to the fact that this is an expansion of the previously reviewed Hitman 2 DLC content, there isn't much to really expand on here in terms of gameplay features. These levels encompass more of the same unchanged fundamentals, and there isn't any further development to the level design or gameplay features worth noting, if any at all. It is a classic case of more of the same.
The variety comes from the different locations and the variation of mechanics to eliminate your targets depending on the environment around you, which has always been Hitman's ace card.
In terms of trophies, this packages adds a further 10 trophies to the list, and covers off the 4 new missions outlined above.
Simply beating this selection of missions in any capacity, regardless of score and rating, will earn you 4 of these trophies, but as before, there are requirements covered elsewhere that mean you're going to need to perfect your methods of mission completion if you want every trophy on offer.
The level mastery trophies continue and 2 of these are awarded for mastering New York and Haven Island to level 20. The requirements for this are unchanged, and simply involve replaying the level and ticking off the various feats/challenges until you've fulfilled enough to reach level 20. This will involve completing the vast majority of them, and these requirements are still designed to get maximum replayability out of these missions. No real surprises.
The Sniper Assassin missions are where the remaining trophies are focused, and whilst the previous DLC pack only briefly sampled this mode, this DLC expands on them through these final assortment of trophies.
For each of the 2 new Sniper Assassin missions, you'll need to accumulate a score of 1,000,000 points for each, as well as beat all challenges and feats too. The challenges and feats follow the same concept as level mastery, though a level mastery score doesn't exist in Sniper Assassin missions in the same way it does for regular ones. However, these trophies leave no margin for vacancy, and will require you to beat all of them to unlock the trophy. Some of the challenges are either redacted or have cryptic requirements, and set up scenarios that can only occur once you fulfil specific actions beforehand, meaning they do actually have a much deeper logical methodology than you may think at face value.
I didn't touch much on the Sniper Assassin missions in the last DLC pack, because they didn't require much exploration beyond just beating them, but the trophies demand you delve deeper this time round. When you consider the fact you'll sit still in one place for the entire mission, and have 15 minutes to complete the contract, it actually contains alot of depth, full of objectives that demand critical thinking. The gameplay mechanics also integrate creative ways to make use of the sniper too. Shoot locks off doors to expose a crucial object or open something. Shoot objects to reveal something behind them. Shoot a button to trigger something to start up or move. Shoot something to create an execution hazard. I thought the creativity was the most obvious standout thing about this mode, but that's hardly surprising is it?
Admittedly, I did have to look a small handful of these challenges up, mainly the ones with redacted requirements. I gave it an honest go, but I knew they'd be so cryptic, I'd waste too much time trying to figure them out myself.
Achieving the trophies for scoring 1,000,000 points for the level were much more satisfying for me, and this will require you to clear all objectives quickly and without causing any alerts. There are optimal ways to do this, and it was good fun figuring these out in steps and then linking it all together - making judgement calls on movement patterns, points of interest on the map where you could hide bodies and finally putting it all together to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible to earn 1,000,000 points - Which is the threshold for a Silent Assassin rating.
The trophies are very thorough and require you to master each level, and you'll need to play them through multiple times to earn all the trophies in this set. This won't be an issue through practice and patience - 2 classic ingredients of Hitman success - but you'll need to prove your competency if you want to unlock everything on offer.
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