Would you still enjoy Hitman if your targets were "good" people?

[pants]

Thematically, 47 is an angel of death who will accomplish whatever job he is given. In occupying him as a character, I think theres a level of professional indifference to whether or not his targets truly deserve what is happening to them. That's for other people to worry about.

It just so happens that bad people surround themselves with the coolest props, security, and guards that money can buy as a means of shielding themselves from the consequences of their own actions, and that just makes for way better level design.

 

[BannedEpisode]

The game as a whole wouldn't work nearly as well if the targets and most of the NPCs weren't the worst of the worst kind of people.

It's what gives the game so much of its humor and satisfaction in gameplay. Half of the fun I get in that game is overhearing a target say something just absolutely horrible and going, "holy shit get a load of this guy".

 

[GymWolf86]

Yes because it's a videogame and i barely care anyway for the plot or motivation in an hitman game tbh.

 

[wenis]

But you kill innocent people blocking your way to the target anyway

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You sir are not a master assassin.

 

[apowhungo]

WARNING
*some red dead 2 side mission spoilers*

I feel like rdr 2 did this really well with the retrieve money for camp missions. these were almost exclusively good people that had borrowed money from your associate and your task is to get them to pay you back, however the means.

some of these were straight up heartbreaking, beating up immigrants and separating a dad from his family. it's intentionally designed to make you feel like crap, and there's a bit of redemption (hehe) at the end of them but still, these were some of the more messed up things arthur did.

it had a way bigger effect than if these were just ordinary bad guys who owed you money. hitman should at least TRY this in a level or two, although it wouldn't fall in line with their brand of comedy.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Don't think it makes a difference. Admittedly I haven't played a Hitman game in a while so I don't know what the targets have done in general but I'm sure they don't necessarily deserve to be killed in the way 47 kills them or even at all. So making them "good" people shouldn't really change things as at the end of the day you're still killing people who probably don't actually deserve to die in the first place.

 

[packy17]

It wouldn't happen, because no one would pay the ICA the amount of money required for their services to kill someone that is totally innocent. I just don't see it.

If 47 wasn't completely emotionless, it could make for a decent plot point/twist, though. Spend an entire game completing meaningless contracts on ordinary people, only to find out about it later and deal with it.

 

[NeonBlack]

Wouldn't change my enjoyment one bit.

 

[Revolsin]

In a more serious story, this could be played to a great heart-wrenching effect, especially if they were really good people.

It'd certainly be a far different experience, but not a bad one by any means. Like Undertale's Genocide. You know you're specifically killing good, genuinely nice people, but it evokes an interesting sensation. A unique perspective of a real 'villain'.

 

[carlsojo]

It would certainly make the game and story more interesting if the targets had varying degrees of innocence.

 

[Narroo]

The targets being evil makes it more feasible for them to be generally difficult to get to.

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This is a good point. If the guy you're aiming for is a Mafia boss, the level will be more interesting than if it's some random guy going through a divorce.

Also, given 47's status as the worlds best hitman -- and correspondingly expensive -- I wouldn't expect him to be hired for everyday people.

 

[Sharivan]

Killing bad people feels good. Killing good people is a turn off even in video games. I don't even like killing innocent NPCs in open world games.

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This. That is one of the reasons why I don't like games like GTA or God of War where you can kill innocent people. I know it is just a game but still.

Part of the reason why violence is entertaining in movies and games is because the bad guys deserve it.

 

[Deleted member 2317]

You sir are not a master assassin.

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lmao

 

[Yossarian]

Jesus lol.

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I'd nail him too. No questions asked.

 

[deepFlaw]

Ehh, I already feel bad enough anytime I have to murder an innocent bystander due to lack of throwable items or doing a challenge that effectively requires it. So I'd rather they stick with "bad" targets.

Plus part of the charm is how cartoonishly evil some of these people are.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

I would still play it but I find Hitman to be more interesting when it is morally grey.

 

[ArjanN]

They essentially already play with this a bit in most of the games.

I think making the targets the worst people in the world is generally a smart design choice as it helps avoid 47 becoming completely unlikeable.

Honestly if this series wasn't somewhat niche I don't think it would have ever gotten away with being the literal murder simulator a lot of other games have been accused of being.

 

[Deleted member 5359]

No, the game would completely fall apart if you were targeting good people. None of the humor would work, either.

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

I wouldnt care if they were saints.
Hitmen are businessmen its not about morals

 

[HellforLeather]

Yes, I always thought it was kinda bogus that all of 47's targets are some shit heel that deserves a dirt nap. Being a hitman, he should be amoral. Not all of the targets should be "good" people but not all of them should be bond villain levels of evil.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

I mean, I guess not?
Blowing up a mother of three 5 year old children would probably not as much fun as blowing up some evil rich asshole

Yes, I always thought it was kinda bogus that all of 47's targets are some shit heel that deserves a dirt nap. Being a hitman, he should be amoral. Not all of the targets should be "good" people but not all of them should be bond villain levels of evil.

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Not all of them are, but most.

 

[TheBored23]

I may have misread this, but in the final mission of Hitman 2, at least one of your targets

Spoiler: Sgail

is working to persuade the secret rulers of society to avert climate change.

At any rate, I'm not sure knocking out random people to steal their clothes is all that much better, morality-wise. Also, escalations and contracts in the recent games have you taking out NPCs without story justification (though you can write your own for contracts, which I do appreciate).

I like the comic tone as is, and I probably wouldn't have gotten into a darker/grittier version of Hitman, but 47 isn't exactly a force for justice and morality.

 

[GlitchyDegree]

it wouldn't make a difference to me. I usually kill everyone in a level anyway unless I'm going for a good score.

 

[Akela]

It is interesting how different Agent 47 is to an actual, real life hitman. In Hitman you play as someone who's really just a rogue James Bond, with the games generally taking most of their inspiration from those films as far as tone and aesthetic goes. Not really accurate to an actual real life hitman (although James Bond isn't exactly an accurate depiction of a spy either.)

 

[Damn Silly]

I mean, so long as the game mechanics are still the same, I think I would, but it'd definitely feel a little weird. A lot of the series dark humour --and power fantasy -- works because a lot of the people Agent 47 goes after are evil to an almost cartoonish degree.

I could see it working that a game's opening level/tutorial could have 47 and Diana tricked (although this has the issue where they look dumb for being tricked) into a contract on an innocent/good person. Would even help to explain the easiness of the tutorial in-game as most innocent people are obviously less likely to be concerned with bodyguards etc as they wouldn't need them like many of the targets do.

So I suppose I'm for it in specific situations.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

I don't think it would pass most age rating boards that way.

 

[Daniel Westlake]

Wasn't Sierra Knox in the Miami mission basically just a businesswoman and not really "bad" ? Her father was "bad" in conventional sense but she came across as just the heiress to his empire and was assassinated anyway. And Nolan Cassidy in Another Life is just a bodyguard who is just doing his job but simply works for the other side rather than an awful person.

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If I recall she participated to some degree in illegal arms trafficking.
---
There's a sliding scale to the relative "evil" of people 47 goes after so eh I don't know.

In any case this probably isn't ever going to be a series where you get a contract to murder someone giving out free hugs to puppies. unless it turns out those hugs are so they can implant them with micro bombs or something.

 

[Nintendo]

Yes, I actually want them to try it once at least. It would be an interesting twist.

 

[Gentlemen]

Ctrl + F "Patient Zero"

Huh.

Play the final mission of "Patient Zero" in the Legacy pack and let us know how it made you feel. It's extremely relevant to your point.

 

[Council Pop]

I'd actually like the villains in Hitman to be more comically evil (but still as aesthetically deadpan as they currently are).

 

[Sinder]

One of the things I miss most about the older games is them not going so hard on the "you only kill the worst of the worst" stuff. It felt more like you were an actual Hitman, sometimes the people were bad, sometimes they were just people doing their job the same way you are. Like the guy in the first mission in Blood Money, he was just a regular pathetic kind of guy who fucked up in life.

 

[00lsen]

It actually bothers me that each target is so grotesquely evil, would prefer more grey

 

[FakePlasticTree]

But you kill innocent people blocking your way to the target anyway

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If you play it badly, yeah.

 

[Vito]

Of course.

It's a fucking videogame FFS.

 

[FakePlasticTree]

One of the things I miss most about the older games is them not going so hard on the "you only kill the worst of the worst" stuff. It felt more like you were an actual Hitman, sometimes the people were bad, sometimes they were just people doing their job the same way you are. Like the guy in the first mission in Blood Money, he was just a regular pathetic kind of guy who fucked up in life.

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There is a similar scene to that of the Swing King in Hitman 2016

Though Jordan Cross's pretty unstable compared to Swing King. You do kill quite a few of the militia's top people, who aren't all that Evil.

 

[Sinder]

There is a similar scene to that of the Swing King in Hitman 2016

Though Jordan Cross's pretty unstable compared to Swing King. You do kill quite a few of the militia's top people, who aren't all that Evil.

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Oh man, that's really good. That's some Anton Chigurh shit I want to see more often. What story mission leads to that?

 

[FakePlasticTree]

Oh man, that's really good. That's some Anton Chigurh shit I want to see more often. What story mission leads to that?

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It's one of the special kills you can do thro7h one of the challenges called "Fade to Black" in Bangkok, it's pretty neat. The first part of the video shows how to get to it, basically, you have to get a hold of the videotape that shows how Cross kills his girlfriend, the reason why you are hired to murder him.

 

[MasterVampire]

If you play it badly, yeah.

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Meh If I want to shank some annoying maid or gardener I'll do it

 

[KillLaCam]

Yeah I love hitman but I'd enjoy it even more because we'd have a larger variety of targets. A super hitman isn't supposed to care about if the targets are good or bad.
But sometimes super bad people are great like in the final missions of 2.


Edit :
I don't think OP ment going around killing random people like hatred or anything lol. It could still be someone in a secret organization or whatever. Just have them not be doing evil things because they're evil .

I'm pretty sure that some bad people could afford to hire 47

 

[Dunston Chexxin]

It wouldn't be "fun", but it would make the narrative more interesting and nuanced.

 

[Sailent]

I don't think a lot of people would take kindly to a game about offing innocent people and idk if it'd sit right with me.

I'd like to think that the targets are scummy awful people because there's a sense of catharsis about it I guess.

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Hatred sold kind of good, din't it?

 

[KillLaCam]

It actually bothers me that each target is so grotesquely evil, would prefer more grey

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Yeah I'd be happy with this. I just want some more variety like Joseph Clarence

 

[Deleted member 39587]

Probably not - I like killing bad guys and I think this clear framing matters a lot to the Hitman series.

 

[droog]

If I'm roleplaying as a professional hitman then I would have no problem doing the job given. I'm not there to pass judgement necessarily.

 

[Starlatine]

The amount of people ive killed for their clothes in Hitman is comparable to bethesda open world games

 

[Deleted member 15428]

Well, Sean Bean is a good person...?

 

[Vilam]

I absolutely would. In fact, that sounds like a fun way to shake things up.

 

[Deleted member 14080]

No.

 

[Starlatine]

Well, Sean Bean is a good person...?

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boromir betrayed the hobbits

agent 47 is quite fond of the LoTR movies

 

[Hulohot]

It would be a great final mission to a Hitman game, having the target morally ambiguous, possibly even good and letting you decide how to deal with it.