Missing part in 47 story - the amnesia issue

[Snezz]

I've played every game except the first hitman: codename 47, so more or less [depending on my full of holes memory] i know the story of 47. The problem is our hero's amnesia - from what ive tried to find, he lost his memory during the 1st game, but it was regained at the very end. Couldnt find any specific info, so i'll just use my logic:
1. 47 regained his memory only partialy?
2. he regained his memory just for some time, and then all memories vanished again?
3. he got his brain wiped again?

From what ive been reading, season 1 and 2 are not reboots and they continue the canon, so either im missing something or there was an additional event of which we are not aware yet

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Snezz:

I've played every game except the first hitman: codename 47, so more or less [depending on my full of holes memory] i know the story of 47. The problem is our hero's amnesia - from what ive tried to find, he lost his memory during the 1st game, but it was regained at the very end. Couldnt find any specific info, so i'll just use my logic:
1. 47 regained his memory only partialy?
2. he regained his memory just for some time, and then all memories vanished again?
3. he got his brain wiped again?

From what ive been reading, season 1 and 2 are not reboots and they continue the canon, so either im missing something or there was an additional event of which we are not aware yet

Hitman (2016) is a "soft reboot" it changes 2 things, and ignores a tangent

Change 1: It includes a prologue from 1999 that takes place before the other games, it shows you the first time 47 works with Diana, it's not a huge change, but it's slightly different from how it was implied before. The prologue also sets up his rivalry with Eric Soders, a higher up in the chain of command that was never previously mentioned. Of course, you close the loop on that part of the story when you kill Soders (20 years later) in Hokkaido after he betrays the ICA himself.

Change 2: They made it canon that 47 ages slower and made him appear younger than he was in Absolution, also they ignore the scar he would have had from cutting himself on the barcode, either the cut was razor clean and healed without a mark or his regeneration closed it up without a scar, overall its a minor issue thats just glossed over

Tangent ignored: Absolution set up Birdie as betraying 47 and there was that cop on his trail, all of that's ignored. Of course, that was all 6 years before season 1 campaign so clearly it was taken care of, we just don't know the details (all other major story plots in absolution were closed, Diana's death was fake, the clone girl chose to not become an assassin, the rogue ICA manager and his agents along with his nun-squad are all dead, dexter and all of 47's major enemies are dead, etc

I don't know that his amnesia is explained well in any of the games, i know its mentioned he was mind wiped, but i cant actually recall when it was listed

Just to note the developers consider the books (novels and comic books) to be canon (but not the movies) so if you want "all" the story, you'll need to pick up the books too

There's a timeline here with major events listed:
https://hitman.fandom.com/wiki/Hitman_Timeline

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But you are correct, its not a full on reboot, just watch the prologue and you know that. The montage after he finishes training has clips of kills from all the previous games to show his career. There's a narrator talking about how he's been watching 47 all of his life and then boom you get dropped into they year 2019 in season 1, the watcher is finally making his move and all the past games were just 47's career leading up to this

[Snezz]

I totaly forgot about cutting out the barcode. That's actualy a big oversight from my perspective.

As for the Absolution and its consequences i assume they are sorted out during that 6 years before events of season 1. As you stated, in the legacy video we can see the targets from absolution and previous game so it has to be more or less canon.

Nevertheless, the amnesia part still bothers me. I checked the timeline before posting here, but couldnt find any answers to how he regained memory after that brain wipe in 1989. My assuption to keep it more or less logical is that 47 never actualy regained memory. He got the information about who he is from Ort-Meyer (last mission from C47, Meet your brother) and few other scraps of his history, but that's it. He "knows it" instead of "remembering" it.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Snezz:

I totaly forgot about cutting out the barcode. That's actualy a big oversight from my perspective.

As for the Absolution and its consequences i assume they are sorted out during that 6 years before events of season 1. As you stated, in the legacy video we can see the targets from absolution and previous game so it has to be more or less canon.

Nevertheless, the amnesia part still bothers me. I checked the timeline before posting here, but couldnt find any answers to how he regained memory after that brain wipe in 1989. My assuption to keep it more or less logical is that 47 never actualy regained memory. He got the information about who he is from Ort-Meyer (last mission from C47, Meet your brother) and few other scraps of his history, but that's it. He "knows it" instead of "remembering" it.

We don't really see what damage he did to the barcode, he runs a knife through it, but we don't see him removing flaps of skin, then its got a bandaid over it the rest of the game

It could be assumed all he did was cut a line in it, and considering his regen factor it would just heal over and wasnt cut deep enough to remove the ink

I mean if he had actually removed a big chunk of skin he would have needed more than a bandaid

I've had razorsharp cuts myself that didn't leave scars, you really only get scars if the skin is jagged when cut

[Snezz]

Seems irrational for 47 to just slice himself and slap a bandaid over it, knowing it wont do much.

[cayreet]

The soft reboot seems to go with full amnesia about what happened during his childhood and youth - before he turned up at the ICA, basically. I could spoiler something Hitman 2 related, but I won't.

[Flatline]

"I've played every game except the first hitman: codename 47"

No reason not to trot over to GOG.com and grab a copy. Worth it for the music alone.

[Abacus]

I belive Hitman contracts is largley of retelling of codename 47, right?

Like half the missions are flashbacks, he even saves agent smith.

[Heru Ra Ha]

Originally posted by Mysto:

I belive Hitman contracts is largley of retelling of codename 47, right?

Like half the missions are flashbacks, he even saves agent smith.

Yeah it was like a "best of" game if you will, instead of being a true sequel. It had new missions and revisited old ones, ofc remastered with new mechanics. He had those flashbacks due to being shot and wounded in an appartment iirc ... was a nice dark game.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Heru Ra Ha:

Originally posted by Mysto:

I belive Hitman contracts is largley of retelling of codename 47, right?

Like half the missions are flashbacks, he even saves agent smith.

Yeah it was like a "best of" game if you will, instead of being a true sequel. It had new missions and revisited old ones, ofc remastered with new mechanics. He had those flashbacks due to being shot and wounded in an appartment iirc ... was a nice dark game.

Contracts as a game existed for two reasons and it's simplified plot was a result if it's timing

So, first came codename 47, it was PC only, sales were OK, but not great. ioi was an independent studio, struggled to put out the game but suceeded, they needed a publisher to make the physical discs and partnered with Eidos

Eidos saw the sales as future potential and bought ioi studio then financed a sequel with the requirement that it be both PC and console release

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin was a huge success, particularly on consoles, PC sales were OK but not nearly what consoles were

Due to the success of Silent Assassin Eidos immediately greenlit another game: Blood Money

But wait, where's contracts?

Partway through development of Blood Money they were still in the process of revamping the Glacier Engine (which they had developed for Codename 47 and also used for Silent Assassin) when they realized that they were going to need more time to finish, Blood Money was going to end up with a 4 year development time

During the course of updating the glacier engine some of the team had been using old codename 47 maps to experiment with and the decision was made to flesh that out into it's own game on a much faster deadline

So, without coming up with any major new story Contracts was born using levels from codename 47 and bits of what was already planned for Blood Money which was still going to need a couple more years to finish

So they released Contracts as a thank you to console fans who had never had a chance to play codename 47 and a simultaneous test for some of the changes they were making to glacier for Blood Money