Map analysis - Santa Fortuna

[burningmime]

Looking at the poll ratings, Colombia is one of the lowest-rated maps, middling around 15th or 16th place. This doesn't surprise me too much, since on first play, it seems a little wonky. It's large and complex, very flat with little verticality, and somewhat disjointed into 5 distinct areas. However, the more I play it, the more I see what they were going for, and think it is a great example of a WoA map, with tons of exploration and replayability. Although I would rank it 4th or 5th in Hitman 2, that speaks more to the strength of those levels than to the weaknesses of Santa Fortuna. Santa Fortuna takes some time to appreciate, but it is a really cool map.

Colombia is the largest map in the series if you measure only the boundaries of the map (Mumbai has more traversible space). You can split it into 5 areas: the town (including the construction site and fishing village), the mansion, the coca fields, the caves, and the jungle (you could combine or split some of these areas, but for argument's sake, let's take those 5). The caves and jungle are used only for certain mission stories in the main mission, and the special assignment takes place exclusively in the jungle. Several escalations take you to all of these areas.

The town is decent to good. It sets itself apart from the other cities and towns in the series because it is rural and poor. While Mumbai's slums are also an example of poverty, they're far more well-healed than the shanties of Santa Fortuna. Each building has a detailed interior (compare to H3, where the insides of buildings in Chongqing and parts of Berlin are just empty), but that might have been wasted effort on the devs' part, since you rarely have reason to visit any of them. Martinez's compound is one of the smallest target areas in the game, and Martinez's loop is also tiny. The construction site is nice, although also not used for much. The fishing village is the star of the village, being a small but meaty area to explore with some verticality, although the main mission gives you little reason to (just the submarine dude).

The opulence of the mansion provides a strong contrast to the poverty of the villiage. It's actually a fairly interesting area, with a lot of distinct-feeling rooms (a bar for goons, a museum, a hippo pool, a money counting room, a garage, a torture chamber -- hey, those are the same rooms I have in my house!). Ultimately, though, I feel like this is one of the lesser mansions in the series (compare to Sapienza or Dartmoor). The layout is quite geometrical and the areas where Delgado hangs out are the worst parts of the mansion. I had no idea there even was a garage, torture chamber, or extensive kitchens until I played some escalations. There's also an issue with this area being too locked down. There are TONS of guards and security cameras making suit only a PITA, and even in a disguise, there are enforcers everywhere for the guard, staff, and cook disguises. Exploring it becomes a chore at times.

My first impression of the coca fields was that it was a tech demo for the hiding-in-bushes technology. I've grown to like it a bit more, but it does feel a bit like they were just cramming stuff in without much thought as to placement or design. There are 4 too-small sheds just kind of scattered amongst the plants, which makes it nice to move around in suit only, but it doesn't really make much sense. The devs clearly spent time investigating the cocaine production process and there's a lot of details I'm probably missing. Still, this area feels very flat and disjointed.

The caves and sub are a neat touch, although used only for 1 1/2 mission stories. Like the mansion, they're VERY locked-down, making suit only an exercise in patience and/or frustration, and unless you have the sub engineer disguise, there are enforcers all over the place. Still there are lots of neat objects to toss around and intel to find.

The jungle is the most unique thing about the map. Santa Fortuna is the only map in the series to attempt a natural area on any scale. The results are surperb, both visually and gameplay-wise (and certainly fare better than the similar jungle on Haven Island). There's lots of ways to traverse between ledges and zones. The area is small, which isn't a problem in the main mission, but when they cram in a bunch of guards for the special assignment (where you have to kill the hunter), it turns into a disaster. I don't think this is as much a failing of the jungle itself as it is that one assignment however. I loved finding the altar, too -- lots of cool details to look out for here!

The targets and mission stories here are some of the better ones in H2. Rico Delgado's stories are very good -- the statue one is great; 47 on the drums always gets a laugh from me. The hippo one is pretty good too, I love the idea of a "hippo whisperer," and reading between the lines it seems like the hippo has developed an addiciton to cocaine, from being fed dead bodies filled with it, and now will only eat meat hoping it has some Colombian Marching Powder in it. The tattoo one is boring and straightforward, although it's a cool connection that Dexy Barret is P-Power's manager. I also appreciate that Rico is the *only* character in the series to question one of 47's disguises (commenting that his cheekbones look different from P-Power on TV). The sub one is just "press button to overload," but it looks cool.

Andrea Martinez's area and main loop is small, but her mission stories are decent -- I love getting the shaman outfit, collecting followers, blessing the site, etc; it's both fun and funny. Letter thing is OK, but considering how much work it is (and how easy Andrea is to take out without it), it doesn't have much payoff.

Franco is less exciting, although he has a few neat quirks, like searching the forest for rare flowers. Killing him in the machine is just so by-the-numbers. Repairing the bus for the hippie is okay I guess. But Franco has a reasonable loop and a large enough area that you can kind of create your own mission stories and ways to kill him.

Writing this made me realize that Santa Fortuna has tons of flaws, and probably deserves some of the hate it gets. But I also have tremendous respect for what the artists and deisgners accomplished here, on such a large scale. It's NOT better than the sum of its parts; in fact it's probably worse because of how much was crammed in. But the stunning visuals, cool theme, and sheer variety of content here makes it a level worth exploring. If you wrote off Santa Fortuna as just a filler level, now'd your chance to go back. Try a few escalations. You might be surprised.

[lexilogo]

IMO Santa Fortuna would've been served well by some kind of major timesaver or something along the lines of Soders' heart destruction in Situs Inversus, better ways to get the targets to meet up, or etc.

This might be a controversial take, but if you could poison + repair the cocaine souvenir and cause the hippie to notice it's been repaired, I think he should've picked it up and delivered it to Jorge Franco himself. IMO that would've gone miles in cutting out some of Santa Fortuna's fat once players discovered that shortcut.

[burningmime]

Originally posted by lexilogo:

IMO Santa Fortuna would've been served well by some kind of major timesaver or something along the lines of Soders' heart destruction in Situs Inversus, better ways to get the targets to meet up, or etc.

This might be a controversial take, but if you could poison + repair the cocaine souvenir and cause the hippie to notice it's been repaired, I think he should've picked it up and delivered it to Jorge Franco himself. IMO that would've gone miles in cutting out some of Santa Fortuna's fat once players discovered that shortcut.

Agree with both those suggestions.

Making targets meet/move is something that H3 does really well and is important for setting up new kill types as well as making use of more of the map. For example, if you deliver Hector's letter, that could make Andrea go to meet up with Hector, and then Rico gets suspicious and wants to follow them. Boom 2 targets at once in some part of the jungle in a way that doesn't feel cheap. Or maybe Franco could come out to meet the Shaman at the construction site.

Fixing the souvenier for a long range kill would be good for multiple/speed runs, and a general QoL improvement overall.