Why don't npcs react to blood puddles? Did they fix this in hitman 3?

[Kenny]

I have never understood why in hitman 2016 and 2018 npcs don't react to puddles. This game has some cool gore for example when you hit them with axe. Blood comes out and if you drag the body it gets all covered in blood, and of course you have then the puddle.

Why isn't this here? I remember back in 2016 npcs couldn't see you in mirrors. They fixed this in hitman 2 but for some reason they never ever did anything about the blood, and I find it immersion breaking to see npcs just walking on it without saying anything. This was even in blood money why is it not here ?!

Did they change this in hitman 3?

[hoby19]

The only new features are the camera to take pictures and hacking doors, etc, and the permanent shortcuts, but it's nothing new, it's like they locked some things that normally would be accessible just to make you feel that you're unlocking shortcuts

[Kunovega]

It's not changed, there's a flawed line drawn between the game being a puzzle box that just happens to involve killing people and the current dev team seems to lean away from anything that brings attention to the blood/gore.

It's the same line of thinking that causes the majority of targets to be cartoonish evil archetypes so that you can play at being a hero and not just a contract killer.

The world we live in has evolved this PG-13 quasi-feel-good goal of making violence child-friendly instead of embracing it for what it really is. Media have been softly moving in this direction for decades. If you look at even something like Batman, in the early comics he carried a gun and wasn't afraid to kill people. But the current mythology he only beats people up and the dark theme only goes skin deep.

Hitman's evolved similar, 47 is no longer the cold sociopath that kills for money but is now the misunderstood James Bond of the underworld. He's only one step removed from being Batman and no longer killing his targets. Next step up he would leave them tied up with a suitcase of evidence for the cops to find.

Blood is scary, Hitman needs to be a safe-space to kill only bad guys and the bullet wounds should all grow flowers and rainbows.

/s

[hoby19]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

It's not changed, there's a flawed line drawn between the game being a puzzle box that just happens to involve killing people and the current dev team seems to lean away from anything that brings attention to the blood/gore.

It's the same line of thinking that causes the majority of targets to be cartoonish evil archetypes so that you can play at being a hero and not just a contract killer.

The world we live in has evolved this PG-13 quasi-feel-good goal of making violence child-friendly instead of embracing it for what it really is. Media have been softly moving in this direction for decades. If you look at even something like Batman, in the early comics he carried a gun and wasn't afraid to kill people. But the current mythology he only beats people up and the dark theme only goes skin deep.

Hitman's evolved similar, 47 is no longer the cold sociopath that kills for money but is now the misunderstood James Bond of the underworld. He's only one step removed from being Batman and no longer killing his targets. Next step up he would leave them tied up with a suitcase of evidence for the cops to find.

Blood is scary, Hitman needs to be a safe-space to kill only bad guys and the bullet wounds should all grow flowers and rainbows.

/s :Rubber_Duck:

You're absolutely right. When I was killing the target at Hokkaido, I remember using the USB with the kill list of the target and made the chief surgeon learn the truth about his patient. For a second there I though that I was doing the right thing, and then I remembered that I was also a hitman that is in no way better than the target, but they got me for a moment

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

It's not changed, there's a flawed line drawn between the game being a puzzle box that just happens to involve killing people and the current dev team seems to lean away from anything that brings attention to the blood/gore.

It's the same line of thinking that causes the majority of targets to be cartoonish evil archetypes so that you can play at being a hero and not just a contract killer.

The world we live in has evolved this PG-13 quasi-feel-good goal of making violence child-friendly instead of embracing it for what it really is. Media have been softly moving in this direction for decades. If you look at even something like Batman, in the early comics he carried a gun and wasn't afraid to kill people. But the current mythology he only beats people up and the dark theme only goes skin deep.

Hitman's evolved similar, 47 is no longer the cold sociopath that kills for money but is now the misunderstood James Bond of the underworld. He's only one step removed from being Batman and no longer killing his targets. Next step up he would leave them tied up with a suitcase of evidence for the cops to find.

Blood is scary, Hitman needs to be a safe-space to kill only bad guys and the bullet wounds should all grow flowers and rainbows.

/s :Rubber_Duck:

Blood is scary you say but this is in the game. I don't see how npcs not reacting to blood has anything to do with this child friendly argument.

I get it for the cartoonish evil targets (even though that ceases to be the point when you look at player contracts or even escalations where you are killing random npcs which are most of the time innocents.)

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Kenny:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

It's not changed, there's a flawed line drawn between the game being a puzzle box that just happens to involve killing people and the current dev team seems to lean away from anything that brings attention to the blood/gore.

It's the same line of thinking that causes the majority of targets to be cartoonish evil archetypes so that you can play at being a hero and not just a contract killer.

The world we live in has evolved this PG-13 quasi-feel-good goal of making violence child-friendly instead of embracing it for what it really is. Media have been softly moving in this direction for decades. If you look at even something like Batman, in the early comics he carried a gun and wasn't afraid to kill people. But the current mythology he only beats people up and the dark theme only goes skin deep.

Hitman's evolved similar, 47 is no longer the cold sociopath that kills for money but is now the misunderstood James Bond of the underworld. He's only one step removed from being Batman and no longer killing his targets. Next step up he would leave them tied up with a suitcase of evidence for the cops to find.

Blood is scary, Hitman needs to be a safe-space to kill only bad guys and the bullet wounds should all grow flowers and rainbows.

/s

Blood is scary you say but this is in the game. I don't see how npcs not reacting to blood has anything to do with this child friendly argument.

I get it for the cartoonish evil targets (even though that ceases to be the point when you look at player contracts or even escalations where you are killing random npcs which are most of the time innocents.)

I'm not saying I agree with the design, you might have noticed the /s for sarcasm.

I simply recognize the PG-13 wash that the developers are using to skate by with a game that only toys at being a killer instead of embracing it with all of its potential for violence, blood and gore.

From the very beginning Hitman has always danced around the line of what is and is not "too-far" when it comes to being a contract killer, I can only point out that the latest games lean much farther into the clean-image feel-good style than the old ones which weren't afraid of blood dynamics, disgusting locations and at least dipping your toes into the fact that we are murdering for money and that it does in fact involve getting bloody once in a while.

Can you even imagine the current dev team attempting a mission like the Meat King these days?

Even the Ark Society is like a childish masquerade with a couple of society sisters compared to the adult-themed party that was the Heaven & Hell Club from A Dance With The Devil in Blood Money.

I like the new games for their basic mechanics and puzzle clockwork kills, but I'm not a fan of the current story or the missing design elements that convert the style from adult material down to b-grade PG-13 murder mystery.

[Wintermute]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

It's the same line of thinking that causes the majority of targets to be cartoonish evil archetypes so that you can play at being a hero and not just a contract killer.

Let's be honest, it was like that since forever. The only "not bad" guys I can recall in the whole series are Bosco from Icon mission, and that private investigator in Contracts.

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Kenny:

Blood is scary you say but this is in the game. I don't see how npcs not reacting to blood has anything to do with this child friendly argument.

I get it for the cartoonish evil targets (even though that ceases to be the point when you look at player contracts or even escalations where you are killing random npcs which are most of the time innocents.)

I'm not saying I agree with the design, you might have noticed the /s for sarcasm.

I simply recognize the PG-13 wash that the developers are using to skate by with a game that only toys at being a killer instead of embracing it with all of its potential for violence, blood and gore.

From the very beginning Hitman has always danced around the line of what is and is not "too-far" when it comes to being a contract killer, I can only point out that the latest games lean much farther into the clean-image feel-good style than the old ones which weren't afraid of blood dynamics, disgusting locations and at least dipping your toes into the fact that we are murdering for money and that it does in fact involve getting bloody once in a while.

Can you even imagine the current dev team attempting a mission like the Meat King these days?

Even the Ark Society is like a childish masquerade with a couple of society sisters compared to the adult-themed party that was the Heaven & Hell Club from A Dance With The Devil in Blood Money.

I like the new games for their basic mechanics and puzzle clockwork kills, but I'm not a fan of the current story or the missing design elements that convert the style from adult material down to b-grade PG-13 murder mystery.

I agree with you yes. Yeah I remember those adult themed missions in blood money. That and the fact that we actually got money for these and then bought equipment with it, even having our own safe house... Yeah I really miss that.

I liek the level design of the new games, the mechanics, the graphics, but the elements you mentioned definitely lack in this. It's probably the reason why some people still claim blood money is the best in the series.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Wintermute:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

It's the same line of thinking that causes the majority of targets to be cartoonish evil archetypes so that you can play at being a hero and not just a contract killer.

Let's be honest, it was like that since forever. The only "not bad" guys I can recall in the whole series are Bosco from Icon mission, and that private investigator in Contracts.

Codename 47 has you kill workers and guards that are in the way. Absolution has you kill police for being in the way. Blood Money you kill an innocent priest just to eliminate him as a witness. There's numerous others spread throughout the series here and there and that's ignoring that some of the targets are bad people, but not necessarily deserving of death (and who are you to decide anyway?) so when you kill the owner of park at the beginning of blood money, that's pure revenge for the family of some people who lost relatives in a park accident. Was he negligent? Sure, but the law doesn't typically hand out a death sentence for negligence.

I'm not against any of this, but innocent or at least grey-area kills used to be more central along with the simple fact that we were killing for money regardless if it was revenge or not. It's really just more that both absolution and the latest are all just 47 not even being a contract killer anymore, he's on a personal vendetta. While the other games had a backdrop of this to some degree, it was never the main focus but for those.

The elusive targets and bonus missions delve a bit into that with the new games, but the elusives don't even repeat. We killed Gary Busey simply for walking off the set of a commercial and costing the company money, but that target wasn't even repeated again and so on.

Like I said, the devs dance with the line and always have, it's just they are currently leaning much farther into the clean look.

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Wintermute:

Let's be honest, it was like that since forever. The only "not bad" guys I can recall in the whole series are Bosco from Icon mission, and that private investigator in Contracts.

Codename 47 has you kill workers and guards that are in the way. Absolution has you kill police for being in the way. Blood Money you kill an innocent priest just to eliminate him as a witness. There's numerous others spread throughout the series here and there and that's ignoring that some of the targets are bad people, but not necessarily deserving of death (and who are you to decide anyway?) so when you kill the owner of park at the beginning of blood money, that's pure revenge for the family of some people who lost relatives in a park accident. Was he negligent? Sure, but the law doesn't typically hand out a death sentence for negligence.

I'm not against any of this, but innocent or at least grey-area kills used to be more central along with the simple fact that we were killing for money regardless if it was revenge or not. It's really just more that both absolution and the latest are all just 47 not even being a contract killer anymore, he's on a personal vendetta. While the other games had a backdrop of this to some degree, it was never the main focus but for those.

The elusive targets and bonus missions delve a bit into that with the new games, but the elusives don't even repeat. We killed Gary Busey simply for walking off the set of a commercial and costing the company money, but that target wasn't even repeated again and so on.

Like I said, the devs dance with the line and always have, it's just they are currently leaning much farther into the clean look.

hmm, killing innocent people who are in the way doesn't sound much silent assassin :/

[Velber]

wait what? they always reacted for me, but wouldnt be alert for as long as if it was a dead body

[Velber]

Originally posted by Kenny:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Codename 47 has you kill workers and guards that are in the way. Absolution has you kill police for being in the way. Blood Money you kill an innocent priest just to eliminate him as a witness. There's numerous others spread throughout the series here and there and that's ignoring that some of the targets are bad people, but not necessarily deserving of death (and who are you to decide anyway?) so when you kill the owner of park at the beginning of blood money, that's pure revenge for the family of some people who lost relatives in a park accident. Was he negligent? Sure, but the law doesn't typically hand out a death sentence for negligence.

I'm not against any of this, but innocent or at least grey-area kills used to be more central along with the simple fact that we were killing for money regardless if it was revenge or not. It's really just more that both absolution and the latest are all just 47 not even being a contract killer anymore, he's on a personal vendetta. While the other games had a backdrop of this to some degree, it was never the main focus but for those.

The elusive targets and bonus missions delve a bit into that with the new games, but the elusives don't even repeat. We killed Gary Busey simply for walking off the set of a commercial and costing the company money, but that target wasn't even repeated again and so on.

Like I said, the devs dance with the line and always have, it's just they are currently leaning much farther into the clean look.

hmm, killing innocent people who are in the way doesn't sound much silent assassin :/

which is why i rarely ever get silent assassin =)

[Kenny]

Originally posted by Traveler in the Dark:

wait what? they always reacted for me, but wouldnt be alert for as long as if it was a dead body

They don't react to any kind of blood.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Traveler in the Dark:

wait what? they always reacted for me, but wouldnt be alert for as long as if it was a dead body

At no point in the current trilogy does anyone react to blood pools

They respond to noise and dead bodies, and the noise is only an alert, the dead body is also held against you for points/rating

[Duckilous]

This kind of feature was actually implemented in Absolution which runs on the same engine as the newer HITMAN games so I believe this feature was cut.
I mean Absolution is nearly mechanically identical to the newer games but with some quirks, such as the disguise and scoring system being drastically different, so I can see how the "discovering blood pool" feature could've been reimplmented in the newer games.

Come to think of it, I wonder if this feature was in the alpha version of HITMAN (2016).
There's some features in the alpha build that never made it to the final trilogy.

[Bouncer]

Should be noted you can go through Absolution without killing any non-targets, save for some guards in the tutorial. Though I don't know if it's canon that 47 killed a bunch of cops in Absolution.

But generally if you land on 47's hitlist, you aren't a good person. Always has been the case. Blood Money had 47 kill 3 innocent people, but also drug lords, pedophiles, psychos, and I think a nazi.

Newer games aren't too much different. The targets are never fully innocent, but there's more targets that are sympathetic or less evil than 47 compared to older games. Helps that all of them are way more fleshed out too.

I do wish we got to kill a nazi again though.

But yeah the games did get safer and cleaner. Partly because of the ratings, but also it feels like 47 got some serious power creep. 47 used to be a damn good contract killer who'd sometimes get tough assignments.
Now he is the bestest assassin to have ever lived and only the contracts that send him after the leaders of the deep state's deep state will give him a challenge.