I love the Hitman games. Particularly the re-booted entries in the series (aptly names “Hitman” and “Hitman 2“).

The never-ending opportunities to approach a map and target appeal to me greatly, and whilst I’m not always the slickest assassin out there. I tend to get the job done and get the hell out of town.

One really interesting part of the newly rebooted series is the addition of “Elusive Targets”. A limited-time event, whereby a new target would appear in one of the maps, and you’d be tasked with a new mission. If you mess it up, you’ve had your chance. Wait for the next one, or wait for that target to roll-around again in the future.

With leaderboards to see who does it the quickest/cleanest, and a plethora of videos, the prospect of these short-lived events has always appealed to me. Alas, I never did any.

Along comes Hitman 2, and I believe the very first Elusive Target was revealed to be Mark Faba, played and modelled on none-other than Sean Bean!

Sean Bean is Mark Faba

Now, at the time, I hadn’t purchased Hitman 2, so I was a little gutted that I wouldn’t get a shot at Mr Bean himself.

There’s backstory, a proper brief, the lot. IO Interactive aren’t messing about. So I watched a few videos, had a good chuckle and thought to myself “one day, I’ll get him”.

Well, I got Hitman 2, played through a good chunk of the story missions (all bloody brilliant by the way! I’m doing a review over at ninjarefinery.com) and different Elusive Targets have popped up. But not Mark Faba.

If I was going to do my first one, I want Sean Bean to pop my cherry. So I waited.

Then, in a roadmap released just after Christmas, I saw that Mark Faba (Sean Bean) was to be an Elusive Target again in January (this week!!). That was it, updates installed, I was ready to go.

Now……I haven’t played Hitman in a couple of months, nor have I watched many videos on the best routes/methods. I figured it would all come back to me, and I’d wing it.

There’s something equally satisfying about getting the job done on a wing and a prayer, as there is in meticulous planning and execution. Problem is, I forgot that it’s a one-time deal. You mess it up, you’re done.

I think we all know where it goes from here, don’t we?

I even streamed the bloody thing over on Mixer. Thirteen minutes of absolute nonsense.

Starting out well-enough, getting an outfit, getting introduced to the man himself (they say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but he seemed cool enough for a contract killer). With a vague recollection of what was to be done, I left the meeting and went to explore. Forgetting about the target for a few minutes. Then suddenly……..I had no idea where he was.

It’s fine, I remember that he should come to this room soon, so I’ll carry on. No drama.

Well……don’t shoot people unless you’re certain that armed guards aren’t watching. Then, don’t shoot the armed guard, forget the reload button and drop your weapon, in front of other armed guards. Yeah. I’m a tool. I blew what might be my only shot at assassinating the man that’s been killed so many times already.

So, yeah. Ignore what they say, meet your heroes. But don’t waste your chance to kill them!

Hitman is an amazing series and I’d love for it to continue forevermore.

This is a bit of a silly piece (all true, mind!). But that’s kind of the point. There’s so much fun to be had in these wonderfully designed sandboxes.

IO Interactive work tirelessly on them, and it shows. Hitman and Hitman 2 are outstanding, truly excellent. A combination of stealth and puzzle games, there’s very little that I enjoy quite so much as these games.

If you haven’t yet. Give it a try.

Until we meet again Mark Faba….next time, I’ll be practised and ready for you, you silver fox.

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