Hitman: Codename 47 Strategy Guide

Written by:
Keyan Farlander ([email protected])

You are Codename 47, a hitman with nerves of steel and a heart to match. You slip into bustling cities all over the world, sent by a mysterious Agency to take out a crime lord here, blow up a car there – and occasionally even save someone or retrieve something, and then slip back out unnoticed. Some of the people you’ve been contracted to kill may be expecting you at their doorstep. To succeed – and survive – you must always stay one step ahead.

This is not your normal walkthrough

This is because Hitman is an extremely flexible, open-ended game. There are countless ways of executing a mission (and people!) with different combinations of weapons and equipment. Whether you take out only your intended target or wreak havoc on an entire building of workers depends on which side of the bed you got out of in the morning. But first, you should know the rules.

Firstly, keep your trigger finger in check

This is no game of Doom. As a professional killer, you are paid hefty sums of money for eliminating dangerous people. How much you bring back home at the end of the day reflects how good – or bad – you are as an assassin. Of course, the Agency exerts a great deal of caution to make sure that none of the assassinations can be traced back to them, which means that they have to sneak in a cleaner after every mission to make sure you haven’t made a complete mess of things. The messier things are, the less banknotes line your back pocket.

Who you should not kill

No civilians, and most certainly no policemen. Ethics aside (and Agent 47 has none), killing innocents is a financial no-no. For each civilian you plug, a fairly large amount of dosh will be subtracted from your pay. Killing policemen will leave you with even less money – not only are the police devilishly hard to bribe, but there is always the chance that one of their buddies will recognize you in the future. Lose enough money, and you’ll get a boot planted on your ass on your way out the door. And where does that leave you? Unemployed, with an empty bank account.

Who you can kill

Henchmen, bodyguards, allies of your target – and just about everybody else whose gun you’re going to wind up on the business end of. Go ahead and waste them. Unless, of course, your mission briefing says otherwise…

Oh, and take out the dogs as well – don’t worry, the animal rights activists will never get to you. The only good dog in this game is a dead one.

Strategies

To stay ahead of your enemies, you must learn to think as a hitman. Will you be sniping a person from a distance, or will you sneak up behind him and let him have it with your knife? If you use a gun, what are the chances that somebody will hear you? Do you know where your escape vehicle is?

1. Read your mission briefing!

There is nothing quite like jumping straight into the action without knowing what you’re up against, what you’re supposed to do – or what weapons you have - and then finding yourself on the business end of a big bad weapon. Reading the notes on your targets could save your life, or at the very least, help you realise your mission objectives. Don’t rely on the agency for choice of weapons – do the shopping yourself, or you’ll regret it when you’re caught in a sticky situation with weapons you don’t know how to use.

2. Familiarize yourself with the territory

Unless time is of great essence, spend some time exploring getting familiar with the area. Take note of places you can hide or take cover in the event of a shootout, how many guards there are and how likely killing them will bring an army of harpies on your head. Mark possible targets for your hit-and-steal-clothes operations – the solitary ones are always the best (assuming you can find places to hide their corpses). Take the time to plan your mission in detail – and consult your map!

3. Use stealth wherever possible

Don’t try to take everybody out. It’s all well and good if you’re an incredibly accurate shot (the agency might be hiring), but firearms will draw plenty of attention that you most certainly won’t need, especially not if it means that your target is going to scramble out of the place, leaving you in some corner with half his army aiming their guns at you. If you must kill a guard, try to make it as quiet as possible so that the guy next door doesn’t hear you. Learn to sneak up to an enemy with a close contact weapon, and to lean sideways from hiding places to attack without warning. But for heaven’s sake, if you can’t be quiet, then be thorough in your psychotic bloodbath and make sure you get everybody before they squeal.

If you must use a gun to dispose of an enemy, make sure you kill him with your first shot. If you miss – or if you make a non-fatal shot – the enemy is going to work up a hell of a commotion, and his fellow guards will be upon you before you can shout Holy Bazooka! A clean head shot will always do the trick.

4. Remember to hide the corpses

5. Stealing clothes from corpses

It never fails to amaze me how, no matter what size or shape the enemy comes in, Agent 47 is able to fit comfortably in their uniforms. Obtaining a disguise by stealing clothes from dead enemies means access to certain locations that you certainly won’t be able to enter as a civilian. Play it cool – keep moving, don’t run, and don’t look your enemy in the eye – and you should be able to slip in and out just about everywhere without raising an alarm. Just remember to hide the body first! If they find it, your cover is blown to kingdom come. Changing clothes before dragging the body away is generally regarded as tasteless and unprofessional.

6. Don’t be caught at the scene of the crime

Fortunately for you, most of the enemies in this game are incredibly stupid (they were probably hired for brawn over brains). This means that if you’re not caught in the act of killing somebody, they probably won’t associate the murder with you – provided, of course, that you’re not stupid enough to hang around the body.

7. Watch out for witnesses

Before you kill anyone, make sure that there’s nobody around to witness your sin. Civilians will scream and run for the police; policemen and enemy guards will simply shoot and ask no questions.

8. Know what weapons to use

Know how each weapon in your inventory behaves, and when to use it. Close contact weapons are usually the best for taking out the solitary guard without raising an alarm, but a fibre wire must be pulled out and readied before you attack. Silenced pistols are good for when you have an enemy somewhere close by, but cannot silence using close contact weapons. Rifles are good when you have a number of guards in one room that need taking care of; if they’re close by, a submachine gun will do in a pinch. A shotgun is useless unless you intend to get up close and personal; if you’re very far away, and can’t get any closer without compromising your identity or presence, use a sniper rifle.

9. Do you know where your car is?

There is nothing worse than fulfilling all your mission objectives and finding that you don’t know just where your getaway vehicle is – or that, thanks to the chaos you have generated, you can’t get to it.

One last note

This strategy guide only suggests weapons that you can buy and courses of action you can take. However, you should go along with whatever you’re comfortable with. If you feel safer with two guns, then by all means bring two guns. If you want to take everybody out, go right ahead. It’s up to you. Just try not to get shot.