Today, we lay the groundwork to kill a harmless old lady.

The more I play these Elusive Targets, the more I realize something I’m not sure I like. They do a great job and being the closest thing one can get to being a Hitman. There’s no denying the thrill that comes from making your attempt and knowing that if you screw up, it’s over. I won’t deny that in the slightest, and I overall enjoy my time attempting them, success or failure.

That said, the large opportunity cost for failure, where you can no longer attempt the target if you die, and cannot restart once objectives are completed, discourage players from playing the game in the way that is the most fun.

I have a problem I spoke of earlier in stealth games, where I restart the moment I am detected and try again. I’m trying to break myself of that habit for a good reason. A lot of the fun of playing Hitman comes from letting a mistake occur and just rolling with it. The game’s systems encourage players to improvise and figure out how to take a bad situation and salvage it so that they can still kill their target.

The Elusive Targets, as brilliant as they are, severely discourage this kind of play. When the player is detected during an Elusive Target, they have every incentive to immediately restart and make a fresh attempt. You see this occur several times in this episode alone, and it’s partly because the high risk discourages any form of risk-taking. The fact that bonuses are awarded for Silent Assassin kills during Elusive Targets further disincentives it, because you cannot even be detected when going for that ranking.

I’m not sure how you solve that problem either, because the draw of an Elusive Target is that it’s such a high risk environment. At the same time, this high risk prevents Hitman from being the tense and exciting game of improvised murder that it wants to be at its core.

Tough problem. Worth thinking about.

In this episode, The Chef’s goose is cooked.

If you’re curious about the Elusive Target suit rewards, IO published the below chart regarding how to unlock each one…

As I said in the video, this gives the player an interest in getting Silent Assassin that just didn’t exist prior to Elusive Target #14: The Chef. Now that there are rewards for a Silent Assassin rating, I expect players, like me, who were previously quite reckless, are much more methodical than they used to be.

I didn’t think about it in the video, but that really adds to the experience of the Elusive Targets. These targets are supposed to be the “ultimate Hitman experience” since players can only make a single attempt at them.

Now, not only do they get a single attempt, but they have an interest in being as stealthy and incognito as possible.

Another week, another Elusive Target. This time, we take out a character who is legally distinct from TV’s Gordon Ramsay.

In today’s video, I made a slight error. I had said that both where the target goes, and what he does at each location, is semi-random. In truth, The Chef’s routine, in terms of where he goes, is set. He will visit each location in the same order every time. That said, what he does at each location is semi-random. The idea is that players need to improvise, since they can’t know what he’s going to do.

In practice, it’s just a form of delayed gratification. Most of the methods the player could come up with will work. The only difference will be the amount of time it will take the target to get into the right position for that method to work.

As an example from the very video, I poisoned the Caviar extremely early on because it’s such an obvious addition to the level. I know that he’s going to eat it eventually, but it might take him a while due to the semi-randomness in his routine.

So while I appreciate the effort but into making players improvise, it didn’t really work out.

Welcome to the end of the Summer Bonus Episodes.

I’m still very impressed with how much effort had to have been put into making these Summer Bonus Episodes. They’re obviously much more limited in scope when compared to regular story missions, but it’s also obvious that a lot of love when into them.

We’re be doing some more Elusive Targets in the next few weeks to come. I hope to see you then.

In our return trip to Marrakesh, we meet and murder new and fascinating people in the second of two Summer Bonus Episodes.

I’ve said Hitman is a lot of trial-and-error in the past, where players are supposed to poke around and learn what they are and are no able to do without getting caught. That means for every success, there are many, many failures. This episode and the next are really good examples of that.

As you can clearly see, I did not get the pass to the Shisha Bar on my first try. It took several attempts to get a working strategy going. Once I did though, it was pretty smooth.

I’m sure you’ve seen a number of Hitman players making a ton of top-tier plays that look absolutely effortless on their part. Getting to the point where one can make those impression plays is part of the joy of playing Hitman. In fact, practicing and redoing missions is most of the experience.

Even with the Elusive Targets, even if players can’t redo them in order practice, they can still go in with all the knowledge accrued from playing the level previously in Story, Contracts, or Escalations.

There’s a lot here, if players wish to dig deep into it.


(Spoiler Alert: Major spoilers for the plot to Watch_Dogs 2)
Marcus Holloway is a good kid. Through circumstances out of his control, he was pegged by ctOS’s predictive crime algorithm as the likely suspect in crimes he was in no way responsible for. Though scarred by this incident, and left with a certain rage against the machine, he has never once lost his glib charisma and sense of morality. Armed with naught but a Stun Gun and a billiard ball attached to a rope, Marcus is on a mission not to punish, not to kill, but to expose. Rather than blindly take his anger out on others, like a certain someone before him, he seeks to show people the faults and risks with relying on surveillance technologies to keep the streets safe.
I am Marcus Holloway, and this is the lens from which I view the world.



These were my thoughts as I played through the majority of Watch_Dogs 2. Unlike Aiden Pearce, I quickly took to Marcus Holloway. He’s a genuinely endearing protagonist with charisma to spare and a strong supporting cast behind him all the way. And beneath all that charm, I sensed a soul to him that I just never could when playing the original Watch_Dogs. For this reason, I endeavored to be as non-lethal as I possibly could during my time in Watch_Dogs 2. Instead of detonating gas pipes and exploding transformers to murder those that stood between me and my objectives, I opted for more elegant solutions. I look for electric panels to shock my adversaries unconscious for a few minutes. I chose to utilize my Stun Gun rather than purchase other, more effective weaponry. And, whenever possible, I would sneak around guards without fighting them at all by using distractions, drones, and good old fashioned positioning.
This was my interpretation of Marcus. Watching him hang out with his friends, encourage them in the face of doubt or adversity, expose the crimes of the elite, I got the impression that Marcus was someone out to do the right thing. Despite his backstory, Marcus never talked of taking revenge on Blume, who produces and controls ctOS. He’s not out to murder the people responsible and take revenge. Not even close. The reason he joined DedSec was to ensure ctOS can’t do what it did to him to anyone else. Not by killing, but by exposing the dangers to the public at large.
The objectives enforced my feelings towards the leading man. Throughout my entire time with Watch_Dogs 2, there was never a point where the game forced me, as the player, to kill another human being. It was always the option to kill, but the design was such that the game never encouraged me to make use of it. Even when taking down an enemy was the main objective, the game simply wanted Marcus to “neutralize” them. A simple shot with the Stun Gun would suffice. And then, something happened…


About halfway through the game’s story, one of Marcus’s, and by extension my, DedSec friends named Horatio was kidnapped by the Tezcans gang. Several missions ago, Horatio helped me out by sneaking me into Nudle (the Watch_Dogs 2 equivalent of Google), risking his job in order to help me and the rest of my team find information linking them to ctOS. When his bosses suspected him of being a spy, we hacked into the systems in order to bail him out. As our friend and associate, I, Marcus, and the rest of DedSec came together to find him and bring him back.
By the time we found him, it was too late.
Together, we grieved. Our focus shifted. What was previously a mission to rescue our friend became a quest to send the Tezcans a message that this will not be tolerated. As a unit, my DedSec allies, Marcus, and I worked to located the gang members who performed the deed. Luckily for us, we succeeded. The three of them just so happened to be gathering in the same place.


Earlier, I had acquired two unique hacks. Using my backdoor into the ctOS platform, I could implant a false APB on an individual of my choosing, forcing the police to respond. Likewise, I could instead opt to create evidence that they betrayed one of San Francisco’s gangs, summon that gang and starting a shootout on the spot. I had never intended to use these powers. At the time, they were little more than checkboxes on a completionist’s list. Marcus had fallen victim to something very similar. It would be disrespectful to him if I forced him to use those same tools against others. So even though my friend had been killed, I had still endeavored to remain non-lethal and avoid resorting to such shameful tactics. I wanted to stay true to the Marcus Holloway in my head. My mission was not to kill these 3 gang members, it was merely to ‘neutralize’ them. It would have been enough to knock them out and send a message to their superiors.
After numerous attempts and failures, an insidious thought crossed my mind. Why should I spare these three? When Horatio wanted nothing more than to be left alone, these three kidnapped him, forced him to work for them, then murdered him in cold-blood when he refused. Why should these three and their friends live when my friend can’t? With that in mind, I did the unthinkable. I took out my Quadcopter drone, found one of them, and implanted an APB into ctOS to summon the police for a shootout. As officers arrived on scene, I tricked another gang into joining the fray by making ctOS think another one of my three targets was a traitor. In one fell swoop, I had created a three-way war between 2 rival gangs and the cops.
I felt nothing for any of these people.
At first, I justified it by saying that these monsters had already made enemies of the police by becoming the ruthless criminals they are. I told myself that the police knew what they signed up for, and that for these reasons any deaths were justified. And although I had never once fired a shot, I sat and watched as all 3 groups fought and slaughtered each other. In the end, a single police officer was left standing. My enemies were indeed ‘neutralized’.
Later, we were ready to move onto the leader of the Tezcans, in order to send him a message for ordering the kidnapping. In the same manner as I took care of his goons, I sent a gang after him as well. The difference was the instead of merely watching, I waited for my opportunity to take advantage of the chaos. I found it when he walked towards one of the cages housing a bulldog bred to fight others of his kin in the ring, to the death. I remotely opened the beast’s cage, and let him loose on his master. Like his cronies before him, I had ‘neutralized’ the gang leader.


If only it stopped there. Once I had seen how easy it was to send police and gangs after my enemies with the push of a button, it quickly became a go-to tactic for dispensing with large groups of enemies without putting Marcus’s neck on the line. Gang members defending a stash of money, police officers patrolling around a ctOS box I needed to hack, or even rent-a-cops in an office building: None of them were safe.
I was no longer Marcus Holloway. Marcus still believed it was possible to complete his goals without violence. Through my objective notifications, Marcus told me that I only needed to sneak in, perform a few hacks, and get out. It was his voice telling me that I only needed to “neutralize” the people I came across, if I even needed to confront them at all. He still hung out with his friends, trying to expose Blume and their associates without stooping to that same level, but why bother? It was just so much easier to have a couple of no name mobsters blow everyone away and complete my mission once the dust settles. Marcus knew what it’s like to have a computer algorithm call him a criminal and send a bunch of police after him. He knew what it could do to people, but I didn’t care.
And that’s when I had discovered something that I consider profoundly disturbing. After losing a close friend, instead of dealing with my grief like a well-adjusted, psychologically-healthy member of society, I had opted to enact vengeance. Once my lust for revenge was sated, I grew cynical and opted for violence, albeit indirect violence, instead of looking for more reasonable solutions. I even went so far as to justify these actions under some false assertion that I was still morally superior to the people I was killing. I had become this guy:



What a monster I had become.

In the middle of the Hitman season, Episode 4 took IO Interactive longer to release than they thought it would. As an apology, they release two bonus missions, reusing the maps of Sapienza and Marrakesh. Today, we’ll go through the Bonus Episode in Sapienza.

Worth noting is that these missions would probably have never been created if it weren’t for the fact that Hitman (2016) is episodic. The only reason IO felt compelled to make them was because Episode 4 was going to be a month late.


And even though they were reusing the maps from Sapienza and Marrakesh, there was some obvious love put into these assassinations. Neither map is a straight copy of their original, and there are many areas that have been changed (and assets added/removed) to fit the context of the new mission. More work went into these missions that the typical Elusive Targets. Even then, Elusive Targets do often add new content into the map, albeit not to the extreme that these Bonus Episodes do.

The other big thing is that I’m trying to break one of my really bad gaming habits as I perform these missions. Something that a lot of stealth game players are guilty of, myself included, is reloading a save the moment something goes wrong. If you’ve been following this series, you know that’s a big issue of mine.

What I’m trying to do now is to let failure “stick”, for lack of a better term. A lot of the fun in these kinds of games comes from screwing something up, and then working around it to find another way. Hitman and others of its ilk are built to enforce and encourage on the spot improvisation, and I want to show that off a bit more.

We’ll be heading to Marrakesh next week for A House Build on Sand. Until then, take care.

Our time in Japan, and with the story in Season 1, comes to an end.

Aside from the gimmick that this is a highly secured facility where 47 cannot bring in any equipment, this mission also has the gimmick that every outfit has an RFID chip. The AI running this facility scans the chip when the player approached a door to determine whether or not they have permission to go through.


This means that what disguise the player wears explicitly determines which doors they are allowed to open. While this seems at first like it would be a challenge, it isn’t that much different from a typical Hitman level. After all, as I mentioned way back in my Blood Money LP, disguises have always had this same function implicitly.

When players take a disguise in Hitman, it has it’s own set of permissions attached to it. Guards who would chase away 47 in his suit or in a civilian outfit might allow a staffer or a fellow guard in without a second glance. It’s not a physical door, but it serves the same purpose in allowing 47 into areas he was previously kept out of.

That’s why I was intrigued with this gimmick, because it makes literal what has always been a metaphorical concept in this series.

We are not done with Hitman, even though the last story mission has been released. There is still more to discuss in the form of the bonus episodes and the Elusive Targets that have been and will be release after Japan. And given that season 2 is confirmed, odds are “newdarkcloud plays Hitman” will last a lot longer than I thought it would when I started doing this.

And I couldn’t be happier to keep doing it.

Our journey with Chain of Memories ends here!

Talking after Sam finished editing this episode, he mentioned how surprised he was that the story wrapped up so quickly. In the very same game that Riku faces the angst over what he’s done and the darkness in his heart, he kills Ansem and resolved to use both light and darkness for the forces of good.

There’s not a lot here to reflect on in the finale of Chain of Memories. Though we supposedly have two stories worth of content, both of them faff about for most of the the first half. Not much actually gets done.

Next up in our Primer series is Kingdom Hearts 2. This is going to be the big one, and we return to Gamer’s Little Playground to assist us with the footage. Take care, guys. We will see you next time.

Now that Sora’s out of the way, Riku can finally take center stage.

The strangest part of Riku’s role in the grand story of Kingdom Hearts is that he and Sora almost trade places in terms of their narrative arcs.

In the first game, the most significant plot twist is that Sora was never meant to wield the keyblade. The weapon was supposed to go to Riku, but latched onto Sora instead when Riku fell into the darkness. Sora assumed he was the chosen wielder, and became the hero of light with his actions. Eventually, through deeds, not destiny, Sora proved himself to be the better keyblade master.


That leaves Riku as the best friend and former rival. He knows that Sora is a better hero than he is, and he knows that he has a lot to make up for. Nonetheless, he wants to try to at least get to Sora’s level. As kids, Riku was always the stronger and smarter of the two, but now he’s in the opposite seat. He now knows what it’s like to be brought low.

This gives his character room to grow and develop that Sora just doesn’t have after the first Kingdom Hearts. Once he takes the mantle as hero, he basically stays in that position for the rest of the series. Meanwhile, Riku has to develop, make better choices, and become a better person just to compete.

Before, Riku was the chosen hero, and Sora the unwitting loser. Now, Sora is the hero, and Riku knows just how much he’s screwed things up…

…which makes him better than Sasuke.
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