I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty good at Hitman. I have all kinds of mastery levels, own loads of exploding doodads, and can reliably get a Silent Assassin rating on any map from the recent games. At least that’s what I thought until about 45 minutes ago when I started looking through the submissions for a $1000 Hitman 2 Speedrun Challenge (opens in new tab), created and hosted by a YouTuber named Atrioc. I now realize that my meager talents mean nothing, and will retire immediately in shame.
The setup was as follows: Atrioc called in Hitman speedrunner and contract maker davidredsox (opens in new tab) to put together the most “devilishly difficult” Silent Assassin contract he could within the confines of Hitman 2’s Miami map. The result was a mission centered around five targets: Miami’s Mechanic, Medic, A/V Guy, Jogger and Lazy Guard.
Those guys are all either hard to reach, hard to kill inconspicuous, prone to getting around, or some combination of the three. And they are scattered all over the map. Speedrunners had seven days to submit their best runs, with first, second and third place receiving $500, $200 and $100 respectively, plus an additional $200 in creativity prizes.
The results were equal parts absurd and impressive. The runners on display exploit aspects of the game I didn’t even know existed, pulling off antics with detailed precision and delicate timing that I couldn’t pull off in a hundred years. They’re all pretty amazing – I have to shout out to the guy who took advantage of the fact that Hitman’s mission timer resets after 24 hours to clock in at a (technical) 47 seconds – but special mention must be given to the run on the second place through TuplaPekoni. The runner managed to launch Agent 47 into orbit using a broken fiddle and a remote mine, providing the perfect opportunity for a sniper triple kill as they hurtled back to Earth.
It doesn’t make much sense in context anymore, as impressive as it is, which is why it’s worth sticking around for Atrioc’s explanation of the techniques involved in each run. It’s a great opportunity to learn exactly what the speedrunners do in each of their videos, as well as deepen your understanding of the various weird systems that produce Hitman’s clockwork world.