That One Level / World of Assassination Trilogy

The World of Assassination Trilogy has some levels that inspire a lot of player dislike, here they are:

For the levels in Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin,Hitman: Contracts, Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Absolution, go here instead.

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Hitman (2016)

• Main Missions:
  • "World of Tomorrow", while still excellently designed in other areas, has one major design flaw that makes it a pain to replay; the mandatory destruction of the ETHER Virus in order to exit the level. While it can be done quickly, it forces the player to either go to the heavily-guarded biolab situated underneath Villa Caruso to deal with it, or start disguised there at the beginning of the mission, making the virus objective feel linear to complete. It was not uncommon to see the most popular Contracts set in Sapienza being "World of Tomorrow minus the virus objective". The developers even acknowledge that this was a player frustration in May 2019's IOI Monthly video, where they use it as an example of Railroading and how they wanted the "Golden Handshake" mission to avoid this issue when players collect the data needed to exit that level.
  • "Club 27" is a deceptively easy level. Like with Freedom Fighters below, its Silent Assassin, Suit Only challenge is notoriously tricky, but much of that trickiness is down to how the level itself has been designed for the main mission. It has several empty rooms, the hotel is full of security guards, and there are a lot of enforcers per-disguise, making player traversal around the hotel annoying. The security room, however, is the straw that breaks the camels' back here. If you get recorded by security cameras, the security footage is placed in one of the hardest areas of the level to access. It requires a keycard or keycard hacker to enter, is trespassing in everything but hotel guard outfits, has at least three guards inside (one of which is always an enforcer), and the security footage is at the other end of the room (and two extra camera's pointed at the security box), requiring precise timing to interact and/or destroy it. Worse still, none of the later level iterations in 2 or 3 really changed the level, and it took until Freelancer mode to add an alternate exit (which is exclusive to Freelancer).
  • "Freedom Fighters". This level was not (and in certain parts of the fanbase, still isn't) liked on release. Its set in a wide open compound where nearly everyone is armed, has four separated targets for 47 to eliminate, and has a forced exit that's hard to reach. Its Silent Assassin, Suit Only challenge (detailed on the games' page under That One Sidequest) is what many think of when it comes to this levels' difficulty. The later games in the trilogy did add stealth grass to make traversal quite a lot easier, and the forced bunker exit was removed after one playthrough in the GOTY Edition in 2017, which satiated a lot of the complaints.
  • Patient Zero is notoriously difficult as you have two minutes before Owen Cage reaches an unprotected member of the staff that catches the Nabazov Virus, which spreads fast. It's very easy to have to depopulate half the level to finish. Its secondary target, Klaus Liebleid, never leaves the operating theatre, which is full of doctors and has wide windows that can compromise 47.
• The Sarajevo Six:
  • "The Mercenary" is easily the hardest side mission in the game. Patrick, alongside his four bodyguards, see through every disguise on the map and will follow him. They will also chase down 47 if they see him, making it a chore to subdue any of them before taking out Patrick. He shares similar issues to that of The Bookkeeper Elusive Target (listed below), in that he is tricky to isolate and make traps for, making for a frustrating experience.
  • Killing The Controller is, surprisingly, not the issue, as he's also the client who is waiting for 47 to kill him. However, 47 must also reach the computer in the hospital director's office without being spotted — at all. Arousing even the slightest bit of suspicion will result in an instant mission failure, and saving back in 2016 was disabled. While there are ways to make the level easier (the surgeon starting point and using the unlockable disposable scrambler item to access the office), its later re-release in Hitman 3 now allows being recorded by security cameras (so long as you're allowed to be in the area you were recorded in), and later added the ability to save, making the mission much easier to deal with than in 2016.
• Elusive Targets:
  • "The Fixer" is one that IOI loves to remind the player base that it's the target with the lowest success rate (23% on his first run◊), solely because of the second objective where you must obtain the diamonds intended as payment. These diamonds can only be taken once the courier has made the transaction from one of two merchants on the map, not before. Doing otherwise will insta-fail the mission, as it assumes you're trying to cheese it, and you get a Nonstandard Game Over for your troubles. While you are warned about the courier, there is zero warning in regards to the merchants (who appear on the map outside this mission, and players assume they're not mission-critical). Making things worse is that failing to take him out in the markets has Xander remain in the heavily-guarded Consulate indefinitely, following Claus Strandberg around and never isolating himself. IOI Travis, one of the PR managers for the game, has gone on record saying that part of the reason why Xander hasn't re-ran as much as later targets, even as part of Hitman 3's Elusive Target Arcade, is due to the low success rate and how players find the contract frustrating.
  • "The Bookkeeper" for Colorado. Pertti is surrounded by four bodyguards at all times, one of which can see through every disguise you can put on, and the kicker is that his route is completely randomized, making it impossible to predict his exact route as his next stop is random each cycle, so you need a patient of a saint as he may not go where you want him to go to if you've set up a trap. Subduing any of his bodyguards will result in Pertti attempting to evacuate, and if his car is destroyed to prevent this, he will either be taken to the basement (which Berg also hides in) or the north-eastern room of the house (which contains two additional soldiers), and he will remain at the last place he visited after the lockdown cools off.
  • "The Ex-Dictator", the first Elusive Target mission to have two targets, and that's arguably the least problematic part of the contract. Both targets mostly stay around the well-guarded second floor lounge, and The All-Seeing A.I. is in full effect here - there's very little room to kill or hide the targets, and a vast majority of the guards, waiters and bellhops are enforcers. Richard occasionally isolates himself where he can easily be killed, but Inez is always accompanied by her bodyguard when moving between the lounge and the hotel's west garden. Killing either target before they enter the hotel breaks both their routes and their bodyguards, as Richard no longer isolates himself and smokes inside the bar.
  • "The Warlord" has several problems:
    • Firstly, Nne Obara has unique military guards in her suite that see through any pretenders, making getting around the top floor annoying, while the leader of the military (who meets up with her) cannot be impersonated.
    • Secondly, the USB Stick the client needs is not on Nne Obara, and it's not nearby either; it's in the security office inside a safe being protected by two soldiers. The security office is among the hardest places to get to on the map, as it requires a keycard to access, and then either a key or lockpick to get at a safe that has the USB stick inside it... which is surrounded by the same military guards, meaning you have to distract everyone in the room with a large noise to draw them out long enough to open the safe, grab the USB, and then escape.
    • And finally, if you decide to grab the USB stick first, the military leader has a routine to check on the safe every few minutes, and will call a Target Lockdown when he notices it's missing, making it harder to kill The Warlord.
  • "The Pharmacist" has the unique setup of being on a timer, something the game does make you aware of in the briefing, and Diana does update 47 of Nila's actions, but it can make players panic if they're not prepared. She will also stay at the top floor after her meeting with Dalia after several minutes have elapsed, so you best know what you're doing beforehand.
  • "The Twin" involves identifying and taking out Dylan while not harming Gonzales. Both wander in public areas filled with civilians and almost never split from each other or their bodyguards. There's a Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo that can be used to poison Dylan, but it requires quick timing and observation. Subduing Gonzales in any way will fail the mission, so the player must know Sapienza well enough to get a 5-star ranking. While the Camera item in Hitman 3 makes this mission easier, keeping track of the twins is still tricky as they constantly switch places when walking.
  • "The Sensation" is having a party in one of the gardens that's otherwise surrounded by security. And while you're allowed at the party itself, isolating him, or even poisoning his drink can take quite a long time to happen. The original run of the mission also featured a laptop to turn off the music to cause a distraction, but that's been removed in later repeats.
  • "The Food Critic"'s Wen Ts'ai is a Stationary Boss sitting in a public area and is surrounded by guards, meaning most kill methods are out the window. His one routine where he moves from his chair is a small detour to the kitchens (which itself takes ages to get going), that leads to a scripted way of killing him (by poisoning the cake in the kitchen).
  • "The Bad Boy"'s Bartholomew Argus has much the same issues as Wen Ts'ai; a Stationary Boss sitting in full view of guards and the public (in this case, playing "K&L" in the Gelato cafe), and only has one routine that deviates from this (attending the fan meeting with Bosco, which lets you poison him), which too takes a long time to happen. The kicker is that his car can be exploded to get his attention, unlocking a secondary routine, but the car itself cannot be used to kill him, which is a strange design choice.
  • "The Angel of Death" has Etta Davis start isolated on a rooftop. However, the outside of the building is surrounded by guards, and the player has only a minute before Davis meets with the military. Afterwards, Davis wanders around the crowded marketplace with four soldiers, only heading to the more isolated shisha den during a target lockdown.

Hitman 2

• Main Missions:
  • Whittleton Creek itself is fine, but the clues you have to discover are always mandatory to find, requiring you to find at least three clues along with eliminating the two targets to finish the mission. Fans believe that, while it is unique and interesting at first, it ruins the mission's pacing on replays of the level. This is a similar complaint to Colorado, where only the underground bunker was available as an escape in the campaign, requiring you to get Sean's Mask to leave the level. Colorado in Hitman 2 no longer forces one exit after a single play-through of the level, and in Whittleton Creek's case, there are easier, smaller clues to find, which don't take long to complete, but are out of the way enough from each other to become annoying to deal with, especially with repeated Save Scumming (or even when you can't save as often, like in Master difficulty).
  • While Haven Island is liked for its level design, the NPC sight-cones being extended is a little controversial, not because it's a bad design choice, but because the game doesn't tell you about it, and the only people to know are those that listened to Word of God back in 2019. Not only that, but in Hitman 3, the level suffered from people seeing through walls, made worse by the sight-cones being double the size.
• Elusive Targets:
  • "The Revolutionary" is notably the most difficult of the six Elusive Targets. Murillo's spawn point is randomized between three locations (the lounge above the Delgado lockup, a shack south of the bar, or one of the fishing huts), all of which contain several guards who can see through 47's disguises, and are in public view of civilians. While Murillo drinks from a glass of wine after every session, the glass is hard to poison without being spotted, and any other accident kill is made more frustrating by the fact Murillo's bodyguard and cameraman always accompany him.

Hitman 3

• Elusive Targets:
  • "The Collector", like with "The Pharmacist" is on a timer, and if Haynes manages to procure the painting you can retrieve for Five Stars, he'll retreat to his van parked at the front of the mansion. The timer is not that strict however, taking at least 15 minutes for Kody to flee, but it has caught players by surprise.
  • "The Ascensionist" has the unique gimmick of having an Elusive Target who sees through all of 47's disguises. Moretta quickly moves to the second floor before wandering around the penthouse suite, surrounded by guards and accompanied by Ogilvy. Subduing Ogilvy makes Moretta flee, meaning that killing her requires planning and avoiding getting caught by her.
  • When "The Rage" first released, his level had a lot of issues with NPC's seeing through walls, an affliction Chongqing otherwise didn't suffer from, making even pacifying Sully an exercise in frustration. While this has since been fixed, the memory of it is still fresh in players' minds.

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