Trivia / Hitman 2

• Contest Winner Cameo: Like with Rocco McVeigh from the previous game appearing in Sapienza, three contest winners had their faces put into the final expansion pass mission "The Last Resort" by winning a contest consisting of being the top three snipers in the world to complete the Hitman: Sniper Challenge preorder bonus. These are Jordan "Jack 9MM" Cucci (a guard outside Tysons' villa entrance), Ben "Urben" Urbach (A chef in the resort restaurant), and Daniele "Chaos Agent" Carco (In the Manta Ray Villa Hut).
• The Cameo: On the Columbia level there are NPC characters (available for use as targets in contract missions) based on all five team members of Outside Xbox (Jane Douglas, Andy Farrant and Mike Channell, Ellen Rose, and Luke Westaway) Youtube channel, as well as former-EuroGamer video contributor Johnny Chiodini. Their names have been partially translated into Spanish and include references to their methods of playing Hitman (2016) on their channels (Except Luke, whose name doesn't exist in the language, and uses a close approximation instead).
• Content Leak: The names of the levels in the game's files can be very odd, but usually follow the naming scheme of the country they represent, and then an animal from that country: Austria Hawk (Himmelstein), New Zealand Sheep (Hawkes Bay), Miami Flamingo (Miami), Colombia Hippo (Santa Fortuna), Mumbai Mongoose (Mumbai), Suburbia Skunk (Whittleton Creek), Island Magpie (Isle of Sgàil). The DLC maps instead use these amusing codenames; Greedy Raccoon (New York), Opulent Stingray (The Maldives), Salty Seagull (Hantu Port) and finally Caged Falcon (Siberia).
• Fake Nationality:
  • Two of the American bodyguard voices are Derek Hagen and Sean Power, both of whom are Canadian.
  • English actress Laila Pyne voices the American twins Zoe and Sophia Washington.
  • Jorge Franco and Rico Delgado, both Chilean, are voiced by James Goode (English) and Ronan Summers (Irish-American) respectively.
  • Similarly, English actor Stewart Scudamore voices Indian pirate Wazir Kale.
• Fandom Nod: A Kronstadt guard named Al in the top-floor security room in Miami will speak about his life-saving-operation in Hokkaido, mentioning he recently ate bad Fugu at the GAMA facility, but was rescued by the KAI AI robot. This is a nod to a complaint players had to a possible kill for Yuki Yamazaki in 2016, with whom you could kill in the exact same way. Players pointed out that such a medical facility would likely be able to stop Yuki from dying of Fugu poisoning, making the kill a bit unrealistic, which this conversation confirms. To be fair, Soders was on the KAI operating table, so Yuki was going to die regardless, and it's implied in the conversation that the operating table was needed for Yuki to have any chance of survival (considering there's only one operating theater in the hospital, she was going to die regardless).
• Flip-Flop of God: During the E3 2018 presentation, a developer mentioned that NPCs notice blood and act accordingly. However, when asked about it on twitter, they denied remembering even mentioning blood. In the finished game they are indifferent to blood (as they are in Hitman 2016), so they likely misspoke.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • Barely averted, as November 13th^note Preorders arrive November 9th as a reward for preordering is 48 days from the end of the year, making the release date one day off from matching Agent 47.
  • It is, however played straight within the wider context of the game’s narrative - November 13th is specifically stated as the date that the final mission in the campaign takes place, and is also some neat foreshadowing on The Shadow Client being a clone.
• Network to the Rescue: Following the financial underperformance of Hitman (2016) and being subsequently dropped by Square Enix, IOI almost faced complete bankruptcy in 2017, reportedly having to lay off a quarter of its workforce just to stave off the inevitable. The main reason why 2 exists (and even why IOI is still in one piece) is because they managed to strike up a publication deal with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at the last minute, who allowed them to complete the game at a slight revenue cut. Completely lacking in other options for cashflow, IOI director Hakan Abrak flat-out stated that "Without that agreement, we would not have survived." The gamble fully paid off, with the financial returns of 2 being so good that they were able to develop and publish Hitman 3 completely independently.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Almost all of the American civilian and bodyguard voice actors were replaced with a different set of actors, with the exception of Derek Hagen. As a result of this, Pam Kingsley is played by Salli Saffioti instead of Rochelle Greenwood.
  • Richard Teverson voices Ort-Meyer in a flashback that features in the "Long Shot" cinematic, rather than his original voice actor Kerry Shale. Interestingly, Shale is also voice acting in this game; he voices Carl Ingram, and continues to do so in 3. This was likely a result of major story characters in 2 being given unique voice actors to avoid any potential player confusion.
• Pre-Order Bonus: There were four editions of the game on release: Standard, Silver, Gold, and Collectors. Pre-ordering any version got you the Sniper Assassin game mode, which was added to the game proper on release. Silver edition netted you the executive briefcase and ICA19 Black Lily, and the Gold Edition got you the game four days early. The Collectors edition was the almost same as the Gold Edition, with a Midnight black suit and remote concussive duck unlocks being added on top; but you also got physical items, like a steel briefcase, rubber duck and bullet keyring to keep. Unusually, two weeks after release, the Collectors Edition dropped the Midnight black suit and concussive ducks' exclusivity to the Collectors edition, and made it a part of the Gold Edition outright.
• Similarly Named Works: Despite being titled Hitman 2, this is not the second game of the franchise (it is Hitman 7, technically). Hitman 2: Silent Assassin was the second game of the franchise, and the "Silent Assassin" subtitle is now especially important to differentiate them.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Miami level intro cinematic is accompanied by music that bears a very strong resemblance to "Sirius" by The Alan Parsons Project.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Since the previous game used the name "Season 1", it is likely the missions of this game were originally planned to be added to the previous game as another season. Due to the abandonment of the previous game's episodic release model, the addition of a co-op mode, and the gameplay improvements, IOI likely decided to make it a full sequel instead. In fact, the final release of the previous game, The Definitive Edition, doesn't mention being a single season of an episodic game. Subverted with the Legacy Pack, which adds the first season (excluding the ICA facility, which are included with or without the pack) to the second game, effectively making it true in reverse.
  • Dummied Out content for Colombia and Mumbai includes disguises labelled as "Rival Cartel Member" and "High-Profile DJ" respectively, both of which sound as if they would've been additional mission stories. The dialogue for the latter disguise is re-used used for the DJ disguise in Berlin in Hitman 3.
  • Ljudmila Vetrova was originally named "Ludmilla Petrova".
  • Zoe and Sophia Washington were originally opposite-sex twins Phillip and Clarissa. It was also considered that Phillip and Clarissa be Caucasian or Asian.
  • Sophia Washington was originally named "Serena Washington". This was likely changed for legal issues, as the Washington twins resemble tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Sophia's early name is used in most of the game's files, by civilians if they find her body, and was briefly kept in her intel during the game's release. Oddly enough, this carried over to Hitman 3 where in the ICA's list of 47's previous targets, she is also called Serena.
  • Rusty item variations of the screwdriver and crowbar, and a rusty nail lockpick exist in the game's files. These items function the same as their regular counterparts, but break after being used. Hitman 3 later uses them.
  • The Special Assignments missions were originally intended to be Elusive Targets, evident by the Elusive Target symbol appearing in the in-game briefings. In the case of "Illusions of Grandeur", the mission was retooled because IO couldn't make an Elusive Target mission in Mumbai, so the Imperial Classic with Gloves was made unlockable via a contract.
• You Sound Familiar: Kerry Shale, Carl Ingram's voice actor, had previously voiced Ort-Meyer in Hitman: Codename 47.

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