Trivia / Hitman 3

• Acting for Two:
  • Elsie Bennett plays both Imogen Royce and the Elusive Target Joanne Bayswater.
  • All of the American and English bodyguard voice actors play at least one of the ICA hit squad members. Royce Pierreson (Chamberlin, Green and Tremaine) and Sean Power (Lownethal, Price, and Rhodes) voice nearly half the agents.
• Ascended Fanfic: The Goldballer pistol was originally a mod for Blood Money. Now, it's a real gun that's been added to this game, initially found in Mendoza, and then became an unlockable in the Greed Seven Deadly Sins DLC. It was then added to players' inventories proper as a reward for completing "Untouchable".
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • All of Chongqings' missions take place during a heavy rainstorm. Comments from the development team remark that they did that because fans wanted a level in the rain after the reception of New York (which is also set in the rain, but 47 is stuck inside, so he never interacts with it). This also had the side effect of the developers needing to go back and make all the unlockable suits 47 can bring in (like the Tuxedo from Paris or the Summer Suave suit) compatible with Chongqing's rain system (as well as the levels' disguises too!)
  • The lack of female guards in the series is something fans brought up to IOI in Hitman 2's IOI Monthly streams back in 2019. The lead designer for 2 (who herself is female) mentioned that, while they're willing to look into it for future projects, part of why the game has no female guards is due to the series' latent game design, and how 47 needs to get disguises in all parts of a level, and guard disguises tend to fill that role quite well. While there wasn't any backlash to this response, (if anything, players were more understanding of this than anything), the developers did stick to their word, and managed to find ways to make the gender balance of notable NPC's more reasonable, and compared to 2016 and 2 there are more female staff in more prominent positions (again, with the exception of guards), not to mention an Elusive Target was made ("The Ascensionist") who is an enforcer for 47 and all of 47's disguises in Dubai.
  • One of the most consistent complaints throughout WoA is the fact that the levels' gloved variant suits are not unlockable outside of Elusive Target completion. Not only do none of the Hitman 3 specific levels have suits tied to this system (instead it's to Level Mastery, much the same as it was for the DLC missions in Hitman 2), but some suits like the Florida Fit with Gloves and the Subject 47 suit are from missions that are unplayable or specialised (the former is tied up with legal issues with Sean Bean; the latter was only really meant to be used on "Untouchable"), but both are now unlockable via challenges.
  • Most of the Elusive Targets can now be freely replayed in Elusive Target Arcade (the notable non-celebrity exception being The Fixer), and even come with unique rewards, which was made to curb the increasing backlash at the Temporary Online Content Elusive Targets have been known for, making them replayable pretty much whenever.
  • After the release of Hitman 2, the "MKII" weapons were disliked for being lazy reskins that feel like duplicates that don't even look different to the weapon they are a copy of. The weapon unlocks in this game no longer sport the much-ridiculed "MKII" sticker, and while some weapons are named MKIII (like the breaching charge), most are not, and the developers made a considerable and genuine effort to avoid making the same mistake, and made all the unlocks look unique with either different models, names or textures (often all three), a pattern which would also carry into Freelancer.
  • The Sarajevo Six no longer being tied to the PS4 version of 2016 has been a long time coming, and while they are a fairly cheap DLC, the developers were nevertheless praised for this decision as these contracts being out on other platforms was a long time coming many players had assumed was buried in too much red tape to make doing it a reality.
• Content Leak:
  • In the first update for the game (Patch 3.11 on February 23rd, 2021), dataminers who pored into the game's RPKG archives managed to discover that there exists a reskin of the Aluminium Travel Briefcase with Hitman 2 location stickers in the game's files, suggesting that its inclusion in a patch means it'll be released at a later date, with a Hitman 3 variant was also found later on.
  • Sony accidentally released the trailer for Ambrose Island a week early (8th July instead of 15th July). After the workday started, IOI quickly compensated for this by putting the release notes up on the website, and later released the roadmap as the video linked to it (and released an identical video upload to the main Hitman channel).
  • While updating the site, IO Interactive accidentally released the May 2023 patchnotes a bit earlier than expected (3rd instead of 11th), but quickly compensated by releasing the notes a few hours later that same day as a "patch preview".
  • When updating the patch notes for the October 2023 patch, IOI gave a fix for the Sunset Explosive Duck; an item that was exclusive to the Stadia copy of the game. Not only is this an odd thing to update, but it had the effect of giving players a heads-up that the Stadia-exclusive unlocks were going to release soon, and datamined information corroborated this, as the text strings and challenge images were added in that patch, so it was basically an open secret that the Stadia unlocks were coming for several weeks. Come the 9th November 2023, this is exactly what happened.
• The Danza:
  • Rebecca Carlisle is voiced by Rebecca Crankshaw.
  • Oliver Dickens, gardener working behind greenhouse in Dartmoor, is voiced by Oliver Cotton.
• Dummied Out:
  • The names of the levels in the game's files are very odd to say the least: Golden Gecko (Dubai), Ancestral Bulldog (Dartmoor), Edgy Fox (Berlin), Wet Rat (Chongqing) Elegant Llama (Mendoza), Trapped Wolverine (Carpathian Mountains), and Rocky Dugong (Ambrose Island).
  • The inside of the club in the Berlin Egg Hunt is partially decorated with Easter eggs and rabbit props, most notably the tree that hangs above the mosh pit has glowing Easter eggs hanging off of it instead of the LED light strips seen in the main mission. Since this area is blocked off (it's full, according to the bouncer), this redecoration cannot be seen by the player without using mods to enter the club. Curiously, the redecorated tree was shown off in the thumbnail for the "Egg Hunter: Berlin" featured contract that was released in March 2022, that year's Easter period.
• DVD Commentary: The Deluxe Pack (now Deluxe Edition) grants access to a starting location on each of the base Hitman 3 missions where you are able to listen to the developers' intentions and design goals for that level (In Dubai, for example, the developer in the commentary states that 47 starting outside in Dubai wasn't the original plan, but it worked better as a tutorial and sets up the story better than if he'd started inside).
• Fake Nationality: Due to complications caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, IO Interactive re-used the voice actors from Colombia in 2 for Argentina, and Spanish actress Yolanda Vasquez plays Tamara Vidal.
• Fandom Nod: A pair of security guards talk in Dubai's security room about how all the elevators are broken, and that everyone in the tower has had to take the stairs to even get up to the ceremony. This is in response to fans noticing that all the levels in the trilogy thus far have avoided using elevators by either making them out of order (as is the case in the Kronstadt building's back-rooms in Miami where an engineer is trying to fix it, and Rangan tower in Mumbai where the elevators simply haven't been installed yet), or are straight-up not part of the architecture (Berlin's Club Holle, Bangkok's Himmapan Hotel, Paris's Palais De Wawleska, just to name a few, all use stairwells of varying sizes).
• In Memoriam: On of the tombstones in the Carlisle family graveyard has the name J.R. Krainert engraved on it, and it is notably the only one to have flowers. According to Dartmoor’s map designer Toke Krainert, this was something he put into the game as a tribute to his grandfather, who died the year before release.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • The October 2022 update celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the release of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin by adding the "Brother From Another Brother" challenge to "The Farewell". Completing this challenge by incapacitating the two snipers, stealing their rifle, and sniping both targets with it nets the player Agent 17's suit.
  • The October 2023 patch released the Codename 47 challenge pack, 5 challenges which are based around recreating famous moments from Hitman: Codename 47, and are named after levels or references to it. It's also one of two challenge packs to take you across many of the trilogy's locations, instead of being specific to one game or one level, and has its own entry in the "Challenges" tab because of this.
  • The Winter Roadmap and November 2023 patch added the "Public Enemy" suit, a remake of a suit of the same name from the "Suit and Gun Collection" DLC from Absolution. This too was added to commemorate the original release of that game; November 23rd, 2012.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Isaura Barbé-Brown replaces Michelle Asante as Olivia Hall.
  • Neither Traci Lords or Salli Saffioti reprised their roles as Dexy Barat and Pam Kingsley respectively, so instead Shea Hall voices both of them.
• Pre-Order Bonus: Pre-ordering any version of the game (Standard or Deluxe) got you the "Trinity" pack, which are Palette Swap suits, ICA 19 pistols and briefcases of one another, but are coloured in one of three colors; Red, Black or White.
• Reality Subtext: As described and opined by a Polygon article, the train level was not only intended to be a narrative set-piece meant to symbolise 47's journey from being a golem following orders to a free man in charge of his own destiny, it was also an allegory to IOI's struggles with Square Enix and their newfound independence as a developer, affording them freedom to maintain full control over their properties.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • Due to "various circumstances out of [IOI's] control", the Epic Games Store release of the game initially required players to purchase access passes (Legacy Pack DLC) for Hitman (2016) and 2 in order to access their content in 3 (admittedly at an 80% discount), contradicting their promises from the start that their progress and locations will have carried over from Steam and that the legacy games' locations would be free. After massive fan backlash, CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney confirmed this was an oversight and immediately began discussions with IOI to rectify the issue, and the new system to fix this issue was implemented just shy of a month after release in February 2021. While nothing has ever been confirmed, the culprit many suspect to be at fault is Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (the publisher who partially funded Hitman 2), as while 2016 and Hitman 3 are on Epic's store, 2 is curiously absent. This suggests what stopped IOI from doing transfers initially was Warner Bros' refusal to play ball.
  • Of the returning Elusive Target missions from past games, only "The Wildcard" and "The Undying/ Returns" are absent. This is because those missions feature celebrity actors; Gary Busey, Gary Cole, and Sean Bean. Renegotiating a contract for them would likely be prohibitively expensive. Because of this, The Florida Fit With Gloves outfit and a reskin of the Explosive Pen, both originally exclusive to "The Undying/ Returns" contract, were later added as reward items.
• Similarly Named Works: Despite being titled Hitman 3, this is not the third game of the franchise (it is Hitman 8, technically). Hitman: Contracts was the third game of the franchise, and the "Contracts" subtitle is now especially important to differentiate between the two (although Hitman: Contracts has always been known by its subtitle by fans anyway).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Lots of plans for the levels were revealed in the Deluxe Edition DLC developer commentary:
    • Dubai was originally planned to start at the party lobby elevators (which were made into an unlockable entry location and become the default on replays of the level), until the team realized that an extended intro outside the building allowed for better tutorial integration of the controls and camera, and allowed the game to start off with a bang and get a feel for Grey and 47's motivations, as well as set up the story.
    • The commentary for Dartmoor mentions that the detective disguise was at one point considered to be easily obtainable at the very start of the map, but the team realized it took out the fun and the challenge of infiltrating the mansion, and while it made players notice the murder-mystery, it made it really easy to get the disguise. Note the compromise in the final game is a starting location with the disguise on, but that requires a good amount of Mastery to get.
    • The commentary for Berlin makes it clear that the level was always designed with a Cold Open in mind, with no help from a handler, and 47 is all alone. The decision was made to have the future starting locations revealing all targets to be one for accessibility purposes, and that doing otherwise just wasn't convenient.
  • Joanne Bayswater was initially supposed to be an amoral influencer called Ashley Lowe, with a slightly different appearance◊. The briefings for "The Liability" Elusive Target onward retain a line of text from Ashley's intel.
• Writing Around Trademarks: The “Season of Sloth” included Featured Contracts created by Andy, Mike and Jane of Outside Xbox; however they were instead credited as Outside Xtra^note Their sister channel due to the optics of promoting the Xbox consoles on PlayStation.