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Have you gone
back to somewhere
you used to visit a
lot as a child but
haven’t been for
years, and find, for
all that might have
changed, you still know the bones of
the place? The left turn to the side
street where your favourite shop used
to be, what you were reading last time
you sat in that spot over there.
That’s what revisiting Sapienza
is like for me. Except instead of
shops and reading spots, it’s all
hiding places and memories of finely
executed assassinations.
In truth, it hasn’t been all that long
since I was last here – Hitman was
only released in 2016 – but time in
videogames works like dog years. And
loading up Hitman 2’s Legacy version
of the level feels like returning home.
The bright blue of the sky and the
sea, the terracotta roof tiles, every
house decked out in a different colour
paint – it’s like the world’s saturation
setting has suddenly been turned up. I
must confess I don’t notice any visual
upgrades, but Sapienza has always
been a beauty.
Agent 47 is a changed man here.
He starts the level on a bench in the
town square, flicking through
a local newspaper. In place
of the usual suit and tie,
he’s wearing a simple
shirt, short-sleeved and
open at the neck, plus a
pair of sunglasses. This
is how assassins dress
when they’re on holiday.
Without getting up, I
take the opportunity to look
around town. Everything is where
I remember it. The gelato place on
the square; the island lighthouse; the
hulking yellow villa limpeted onto a
cliffside, home to Sapienza’s resident
Bond-villain-in-waiting, Silvio Caruso.
This is truly, as the briefing put it, the
jewel of the Amalfi Coast. Is it bad that
I can’t wait to do some murders here?
I’ve got a plan. Agent 47 is carrying
an aluminium suitcase. Inside is the
Jaeger 7, a collapsible sniper rifle.I know without even having to look
around that there’s a clock tower
on the square, overlooking Caruso’s
mansion. It’s just a matter of getting
up there. In a quiet side street, I wait
for some pedestrians to pass by,
then prepare to clamber my way up
a half-remembered drainpipe.
Agent 47 immediately
drops the case on the
cobblestones. Damn.Seaside killer
I probe some potential
entrances, getting
my first glimpse of how
Hitman 2’s mechanics
have been integrated as a
security camera catches sight of
me. A picture-in-picture view, from
the camera’s perspective, shows 47
rattling the handle of a locked door.
Eventually I find the gelato place’s
back entrance, knock out a couple
of workers, stuff them in their own
freezers and sprint up the stairs.
At the top, when I squeeze the left
bumper to activate the Instinct vision
mode, I can see the telltale red outline
of a target, over on the villa’s top floor.I unpack the rifle and switch on a
nearby radio to disguise any noise. It
crackles with football commentary.
I trust my instincts and fire at the
tiny red figure, half-obscured behind
a door. There’s the sound of glass
breaking, and a notification ticking off
my first objective.
That just leaves Silvio Caruso.
Unfortunately, he’s round the back,
practicing his golf swing. Even my
supernatural sniper skills can’t hit
a man through 100 feet of brick and
upholstery, I’m going to need to find
another vantage point. Fortunately for
47 – I search my memories as the rifle
is folded back into the case – I know
just the place. QRevisiting Agent 47’s favourite holiday destination of Sapienza
in the Hitman 2 Legacy Pack ALEX SPENCER
PUBLISHER WARNER BROS / DEVELOPER IO INTERACTIVE / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE NOVEMBER 2018“I must confess I don’t notice any
visual upgrades, but Sapienza has
always been a beauty”
WHAT IS IT?
The levels originally
released as episodes in
Hitman’s first season,
remade with all the
murderous bells and
whistles of the sequel.098 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
extra