Our Nine Favorite Kills in Hitman 2

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Tomorrow, Hitman 2 is officially out for the world. On Friday, some players who bought its ultra-expensive edition got in a bit earlier. It's a great installment of Hitman, even if naysayers may just say it's "more" Hitman.

And it is, only it's Hitman from 2016, if every level was as great as Sapienza and Paris. It's not just the level design that's fantastic, it's the disguises, tools, and kills that are great too. Myself and Mike are the only ones on the editorial side of our staff so far that have played a lot of Hitman 2, so we collaborated on a list to end all lists: our favorite assassinations of Hitman 2. Whether it's great setups, clever kills, or just things that just made us laugh, these have been our favorite kills of IO Interactive's anticipated sequel.

The Cocaine Machine

Location: Santa Fortuna, Colombia

In the jungles of Santa Fortuna, Colombia, the Delgado Cartel is trying to cook up some extra-powerful cocaine to export worldwide. Drug chemist Jorge Franco is working within his lab on the new drug, overseeing the collection of plants and the processing. There are a few ways to take Franco out of the picture: give him laced cocaine, push him off a cliff while he's collecting flower, or just put a bullet in the back of his head as his guard.

The most satisfying assassination vector is to push the old man into his special, industrial-size cocaine presser. The machine isn't working when Agent 47 steps into Santa Fortuna, as it's missing a circuit board that was lost in transit. Once you retrieve the board, you can install it into the machine. Franco will come by to see his baby doing the good work of drug creation, and that's when you can push him right into the machine. It's meant to press cocaine, but it'll press a human body just as well. Well done, 47. —Mike Williams

A Big Fan

Location: Mumbai, India

While two of the targets in Mumbai, India can be found in the slums, the final target holds court in his luxury hotel under construction. Dawood Rangan is a famous Bollywood producer and actor, and he's currently filming his latest film within the hotel. The final scene of the film has Dawood's character and his love interest framed against the sunset of the Mumbai skyline, with the wind gently ruffling his hair. You can help that wind go from "gentle" to "deadly".

Once you've gotten the production up and running again, the director will coach Dawood and his love interest on the specifics of the scene. Disguised as a member of the crew, 47 can mess with the limiter on the huge fan used in the scene. You can turn it up immediately, sending both actors flying off the edge of the building, or you can wait for Dawood's costar to walk off the set in disgust. It seems the little angel wings on his costume do nothing to help Dawood fly. —Mike Williams

Distraction + Screwdriver = Ol' Reliable

Location: Anywhere

This particular kill is not tied to any particular map, nor any scripted scenario. It's simply looking at whatever I have at my disposal—a fuse box to switch off, a coin to toss—and using it to set up the perfect kill. Usually, you have to don a bunch of disguises to get in a prime situation where a target waltzes right in front of you, but when you get to that point, it feels great. Sometimes you can do elaborate kills, or sometimes you can throw a screwdriver at someone's head, killing them instantly. The great thing about the Hitman series is that the choice is always yours. —Caty McCarthy

An Electrifying Interrogation

Location: Isle of Sgàil

In my review, I described Hitman 2's last map Isle of Sgàil as basically being Paris from its predecessor, but times ten. Maybe more like times 100. It's massive, with all sorts of rooms and secrets and mysterious identities to commandeer all around it. It's in the midst of the ocean on an isle, at a party for the Ark Society—a rich people party, basically. You're tasked with killing its two leaders, the twins Sophia and Zoe Washington. As always, how you do so is up to you, but the most fun one in my opinion was zapping Zoe on the downlow.

This scenario starts by collecting coins all across the map. Sometimes they're left by candles, others are held but actual people. You dress up as an "initiate," someone trying to become an official member of the prestigious (and seedy) Ark Society. Zoe (like her sister Sophia) is a socialite who moonlights as a Lara Croft-type, stealing treasures from all around the world with no regard for cultures and whatnot. In your "interview" to be an Ark Society member, you're given a simple test of answering questions while gripping a chair that electrocutes you. The questions are easy ones for Agent 47 to tell the truth for: whether he'd let his emotions get the better of him, if he minds killing people, and so on. If you lie, not only is the person reading aloud the answers confused as to why Agent 47 would answer incorrectly for such questions, Zoe steps forward each time while she asks for the electricity to be cranked up.

This leads, as you might expect, to her getting too close, and with the next lie she is inadvertently electrocuted to death. It's a comical effect, as she seizes up and turns into an x-ray as if she were in a Looney Tunes cartoon. The death is ruled as an accident. As she falls over, it's time to get the heck outta there. —Caty McCarthy

"Helping" the Assassin

Location: Mumbai, India

In a complex of apartments in the slums of Mumbai, you're immediately told there is a suspicious person around. On the top floor, behind a door, you walk up some stairs to find a man standing at the edge of a balcony, peering outward. You have a few options here: you can knock out the man (a rival assassin for a "local sector") and impersonate him; you can steal his sniper rifle right under his nose, or do the most interesting thing, which is fix his rifle's focus and quietly sneak away. You suddenly have a new goal in sight in this way: you want to help the assassin take out his two targets, who just so happen to be two of your own targets.

This leads you on a goose chase to impersonate specific people, and get the targets in the assassin's line of sights. From a painter lingering on painting a portrait as the assassin from across the slums readies their sights, to everywhere else the multi-tiered quest leads you, you're like an invisible helping hand to the other assassin. It's one of the best mission stories in Hitman 2 because you're orchestrating the murders of your targets not even by your own hand. It feels pretty cool, and by the end, after impersonating the assassin himself, you get to meet your final target one-on-one. It works out as you'd expect. —Caty McCarthy

The Realtor

Location: Whittleton Creek, Vermont, USA

My favorite disguise in all of Hitman 2 is maybe the most mundane one: a realtor. Agent 47 dons that sweater like a champ, and shows off the entirety of a house—literally all of its rooms—to his target and the target's bodyguard in a nice Vermont neighborhood. Agent 47 really leans into his new role as a budding realtor, leaving muffins to distract the bodyguard, talking up rooms for potential murder in sly ways. It almost feels like the job Agent 47 was born to do.

Then he walks Nolan Cassidy, the target, down to the basement. This is the first room that excites the villain. Realtor 47 tricks him into walking into a vault while the security's turned off, and flips the switch for it to activate just in time, killing him. It's not as flashy as a lot of the other kills on this list, but the whole situation of Realtor 47 was a fun gimmick, especially as you're showing off a dozen-plus rooms in a house, not just a handful. A part of me kinda wants a full realtor sim now. —Caty McCarthy

Pest Control

Location: Whittleton Creek, Vermont, USA

This is another way to kill Nolan Cassidy, standing as one of the cleanest kills available on the map. Cassidy's home is getting fumigated to get rid of any pests that might be hiding in the walls; 47 can use this opportunity to get rid of a single pest.

47 has to pick up the special chemicals needed for the fumigation. Then you replace the exterminator with one tall, bald hitman and create a distraction so that Cassidy and his men will enter the home. Once everyone's inside, you dump the chemicals into the fumigator, which will knock everyone out. Then 47 can calmly walk into the house, erase any security footage, and dispatch Cassidy while he and his men are taking a nap. No muss, no fuss. —Mike Williams

The Tattoo Artist

Location: Santa Fortuna, Colombia

At a little bar in Santa Fortuna, Colombia, a tattoo artist impatiently paces back and forth. Sometimes he makes small talk with the bartender about the situation he's in—about to tattoo a powerful cartel leader—other times he's on the phone with his agent about the matter, worried for his livelihood. But after distracting the bartender outdoors, dressing up as him, and slipping some poison into the tattoo artist's drink to make him hurriedly rush to the bathroom, you can be the tattoo artist and exact one of the best scripted kills in the game.

As the tattoo artist with the douchiest name ever, P-Power, you easily can waltz into your target's heavily guarded fortress. You meet his wife almost immediately, who remarks you don't look like you do on television. That's the kicker: P-Power's a celebrity tattoo artist with a reality show; on one episode, we learn, he tattooed a dying cop's heart as the officer was getting CPR, and Agent 47 tells the wife that it's a moment he will "cherish forever" in a deadpan tone.

It's the actual kill with the tattoo gun that really drives home how great the sequence is. While fixing Rico Delgado's tattoo, Agent 47 tells Delgado to hold still in the process so that he doesn't "stab" him by accident. Then once the prompt appears, you can actually stab him plainly in the neck. As someone who has a lot of tattoos, this is kind of my worst nightmare. What a horrible way to go! But for Hitman 2, it's not only the kill that's accented by great banter, it's the entire build up too. Hitman 2 has some of the best satire in games right now, and the tattoo artist mission story is proof of that. —Caty McCarthy

The Towering Inferno

Location: Isle of Sgàil

On the Isle of Sgàil, Agent 47 is tasked with killing the twin Washington sisters. The background of this mission is a giant party and ceremony for the Ark Society, an Illuminati-style gathering of the rich and powerful. The centerpiece of the event is a ceremony that's supposed to symbolize the Ark Society surviving the downfall of civilization: one of the Washington sisters steps into a metal phoenix effigy, which is lit on fire, and then the chosen sister escapes out of the back.

Agent 47 can use this, of course. First, you sabotage the escape door so it won't open. Then, you kickstart the ceremony by disguising yourself as the mysterious Master of Ceremonies. At the appointed time, 47 takes up the torch in front of the crowd and lights the effigy on fire. And that's when Zoe realizes the backdoor isn't working. She's trapped inside as the crowd cheers on for the death of civilization… and Zoe Washington. Stone cold, 47. —Mike Williams