Exploring Marrakesh In Hitman’s Third Episode

I hear that Marrakesh is lovely this time of year, but if you’re in the world of Hitman, it might be best to steer clear for the time being. After the bubbly champagne-filled atmosphere of the fashion show in Paris, and the laid back, sun drenched streets of Italy, the third episode of Hitman is a lot more on edge, teetering on the brink of desaster.

Dressed in a very touristy cream suit and black shirt, Agent 47 fits right into the crowd as a holiday maker, but he’s really here for business and not pleasure. The two targets are Claus Strandberg, a Swedish banker holed up in the consulate after wrecking the Moroccan economy, and while the potential volatility to the protesting might justify a heavy military presence, it’s clear that General Reza Zaydan is also up to no good.

It’s a setting that contrasts strongly with the two that have gone before, but it combines Sapienza’s sprawling layout with the technical showcase of Paris’ crowds. The tight alleyways and streets are busy, but they open up into a Berber market place that’s full of people meandering between shops and market stalls. IO have highlighted the possibility of featuring an Elusive Target within this space, presenting a real challenge to try and find without the aid of instinct mode to highlight them for you.

However, there are many bubbles of calm and quiet within this. The consulate for one is an island of Scandinavian minimalism, and there’s also the numerous areas that are kept off limits by police and heavily armed soldiers, but I’m talking more about the private rooftops and the handful of alleyways that seem to be in their own world without even trying. Just within this one level, there’s a lot of strong contrasts.

Part of the joy that I’ve found in this episodic Hitman game is that I’m spending so much time exploring the levels, but it strikes me, as I lure a handsome young soldier into a dark room for the third time in a row, that I’m actually really quite bad at being a contract killer. I can wander around the city without a problem, but as soon as I try to go off the beaten track, something invariably goes wrong and I run afoul of the rules of this deadly game.

Sometimes I knock someone out and get spotted dragging their body away, but other times it’s something as trivial as turning a generator off that sees me hounded into a corner and being forced to restart. I’m not particularly good at spotting the trail of breadcrumbs that IO Interactive leave for you, and so it takes a long, long time for me to discover the various hidden paths and tricks to getting around each locale. There is, of course, the opportunities system that lets you follow up on an overheard conversation, but I stubbornly prefer to try and discover things for myself, when I can.

So, even though I’d stumbled across a soldier with a short patrol route in a secluded area, I soon found that the uniform I’d stolen from him – wait, what did you think I was doing? – wasn’t of a high enough rank to gain me access to some of the off limits parts of the level. With only so long that I could play for, I broke out the silenced pistol and start to fire at anyone who blocks my path.

It’s only through this that I discover the route into the Swedish consulate, going through its strangely militarised parking garage. When the episode is released next Tuesday, I now know the direction I want to head in first, even if it’s likely to be well over an hour of exploring before I’m any closer to reaching the actual targets.