Mission nine: A House of Cards. A Las Vegas casino and a three way transaction for clone DNA, no kitschy weddings here. A long and involved mission which doesn't give nearly enough reward for your patience. A cosmopolitan set of targets this time: a scientist, a South African seller and a Middle Eastern buyer.
Hitman Blood Money is classified as "18" in the UK and "Mature" in the US which means that it is unsuitable for minors; fairly warned be thee.
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Notes
Ironically, this is one of the best narrations I feel I've done, with very few "so"s, "but"s and "actually"s, but for one of my least favourite missions. I think the quality of the narration has something to do with my vitriol but also to do with the length of the video, with so much waiting about I could cut out large swathes, reducing the video down to just over eight minutes, the shortest yet. I make a slight blunder towards the end of the narration where I mention putting bombs in briefcases (how very Stauffenberg of me) and mention putting one in the DNA briefcase and taking out the Sheikh and Heinrich when I meant placing one in the diamond briefcase; I imply the DNA one has already killed the scientist.
Details
Play time: 14:03
Rating: Silent Assassin
Retrieved suit: Yes
Accidents: 0
Close Combat Kills: 2
Bullets fired: 1
This is probably the one mission I put the most thought into, and eventually came to the realisation that without the rifle, this level is near impossible to achieve silent assassin on. The problem stems from the way the targets interact and no amount of suit changing will solve the problem: once the Sheikh enters the casino, neither he nor his bodyguards will leave; the only way you get the Sheikh on his own (and by virtue make sure his body isn't found) is the call from the scientist. Obviously you can wait for the transaction to proceed as normal and shoot the Sheikh, but that means you've waited 10+ minutes without killing either of the two targets. As the seller you get close to Sheikh, but once he disappears out the back, you have to play with the guards before you can sneak out which is less than fool proof and they more-often-than-not, find you out and start shooting you. I could keep the bell-boy outfit and get into the casino area that way, but the amount of freedom you have is limited. If you call the Sheikh from the scientist's room and then sprint for the casino (and I mean sprint) you don't get there in time to kill the Sheikh outside, and the best you can hope for is a lot of pissed off guards and catching the Sheikh on the stairs.
I mention that I've tried bombs, the problem being that bombs aren't accidents which mean when their bodies are found the mission ranking plummets. The long and the short of it is that the Sheikh isn't able to be killed by accidental or close-combat means, so bullets are the only recourse. There goes my potential no-bullet run.