Mission four: Beldingford Manor. England doesn't get more stereotyped than this: rain, fog, posh accents, an expansive manor and hunting. Family rivalries boil over when the son of 47's client is kidnapped by a father and son duo. The hunt takes on a new twist.
Hitman Contracts contains mature content and is wholly unsuitable for minors, some of these videos also contain flashing lights; fairly warned be thee.
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Notes
There are some minor vocal errors here and there, the main one being when I'm trying to describe the location of the fireplace in relation to Alistair Beldingford; the fire is located in the room the son is in, the room is not in the fire nor is the son in the fire. I use some colloquialisms which I'm certain some people haven't heard, namely "faffing" which I've always taken to mean "moving about without actually achieving anything" which is precisely what I do in the stables (not to be confused with "paffing" which is a European slang word I believe); "tits up" is a crass version of "wrong" or "pear-shaped" and one which I should probably try and train myself out of using lest I use it when I shouldn't.
Details
Play time: 7:39
Rating: Silent Assassin
Difficulty: Professional
Shots fired: 0
Alerts: 0
As mentioned in the video, one of my favourite Contracts missions, for once not simply because of the setting. The wealth of different ways of approaching the mission starts with obtaining access to the house, my strangled route through the maze and the bowels of the house is less than optimal but it goes straight for one of the best disguises with very few points where things could go wrong.
The house has numerous hidden passages and corridors that are worth exploring, the route into Lord Beldingford's bedroom is especially worth trying to orchestrate into a plan as it bypasses at least three guards, all of whom could easily break your cover. My original plan was to smother Lord Beldingford with a pillow, that plan was scuppered however when I inadvertently caught him in the final phase of his "wander" sequence, I then changed my plan and garroted him which more or less guarantees the body will not be found. I could have waited for him to settle down in bed; this is not only tedious and unnecessary but prone to error as he can catch you in the act when he looks like he should be asleep.
In my runthrough I make a fairly significant journey to collect some poison from a bedroom on the other side of the house from where I was going to use it. I was also going to try and show the cutscene where Hitman delivers the poisoned whiskey to Alistair Beldingford, only having one syringe means that I need to save it for the stable boy. I never learned the route of the stable boy which is why I spend so much time exploring the stables looking for him; the reason for this is because the stable area is the final part of my runthrough which usually gets relegated to the "if it works, use it" methodology.
All in all, there are several points in this runthrough that don't gel with my previous practice runthroughs which is why this one seems less refined despite my intentions otherwise.