Hitman: World of Assassination has never been short on strange assassination opportunities, but IO Interactive’s celebrity Elusive Targets have given the series a particularly unusual playground. From Mads Mikkelsen and Milla Jovovich to Snoop Dogg, the studio keeps building entire missions around unexpected personalities stepping into Agent 47’s world. The latest celebrity target, Snoop Dogg’s Dr. Cyrus Cane, takes that approach perhaps further than most.
I spoke to IO Interactive senior game designer Eskil Mohl about Hitman: World of Assassination’s approach to celebrity targets, working with Snoop Dogg, and how the Elusive Target format has evolved. For the latest addition, The Herbalist drops Agent 47 into a giant weed farm, because, well, of course. Yet, IO Interactive isn’t simply putting Snoop Dogg’s face on a traditional Hitman mission. The team is building the fantasy around him. “Snoop is Snoop. I don’t think we ever considered making him into something else,” Mohl tells me.
“Sure his name is Cane in the Herbalist, but come on, it’s Snoop. The story and the level chosen are all there to maximize the Snoopness.” I’ve always been curious about IO Interactive’s relationship with celebrities. The studio has to balance honoring the person they’re working with with giving players a satisfying target.
When asked about the approach to that balance when designing missions, Mohl explains that “it differs from case to case. Bruce Lee was simply not someone that we thought anyone, us included, really wanted as a target, so he became someone 47 had to protect and work with instead. Then we could dip into the whole Kung Fu lore and create our own targets that fit with that fantasy, and Bangkok was the obvious choice for a martial arts tournament.”
The rest of the time, Elusive Targets are destined for a creative demise. On choosing collaborators, I’m told that for “the most part, the celebrities who want to be in the game have played roles where they don’t make it to the end. Yet to see a movie with Sean Bean where he doesn’t die. And so, we trust that they know what they are in for when they agree to participate.” But how involved are these celebrities?
Again, it’s dependent on the person. “Sometimes there’s some back and forth with the talent, and we adjust and tweak the ideas accordingly. With Snoop, it was honestly a delight. There was zero pushback on any of the ideas or the stories on the level, so it was all quite peachy.” That instant magic applies to working with Mads Mikkelsen and Milla Jovovich, too.
Mohl recalls working with them: “He [Mads] turned into Le Chiffre the instant we pressed record. He said he knew his son would just love finding new ways to take out his old man. Milla Jovovich was also one that kinda wrote itself. We got a chance to pay homage to a franchise we all love and cherish, and we had the gloomy Dartmoore and Ether and a virus mechanic, and with Milla, who had no qualms about playing the bad guy, it all fit together.”
The bigger change, though, has been what happens after the initial assassination. Traditional Elusive Targets were built around the tension of having one opportunity, but Mohl says that pressure could also prevent players from properly exploring the missions. “Well, the traditional elusive was this one chance at doing the hit to really make it tense, and that has something, that blood-rush you get when something really is at stake. But it can also be devastating to fail, and then you go in, and you’re so afraid to mess up that you play safe and never get to see 5% of what the mission actually has to offer,” Mohl explains.
“The celebrity elusive targets have boosted the mode significantly. The missions are much bigger in scope, which is also one of the reasons that we are now rolling them out as special assignments so players can replay and enjoy the work that has gone into them. What’s different with a celebrity target, though, is you want to actually spend time with the character, see how the persona plays out systemically, not just take the shot and move on. So, the design has to earn the replay value rather than just have this one moment of dread.”
IO Interactive already has more celebrity Elusive Targets planned, though Mohl isn’t ready to reveal who might be next. Snoop Dogg might be one of the most unusual examples yet, but that willingness to embrace the ridiculous without losing the darker edge of the series is the gift that keeps on giving.
“[The] thing is, Hitman can be as dark or as comedic as you want it to be,” Mohl says. “And being able to hold both at once is very much Hitman.”
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