Hitman 2 continues to hold fans' attention over a year after its initial release, and it's easy to see why. The game is full of fun ways to approach its levels, giving players incredible freedom over how they want to see their targets brought down to size.
With such a wide range of options, it's no surprise that only a few of the paths players can take are communicated through the game's Mission Stories. There are still many secret opportunities and hidden possibilities throughout the game. Today, we're taking a look at the level set in Mumbai, along with 10 things to do there that the game doesn't tell you about.
10 Tour The City
Hitman levels are famous for being large, sprawling affairs with multiple ways to approach your objectives. While this freedom is one of the biggest draws of the series, it can also be somewhat intimidating, especially for new players. How does one begin when there is nothing to indicate the best starting point?
The Mumbai level seeks to help players a bit with an in-world helping hand in the form of a tour group. Starting from the default entrance, players can easily spot the green cap with a conspicuous flag marking the leader of the group, and they are then able to follow them around the city to several prominent areas, from the trainyard to the slums. This provides a fascinating look at both the world-building being done in the level and at several available assassinations to complete.
9 Conduct A Complicated Poisoning
Poison is a classic way to take out targets in Hitman games. It's fast, efficient, and most importantly it doesn't negate a Silent Assassin rating, with any poisoned bodies being found not counting against your score. When players infiltrate the trainyard where one of their targets, Vanya Shah, resides, they will find a tea set and immediately begin planning to serve her a deadly drink.
This particular poisoning is a bit more complicated than others you find throughout Hitman 2, though. Shah styles herself as a queen, and as such she has all the regal amenities, including a royal guard, servants, and a food tester. Poison the tea immediately, and it will be Shah's underling who drinks the deadly brew. Agent 47 must wait until this has passed before poisoning the tea and then offering it to Shah.
8 Create Some Crane Troubles
Playing through the events of Mumbai will lead players to realize that two of their targets, Vanya Shah and Dawood Rangan, have it out for each other in a very lethal way. They've each taken out a contract on the other's life, and interesting things happen if you take out one and then inform the other.
Eliminating Shah and then telling Rangan about it will lead him to meet with your third target, the Maelstrom, on a barge just outside his construction site. The game doesn't tell you what to do from here, but attentive players will notice a large crane hanging above their heads, and a shipping crate with controls to release its cargo. It doesn't take much to orchestrate this tragic accident, eliminating your two remaining targets in one fell swoop.
7 Help Out The Painter
The contracts for Shah and Rangan have both been issued to a local assassin called the Kashmirian. The game then instructs you to help set up the shot for this fellow killer for hire, which you can do by infiltrating your targets' respective compounds.
For Rangan, the game directs players to impersonate an artist working on his new portrait. The artist is looking for the best paints to use in his new work and will not get Rangan until he finds them. While you can choke the artist out and steal his clothes to summon Rangan, another option is to find the paint he needs elsewhere in the tower. Delivering the tube of blue to his supplies will lead him to get Rangan himself, discreetly setting up the Kashmirian's sniper shot.
6 Serve The Maelstrom His Favorite Tea
While wandering around the city of Mumbai, you may stumble upon the tea district where a series of brightly colors stalls are serving different kinds of tea. If you hang around for long enough, a mysterious stranger will appear and begin chatting with a woman nearby, their conversation dealing with a variety of ominous and foreboding topics. This man is the Maelstrom, and this presents a very interesting opportunity.
47 will need to acquire a food vendor's disguise from somewhere in the city, and then man one of the tea stalls. As the Maelstrom passes by, you can try offering him some tea from your stand. The game will randomly decide which tea the Maelstrom is in the mood for when you start the level, so be prepared to reload a save several times before you find the right stand. Once you do, you can poison the tea before he drinks it and kill the Maelstrom.
5 Send A Signal
Another task that doesn't have a Mission Story associated with it is one that sees you summoning both Shah and Rangan out of their fortresses and into the streets of Mumbai. While passing the foundry, you may overhear some of the workers there talking about a signal. This is the key to getting your targets out of their secure compounds.
You'll need to obtain a metals worker disguise and one red brick from somewhere in the level. Then, all you need to do is toss the brick into an open flame in the foundry and wait. The burning brick will turn the smoke pouring out above red, signaling both Shah and Rangan to meet by the shore. Their rendezvous of choice just so happens to be beneath a suspended boat, which a crowbar can make short work of, taking out boths targets at once.
4 Help Out The Laundry Foreman
In the same way that you can position Dawood Rangan for the Kashmirian to eliminate, you can do the same with Vanya Shah. By sneaking into the laundry area, you'll overhear several people talking about the new foreman who's mean to meet with Shah on the overpass later, but hasn't been seen.
Infiltrating the foreman's office finds said foreman fretting about missing documents and putting off his meeting because of them. While the game again directs you to steal his clothes and meet Shah yourself, you can also find the documents for him, quietly placing them in his office. He'll find them himself and then meet with Shah without 47 ever having to hurt a hair on his head.
3 Find The Maelstrom On Your Own
The third target in Mumbai is Wazir Kale, aka the Maelstrom. This enigmatic pirate is difficult to pin down and isn't marked on your map from the beginning of the level like your other two targets are. While there are several opportunities to find him throughout the level, whether it's by arranging meetings or finding pictures, you can find him all on your own.
If you wander around the city for long enough, you're sure to stumble across the Maelstrom as he patrols the slums. Pay attention to the dialogue you overhear from NPCs and you'll start noticing that one man in particular continues to make vaguely threatening and ominous comments. This man is, of course, the Maelstrom, who you can then take out.
2 The Trolley Solution
While 47 doesn't typically concern himself with ethic problems, this next entry does mirror the infamous Trolley Problem as it sees him diverting a train in order to take out a single person. The path to this goal isn't clearly marked in the level, although it is very satisfying when you pull it off.
Since Vanya Shah resides in a trainyard and there are trains passing by every so often, it doesn't take a huge logical leap to conclude that you can send a train barreling straight through her little oasis. All it takes is finding a lever and somewhere to place it. Switching the tracks sends a locomotive right through the queen's chambers, eliminating her and anyone unlucky enough to be in the way.
1 A Train To Catch
Finally, this secret exit follows directly from the previous entry and can actually garner a Silent Assassin rating, surprisingly. The best way to find it involves killing Rangan elsewhere in the level, then contacting Shah to let her know that the job has been done. This will cause her to summon the Maelstrom for a meeting in her trainyard.
Following the same steps as in the previous entry once both Shah and the Maelstrom are in place causes the train to take out both of them and, somewhat miraculously, no one else. Since Rangan is already dead, you'll then get a short prompt to leave the level, causing 47 to hop onto the caboose of the train as it speeds away from its destruction.