Hitman 3 tasks you with meticulously hunting down targets one-by-one, avoiding detection as you swap through a closet of dead people's outfits, all culminating in a triumphant escape that leaves behind a trail of completed contracts. But one speedrunner stood on top of a building and sniped five people with a pistol before dipping, and it only took 37 seconds.
It puts all our runs to shame, but we can shift aside our jealousy for a second to focus on how impressive this feat really is. They started on Overpass, shot several bullets to lure out targets, and then stopped a jogger from finding a body by shooting a bundle of coconuts to distract them. After that, they killed several remaining targets, fired through a tarp through a window through a floor, and killed the final target.
This run was hosted and broken down on Atrioc's Twitch and YouTube. He was holding a $1,000 Hitman challenge, featuring several contenders. The winner, who got the 37 second speedrun, was JohnnyAxx, AKA punkstarfunk.
Atrioc hired "one of the world's greatest Hitman players, davidredsox, to design a fiendishly difficult brand-new contract with five all-new targets spread across one of the largest maps in the game." The goal was to beat it the fastest, with only one week to prepare.
Given that this particular contract had never been played before, as it's wholly custom, the week to prepare meant figuring out the fastest and most creative route to a never-before tackled challenge. No pre-existing strats, no guides, no reference speedruns - they were on their own.
Regardless, several contenders pulled it off, some winning creativity points, others standing on that top three podium. The creative clips are just as unbelievable as the winners, as MulletPride manages to snipe through several crowds, barriers, a bush, and a wall, to make a target investigate, before shooting again to land a headshot. All without seeing them.
Hitman is a creative sandbox, but if you can't beat each level in 37 seconds, don't worry, that's completely normal. 30 minutes is just as respectable, right?