Prologue

1999, the International Contract Agency top secret training facility, somewhere along 74,2° North Latitude. A bald man with no memories of who he is and what he stands for arrives at a desolate helipad. With nowhere to go but forward, he crosses the walkway and is immediately approached by a redheaded woman, who’s surely been awaiting him. Diana Burnwood — a recently promoted ICA handler — gives him a warm welcome, but she’s the only one to do so. The bald man, known only as 47, is to pass a rigorous test to become part of the Agency. A task which to some might seem impossible and that’s definitely the impression Erich Soders — the Training Director himself — is under.

“Trust” is not a concept known to Soders. He’s skeptical about 47 and his lack of past. Enough so to decide to dig it up. He sends a team to Romania — the last place 47 was seen — but they come back with nothing. Diana attempts to convince Soders to give both of them a chance. After all, why would the Agency pass on such an impressively skilled asset? Soders complies and prepares another test. This time, he bases the assignment on one he managed in his own career — a one he’s famous for. The assassination of Jasper Knight — a Soviet spy and chessmaster who, back in the day, was responsible for murdering a US ambassador. With the help of Diana, 47 completes his final trial and becomes not only an ICA agent but ultimately the best man the Agency has on board.

Open 'Legacy' Opening

This did not go unnoticed and especially not by a man who’s been following the World of Assassination for the entirety of his life. The Shadow Client has been observing 47 for years. He knows 47 was behind the assassination of Sergei Zavorotko, Masahiro Hayamoto, the Fuchs brothers, the Delgados, the Sinistras and many more. The blood money has now led him to Paris where he closes on 47 at last and begins the proper story of HITMAN.

Showstopper (Paris)

Targets and objectives

  1. Viktor Novikov
  2. Dalia Margolis
Open Mission briefing

The main portion of HITMAN takes place in 2019, and it begins in Paris, France, as Palais de Walewska becomes home not only to a very prestigious fashion show but also to an undercover auction, which explains the territory being heavily guarded by a private security service called CICADA. Behind all of this are Victor Novikov — a man of many talents such as insurance fraud, industrial espionage and kidnapping — and Dalia Margolis — a famous Israeli supermodel. As they bonded together, they created something much more than just a spy ring. They created a brand. This birthed IAGO — an espionage network which uses models as their agents and fashionistas as their public disguises — and Sanguine — a fashion brand co-created with IAGO’s latest victim — famous fashion designer Sebastian Sato, who’s being blackmailed and threatened in order to cover for this particular event.

The auction is held in order to control the exchange of information within a group of very powerful people. The guest list is composed of the global elite, such as Prince Po, Sheik Salmon al-Ghazali and Andrea Martinez — the latter being the most powerful woman of the Delgado family drug cartel. Information gathered by IAGO holds significant value. Especially as they were the cause of some disastrous security leaks all around the world. This did not go silent in the World of Assassination. The FSB, under the lead of a man called Kaberov, set up a case against Victor Novikov and the news was picked up by Valerie St. Clair — an editor of the “Showstopper” magazine and Novikov’s biggest critic. Novikov decides to deal with the issue on his own, without confronting Margolis about it, albeit she also plans to ultimately be rid of him. Not only that, she also briefs one of IAGO’s agents — Helmut Kruger. He is to get close to John Highmoore of Highmoore Consulting in New York. Furthermore, there is another spy in the field. Going by the name Camille, she is currently investigating Julian Wakefield to get information about the Church of Ascendants.

Novikov is “sought out” by the Shadow Client who is willing to help him in exchange for the IAGO dossier. Novikov complies and Kaberov gets assassinated, with the last of the files being taken care of by Max Decker. The IAGO dossier is now in the hands of the Shadow Client. He leaks the NOC list recently acquired by Novikov and Margolis’ organization and then sets up a kill on both of them through a British intelligence service — MI6 — who then uses its contacts to involve another secret group — ICA — and assign their best man to the task. Diana Burnwood and agent 47 take on the assignment. Ultimately, the Paris fashion show floor is splattered with the blood of both founders of IAGO.

Open mission cutscene

World of tomorrow (Sapienza)

Targets and objectives

  1. Silvio Caruso
  2. Francesca De Santis
  3. Destroy the DNA Specific Virus
Open Mission briefing

Sapienza — a small but wonderful tourist location on the coast of Italy. Underneath — a giant secret underground laboratory, run by Silvio Caruso, a highly skilled researcher, currently working on a deadly virus codenamed “Samael”. It is able to spread and keep dormant until it detects the specific DNA of its target. On average, the target is struck in a time frame of 3 days. Behind it all is a pharmaceutical company called Ether, and the project is kept closely in the hands of their regional R&D director — Francesca De Santis. Unofficially, she’s also a spy who’s been planted in Caruso’s residence to keep tabs on Silvio as he becomes quite an unreliable and unstable asset to Ether. He’s led a difficult childhood and has become disturbed, neurotic and antisocial after the death of his mother Isabella, caused by his very own hands. Nowadays, Silvio is haunted by memories of Isabella. His troubled past, bullying incidents, a mental breakdown and an admission to a mental facility are being discussed with Dr. Oscar Lafayette, but the ultimate treatment for Caruso is not a shrink but Samael itself.

Ether is not a good guy either, as much as it wants to be seen as such in the public eye. An accident caused by one of the workers caused a morgue to be closed as to hide any casualties in the lab, and a researcher was found working on the side, making copies of the internal documentations with the intention of selling it to one of Ether’s competitors. In the midst of it all, the ICA sends 47 to Sapienza to eliminate both Silvio Caruso and Francesca De Santis, with the additional goal of sneaking into the lab and destroying Samael by any means necessary to avoid any risk of proliferation.

The successful assignment is being talked about in the World of Assassination. An organization going by the name Providence decides to activate one of their agents — a man named Hajun who’s also in role of an important keyholder — to investigate what happened in Italy. This Messenger (also known as a Providence “Herald”) is stopped by the Shadow Client, who managed to close in on him using the information obtained via the IAGO dossier. They meet in an underground parking in Johannesburg — also where the R&D branch of Ether is located — exchange information about a man named Cobb and Providence itself, and Hajun is ultimately killed for his key.

Open mission cutscene

A gilded cage (Marrakesh)

Targets and objectives

  1. Reza Zaydan
  2. Claus Hugo Strandberg
Open Mission briefing

Information can be a source of impending doom, as we learn in Marrakesh, Morocco. Claus Hugo Strandberg, the former CEO of a Moroccan private bank, was charged with investment fraud after a journalist revealed his criminal activities to the public. He would have diverted astronomical sums of money away from the Moroccan people by putting together an elaborate version of the famous Ponzi scheme. He is currently being held in the Swedish consulate in Marrakesh after mercenaries released him from his prison convoy. Involved in his escape and manipulating the whole situation is Reza Zaydan — a military general and author of black propaganda. Not only that, Zaydan has significant ties to Providence. His goal is to overthrow the government by persuading the General Staff to support a military coup and impose martial law throughout the country. This leads to heavy riots currently taking place in Marrakesh as the public is almost clawing their way into the Swedish consulate. They believe Strandberg should be judged by their law.

The plan is to evacuate Strandberg through a secret underground tunnel. Reza Zaydan collaborates with a Swedish diplomat, Erik Olander, who is to enable the escape. All of this is to put Strandberg on a plane and make it fall out of the sky on its way to Argentina — Providence’s hallmark operation. The organization wants to go even further. It aims to make Zaydan the president of Morocco. Unfortunately, the plan fails as the ICA receives a contract on both Zaydan and Strandberg, and sends 47 to complete the task.

Two days after the coup in Marrakesh, a secret vault in New York is compromised and a Providence higher-up arrives on site to assess the losses; confidential information on Providence’s assets, agents, and operations. In addition, Eugene Cobb, another keyholder, is found dead in a plane crash. A new director of the New York bank is assigned — a man by the name of Mr. Fanin — another one of Providence’s men.

Open mission cutscene

Club 27 (Bangkok)

Targets and objectives

  1. Jordan Cross
  2. Ken Morgan
Open Mission briefing

New York still sets tongues wagging, however, even though the story takes itself all the way to the Himmapan Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. This is where Jordan Cross and his band — The Class — are currently in the midst of recording their new single. The frontman is about to literally join Club 27 as his death also falls on his very birthday. 47 has been assigned to assassinate him on behalf of the Highmoore family. A truly vicarious act of revenge after John Highmoore’s daughter, Hannah, was killed by Jordan Cross himself, albeit he was never convicted or got into even the slightest trouble with the law. All thanks to Ken Morgan — a business lawyer without a single failure documented in his entire career. This granted him the nickname “The Brick” as well as the interest of many corporate giants such as Ether, Hamsun Oil, Haven Corporate Services and Kronstadt Technologies.

Ken Morgan works with none other than Jordan’s father whose tight grip the rockerman wishes to escape from. Thomas Cross — owner of the hotel and media empire Cross Holdings and an important man of Providence — was a difficult parent, eventually causing Jordan to turn to drinking and end up on a couch of Dr. Oscar Lafayette’s. Currently residing on an island, completely sheltered from the outside world, Thomas Cross seems almost untouchable. That is until the organization itself decides to sabotage his plane a week after, on his way to his son’s funeral. This is also when 47 and Diana decide to meet at an airport to discuss important matters. The Agency realized a pattern and their leads all pointed to an individual codenamed “the Shadow Client”.

Open mission cutscene

Freedom Fighters (Colorado)

Targets and objectives

  1. Sean Rose
  2. Penelope Graves
  3. Ezra Berg
  4. Maya Parvati
Open Mission briefing

The ICA analysts homed in on a signal coming from a remote farm in Colorado, USA. The traces were left by a certain Olivia Hall — a 24-year-old cyberactivist who has been working with the Shadow Client all this time. Also known under the hacker name “Delriego”, she leads the cyber division. She was also involved in the Hamsun Oil incident and took out some major corporations back during her college years. She met the Shadow Client in Sierra Leone in 2002. His other collaborators include Sean Rose — a radical activist and bomb maker, responsible for several terrorist attacks, raised in a Marxist collective. As a teenager, Rose fled to Vancouver and was later recruited by The Pristine Army — a terror network committed to fight the spread of civilization. After a job gone wrong, Rose became a freelancer, and amidst his accomplishments there can be found both the bombing of Hamsun Oil rig and the recent kidnapping of Thomas Cross. Nowadays, Sean Rose leads a private militia and the remote farm is used as their training grounds. Besides the Shadow Client, the militia also works closely with the Delgado cartel and there were mentions of CICADA being seen on the perimeter. Right now, Sean Rose is working on eliminating Simon Devaraux — the CEO of Biosphere. Devaraux is mentioned to be "exactly like Thomas Cross", meaning impossible to get close to. The way in is a Link 4-brand smartwatch, armed with a bomb. Rose is a guy to whom the ends justify the means — the militia is almost scared of him, thinking there is not a job he wouldn't do. He's also been assembling a huge army mixed and matched from different organizations. It is presumed that he's cracking under pressure and thus has to be treated by Dr. Oscar Lafayette.

Sean’s private militia needs bests of the bests. He recruits a handful of professionals such as Penelope Graves — an Interpol analyst who previously led a manhunt on Sean Rose himself before ultimately joining his side. According to word of mouth, she has discovered evidence of corruption and abuse of power by the higher levels of the UN and was told to keep quiet by her supervisors, which led her to question the rights and wrongs. In reality, she is working with the Shadow Client behind the scenes, asking difficult questions and trying to get close to Rose. Familiar with IAGO and Cobb’s death, she also met Olivia Hall before this undercover mission.

In turn, everyone who Sean believes is working for him is actually working for the Shadow Client. Ezra Berg — a former Mossad agent, specializing in interrogation techniques and with a particular interest in experimental hypnosis, psychoactives and subliminal mind control. His role is getting information out of a man he holds hostage in the basement of the farm — William Candler, one of the Heralds of Providence. He learns about Providence “Partners” and “Constant” as well as an important yet hidden truth: Providence has their people on every IAGO auction to control what information doesn't get leaked. They stay in the shadows, they don't intervene, they maintain the order and strike only when absolutely necessary.

Last but not least, there is Maya Parvati — a former hired killer for the Tamil Tigers. In turn, this role later granted her the position of the militia training instructor on the Colorado farm. She got into the Tamil Tigers thanks to her father, who was one of the leaders of the organization. She grew up raised by soldiers and mercenaries and ended up as a silent infiltrator when she was barely a teenager. The Tamil Tigers disbanded in 2009 and Parvati embarked on a journey with a pirate called The Maelstrom, known for hijacking a TI-class supertanker back in 2014. For some, he’s even seen as a legend. Now, his past has been entirely erased, thanks to the efforts of Olivia Hall. Parvati herself is also connected to Sean Rose in a different way. She allegedly lost an arm to a grenade blast during the Hamsun Oil rig explosion. Both The Maelstrom and Sean Rose were involved in the attack, although it is unknown why she decided to join the terrorist.

Besides eliminating the targets, the ICA also wants 47 to get access to the basement of the house located on the Colorado farm. In it, 47 finds out about the underlying conspiracy, all being run by the Shadow Client — his ultimate goal being to destroy Providence. So far, he’s responsible for the kidnapping of Thomas Cross, murdering Providence’s keyholders, and stealing the intelligence from the organization’s vault in New York. He’s also been using the Agency to do his dirty work, working closely with the organization’s Erich Soders, as he himself spends that time observing their best man from a distance. This is also the case in Colorado. As 47 leaves the mission area, the Shadow Client watches him from afar. He’s on a line with none other than his companion Olivia Hall and they discuss the current matters. Olivia’s scared that the ICA is going to continue their pursuit after her but the Shadow Client believes there was additional time bought just by switching the Agency’s attention to Sean Rose and his private militia. He claims he knows 47 better than anyone, as it is revealed that he’s one of his Romanian “brothers”. He relays a tale of their upbringings and their escape from the facility that led them to become a short-lived part of a small farming community which, in turn, was then slaughtered by people who came looking for the runaway boys.

Open mission cutscene 1 Open mission cutscene 2

Epilogue - Situs Inversus (Hokkaido)

Targets and objectives

  1. Erich Soders
  2. Yuki Yamazaki
Open Mission briefing

Ultimately, the Shadow Client was right, as the ICA decides to not waste any time in eliminating the mole. Erich Soders’ head now has a price, a final nail in the coffin given the direction his life was already heading since we last saw him. Despite becoming part of the ICA Board of Directors, his life took a turn for the worse once he learned he suffers from a rare disease called “Situs Inversus”, where his internal organs are reversed. That paired with his already life-threatening congenital heart condition that had him go under the knife once already, in 1995, and included black-market organ trading, which was, of course, swept under the rug by the Agency. Afterwards, he developed a gambling addiction, leading him to lose all of his money and needing to ask others for financial help once his heart began to give in once more. As Providence has the best medical facilities and treatment money can buy, and they offered him a deal for the information he carries, it is a no-brainer that Soders eventually became their source of intel.

The location Erich Soders is currently residing — GAMA, the Providence top-of-the-line hospital, built by Kronstadt Technologies, in Hokkaido, Japan — also gives a good opportunity to eliminate another one of Providence’s people, Yuki Yamazaki. In addition to being one of the best lawyers in Tokyo, she also has ties to the yakuza through Masahiro Hayamoto. She’s also close to Hajun whom she was in a romantic relationship with and after his death, was in charge of the murder investigation before she was deemed too emotionally attached by a Providence Constant. As a Providence Herald, Yuki’s role is to act as a liaison between the anonymous Providence leadership and their global operatives. She was also the one to recommend Mr. Fanin as Cobb’s successor.

With 47 on GAMA’s perimeter, it is only a matter of time before both Yamazaki and Soders are killed. However, this was only treating the symptom, not the cause. Providence’s goal is to take control of the International Contract Agency and will use all means to do so. In fact, one of the organization leaders seeks out and approaches Diana Burnwood during her train ride. He offers her a partnership between Providence and the Agency in order to join forces in tracking and eliminating their mutual foe — the Shadow Client. Diana does not want to make the same mistake as Erich Soders, although a mysterious photo presented by The Leader can very well change her mind.

Open mission cutscene

To be continued in HITMAN™ 2

Following the events of HITMAN, Agent 47 embarks on a mission to hunt the mysterious Shadow Client and disassemble his militia, while also discovering the hidden truth about his past.

Open location reveal trailer

Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Enjoy a moonlit stroll to the sounds of roaring waves off the coast of Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, and retire for the evening on the deck of a highly secured luxury beach house designed by renowned architect Oscar Wong.

Miami, USA

Visit sun-drenched Miami, Florida, and attend the final hours of the Global Innovation Race - a motorsports event showcasing the very latest in modern car design. Join a crowd of thousands of excited spectators at the biggest racing event of the year.

Santa Fortuna, Colombia

Your mission takes you to the remote village of Santa Fortuna, entrenched deep inside the lush Colombian rainforest. Located at the foot of the infamous Delgado mansion, Santa Fortuna offers the discerning tourist everything from beautiful waterfalls to genuine spirit journeys and the chance to spend time with charming fishermen at the town’s local watering hole.

Mumbai, India

Nicknamed ‘City of Dreams’, Mumbai is a treat for any visiting traveler or agent on a mission. Lose yourself in the crowds of the city’s famous slums or admire Bollywood movie locations from afar. Mumbai will not disappoint with its colorful life and countless hidden secrets.

Whittleton Creek, USA

Welcome to picture perfect Whittleton Creek, USA – the quintessential American suburb. Experience wide roads flanked by yellowing maple trees, carefully groomed front yards and beautiful houses inhabited by neighborly people enjoying a quiet Saturday.

Isle of Sgàil, North Sea

The Isle of Sgàil, North Sea, is one of the most secretive places in the world. Rumored to have served as everything from a Roman outpost to a "black site" prison for Russian spies, the island is a mystery to virtually everyone.