I played up to Mumbai yesterday (did one of three kills in mumbai). I got silent assassin+no collateral kills (on Professional, with quicksave abuse) on Miami and San Carlos so it took me most of the day.
For me, this series with its proliferation of optional content, poses a curious meta-puzzle of what goals and mode of play I should adopt in order to actually enjoy it. I stopped playing originally because each level contains a shitton of challenges involving every single specially-scripted gimmick they made, and it seemed like maybe I was expected to be completionist there, but after a point waiting around another 20 minutes to see the predictable result of the next scripted gimmick for a target is no longer my cup of tea.
I suspect nobody on SB actually plays Hitman that way except for their very favorite levels but the thing is the game does not give particularly clear signals about how else you are supposed to play it. Simply rushing through each level using whatever sloppy method first reveals itself as workable then moving on can’t be it either: the game is trivial, anticlimactic and very brief that way.
Last time on Hitman 1 I overplayed Paris because first I did a lot of fucking around to understand and appreciate every detail, and then it seemed to me that the particular ultimate challenge “Silent assassin, suit only, murder weapon: battle axe” might be something to aim for to perform my mastery of the level. I tried that one for about 15 hours and did formulate a cheesy plan that I believe should work (causing an explosion to get the targets to flee to a stairwell where I lurk with a battle axe), but I never got the execution down perfectly enough to achieve it and after a point further attempts stopped being fun.
This playthrough I lit upon the “classic” challenges page with its serieslong completion goals for “Silent Assassin”, “Suit Only”, “Silent Assassin, Suit Only” and “Sniper Assassin”. Based on my previous experience, the famous joint SA+SO challenge requires a lot of cheesing and tolerance for frustration, so I think I’ll cease aspiring for that and leave it to the less casual Hitman players.
Instead, I think what works for me is separately aspiring to the “Silent Assassin” (+“only kill target”) and “Suit Only” (collateral kills allowed). The former exercises the stealth and disguise mechanics to their full extent and lets me embody a patient, ideal assassin. The latter exercises the on-alert/combat mechanics which are totally absent from the other style, and lets me embody a reckless, chaotic action antihero.
(As for the Sniper classic challenge, it sounds slightly dull to me as such, but I suppose part of the concept there is playing each level enough in general to unlock a sniper rifle, which means you can do a lot of the assorted challenges for XP but stop feeling the need to get more around when that gets boring. I might consider it for a few of my favorite levels.)