Hitman has been getting new Elusive Targets for players to take down thanks to content updates for over nine years now, and as World of Assassination gets its latest in the form of James Bond villain Le Chiffre, one senior level designer tells us the hardest part about making them is "actually keeping the target alive."
Casino Royale's Le Chiffre joining Hitman World of Assassination was one of the surprise reveals from Summer Game Fest 2025. Successfully taking him out will net you a reward in IO Interactive's upcoming James Bond game 007 First Light, even though Hitman senior level designer Martin Ansdal has since told us "that does not imply a larger, shared thing" between the two universes.
In the same interview, we asked how IO Interactive approaches designing a level like this when players have so many different ways to tackle it and complete the mission. Ansdal agrees that this is certainly a challenge "after all the updates" that have been added, including "the banana peel," which can be used to make people slip over in true slapstick fashion. "So that's something we now have to consider," he says.
Beyond that, though, "the hardest part is actually keeping the target alive, because the player has so many ways" to take them out. Ansdal points to the antics of speedrunners and "some of the stuff they do." He explains: "Le Chiffre took like five months to make, and some guy will surely do it in like a second or something."
Are any brave speedrunners going to take that on as a challenge? I hope so. When it comes to solutions to the latest level, Ansdal mentions he's "definitely seen some banana peel shenanigans," as well as "something that required a very special solution," although he didn't reveal what, teasing that players could "try to figure out the thing" instead.
Mads Mikkelsen says his roles in Death Stranding and Hitman both had "one thing" in common: "I had no idea what was going on."
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