Have you played the Hawke's Bay level in Hitman 2? Of all the levels from Hitman (2016), Hitman 2, and Hitman 3, I think it's probably the creepiest.
For context, Hawke's Bay is the working tutorial for Hitman 2. This is noteworthy because the difficulty isn’t very high, which plays into what makes Hawke's Bay so creepy.
Hawke's Bay is essentially a home-invasion mission where 47 faces little opposition and can move around a residence while its inhabitants are at their most vulnerable.
The mission begins with 47 making entry into the empty home via key or lockpick. He can then explore with zero opposition for as long as he wants. He can rummage through the bedrooms, kitchen, living area, bathrooms, and every other part of the house he desires. Once players trigger an event that causes the occupants to return home, there is extraordinarily little standing in the way of 47 outright spying on these people from feet away while they go about their nightly routine. Sure, there’s a guard or two to deal with, but Hawke's Bay is designed to show players the ropes with little restriction. To make matters worse, there are several bits of dialogue referencing Max, the target's giant dog, but Max is never seen or heard. I'm left to wonder if 47 took Max out off screen, which just adds to the creep factor.
In my most recent playthrough on PS5 (long story, but 2080 Ti RMA approved), I was knocking out some challenges and decided to go with killing Alma Reynard, the mission’s target, while she was sleeping. This would allow me to smother her (for a challenge) and shoot her through her skylight while she slept (for a challenge). In the Hitman games, you can knock out a challenge, reload your save to before you completed that challenge, and knock out more to stack them up.
Once the guards were dealt with the target and her fella, Orson Mills, headed to bed, with Orson taking a shower. This caused the bathroom to steam up. I was standing directly behind Orson and choked him out with Alma standing feet away. She went straight to bed without a second thought. From there, I waited just outside the bedroom for several minutes for her to fall asleep. I don’t know I’ve ever felt like more of a creep in a video game. The waiting was what did it. Being feet from someone who is sleeping and completely unaware of your presence is a gross feeling, even in a game.
Most of the time in Hitman games (the last three at least), you’re killing targets in surprising ways, but it’s almost never as personal as their bedroom while they’re sleeping. When you drop a chandelier on someone who is giving a speech, there is a disconnect. When you poison someone’s fish and walk away before they even take a bite, it’s out of sight and out of mind. But, when you wait for several minutes as your target falls asleep, endlessly debating the countless ways that you can eliminate them… that’s an odd feeling that I’m not in a rush to experience again.
Of course, Alma Reynard and Orson Mills are terrible fucking people. The bodies of the actual owners of the home are in the garage, tortured. They return home from kidnapping someone and openly talk about it as 47 hides in the shadows. I mean, it’s still creepy to be in someone’s (adopted) home where they are supposed to feel safe, but in this case getting over it’s easy. But, let you guard down during the quieter moments of Hawke's Bay and you'll be properly weirded out in no time.
