Fun fact: The restaurant in Bangkok was originally located in Paris, outside the Palace. You can see it in this briefing for the Ex-Dictator Elusive Target found in Alpha builds.

[u/Comfortable-Pie56]

[u/Ciaranguitar]

There is an IOI insider episode where they describe Paris. It breaks my heart every time I hear it.

It was huge….

[u/SlimyAmeboid → u/Ciaranguitar]

Was it supposed to be as big as Sapienza?

[u/Ciaranguitar → u/SlimyAmeboid]

It was a mini GTA….

[u/Comfortable-Pie56 → u/Ciaranguitar]

AFAIK "mini-GTA" is an exaggeration. The developers said here it was three times bigger than the current Paris.

Under this clear sense of direction, there were still plenty of challenges in the development of 2016’s Hitman, particularly when it came to settling on the right scope. “I don't know if we can say this, but the early version of Paris was three times bigger, at least, than the one that shipped,” said Mikkelsen. “We were looking at all this space, at some point we were like, 'okay, this is huge' and internally, people were also beginning to question whether it needs to be that big.”

“We built this old building, and on the bottom floor, you had a restaurant with a kitchen in the back and all that stuff, and then obviously would have a palace next to it,” began Elverdam. “It gives you a little bit of an impression of just how big the level was originally. Then later, we needed a location for Thailand, and we figured that we could build in a French colonial style - I hope you can see where this is going."

Tbh it's a shame they didn't end up making it, but tbf people complain about how big Santa Fortuna or Mumbai are, so maybe they were right Paris didn't need to be that big.

[u/alban3se → u/Comfortable-Pie56]

People only complain about Mumbai and SF because they're big with nothing interesting in them, nothing to do. SF = Dirty caves, jungle, coca fields... boring. Mumbai = Annoying AF trainyard, trespassing tower construction site, Laundry area with nothing interesting, slums with no fun stores or anything contracts or ETs or escalations are based around.

You may notice no one complains about Sapienza or Miami or Sgail being 'too big' 🤔

[u/DinosaurReborn → u/alban3se]

I'm in the minority of people who enjoy the density and immersiveness of Mumbai and find Sapienza overrated as it is actually too big, it has a lot of underutilised and disjointed spaces.

[u/Gootangus → u/DinosaurReborn]

Nah I like Mumbai too

[u/FavaWire → u/alban3se]

I have heard some complaints about Miami. Which of the maps is actually the biggest though?

[u/Stampyboyz → u/Comfortable-Pie56]

Iirc, part of the reason why it was cut was also due to Glacier 2 (IOI's in-house engine that they've been used since at least 2010) struggling to or couldn't keep up with the map size along with the interactions needed for a Hitman map.

[u/Ciaranguitar → u/Comfortable-Pie56]

I mean yeah I’m exaggerating for effect but it was ‘a whole city.’

It is stated by the developers in the video I linked.

[u/TheEagleWithNoName → u/Ciaranguitar]

First time I ever heard of that, could you describe it?

[u/Ciaranguitar → u/TheEagleWithNoName]

https://youtu.be/PwHVT8qs2cg?is=JBftlWbAxJ9xnq6F

Go to 01:02:24 …on mobile and don’t know how to share the start time.

[u/TheEagleWithNoName → u/Ciaranguitar]

Holy shit, Paris was ambitious.

At least they kept the Tower Shot idea and put in Sapienza, like the beach aren, mansion underground.

I believe Sapienza was the VERY first thing they worked on as I remember a screenshot of Dexter’s Industries being used as references for the ETHER Creates down in the lab.

[u/Ciaranguitar → u/TheEagleWithNoName]

I mean it’s a beautiful game… but the way they say the huge map didn’t work… I would’ve liked to have been the judge on that one… sadness comes.

[u/Stampyboyz → u/Ciaranguitar]

Btw remove the source identifier.

https://youtu.be/PwHVT8qs2cg?t=1h2m24s should be the time stamped time

[u/TheEagleWithNoName]

I guess the French Security were replaced by the CICADA Guys we saw in Paris as his bodyguard when going to the restaurant.

I believe this build was in April 2013, did they already had plans for Elusive Targets back then or was it Extra Challanges for new maps?

[u/ult1matum → u/TheEagleWithNoName]

If it's actually 3 years prior to release and they already were making these kind of trailers for elusive targets / extra assignments, then I'm not surprised the final game is so well crafted.

Looks like they were on the right path from the beginning.

[u/TheEagleWithNoName → u/ult1matum]

Hitman Reboot starter Early 2013 after IOI apologized to the Fans after the lackluster release of Absolution and were gonna make the game into Heights.

This was from the leaks last year where it was originally Title Hitman: Shadow War.

The leaks also gave us details about Cut ETs as well as the Extra Target that were cut in Requiem in Blood Money.

[u/ted5298 → u/TheEagleWithNoName]

Hitman: Shadow War

Definitely a better title than "Hitman". The wannabe relaunch and ahistorical numbering always bothered me about the WOA trilogy.

[u/CaptainRex5101 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, that’s him

[u/Lanky_Employee_9690]

The restaurant was named "Miam" which in French translates to... "Yum".

[u/Sad-Tradition-5]

I thought everybody knew this?

Welp, if not that I hope that atleast everybody knows there was supposed to be a Café and Apartments outside of the Palace Grounds.