The Keyhole feature is a recurring stealth ability available to Agent 47, which allows him to see through doors undetected. It appears in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood Money.
Description[]
To look through a keyhole, the player must approach any door that has the action "Look Through Keyhole". The animation consists of 47 standing behind the door and peeping through its keyhole. Moving 47 or pressing keys will make him stop peeping and stand back up. The view the player gets is peripherally obscured by the keyhole itself. While not quite useful on lower difficulties, it becomes more important as the difficulty increase, because more NPCs get hidden from the map as a result.
Locked doors can also be peeped through, as well as several doors that not would logically have or need keyholes.
Getting seen by NPCs or guards whilst doing this will not attract attention in Silent Assassin or Contracts, so long as the player isn't trespassing. In Blood Money, NPCs will who see you performing this action will become curious and run towards 47 to ask him what he is doing. However, this alone will not result in witnesses.
The ability is absent in Hitman: Absolution and HITMAN™, possibly due to the newly added feature Instinct Mode. A similar concept does appear in World of Assassination in the form of peep holes.
Trivia[]
- In the modern day, most door locks cannot be looked through. Io-Interactive likely added the feature simply to balance the gameplay on higher difficulties.
- Some doors, such as glass doors, have keyholes which cannot be looked through. By contrast, some doors have no keyhole but can still be looked through.
- In Blood Money, the ability can also be used to distract or lure NPCs.