A place to discuss the new featured contracts from MinnMax, all set in Dubai
That time limit complication scares me. 
Cool briefings though!
By the way: is @PEA still doing featured contract runs? Always enjoyed those 
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I saw this and my first thought was “well, I’ll never play that one”. We are not all speed runners. Some of us want nothing to do with that way to play.
Edit: the other four look fun though.
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Haven’t taken a look at that one, but with a limit of 1:20 I assume everything needed is going to be fairly close to each other.
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It’s actually a fairly generous amount of time (you’ll see what I mean if you play it). None of these contracts are particularly difficult in my mind, which is good for the first lot of featured contracts on a new game imo, for any new players to the trilogy that want to engage with contracts mode.
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That’s good then. I admit I haven’t had the time to load it up and try it yet so my initial hesitation was based solely on the existence of the time limit and not on any actual game-play.
I had the same thought about not liking the contract when I did the third level of the Lee Hong escalation but I managed it Ok. I think my fastest run on that I had a full minute to spare but it was definitely not SA.
I also completed all five contracts. The briefings were very nice, and I also liked that the contracts had pictures. I have not yet found any fast route on the third one, but know they exist (my time was 1:18, which is pretty close to the limit, but I can think of improvements and I might replay later). I actually had more trouble in Crossblade as I kept failing at shooting down the falling object 
Overall I thought the set offered a very nice variety of contracts, and I liked them all (I think I liked Minnsnaps best just for the use of the kitchen staff disguise, which I have literally never used for more than getting the chameleon challenge, and having no idea where he was allowed to go made it somewhat exciting).
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I like the custom thumbnails. Nice touch.
But I sorta don’t want to play any Hitman 3 Featured Contracts until they fix the rewards for its challenges (Tiers 3, 4 & 5 with maybe even 2 as well).
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My review of them + rating. I’ll hide them so they don’t take up the whole screen 
1. Get A Load Of This (2 / 5)
The guard target was a little generic and not too much of a puzzle. However, Lucy was a decent choice. Especially considering dropping the chandelier by itself also kills Ms Stuyvesant, so you have to find a way to move her (I used a micro audio distraction). The only downside is you have to wait a fair while for Lucy’s route to get her under the chandelier. Pretty run of the mill honestly.
2. Crossblade (3.5 / 5)
The Tech Crew target is again a little bit of a dull kill (he walks right under a speaker). But I do think he’s alright as he helps define the path the player should take, and hopefully nudges some people in the direction of using some of Dubai’s well placed vines. The Pilot is a dull target in general, he stands still. However, having the Scimitar as the weapon is brilliant as players with high enough mastery can bring it into the level and save some time, but players new to Dubai can also just take a very quick shortcut to the penthouse and grab it (assuming they have the persistent shortcut unlocked). Not sure if this was intentional from MinnMax but I thought it was great design. Still the contract is a tad generic but definitely better than the last.
3. Two Ends (2 / 5)
The time limit definitely adds an air of tension, but it’s fairly generous honestly give the proximity of both targets and the exit to each other. Mind the explosion is sometimes going to alert the guards around and make escape difficult to escape, so I’d say the breaking charge is a must for this one. In conclusion, short but sweet, didn’t have much of an impact on me.
4. Minnsnaps (4 / 5)
Like the others, the first target was rather trivial, but the kitchen area in Dubai seems kinda under-loved, so it was fun to start off in there. The chef was another easy target, his water bottle is easy to poison, especially with a free penthouse staff disguise right by him. What raised this contract above the rest for me for two-fold. Firstly, the fun link between the two targets (the most cohesive pairing so far) was good to see. Secondly, and mainly, it was how much fun I had trying to route from the staff area all the way to the penthouse, with no in-between objectives or targets to guide me. All-in-all a quite simple contract but the most enjoyable of the lot for my money.
5. The Deepest Dive (1 / 5)
The worst of the lot unfortunately. Based on the position of the first target I assume the penthouse staff start is what they intent you to use (so you work down the level towards the required exit). However this means you can walk around almost every area you need to be in freely, which provides no challenge. The letter opener kill seems rather random as well as the target being completely stationary, all around just an odd choice. Then Carl Ingram seemed to stand by the ledge the whole time and I was free to push him off the edge with no resistance from his guards and then walk to the exit. Just a contract with no challenge or theme, I’m not sure what it was
Altogether I’d say these are a decent set of first featured contracts to introduce new players to Dubai. I can see why IO has done this and believe it to be a good idea, but i look forward to community featured contracts again next month
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Those Ingram guards are just negligent, honestly. I have never been that big of a fan of using main targets in contract mode, except if it is thematic of course. At least the kill was completely free this time. The hardest part was finding the letter opener, luckily hitmaps exists 
(Also, I did not use any vines in Crossblade as you can also just walk back there through the art gallery and shoot the speaker down, which is admittedly harder than expected)
Not trying to flex or anything but it seems that I got first on the leaderboards on The Deepest Dive by accident
I’ll enjoy it while it lasts 
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Coming in hot
Another one
A third one
The fourth one
And the fifth and final one
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I liked this contract the most too, i actually started in the penthouse poisoned the chefs drink and used the kalmer on him, this gave me enough time to get the kitchen staff disguise 
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All contracts created by MinnMax
02:22 “Get A Load Of This”
06:57 “Crossblade”
11:16 “Two Ends”
13:42 “Minnsnaps”
20:07 “The Deepest Dive”
Finally the Featured Contracts are back after a long 6 months! Need to improve the camera/lighting/chroma keyer, hope you enjoy!
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Some of these are okay – bit limited, but at least playable with the conditions and targets kept to a couple at a time. Shame there’s so many disconnections on Xbox at the moment; servers are a mess it seems.
Anyway, couple of casual runs for 4 and 5:
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In overall not an difficult batch. Some of rhem werw fun, but i would prefer more complicated contracts.
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Basically the same as what I did, but damnnnn that throw was smooth 
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