Elusive Target Arcade

The “hide all bodies” complication actually made level 2 of The Ellipses challenging for me. However, I think the complications (and the target order) should be randomized and/or optional and/or able to be removed after completion. As it is, I have to rethink my interest in this mode (which will also depend on what future additions to it look like).

I appreciate that ETs are now permanent because it doesn’t make sense to let all that extra time/effort/content go to waste but the mode definitely has room for improvement. That said, I think we got carried away by our hype and expectations (as usual) but my interest for Freelancer has been way higher since they explained it more anyway.

(As for that bug where it fails you even if you didn’t fail, I just restarted the game and and it let me back in. It might work as a temporary fix until IOI sorts it out.)

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It’s frustrating…

I can see an idea here but they really should of made this a challenge ladder. Set all ETs as playable along with suit unlocks as rewards.

For the challenge ladder go though a set of ETs one by one, player can’t choose a starting location and items are precure on site. With the odd drop crate similar to Ghost Mode where can only choose 1 item out of three. Then every 3-4 ETs done the player has to choose a complication to tack-on. So the player has some degree of choice and lot more work with the situation.

Can still do a track based system by separating ETs into games and then have one massive one for players who own everything.

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So, after some back and forth to make the game recognise that indeed I haven’t failed and should be able to continue on, I finally managed to finish the Ellipses and the Codices.

I’m not going to go too much on the current technical issues. I am certain they will be soon resolved (and they are certainly not helped by a surge of players).

But I am going to give my opinion on the game mode as it is inteded to be, as it is designed. Because I think some at IO will read the thread to see the returns, so it would be good to give something on this intended part of the experience. (hello Travis, love the rest of the game, lots of good work and great level design)

I did not have fun completing the contracts. I have no desire to replay them a second time.


Simple as that. The complications restrict too much. It changed the elusive mission too much to the point of loosing some of their substance and the fun and exploration they could give.

I play Hitman for its openess, for its level design. I play the ET to be able to have the pression of assessing the situation and act on the pressure points. Not to always tell to myself “no, this will arbitrarely fail the mission”.

Some of the stages are so restricted that I can see only one (unfun) way to do them. No (fun and explorable) replayability. No poison, no accident.
Worst for some the best way to pass the stage is to use the emetic briefcase. One of the most lackluster way to play the game.

Half of the gameplay possibilities are just not allowed.


  • The Codices is still relatively open. Of the three contracts it’s the one I could see myself replay to try to do some other runs. It does allow for sniper assassin after all.

  • The Ellipses just doesn’t even allow for accident kills with its “all bodies hidden”. I wanted to see if it was possible to eliminate the Collector with a propane flask thrown in a fireplace (as a prompt exist to do this kind of sabotage), but I can’t. It’s fiberwire in the locker room, and nothing else.

  • The Deceits is just a large no for me. The restrictions are too much of an hindrance. Not just an hindrance to the missions, but an hindrance to the fun of playing Hitman.


We already have escalations for the challenges. Restricting one try every 12 hours, and forcing ordered playlist is enough of a twist on the ET formula to make them retain their prestige, their challenge, their “oh dear now I have to wait or loop around the playlist to redo this one in a different way”.

As I said before, the ethos of the game mode might not be to make us replay the ETs, but to give a challenge that happens to use the ET as the framwork. A kind of “more in depth and complex escalations”. But it just spoiled the ETs. If this was the objective, then the design is genuinely good.

But, if this was the objective of the game mode, then the communication around it was a miss. If not a breakdown of communication of intentions. Because it was not what I understood the game mode to be. I thought it was going to be mainly the ET with a side of challenges, not the reverse.

And if the intent was to create curated contracts, each with their own narrative, then it is also a miss. Maybe if it was a general twist applied to all stages (accident only for all stages, poison only…) it could have been better. Right now it’s just adding more and more negative to the gameplay and not exploring a gameplay narrative more and more in depth (as the best escalation can do)


Optional complications or general themes, please. I just want to play Hitman.

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Stupid headshots only complication with insta fail.
Now i have failed The codices just because i shot an npc in the chest. Wtf.

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It feels like they wanted to kick off with Freelancer, realised it wouldn’t be ready till Spring and so looked at a quick hold-over mode till then with ET arcade being the answer. Shame as if they just got the voice actress for Diana to do a few extra lines of dialogue they could of made alot of ETs into small campaigns to help fill the time. Maybe even beefing up some with extra guards, objectives or combining H1 ETs together etc…

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Will repost it here, just in case.
Anybody knows what’s going on? Anybody else affected?

It’s bugged. It’s been added to the Known Issues list.

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Damn. So I’m back to ETS then

Oh man, I haven’t even played these and my hype is already buried. I mean, the whole escalation format they were going for could have worked if it weren’t for those damn complications, someone just said there is a headshots only in one of the contracts, that is absolute bs.

EDIT: I’ve never played the prince in my life and now they are giving me a “one pacification only” condition from the get go. I want to die

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The Prince is one of the hardest…So to have that complication from the get go is…puzzling…

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This might sound pretty mean or pessimistic, but I am so happy to hear how so many of you hate the Arcade for the frustrating complications.

When I made the thread about how we should be able to save during escalations, many of you responded that that’s part of the challenge and they like it this way.

Whenever I complain about how much I hate escalations for ruining the main idea of Hitman, many respond that that’s the point, shaking up the formula. Many claim they love escalations for the “fun” challenge while I just cannot play them without screaming at my screen. The only challenges I have not completed yet are the 28 H2 escalations simply because I know that I would ditch the game for good when playing more than one escalation per week or even more.

So now

now I am so happy, that this thread is not full of “oh yeah, so challenging, I love it, haha git gud, more challenge pls” you can read with so many games. I am really happy to see that many of you are frustrated and annoyed by this, so that there might be a realistic hope of iO listening and making the game more hitman-y again instead of even more restrictive.

Let’s just hope that Freelancer will be open, made for experimentation, has no complications and ideally allows to freely save. Please.

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Does anyone know if I complete 1 of them can I come back to it later? Or is the 12 hour clock running in the background?

Eh. I’m not as upset as all y’all. I mean I get it, but also, I’m not that upset. Could be better. Could be worse. Eh.

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Yeah… Thinking on it, even if complications were less divisive, it doesn’t feel very arcade-y to have it set. I think that if IOI insists on shoving complications down our throats, especially insta-fail ones (which is the one the one thing I will consistently fault them for), it definitely should have been random or influenceable by the players.

I maintain that it did add to The Liability, who was widely derided as too easy, but that’s all I have to say about this mode. If IOI (hopefully :crossed_fingers:) decides to patch the mode, great. If not, it shows that this is just the opening act and they’re more involved with the main attraction that will be Freelancer. That mode looks like it has the potential to blow the rest of 3 (maybe even WOA) out of the water. I can’t wait!

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If you complete an Arcade Contract, you can replay it immediately again if you want. However you cannot simply just replay the last level - you must reset it and start from the first level again.

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Am I blind or there are no video briefings for the targets?

I thought we would get the targets as they were, you know - with their story.

Now it´s just: “Kill target #1, move on to the next.”

What is the point?

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I’m 100% not surprised by this utter nonsense. Yet again IO you make stupid decisions by limiting creativity, forced/pointless restrictions in modes which puts limitations on stealth gamers who play Hitman way different to speed runners or any other “PLAYSTYLES”.

It’s not fun, its not a cool idea :face_with_symbols_over_mouth::rage:

I personally like many others who play stealth games want unlimited freedom or choices to how I want to play Hitman. But the way you design Hitman, makes this very limited & forces gamers to play a specific way that they “DON’T WANT TO PLAY” :face_with_symbols_over_mouth::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

My question to everyone who works/plays Hitman @ IO. Do you all play Hitman the exact same way? Because the choices you make clearly indicate it in the limited decisions you make in game design :face_with_symbols_over_mouth::rage::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Same old same old utter nonsense with forced Restrictions/Challenges/Limitations which nobody wants :angry:

Just L@@K @ the negative replies/response in this thread. That tells you everything you need to know!!! I could go full kamikaze on IO regarding this move they made :joy::joy::joy:

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No briefings by Diana either when the mission starts.

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I totally see your point.
As I said, I love to do SO runs with no Ko for my own satisfaction, but I absolutely don’t want to limit my playstyle only with that, and neither force other players to do the same. I guess any contract without restrictions gives definetly more freedom to the player, differently from the last bunch of escalations.
Also, I’m personally tired of the escalation format applied to any fucking game mode of this game. I didn’t tried the ET arcade yet, but honestly, why the fuck they put all these dams Insta-fail restriction, and if you fail, you’re locked for 12 fucking hours before retrying it? Did IOI really believed players would had fun with this formula?!?

The 7ds dlc already was a totally weird way to change the pace of the game IMO, I almost felt alienated from it.
Collecting coins?!? WOW!
Choose your weapon and still have easy targets to kill? Cool!
Collecting clues and give flowers to a random NPC? Very innovative…
Get assaulted by hordes of enemies, and you can relieve on random meele weapons and almost useless traps? Badass…

And now they found another way to recycle ETs, but it did in the worse way possible.
Sorry for complaining there, but this game is almost trying to be something different but it fails pretty hard.

Hope you guys have still fun with it though: personally, I don’t care too much about it, and I don’t even have any hype for the next contents.

The fact is: it’s getting worse every time. :roll_eyes:

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So TOTAL BS! Haven’t played any of those and it showed all failed. Good work ioi😡

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