Elusive Target Arcade

I am just so disappointed with how Elusive Target Arcade was implemented.

It has 3 missions, with 3-5 targets all back to back with new complications, and for all that effort you get 4 Challenges with 1 unlock, and that unlock is just a reskin.

I expected so much more from this.

The only thing I have seen people saying about ETs basically since the start of HITMAN 2, was for ETs to be re-playable.

Why isn’t there challenges for this mode that unlocks a “Free Play” version of the target, that you can play at your leisure like a normal mission, for each target that you complete (or even Silent Assassin). Then in that free play mode have challenges and unlocks attached to each target, where you could have these kind of complications as part of the challenges, that could be tied to some kind of unlock. I.E. You could unlock the targets “suit” for completing certain (or all) of the challenges associated with them. Who wouldn’t want to see 47 wearing the grannies outfit as he goes on a killing spree.

I think doing it this way satisfies both requirements. What the fans want, and the “elusive” nature of the ETs. Where you’d only get whatever ETs they give you during the window they give it to you, and failing makes you wait 12 (or more) hours, but also allowing people to unlock the ETs the way they have wanted so we can try out a bunch of different possibilities that we were too afraid to try before because we didn’t want to risk losing.

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The irony is that during my regular play I’m rather meticulous about cleaning up after myself and leaving no trace, but so many ETs and indeed targets in general are built around cheeky accident kills, and this takes almost all the fun away.

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Like I understand why IOI implements a Hide Bodies restriction: they don’t want us cheesing the mission by manipulating a quick entry and poisoning opportunity and then running, or similarly doing an emetic-to-drown quick-ish kill via a combo of well placed sieker shots, guru grenades, or fart-boxes…

…but The Ascentionist, hide all bodies? Look. It’s obviously doable. But it takes too long. And if you’re playing Team Restarts and want that coveted SA, there’s just too much waiting. If you emetic her at the beginning in the atrium, she goes to the atrium toilet where there are at least 4 other NPCs to displace/sedate (and any that you knock out not using sedation, you have to hide their body). If you wait till she makes it up to the VIP drinking area, and manage to sneak by two event staff enforcers, and manage to green-poison her drink in another displacement attempt, she goes to the nearby bathroom, but to the stall with a witness and no cabinet in which to hide her.

Unless you are an absolute MONSTER of a player, you have to fucking wait at least until she and her mark go into the back of house staff area for a good opportunity to kill her and dump/hide the body. In that staff area there’s a janitor with potential body-discovery properties and a guard with the same. You have to therefore take care of 3 NPCs (the janitor, the guard, and her mark) and the target, and hide all the bodies of those you’ve pacified… there are nearby crates, but it’s a pain in the ass!

I’m pretty creative and I can’t think of a faster, more efficient way to get her and fulfill the arcade complications — at least not for novice to intermediate players.

Is there a more creative way to get her sooner? There must be. I don’t watch many videos; I spend my time figuring out the puzzles myself and that’s what I enjoy. I’m working on a master-level strat involving two tranq guns smuggled by the opening guards, a whole precision-timing distraction dance in the atrium toilet, a keypad, a camera to avoid, and a locked maintenance closet. I know I can make a beautiful run out of it. But like… for new and not-daily-players, what, you just have to wait around 10 minutes for her to get to a semi-private area, and if you mess up in the slightest, you restart and wait around 10 minutes again?

Fun.

I used the sieker on the two people in the bathroom to the right when you go up the stairs, so they occupy them toilets, then used the remote emetic on the target and her friend, he goes to the bathroom without a closet and the target goes to the one with the closet or she goes down the stairs behind the bar, where there’s also a locker.

The hide bodies complication just forces you to use emetic gear mostly, they should change it to no bodies found or something better :smile:

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If you want a clean and easy way to emetic/drown for SASO, you can drop a duck to get through the guards by the stairs at the start, then make your way up to the VIP toilet area. She will wander up there and have a conversation outside the toilets after a couple of minutes or so. Just before she arrives emetic shot the lady in the right stall; trigger an emetic in a briefcase behind the target and she will go to the left stall with a hiding spot for the ezdrown and exit. Not super fast, but it’s consistent at least.

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I finished the first batch of these yesterday, and bugs saying I’ve failed stuff I haven’t failed not withstanding, I feel like I’ve enjoyed this (though not massively). However, I do feel that the complications really limit replayability. I have no desire to redo The Blackhat with a “hide all bodies” complication for instance.

I’m sure this could be fixed in a number of ways, but I’mma shamelessly throw a link to my “Medals in HITMAN 4” thread here, as i think transforming the complications into Medals, and giving unlocks if you get all of the Medals in one sitting would be the best solution.

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Doing new things - like escalations?

Surely the point of an Arcade is that you can dip in, play a little, come back, play some more - not get locked in to having to complete 3-5 stages without being able to leave?

And, ideally, try different difficulty settings. The key is replayability - and this seems designed to play only once.

The thing is, IO, there is a huge community who will stand by you - and we hate it when you deliver badly.

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You can leave between stages.

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I don’t think that addresses the replayability, though.

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Exactly. “Please bring back ETs because it would be a waste if they stay designed to be played only a single time!” - “Okay, we’ll bring them back in a way specifically designed to be played one single time. lel” – iO, 2022

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The Dartmoor ET plays the Hitman 2 exit music wtf :joy:

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Came up with a cool kill on Allison Moretta, but the body won’t count as hidden out of bounds. :slightly_smiling_face:
But it DOES count as hidden if you throw her over the railings, which is pointless anyway since most of the time someone will notice you. Thanks IOI.

Bonus Moretta's companion puking in the middle of the washroom because I bumped into him a few times. Never seen this shit before.

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If they (IOI) don’t make that work just like a puddle hazard then we should all rito! :joy:

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Just tried out Codices. Completed all 3 in 10-12 mins. Wasn’t all that bad, but complications there are the mildest and don’t really restrict you from anything.

Also learned that you can shoot Murillo through the cracks in the floor (wooden placks in the docks) and get away with it! Putting spoiler just in case someone wants to discover that themselves. :nerd_face:

Video of that shot:

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To think this was supposed to be “fixed” in the last patch… :roll_eyes:

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Unfortunately it’s dependent on the kill. I killed her with the exploding pen at the part where she stands over the elevator shaft. So when I threw the pen and killed her, she fell down the shaft but the body was not considered hidden and I couldn’t exit the mission.

But if I killed her and dropped her in the shaft or kicked her in, it would count.

I think these are just programming oversights based on the kill.

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Something that is weird with this mode is the fact that don’t gain XP when you perform basic actions like “pacification”, “camera recorder erased”, “destroyed camera” and so on.
Maybe it’s an issue with the time-limit when you fail.

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https://youtu.be/MoGoTxecDWs

This sums up my thoughts on the mode pretty well.

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Pretty much the same to be honest. All the other complications add a bit of spice to the mix, and actually make it fairly enjoyable. A cooler complication imo would be don’t hide any bodies, since it lets you be creative with the kills and lets you use map knowledge of npc routing, or taking advantage of poisonings and accidents.

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