2 Likes
Whike i appreciate the inclusion of this mode as a fun extra, i hope IOI doesn’t genuinely believe this satisfies the demand for replayable ETs in their original version.
12 Likes
For my “looking from afar” impressions on this, this is definitely not what I was expecting, and I think the mode is worse-off as it is right now.
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ETs in a bundle with a 12-hour lockout is challenging enough as it is I’d say.
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Even with the addition of complications I thought we’d be getting a more open-ended style of it
- think of Elusive Target bundles but with a randomly-generated single-complication twist. Each time you open one, it swaps out the complication. Sometimes it’s “one pacification”, sometimes it’s “hide bodies”, etc. But for the entire time the Bundle is active.
The way it is now looks way too restrictive, and that’s been a common problem with Escalations in the past.
- think of Elusive Target bundles but with a randomly-generated single-complication twist. Each time you open one, it swaps out the complication. Sometimes it’s “one pacification”, sometimes it’s “hide bodies”, etc. But for the entire time the Bundle is active.
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Instead of blocking off hiding bodies or using tons of disguises (entire ways to maintain stealth), they should block off specific kill conditions, make players think of how to kill in non-accidental or poison ways.
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ETs in this pure Escalation format is just madness! Complications stack and they’re ever-increasing.
It really is “Escalations: ET Edition” and considering how people reacted to Escalations this past year… Uh Oh. -
The rewards progression looks like it’s a bit weird too! I was expecting the same format as what Escalations and Featured Contracts did.
A "Complete X out of Y to get this reward would have sufficed, but instead it’s a “complete one of these 3 for this reward.” Who would want to complete the 5-stage Season 1 ET bundle over the other 2 available for a Krugermeier reskin?- Should have done a “complete 1/3 … 4/6 … 7/9” format that offers a lot more freedom of choice.
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The multitude of bugs at launch is really unfortunate too. I don’t think people would have gotten too mad if you’d posted that it needed to be delayed for bug fixes, IOI…
At this point I do still have faith in the Freelancer mode. What we’ve seen looks like it offers a lot more freedom of choice and agency in the player of how challenging YOU want to make your campaign and of how far YOU want to push your luck in adding different Optional complications for more money.
But this really doesn’t look like it, chief.
32 Likes
It’s a little unnerving watching this space in all their tears and their finallys about how this arcade is bad when I can’t even boot up my game at all due to incessant crashes. Today I reinstalling this game at 6 in the morning and I’m one in-game crash away from typing up a storm. Jesus Christ I am not in the mood today.
2 Likes
When I play something with the title ARCADE I expect to have a fun experience all around and not to feel like I’m doing homework with all these complications.
Alas, at least is nice to revisit these ETs but they quite missed the mark at forcing complications at all times. I think that could be fixed that once you completed a contract, you get them again but their vanilla versions as they were originally for your own leisure.
8 Likes
Nicely put 
I love the game but I absolutely don’t regret not getting any of the DLCs till now.
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.)
2 Likes
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.
3 Likes
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
24 Likes
Stupid headshots only complication with insta fail.
Now i have failed The codices just because i shot an npc in the chest. Wtf.
5 Likes
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…
3 Likes
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.
4 Likes
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
4 Likes
The Prince is one of the hardest…So to have that complication from the get go is…puzzling…
1 Like
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.
15 Likes
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.
3 Likes
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 
) 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!
5 Likes