I find that those tough complications, like not getting spotted or no disguise changes, are used in traditional escalations to test or improve one’s skillset for normal missions.
I totally get why there are people who appose them as they’re used in ET Arcade, since they’re separate missions stacked instead of one contract escalating.
Exactly. No bodies found or no disguises have their place in some escalations or contracts mode missions… but when it comes to Elusive Target missions that weren’t designed with it in mind, it feels needlessly restrictive and antithetical to what we’ve all been asking for for years.
Insta-fail complications though, we can all agree are the worst
I think that especially “no disguises” is a weird way to “test your skills”, because it mostly means sneaking around, waiting for people to walk away, crouch behind cover etc.
Yes, this is classic stealth gameplay.
But this is no Hitman gameplay.
I can get behind the idea that some escalations try to force a different palystyle upon you. But what “no disguises” or “hide all bodies” and to some degree “do not get spotted” does is not to check how good you are at the game but instead changes the gameplay to something that does not fit the game.
I need a specific tool? Well, I must know the map then. Same thing with a special disguise. I have to kill my target with a specific accident? Well then I have to know how and where to set that up. Those are good complications because they test your knwoledge.
I cannot change my disguise, must not be seen even by the target a second before its death and have to hide the body even if it was an accident?
This does not test my skill because those things are not part of Hitman, even the best player out there has to learn something new or try something different instead of getting a challenging Hitman mission.
Yes, “something new” might sound good. But compare this to a racing game and suddenly for “an escalation” you had to get out of the car and perform a plattforming section. Or DOOM gets a new DLC that forces you to solve complicated math puzzles.
Yes, new. Yes, creative. But games should not change the base loop of their design. It just does not work, as 7DS for example shows very clearly.
Yeah, that’s true. Every game has something that, I guess you could call, the “meat” of the game. It’s the one thing, the base gimmick, around which everything else is built. For instance, the meat of Grand Theft Auto is stealing cars. The meat of Dead Rising is killing zombies with any object. The meat of Assassin’s Creed is parkour. The meat of Splinter Cell is sneaking around. And I’ve always felt that the meat of Hitman was using disguises. It’s the one mechanic that’s never changed, never been altered. Oh, Absolution and WoA had some changes with the addition of enforcers, but the actual donning of disguises and using them to move about the map has always been the true core of Hitman, in my view, even more than the killing.
So adding in a restriction where you absolutely can’t use a disguise actually seems antithetical to everything the game is built around.
Yes it happened to me too.
Did you manage to play, or always the same?
No it happened two or three times maybe, nothing serious back then.
Are you using any mods? Offline Elusives and Better Contracts Mode Images are both culprits if you have them installed.
Edit: Offline Elusives mod has now been updated to work with the latest update of the game.
Offline Elusives I’m using.
Seems I managed to launch. I just opened the game and first thing that I did was entering Arcade.
It allowed me in
It works fine on launch. When you exit from the ET, you’ll mostly see the error again.
I disabled the mod and the problem went away.
I never install a mod after a game update in order to not interfere with possible breaking changes (in other words, I uninstall all my mods before a monthly update).
Here’s another (IMO) ‘not-well-thought-out’ complication. No more than 1 disguise change. I thought I’d try to explode Murillo, so I got a guard disguise, got a remote explosive (from the level)… Eventually, I blew him up. This loses SA, obviously. But I’ve been even sniping him for some variety. Anyway, I wanted to leave with the suit I came in with. Insta-failed me.
Maybe the game should distinguish between Suit (non-disguise) and any actual disguise obtained from the level. And all I wanted to do was to get back to the Appraiser(?) in the Isle of S’gail to try sniping her again, but try shooting in a different spot so she’s not seen getting popped.
Edit: Speaking of Murillo. Of all the times I’ve played this one since the ET Arcade came out - I’ve never had him be in the 2nd floor Rm just a relatively short distance from the default starting spot. The game has also never had it show him speaking on TV. It just cuts in and then out in less than a second.
He’s always been either near the statue (place), or by the pier.
Why no XP game scores in the arcade?
You have to restart a bunch of times to get him to appear there.
The general consensus from the community seems to be that adding compulsory complications to the targets takes away options, and subsequently makes them less fun to play (which I agree with). What people really wanted from Elusive Target Arcade was to be able to experiment and mess around with Elusive Targets, as this is something that a lot of players, due to the threat of permanent failure, don’t want to risk doing on a regular Elusive Target mission.
Here are some changes that I would make to Elusive Target Arcade that I think would give it more depth, replayability, and just simply make it more fun.
First of all, I think it would be a good idea to have a separate “Free Play Mode”, where players are free to play the Elusive Targets with no restrictions or permanent failure conditions. This allows players the maximum amount of freedom, but also gives players an opportunity to practice a particular mission before taking it on for real in the Arcade. Of course, Arcade rewards cannot be unlocked when playing in this mode.
Moving on to the Arcade itself, I think that grouping the targets up into sequences of 3 or 5 is fine. However, it would be better if players were able to choose the order in which they engage the targets. When beginning the campaign, players are asked which target they would like to engage first. Once they complete this contract, their first pick is removed, and they can then choose from the remaining targets. This continues until all the missions have been completed. This way, if players have a particular Elusive Target that they want to test themselves on, they can find a campaign that has that target and simply select that target first. This would be a good alternative to a Free Play Mode if IOI doesn’t want to go down that route. It also plays into another of my ideas, which I’ll elaborate on later.
For the complications, I think they simply don’t work in their current form. They require some more depth, and need to be designed more congruously with the mode itself. It should be noted that the following are not entirely my own ideas, and borrow some suggestions I’ve seen from other users. Nonetheless, here is my suggestion:
Players should be able to select which complications they want to use in their missions. Choosing to have no complications at all is also a valid option. Each complication grants a score multiplier; the size of the multiplier depending on how difficult the complication’s requirements are to meet. The player would have something like 20 complications to choose from; categorised into Easy, Medium, and Hard. Additionally, there should probably be a limit of, say, 3 or 4 complications per contract, as too many could cause balance issues, or even end up breaking the game in some way. Complications are all optional and will never cause the mission to fail. However, adding a complication and then failing to meet its requirements will cause the player to be limited to a 4-Star Silent Assassin (as well as missing out on their multiplier). This creates a risk/reward system where players who want the highest scores will have to prove themselves by beating the contracts with the most challenging complications activated. Conversely, players who don’t want to take risks can simply play without any complications, but do not receive any score multipliers. It also gives complications like No Recordings or Don’t Get Spotted actual meaning for Silent Assassin seekers, as failing to meet their requirements will have a significant impact on the player’s overall score, one that, unlike in regular gameplay, cannot be undone.
Additionally, once the player uses a complication, it cannot be used again for the rest of the campaign. This synergises with my previous idea of allowing the player to choose the order in which they engage the targets, as it means they not only have to carefully decide which complications to use, but also WHEN to use them. If the player blows a high-scoring complication at the wrong time, they risk being stuck with low-scoring complications, or worse yet, being forced to use a hard complication on a mission that makes it much more problematic. For example, adding a Hide All Bodies complication to The Collector would be challenging, but is definitely manageable. However, adding it to something like The Bookkeeper would be crippling and make the contract extremely difficult; especially given that you only get one chance per day. Another example would be the Perfect Shooter complication, which would cause problems on a camera-heavy map like Sapienza, but would basically be free points on a camera-free map like Dartmoor.
Designing the Arcade in this way allows for a much greater scope of strategy as players can not only experiment within the missions themselves, but also in preparations for said missions. Players can mess around with different combinations to try and find the most efficient ways to score the maximum amount of points with the minimum amount of difficulty.
Below are some ideas for complications that players can select, as well as some vague suggestions for the multiplier values. The complications are all optional, and have been categorised into Easy, Medium, and Hard; with Hard complications rewarding the most points. It should be noted that some complications will conflict with one-another and cannot be selected simultaneously.
Easy Complications:
[x1.1] Targets Only: Do not eliminate any non-targets.
[x1.15] No Bodies Found: Do not allow any dead or unconscious bodies to be found. Does not include victims of accidents, lethal poison, or sedatives.
[x1.1] No Recordings: You must erase the evidence if you are recorded by a security camera.
[x1.2] Headshots Only: All shots fired at NPCs must be headshots.
[x.1.15] No Smuggled Items: Agency Pickups and Hidden Stashes are not available.
[x1.1] No Hiding: You cannot hide inside any containers. However, you can still use containers to hide bodies.
Medium Complications:
[x1.25] Perfect Shooter: All fired shots must hit NPCs.
[x1.3] Do Not Get Spotted: Don’t get seen performing any suspicious or illegal actions.
[x1.4] Restricted Loadout: You must start the mission with no items in your inventory (except the camera).
[x1.4] Limited Pacifications: You cannot perform any more than 2 pacifications.
[x1.4] Limited Disguise Changes: You cannot perform any more than 2 disguise changes.
[x1.35] Additional Enforcers: Certain NPCs have become enforcers for particular disguises, in addition to already present enforcers.
[x1.35] No Emetics: Do not poison anybody with Emetic Poison. Sedative and Lethal poisons are still allowed.
Hard Complications:
[x2] No Disguise Changes: You must not change out of your starting disguise at any time during the mission.
[x2.1] No Pacifications: You must not pacify anyone. This includes the target(s).
[x1.8] Hide All Bodies: All dead and unconscious bodies must be hidden.
[x2.5] Suit Only: You must begin the mission in your suit, and remain in your suit for the entirety of the mission.
[x2.3] Loud Eliminations Only: All targets must be eliminated in explosions or with non-silenced firearms. Kills with Breaching Charges do not count.
[x1.9] Accidents Only: All targets must be eliminated in accidents.
[x1.7] Melee Only: All targets must be eliminated with melee weapons, fiber wire, or a neck snap. Thrown melee weapons do not count.
So for example, if a player started a mission with No Disguise Changes (x2), Hide All Bodies (x1.8), and Targets Only (x1.1) activated, their final score for the mission would be multiplied by 3.96 (assuming they met the requirements for all the complications). So a final mission score of 180,000 would become 712,800. Their score from all the campaign’s individual stages would be added up to give their final score.
Players will obviously want to use as many Hard complications as possible if they want the highest scores. But, as previously mentioned, they must be careful about which complications they choose and when.
I also had another idea of something like ‘Perks’ that provide benefits to the player, but incur a score penalty if used. These could be things like fewer enforcers, more items being considered legal, or increased player movement speed. Although these would probably make the mode too complicated, so perhaps this isn’t advisable.
In terms of rewards, unlocks should be tied to score thresholds, with better rewards being tied to higher thresholds. There could also be unlocks for meeting certain requirements within the missions, such as:
No Fun Allowed: - “Complete an Elusive Target Arcade campaign while having the maximum number of complications active on all levels.”
Masochist: - “Achieve a 5-star rating on an Elusive Target Arcade level while having at least 3 Hard Complications active.”
It might also be a good idea to include challenges that encourage play-styles other than score maximising, such as:
Speed Demon: - “Complete an Elusive Target Arcade campaign with a total time of less than 15-minutes.”
A Personal Touch: - “Eliminate all targets with Fiber Wire in any Elusive Target Arcade campaign”.
I’m not a game designer, so I can’t really say how all this would turn out were it to be made. But conceptually, I think this would be a lot more fun that what we got. I suppose it isn’t too late for IOI to make some design changes to Arcade, at least I hope it isn’t. To me, this design is a lot more congruous to the structure of the mode, as well as the Elusive Target missions themselves. Not only can it be as easy or as hard as you want, but it would also allow a much greater scope of experimentation; even delving into forms of experimentation that haven’t been explored in the Hitman series as of yet. This is the sort of mode I’d want to come back to and keep playing.
Excellent post. Hire this person now IOI 
I’ve been known to go in-depth, but that was beyond anything I could have put together. Fantastically spoken and provides legit options for IO to pursue that would greatly enhance the experience.
I’m hoping some of this radio silence on an upcoming roadmap is because of an Elusive Arcade rework.
IOI isn’t beholden to redoing it – they could just keep going with the format they have, and just not use “hide all bodies” ever again – but I don’t think that would improve what ETA is right now.
Creating a new system for ETA would be more work than just using the pre-existing Escalation format/code/however-they-built-it. But it would be nice, since I haven’t been seeing much positivity about it.
The quickest and easiest way to correct ETA is to make all of the restrictions optional, and failing them simply prevents you from getting the glorious SA rank. It isn’t overly demanding, nobody at IO has to work hours on end, and I feel the community could live with it.
