It seems to me like the designers made the et arcade with those restrictions in mind and even though I don’t like the restrictions. And it seems compromising that vision would kinda go against making it in the first place. But thats probably my backwards brain.
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Maybe many of us are a bit pessimistic after one year of restrictive escalations only, after the backlash still giving us nothing but restrictive escalations in the 7DS and after even more and even louder backlash finally giving us ETs but in form of restrictive escalations… No offense, love you guys, please don’t take this as an attack - but I can understand why “no hopes” is the current mood of many players.
But your question does give me hope! Thank you again for being so communicative in the last few days, great to hear so much from you!
Oh, @Travis_IOI : have you ever considered enabling free saving in escalations? So many of them are one-time-only, never again just because of the frustration of the insta-fail complications, are there any chances we will ever get a saving option?
On the one hand I find this unrealistic because it has always been that way and there are arguments on both sides. On the other hand even your loading screens tell the player over and over how important it is to save all the time, yet all (!) additional content in H3 does not offer this option 
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But that’s the exact same contract as the first one. The only difference is a cosmetic change to bean himself. It’s like saying the heartbreaker #2 was a new et when it isn’t.
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Love your first paragraph. Well put.
With regards to saving in escalations: escalations are the most true Puzzle Mode that Hitman offers, and I think IOI firmly believe that saving (/savescumming) would neuter the game mode.
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It’s like saying the heartbreaker #2 was a new et when it isn’t.
Same bugs and all!
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They have never considered this and I hope it will stay that way in escalations. We’ve talked a lot about this in a previous topic.
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It has its own story continuity; it’s a separate ET.
I don’t recall. Can you elaborate on what’s different? Dialogue, route, etc?
Diana states in the briefing that they’ve done this before, and to please make sure that the job gets done this time. Add in the injuries the target shows and it’s clearly set after the events of the first, a part 2 of you will. Plus, it counts as it’s own separate challenge completed in the career profile.
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The whole premise on undying is that he keeps avoiding death. So when 47 gets sent the first time it’s to ensure he doesn’t evade death again, and then the 2nd time it’s supposed to be like 47 failed the first time or that the target managed to cheat him.
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lol. So literally the exact same et with no difference except the cosmetic addition to bean himself.
Oh and I meant gameplay wise.
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I was hoping he’d come back a third and final time in a different location.
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Yeah. That was the point. It was still a separate ET unto itself. IO intended it that way.
Ditto.
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Yes, it’s like making a contract, then remade it with the same exact target and conditions, but then you write a different briefing in the 2nd one and… Here’s your 2nd ET!!
Oh, the creativity…
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Well, the idea was that the target keeps coming back. It was kept mostly the same because the idea was “haven’t we done this before?”, but without a reactivation.
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That’s not a valid excuse for giving us basically the same Et with nothing new, over the briefing and eyepatch. But I guess they were really out of ideas in that moment.
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There was a poll of which of three items the Undying should unlock.
The first time it unlocked the pen. Then Undying Returns unlocked the robot. I forgot what the third item was but I think they added it in somewhere else.
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It was the basic hearphones (white color). In H3 it’s unlocked via escalation streak.
The Lil Flashy was the only saving point of the return of the Undying.
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Well, remember, they had just gained independence (of sorts) for the first time, were dealing with the middle entry in a lengthy trilogy of games full of content, and could only do what they could with the time and money they had. There’s a reason why there were so few H2 ETs and not in all locations. The Undying Returns was part of a gimmick, and in that it succeeded.
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I though the same as you few years ago: but now I’m not willing to justify them all along.