Now that I’ve got the time, I’ve finally tried out some of the elusive arcade after they changed the amount of conplications. I played through The Clutches (Headshots Only), the Indices (One Pacification), and the Vitae (One Pacification).
Personally, I’m glad they took the feedback to reduce the amount of complications, as this felt a lot more fun and (open-ended-ly) challenging than the previous rail-roaded feeling of severely limiting options.
Granted, some of the complications might feel superficial, as they don’t affect gameplay that much, but can still offer ideas as to how to modify your playstyle.
With the No Headshots complication, I challenged myself to only use a sniper to take out the 5 targets.
Didn’t get SA, but it worked as a self-imposed challenge.
The No Pacification complication is a great single-obstacle game changer, since it affects one of the key pillars of HITMAN stealth.
However, I would like it if the game kept track of your One KO, perhaps affixed to the Objective HUD, as sometimes a level would have gone on for a while and I’d have forgotten I’d used it.
Or, once, I used an explosive on the ET Murillo. One of his guards must have been KO’d by the explosion, as in my rush to get the nearest scooter keys by knocking out an NPC, I failed the mission. I had no idea that accidental KO had happened, so a visual indicator would be nice.
I will say that replayable Elusives is great, as I don’t have to feel so pressured into getting a perfect SA.
With the added challenge of facing a series of targets that resets if you fail, as well as some targets you may not be familiar with, that’s enough for me.
I’m excited to see what new ETA contracts we’ll get in the future. Hopefully there are some Trilogy-Centric contracts, since the Hitman 2 track looks stale already. Also excited for the 3-stage Season 1 contracts. The 5-target limit felt a bit tedious and overly tense, even if the targets themselves feel a bit underbaked compared to later entries.
