Restricted loadout could be expanded to include no weapons, items, or disguises lying around nor being dropped by enemies.
Fuck a bunch of that.
What about just limiting this to firearms but allowing all other items both in loadout and onsite?
Difficult, but I could work with that.

I apparently think different than everyone else, since I hate this particular complication with a seemingly unrivaled passion. So, mission accomplished, I guess.
Not even close. That title definitely goes to the complications that covered the locations in mines and explosive lasers. I seriously doubt anyone would want that in the Arcade with it’s 12-hour lockout upon dying instead of “Restricted Loadout”.
i like the mines complications
Those are escalation-only and don’t even show up anymore. I’d agree with you otherwise, but they don’t count. I’m talking about currently active complications only.
Those 2016 “tripmine” ones were a PITA all right. I’m glad IOI didn’t continue those tripmine-based ones. Those were not fun in the slightest.
I appreciated the first one from Paris though. It’s what taught me you could shoot the cctv computer drive. I was too lazy to go around so I tried it and
it worked!

The Tortoise: “He knows he’s going the wrong way, right?”
When it first came out, I wasn’t that down on this mode as others but I didn’t love it either. Before I go on, I just want to say that that was and is fine; ETA is/was most likely always just meant to be a little something to keep people occupied until Freelancer.
However, I’ve started playing it recently (because my OCD won’t let me have incomplete stuff, even the godforsaken Sniper Assassin
) and… it’s kind of actually fun?
I’ve seen a lot of the player suggestions and would still like to see some combination of those implemented at some point but, if this is what this mode will remain, I’m ok with it. Maybe in the future it’ll become a little bit more , maybe not; I’m just going to drop everything for Ambrose Island and Freelancer when they drop anyway so, for now, this and FCs and 100%ing the rest of my game is enough.
Especially because I’ve been enjoying my romps through the ETA a lot. I probably killed about 2 or 3 dozen people to set up an “accident” for The Rage, I got into a massive shootout with roughly half of Sgàil’s security force (because there is ALWAYS another guard, or several, on that map) for The Appraiser, and I discovered (and killed) some people also hunting The Censor on my to blowing him (and a few others) up with the White Ruby Rude 300 from the treehouse, just to name a few of my escapades. I’ve still got quite a few left to do but they’ll definitely hold me over until the main event of Freelancer drops and that’s all that really matters!
I will continue to maintain that what many players were actually asking for was something that they didn’t really want. Not really anyway.
Consider the Special Assignments of Hitman 2. The one in San Fortuna is universally disliked. The one in Mumbai is sort of OK once or twice but gets boring very quickly. The one in Miami is “fine” but it’s no different really than the main story mission and the target is hardly a challenge. The one in Whittleton Creek is, again, “fine”, but not worth a lot of replays.
What players asked for initially was the ability to just play each Elusive Target as a stand-alone mission with no restrictions and to replay it whenever they wanted. The problem is that the Elusive Targets were never designed to be replayable. They do not have the same level of design and structure that the core maps and missions have. They are simply boring after two or three unrestricted tries. The ETA, for all its faults, at least provides the challenge of needing to think about the mission a bit and being locked out of it for 12 hours if you fail.
im 100% agree with you with the santa fortuna assignment was the really pain in the ass but overall
the et arcade im enjoying playing them over and over again to kill them in diffrent methods
The only reason I dislike it is because there are no disguises with gloves that can be used in the area where the target is. If there were, I’d have no problem.
I agree. I’ve enjoyed the arcade mode quite a bit. The 12 hour restriction and the optional restrictions do add just enough “peril” to them that they’re enjoyable.
The one major gripe I have is that in order to replay any of them you have to start all over and do the whole thing from level 1. If they worked like any other escalation and you could just do only the third one repeatedly, it would eventually just be every original Elusive Target, replayable forever.
yes i love replay them over again time and time and myself i don’t read things carefully like for example don’t miss a shot of an npc and myself i shot it with the siekier 1 and i failed whoops
Not caring about Silent Assassin is the best way to play Elusive Target Arcade.
I take that back. Kill All Bad Guys is the best way to play ETA.