I still prefer the Special Assignments to the ET Arcade because:
a) It’s incredibly satisfying to do challenges and hear the “challenge completed” sound effect. Plus, the challenges encourage you to do the “mission stories” that were made for the targets which you would be less likely to find and complete if you were playing them as a normal Elusive Target.
b) The challenges also encourage SASO and Sniper Assassin runs. You can do these if you really want in the ET Arcade but not always the way you want depending on the restrictions and in the ET Arcade you don’t even get an extra bonus for doing Silent Assassin (something I strive to always get in the normal ETs because of the second 4000 XP challenge).
c) You can do them on whatever difficulty you want: Master for those who crave a bit more challenge and Casual for the, well, casual players.
d) Most importantly, THEY ARE AVAILABLE TO PLAY OFFLINE.
I would gladly pay money for ETs converted into Special Assignments.
I understand the instinct and I often feel compelled to strictly abide by it, but once I discovered that after SA’ing an ETA I could just replay and go ham, the lack of real consequences was quite freeing.
Yes, all of this, and: we can save the game if we want to.
I don’t mind owning up to my mistakes, but sometimes I want to try something specific and I’m not a fan of restarting when I missed the one opportunity or messed something up.
That the Colombia assignment is unpopular doesn’t have much to do with the fact that it’s a Special Assignment, but with its design. I’m pretty sure it’d be even more hated as an Elusive Target.
It was the Restricted Loadout version, I saw I had the “kill Target as a Knight” incomplete, so I went for it.
I missed him before he re-disguised as an Ark Member so it took me a while to find him, but I did it, and left a pile of guards in my wake too
I can’t speak for everyone, but this is why I personally wanted that. And I can imagine at least one of these reasons (possibly all of them) being the same for other people
Speedrunning to get/maintain #1. I have zero interest in even attempting to be competitive with the current ETA set up Having to replay ALL 3/5 levels of a set ruins that for me. Main reason I just go for the checkmark and then check out. This mode is by far the least played element of the WOA trilogy for me.
Also remember, we play the shit out of user-created contracts and those Have even LESS design and structure than ETs.
Speedrunning contributes the most plays of every single “contract” in Hitman. I can easily rerun a contract 100-200 times to get/maintain #1. I doubt anyone going slow, that doesn’t care about their time, does that.
The ability to actually complete every single ET. It sucks to have missed challenges, missed rewards, or (worse case) the dreaded “Failed” or “Missed” permanently displayed in your game. This could have been avoided if ioi made the ETA do that. But they didn’t.
Asking for something specific and then getting something different sucks. Especially if it has elements of what you asked for, but isn’t correct. Like if I ask for a pet fish and you give me a plate of sushi, yeah, not gonna be jumping for joy.
Eh… It may just be another reskin BUT it looks like a lightsaber. It probably won’t make the sounds but it’ll definitely be the katana I use (when I want/need a katana).
That said, I’ll unlock when I unlock it. I’ve come to enjoy ETA but I’m not going to seek it out first thing or anything.
Beat me to it… 