Freelancer - Farewell

[Shade]

Hitman has always been something special to me, and I’ve poured oceans of blood, time, and sweat into this series. Not even counting the immeasurable amount of time I’ve spent over the past 26 years - from Codename 47, Silent Assassin, Contracts, and Blood Money, through

• Absolution (397 hours),
• Hitman I (676 hours),
• Hitman II (687 hours), and finally
• Hitman III (1191 hours), all the way to this day.

I faithfully bought almost every DLC, periodically returning to Freelancer and making further progress. But I’ve finally reached a wall where I just don’t see the point anymore.

I’ve completed almost every achievement in the game, leaving it in a state of having just three achievements remaining:

• 50/100 Freelancer campaigns
• Prestige Level 7/10
• 268/500 Syndicate Leaders

And I’ve had enough. I’m tired.

Playing any further is nothing but a grind leading nowhere. The Freelancer game mode brought something truly incredible to Hitman, but the developers have completely abandoned it. After all these hours, there is simply no reason to keep coming back. There are no updates, no improvements to the mode, no new content that would give me a reason or incentive to continue playing. Even beyond Prestige Level 6, the rewards for missions don’t increase, while every new DLC item keeps increasing the amount of time required to complete the entire collection.

I don’t know what the developers have planned for the game. I don’t understand why they are putting so much effort into adding a co-op mode that will probably provide some freshness and new challenges for a little while, only to be quickly forgotten. I don’t understand why they aren’t developing Freelancer instead - improving it, adding new options, tools, and possibilities - because it is one of the best things that could have ever happened to this game, considering what Hitman actually is.

I’m tired, and I’m leaving the game at this point. I don’t want to ruin this experience for myself through an endless grind. I’ll come back when the developers remember this mode again - if they ever do.

I’m leaving behind a list of thoughts and ideas. Maybe they’ll be used someday:

[FEEDBACK] Freelancer Upgrade (Ideas of enhancing Freelancer)

Freelancer mode is something what I was always wanted in Hitman game from start, so I’m loving it, but of this isn’t 100% what I would like to see. I know its some kind of budget free addition to game so we can’t expect to IOI will redesign in full scale. But I have few ideas which could enhance experience with this module - without any hudge effort from development. The biggest issue with Freelancer is that we have a hudge… hudge amount of money but there isn’t any economics and empty hideout …

In the meantime, farewell, Freelancer. You served me well. It’s time to leave these halls.

[RotaryOliver]

I get you!
I currently have over 1.700 hours in the entire trilogy and at least 600 hours are in Freelancer alone.
I love the mode to the core of my heart but I too am drained..

It frustrates me that they create this mode, nuture it for a year or so and then just.. abandon it.
It has so much potential, there are so much they could do with it! And yet they choose to focus on a new game mode instead.
I fear co-op will be yet another abandoned child after a years time.

They created a really good foundation and actively choose not to expand on it.
Sure we get cosmetic updates (the gym is an overused example) but no gameplay updates.
The briefcase selection still isn’t there.
We have all these map variations but not a single one in freelancer - Even that would bring me back to the game for a while, if it meant I got to explore the Landslide version of Sapiensa in Freelancer, ect. but nope..
They could make the safes more valuable by tying it to the final target mission so showdowns aren’t always who’s who.
They could even make it so you could pay to choose the starting location so it would give more use to Mercers..

But I fear they kinda gave up..
I no longer have any hope for this mode and like you said, at some point it just turns into a grind instead of being enjoyable and that’s where I am too
I normally never use the “close game” cheat if things goes wrong, but a few days ago I used it to cheese two challenges (the accident one and the push over railing one) because I’m so tireeeed of this mode now and ain’t no way I’m gonna play the same thing over and over just to get 25 accident kills.. the poison and natrual poison ones took me 4 month all together and for what..

I hope it gets a little love again in the future but I really have my doubts. So I totally understand you!

[Count.Rushmore]

I never liked Freelancer much for its boring repetitive nature.
Still, I forced myself to do all the challenges Freelancer offered, ages ago.
And I stopped playing it straight away.
Played it occasionally for raising Player Level, nothing more.

Speaking of abandoning the mode by developers, I see the tendency.
They same abandoned and finally scrapped my favorite mode in HITMAN which is Ghost Mode.
They never evolved or fixed known issues properly with it. The way they decided to fix Ghost Mode is simply scrap it.
Won’t be surprised if same fate hits Freelancer once Co-Op appear on the horison.
Don’t think any different awaits the Co-Op

[Cilens]

freelancer has the potential to be much better than it is now. Shame the devs never launched further qol updates

[Heisenberg]

Freelancer has had the potential to be much better since inception, if the devs weren’t so bent on it adhering to roguelike models. Remove the objectives; allow usage of all versions of all maps; allow all weapons, items and suits that can be used in the main game to be used, and vice versa; enable saving. And you know, I’d even be willing to drop the saving aspect if we could get the rest.

[Gates57]

Freelancer was … well … free. Can’t complain too much. I much prefer that IOI than the one using their own creation, Agent 47, to sell ridiculous cosmetics like soccer kits.

[Count.Rushmore]

That wouldn’t have been a Freelancer this way.
It would’ve been just random targeted main story

[Hot_Potato_Gruel]

Freelancer is more of a fun adjunct for me; while nothing comes quite as close to proper fleshed-out missions, Freelancer does work as a nice adjunct. Playing Freelancer and forced me to explore and learn maps in new ways, which in turn has helped improve my skill with the “regular” game.

As for the achievements, I suppose it all depends on your take on long grinds; I personally relished them (it took me a few months to finish grinding every achievement in Freelancer), and they do encourage you to experiment with different ways of finishing syndicates and campaigns, although I can see why they can burn people out.

That said, I also did the Siberia sniper grind in one day, so I think I might be the exception rather than the norm.

On the flipside, there are empty spaces on the trophy shelves even after you’ve collected everything, which does leave open a possibility for at least more achievements to come.

[Heisenberg]

That’s what Freelancer is. It’s a random target mode, one not generated by other users like Contracts mode. That’s its main selling point, the rest is just dressing. We should have access to each map version, each item usable anywhere else in the game, and the ability to play it however we want without the objectives registering as failed and therefore missing out on the money by not adhering to them. The randomization of the targets, the ability to prepare at the safehouse, the addition of the safes, couriers and suppliers, and the setup of the showdowns is all Freelancer needs. Everything else should be the same ability to play as the main campaign.

[Count.Rushmore]

Personally I prefer the mode like it is rather than yours version of it

[Heisenberg]

So you don’t want access to all the maps and all the items? If it’s keeping the objectives, I have said in the past that there should be a screen there like where we select the prestige objective where we can turn them off at will, so those who want to keep them can. What would be the issue then?

[shal5]

The rougelike elements are the strongest parts of freelancer to me, frankly. The fact that I can lose my gear if I die means I work much harder to stay alive, and scrambling to navigate a situation that has gone haywire is very chaotic and fun, and very rewarding if you actually make it out alive.

Plus the objectives force me to interact with game systems I would never otherwise interact with, like using any firearm that isn’t a pistol or a sniper. I have never brought a shotgun along to a regular mission, but freelancer has.

It is punishing, and it really sucks to lose a good run right at the end, but that’s also what makes freelancer freelancer. The risk inherent in every mission makes every decision you make matter more, and forced you to come up with solutions on the fly you’d never considered before.

And it’s not like it’s perfect, and I would love to see IOI iterate on the formula, but I genuinely think it is really good right now and that it is the perfect endgame content for a game like Hitman.

[Count.Rushmore]

@shal5 seems as well as answered for me

[Heisenberg]

Losing your gear for messing up is not something I would take away. But the objectives make things too difficult because some of them are inherently unwinable, and that is a failure of design. The objectives are too contradictory, too constraining, and every time you play should always have a means of complete success as well as complete failure. Hence why the best thing Freelancer could do is give the option to turn them off, while adding their totals to the payout. Hell, I’d even be willing to compromise and limit it to only one objective being able to be turned off, that alone would improve things significantly.

[Cilens]

I agree with you here. Having SASO or SANF as potential mendatory complication in a gamemode with no target info before mission, no SL, and a ton of bugs is diabolical.

[chuckmcgillgaming]

I do still enjoy Freelancer a lot as an infinite Hitman randomizer, but I do agree. To me Freelancer is basically a new game release and like how Hitman 3 felt unfinished at launch and then became a fuller experience through patches, new modes and a new map I feel like Freelancer always feels like it’s merely the base game of something that should’ve gotten substantial new content and features. Not that the mode is deliberately lacking, but rather that it feels like a blank canvas you can fill with more to do. Which is consistent with how IO designs maps and also incongruent with how every map feels NOW. Cause every map has been remixed, recontextualized and had substantial new content added over the years: even New Zealand has had an ET, an escalation and an infinite amount of contracts to play. Freeform Training has had new challenges with a suit unlock, contracts mode support and has an escalation. Whereas Freelancer hasnt changed since it released

[shal5]

I don’t think it’s possible for SASO and SANF to be the only options for prestige objective, so it’s never like you have to choose it. plus it’s only mandatory in hardcore, and if you choose to do silent assassin in hardcore freelancer, you are signing up for the hardest challenge in the game. So I don’t think it’s unfair that the game asks for the highest level of map knowledge and npc manipulation then.

[Axwage]

@Heisenberg

The objectives are too contradictory, too constraining, and every time you play should always have a means of complete success as well as complete failure.

This has been debated and debunked to death, man. Let it be.

[Heisenberg]

It hasn’t been debunked at all. It’s actually been not only proven, but admitted by IOI themselves. I’ll let it go when it’s fixed.

[Cilens]

Which leaves the most playersthat doesn’t wish the campaign to fail upon a minor incident or even a glitch with two mandatory complications. If you just upgraded prestige level, and the two mandatory complications are respectively xxx epic kill and legendary headshot, you might be left in a difficult situation.