Even Colorado SASO on Hardcore Mode, final showdown? 
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Is everyone in agreement that Mendoza, Whittleton Creek and Haven Island are the best showdown maps? What are the best second tier maps behind these three do you think?
Agreed that Hokkaido is not great for a showdown.
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I also like Chonqing, Sapienza and Miami. Dartmoor and Berlin are cool too.
Any map that has enough space to manuever no matter what your starting location is.
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The one with the upped NPC view-cones? I donât prefer it for one for that reason alone. Iâd probably rank it 3rd worst after Hokkaido and Colorado. At least with Colorado you can eye a good number of suspects from the roof of that one building next to the water tower. I credit that area for making a Hardcore final showdown much more bearable. And yes⌠I did that on purpose just to say I was able to do it/for the challenge. 
Showdown in Colorado at night (if using the Variations mod)⌠Thatâs definitely not recommended!
My favourites for showdowns are Sapienza, New York, and Haven.
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Chongqing and Dartmoor are good for it, too. Miami, Sapienza and Berlin are kinda ok, and I can make do in Paris and Colorado, and maybe Santa Fortuna if I need a backup. The rest, it becomes maddening, mainly due to the need to search and identify.
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Dubai for me, especially for the last showdown:
- The map has three fairly separate area for the syndicates to go to (penthouse, corridor, and main area), so you can easily distinguish the sub-groups, making the âfrom the meeting thatâs not my syndicate type, I can leave this whole cluster out, and move to an other oneâ strategy much clearer to do (looking at you Mendoza, where everyone get blended together)
- Easy to navigate, lots of alternative routes, lots of âemptyâ rooms
- waiter/staff disguise can be used everywhere for the poison elimination (and if I have a foodie and/or dehydrated I always go for it)
Mendoza is easy, if a bit boring. I prefer it for the first syndicate, with limited number of suspects.
I also distinctly donât really like Whittleton Creek.
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Add in Dartmoor as well and theyâre my 4 go to maps for Showdowns 
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Still waiting for that coin to come out lmao
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I also want to add Santa Fortuna for showdowns. As long as you keep yourself around the construction area and hippo enclousure itâs prettu easy to work around. Also the entrance to the cave system that-@ behind the clinic.
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Same. Iâm hoping we get a fix for that before content on the game concludes. Also, I hope the soundless Dubai helicopter gets a fix when itâs taking off from the Safehouse.
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Mendoza and Whittleton Creek are among my favorites. Haven I also like but not quite as much, particularly when I have to go check suspects by the villa. Iâd include Dartmoor and Miami as well because I find suspects easy to isolate there.
Second tier might be Sapienza, Berlin, Santa Fortuna.
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I donât really understand why someone would find that Berlin is a good showdown map, I tried to do a few of them there and it was terrible just because of all the stairs and the risk of running into a lookout when using them. Basically Hokkaido all over again.
Generally the maps I find easy are Mendoza (2 minutes yolo sniping), Miami / Paris / Whittleton / Dartmoor (strong, easy to get civilian disguises) and Dubai / Haven / Santa Fortuna (you see everything coming from miles away but theyâre kinda annoying to navigate).
Chongqing should technically be decent, but I only did one showdown there. The suspects moving around freely in the facility was so immersion breaking I never wanted to do it again. I also donât want to do showdowns in Sgail for the same reason (even though itâs one of my favorite maps :/).
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I would put:
- Mendoza / Miami / Paris / Whittleton / Dartmoor / Dubai / New York / Berlin / Haven in top tier.
- Chongqing / Sgail / Sapienza / Santa Fortuna / Ambrose Island / Mumbai in second tier.
- Marrakesh / Bangkok / Hokkaido in third tier.
- Colorado in fourth tier
Notes:
Colorado is one giant alerted territory with too many eyes watching you. Silent Assassin / Suit Only with additional couriers is a real pain.
Marrakesh, Bangkok, Hokkaido are Hitman2016 maps, which really have way too few choke points for entry and exit of hostile territories. The limitations of navigation through choke points makes these maps third tier.
Marrakesh busy market area is interesting but mostly a waste of space because you canât really sent up silent assassin kills in most of the area.
Mumbai, Ambrose Island, Chongqing, Sgail, are Hitman 2 and 3 maps that have more flexibility.
Ambrose Island and Mumbai are especially disorienting, complicate maps but have a lot of options. I find that I still learn new ways to navigate Ambrose Island and Mumbai the more that I play them.
Chongqing and Sgail are relatively easy to navigate hostile territories because there are only a few critical enforcers who you have to worry about.
Santa Fortuna and Sapienza are spread out, but tricky navigation of their key fortress which puts it into second tier.
In terms of top tier, Mendoza is by far the best map, then Dubai in my opinion. then Whittleton Creek, but Whittleton Creekâs smallness in size is both an advantage and drawback. Whittleton Creek is advantageous in all but showdown missions.
Haven Island is a good map but the viewing distance of enemies is a real drawback.
New York, Santa Fortuna and Mendoza have safeâs with MERCs which is worth it if you need MERCs.
The best map when starting Freelancer if you have absolutely no weapons or items is Dubai, Sgail or Mendoza gives you silent weapons and/or other goodies.
In terms of favorite maps to play, I like Paris the best, followed by Berlin, New York, Dartmoor and Miami âŚ
I would pay IOI for them to make more maps for Freelancer⌠I wish there was an airport map.
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I would say because itâs got good kill opportunities, good hiding places, many paths to the same destination for navigation and avoidance of enforcers, and itâs possible to do most of it suit only, but if thatâs not a concern, thereâs several disguises is relatively ease-to-reach places that will let you in wherever you need. Berlin looks complex, and can be daunting to the uninitiated for something as high-stakes as a Freelancer showdown, but once you know the ins and outs, you can coast it pretty well. I usually just avoid it if there are better options because it can take a while to get to the remaining suspects depending on what level youâre on and what security youâll have to contend with, makes it a bit more tedious than Iâd prefer, if better options can be used.
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I somewhat like Berlin for showdowns, because the H3 maps are the best in the trilogy in terms of traversal, and because there are some great disguises you can easily get.
However, I have definitely been caught by a lookout on the main stairs, resulting in some force-quitting. And choosing Berlin for the final showdown on Hardcore was a total pain in the ass, as the dance floor is swarming with lookouts as well.
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Berlin is fun once you learn the lookout placement, wich is hell for how narrow the corridors can be. At least if you are in the bikerâs hideout, you can get rid of them and hide everyone by throwing them off the rails.
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The only major change I would make to Freelancer is:
a RESTART button.
I am tired of closing the game and restarting.
Sometimes you run into the punch-glitch or an NPC freeze after contact, or want to scope out and try the mission, especially the traversal associated with timed prestige objectives.
Maybe remove the RESTART button on Hardmode and keep it in normal mode.
You can restart Elusive Targets. Why canât we restart in Freelancer? What gives?
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Game balance. There wouldnât be much point in having some kind of risk / reward system (objectives, couriers etc) if you had nothing to lose by taking risks in the first place. If you could restart a mission at any point a lot of Freelancerâs features (choosing what to bring into the mission, and risk losing those items in particular) would be completely useless.
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It is super weird and silly and frustrating to me that to just GET to Freelancer from booting up the game, you need to press multiple directional and action keys â but if youâre in game and press pause, soon as you press âselect/yesâ again, youâre exited out of game without a warning pop up âare you SURE you want to exit?â
LOL
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