Freelancer - Pre-Release Discussion

HITMAN Freelancer
Release: Spring 2022
October Update: Coming January 2023

Freelancer is a brand new, single-player mode coming to HITMAN 3 that introduces roguelike elements, strategic planning and a customisable safehouse.

Let’s start by exploring one of the new maps coming to HITMAN 3 in Year 2: Agent 47’s Safehouse. This playable space is an entirely different type of location and we’ve never built anything like it before. It’s customisable and allows you to choose exactly what type of Hitman you are (or want Agent 47 to be!). As you progress through Freelancer, more areas of the Safehouse can be unlocked and new customisation options will become available.

You can configure and customise the safehouse to your exact specifications and spend as much time as you want there. Whether you want to pick out a new suit, browse and test your weapons at the firing range or make changes to your décor, it’s all possible. The Safehouse is also an important space because all of your pre-mission planning takes place there.

After exploring the safehouse, it’s time to work. 47 will have access to a ‘mission hub’ where he can view all of the currently available Freelancer campaigns, each one representing a criminal enterprise that is prominent across the World of Assassination. It’s entirely your choice which campaign you pick and each one will take you on a globetrotting campaign to a selection of locations.

For each campaign, you need to choose the order you want to play the missions. After each mission, you’ll return to the safehouse to restock, resupply and strategically plan your next move. Whichever location you leave until last will be where you’ll corner the Leader of the enterprise. Blow their cover, eliminate them, and the campaign is complete. You get paid and return to your safehouse.

Campaign missions have been reworked to fit the Freelancer mode. For example, locations will have new NPC types, that can either help or hinder your progress. Suppliers will offer a selection of weapons and items that you can acquire to increase your chances of success, whereas other NPCs will alert Leaders and make your job more difficult. In addition to these NPCs, there are several other elements that will make the Freelancer campaigns unique. You’ll be able to find safes, hidden stashes and even other NPC Assassins…

Unlike the main Hitman campaign, your gear in Freelancer is not persistent. Anything you bring on a mission and don’t bring back to the safehouse, will be lost. (If you thought you were attached to your Silverballer before, wait until you’ve left it in Dartmoor and it’s gone. For good.) Looking for gear at a Supplier is one way to restock your inventory, or replace a lost treasure.

Consumables, such as explosives or poison syringes, will also need to be restocked, since there’s no supply from the ICA in Freelancer.

We’re excited about Freelancer giving players a persistent and infinitely replayable experience that is entirely their own; from customising their safehouse to match their style or mood, configuring and strategically planning for campaigns through to picking a playstyle with all of their gear on the line.

HITMAN Freelancer is coming to HITMAN 3 – Year 2 this Spring. We’ll have more details to share leading up to its release.

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dang you’re fast, Hichkas. respect lol.

anyway, this mode looks awesome. we asked for contracts mode to be updated and they basically did that.

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this sounds amazing. i love it.

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I’m really happy that you lose weapons that you leave in the field, this is shaping up to be amazing :smiley:

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I’m especially looking for to this mode, i think we will finally get a money system for this :heart:

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This sounds more of a realistic Hitman experience. Very excited to see how it works.

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So it has a money system, based on objectives completed (as a bonus, I guess).

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I wonder if the Freelancer mode can be played entirely in VR then?

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The Freelancer mode looks really cool!

I love the idea of roguelike, procedural assassination gameplay, with customization for your safehouse and bonus consumables to buy from special NPCs. (I’ve been playing a lot of Hades recently and my favourite part is collecting gemstones to spruce up the House of Hades!)

Kinda feels like a mix of the Player-Made Elusive Contracts, but with an escalation-type system. Based on some of the footage, targets will be generic-looking NPCs, but with a procedural “narrative” to killing your way up their ranks, until you get to the Leader, who works in a similar way to other ETs, harder to find, maybe with a unique model?

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Now this is really cool! Glad they are implementing a currency system of sorts. Would have been absurdly easy to do alll with our full gear from the get go. Really nice idea and hope this will keep the game way more entertaining for a long time.

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hitman roguelike with base of operations, this is el kino de sexo as they say in the maldives

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It also looks like a lot of the stuff that they were playing around with in the 7 Deadly Sins will be featured more prominently in Freelancer mode. Having to figure out who the target is (Lust), having special guards gunning for you (Wrath) , having NPCs who are trying to ruin the mission for you (Envy), changing targets and conditions based on what you do (Pride), and maybe the others as well?

You can clearly see now what they were preparing for with the 7 Deadly Sins content and I think it makes that stuff a little better now seeing that it was actually a proof of concept for this new stuff.

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I gotta give it to IO, this looks amazing! They found a way to actually make a mode that is built on the core role playing Hitman fantasy. I’ve never thought of a mode like this. But it sounds like it will facilitate exactly the kind immersive Hitman gameplay I love, so I’ll be playing this mode… a lot!

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I don’t really play roguelikes, however the Freelancer Mode looks awesome. I am definitely going to have quite a fun time with this one. This will definitely change how I play Hitman with a good element of risk. As much as I like to make and play contracts in Contracts Mode, there is times where I just don’t feel like making contracts. Freelancer Mode is a big step up. There is plenty of choice and preparation involved in the mix to the point that it makes me feel like I’m an actual assasin. I love the idea of a safehouse being your mission hub to come back to with the will to customize it as you progress through this mode and is fitting to the story since ICA is pretty much dead at this point and 47 becomes a Freelancer Assasin. My only concern is the contracts. How many contracts do we need to play through this mode before it starts to repeat itself with the contracts? I’m curious how long it’ll take to go through with this game mode before we see the same Leader once again in a contract.

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yo soo assuming all the items in this picture are in the game, is that a GAS CANISTER on the left?? :flushed: :flushed:

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Looks like that Merces (Money) system finally made it off the cutting room floor!

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Also, it’s pretty cool how this basically sort of fits with the main storyline of the trilogy. 47 going independent after breaking it off with the ICA at the end of H3.

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I do like the safehouse however I wished that these little missions to take leaders aren’t just random npcs that are in the main missions bc they’re just there and don’t have big routes so hopefully they are full pledged targets with just random appearances

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scrapped hitman 2016 content? nah son, fresh hitman 3 content

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It does beg the question of how deep this mode goes. Do they repeat after a while, will there be more added along the way, did they somehow build a procedural route-building system that creates a large number of interactions and places to move, mix-and-matching them infinitely?

I’m pretty sure the rumors were that Ghost Mode Mumbai got cancelled because they couldn’t craft enough good routes for targets. :man_shrugging:

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