HITMAN Freelancer - End Game, and Long Play Discussion

oh, you mean Hide & Seek, I thought you were referring to the unseen “Hide Bodies - Timed”

That’s it! Hide & Seek. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hide Bodies - Timed either. That would bring the potential timed objectives count to 5. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten at least a couple objectives in my list too.

11 Likes

There is also “Silent Assassin - No Firearms” among the prestige objectives

1 Like

I have a feeling IOI will be doing a batch for Freelancer soon to be honest.

I’m absolutely loving the mode so far, but there is a few tiny bugs that a lot of people have picked up on and IOI are spot on for listening to player feedback, so it’s only a matter of time before a patch is deployed :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes

I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a patch in March, but yeah, hopefully one comes out soon, as well as another blog if they plan on any major changes, I’ve enjoyed reading those.

I’d have to agree that alot of people on here grinded way too hard on the mode. I couldn’t imagine playing 1 game non-stop day in and day out. The only game I’d devote that much time to is Destiny 2, and even then, I barely have the attention span to stick to it for a gaming session. It’s no suprise people are dissatisfied with the end game, and even though I can see the long term issues a mile away, I’m still a ways out from there, and I’m still having fun because I’ve been spacing it out (also helps I die a decent bit, so I’m still engaging with the economy to an extent). Still have a bunch of challenges and mastery tracks to unlock for at least a few more months.

I think a lot of the frustration, not all, but a lot, can be attributed to burnout, and I think it’s best if you’re not having fun to just wait for a patch to come through before playing again.

I’m not expecting a patch until April tbh. Since the release of Wrath/October 2021 patch, they’ve been coming every three months. I assume they’ve already loaded the game up with whatever they plan to do for March/April roadmaps (if those are even planned) - so they’d have to be wanting to fix something ASAP to break the established pattern.

4 Likes

I just wish ioi (because realistically, they don’t have to) would communicate that better, if that’s the case. They’ve been pretty quiet regarding Freelancer since its release.

9 Likes

I will get back to Freelancer after the next patch and play it for months after.

IOI have a Freelancer team to fix bugs, but more or less we are now at the end of what IOI has committed for Hitman content for the next many years.

If there was future DLC or other content for Hitman, IOI would have kept more connection to the Hitman community.

IOI are betting big on Project 007, which will have associated with it a huge advertising budget for launch.

There is likely to be a Project 007 series / movie, just like The Last of Us has a movie/TV series.

1 Like

Massively unlikely, IMO, I think Eon will want Project 007 to be its own thing and won’t want to do any cross-pollination with the screen version of Bond.

6 Likes

I agree fully with this sentiment, sure the film industry is warming up more to video game adaptations, but there is no way that Eon or any self-respecting film company would want to further tie-up and complicate such a large and well known franchise as James Bond. We could possibly see a background reference to IO’s work with Project 007 or to Agent 47 / Hitman in a bond film, like with Payday and John Wick 2 (which would be really cool to see). But I doubt we would get anything more than that

3 Likes

Video games now can cost greater than and make more profits than movies.

I am certain that there is discussion of possible movie tie ins with IOI’s set of video games associated with Project 007.

1 Like

And yet, if you knew anything about Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson, you would hold the opposite view. Eon is about the last production company on Earth that would go for a video game/film/TV cinematic universe.

Even if they did take this route, it’s not going to involve ceding all control to an external video game developer at the outset. The game would be the spin-off material. Not vice-versa.

The confidence with which you make these assertions verges on misinformation, as far as I’m concerned.

6 Likes

I’ve said this for a while now and I also believe Freelancer is the last big update for Hitman III before the majority of IOI slowly begin focusing primarily on their Bond project. Like you said though, there will still be a team at IOI that will deploy bug fixes/patches for Freelancer.

1 Like

It’s clear that the majority of IO have already focused on the Bond project, and have for a long time given the small amount of content for Year 2 outside of Ambrose and Freelancer and the fact that they have 3 studios with a sizeable amount of employees. If they had been focusing most of their resources on Hitman we would’ve probably gotten Freelancer in its current form 6+ months ago.

1 Like

They should have grouped these by having 1 more PO spot so the player has the ability to choose their playstyle. Like one group for all SA (and SA related like even an SO objective, an SA no KO, SO no ko, etc etc) and they randomize, one group for timed and they randomize, one group for single kill type and they randomize and one group for collateral kill and they randomize. This would have made hardcode much better as the player then has the ability to choose the style they like while still having to complete it.

Then when having them grouped, could have added way more per group. Having them all randomized in the shared spots, gives the annoyance of getting 3 that a player doesn’t like doing, like such again, the timed ones which I have yet to choose even once.

5 Likes

I would implement a few variations of “insurance policies” you can pay for with merces, to act as stopgaps instead of complete mission failure and start-over, especially for hardcore mode.
One price insurance for each mission, a higher price for showdowns, another higher price for hardcore mode. Just as a reason to spend the money instead of alt4. The insurance wouldn’t be cheap, expensive enough you couldn’t afford it for each mission, only a few times per campaign.

4 Likes

I hit mastery 100 within the first week, and consider myself an end game player. Here’s my suggestions for the mode that would improve it for me.

#1 PO’s: Select 1, and run the whole campaign under that restriction (Id choose SA/SO, which leads me to number 2…

#2 Give me back my SA tracker. Running SA/SO campaign is not fun when I have to be hyper alert to know if I lose SA or not.

#3 Merces. These very quickly became useless so I have a few tweaks. Ammo, flights, hotel etc should all be common expenditure, meaning that its possible it cost more to go on a mission, than you earn from it, if you do a bad job. This will stop money piling up for those that don’t PTFO.

#4 Tools. Allow players to pay 47k (or similar) to fill their freelancer tools in bulk, so it doesnt take 1.5 campaign runs to collect them all Also, charge players fairly for aborting a campaign or dying (say 100k), so end game players like myself can make use of their millions of mercers to buy ‘resets’
(currently I rush the rest of a campaign where i lose SA, by playing any%. Its faster, but very boring and its almost embarrassing that this has been presented to me as the way I should play this game. It was fun to play that way, for like a week) Worth noting, due to the nature of 'lose all tools and half money, then spend 2hr+ earning it all back, I openly alt+f4. Id happily take the 100k hit, and pay the following 47k if it was an option as it seems like a fair punishment. Having to play in a way i detest, for maybe 2hrs, so i can continue what i want to do, will kill this mode for me.

#5 Allow shopping from the safehouse via laptop or something, and allow me to purchase extra ammo, body armour, and a trophy system to defend myself from the wholly unfair combat AI

#5 Fix enemy flash bangs. One of the most unfair parts of this game, and likely to put off many people. If combat is so much focus, why make it so unfair?

#6 Add option to mute Diana.

This is probably not everything i want to say, but i hope it helps.

Edit:

#7 Allow the shop to sell dupes or replacements for items you use on the misson. Eg if i use both seiker darts, going to the shop to buy two more would be a great use of the system. Likewise, purchasing an EMP on site as I didnt know i wanted one before i left would be great. The current shop system is borderline useless for end game players, and only serves as a way to replace items if you use more than one per mission. Best case scenario would be the supplier has all items, at all times, regardless of current ownership. Owning multiple of an item also sounds useful, though exploitable.

#8 On the world map, when i view a location, it would be great to get a preview of the in level map to reveal target locations, names and faces (like contracts). This will allow players to plan adequately for the task they face, rather than taking a general loadout to the level and then finding out who they have been sent to kill. Oh, and allow me to buy tactical start location.

TLDR: Fix combat. Add expenses (47k full tools, 100k death/abort, ammo/armour etc). Improve world map. PO tweak (pick 1 per campaign). Mute Diana.

2 Likes

Make the Freedom Fighters arcade game at the Safe House playable using mercers.

3 Likes