But in the last few months, this discussion got louder and louder.
Being annoyed that you cannot save in Christmas Hoarders was a thing years ago, ranting about having to replay long and difficult escalations is a thread that comes up on reddit every few months.
Now however, H3 seems to get Escalations as the one single thing, not only new ones but the whole DLC and now even the bonus mission.
I think it is time to not only complain about this, but to finally speak up and ask iO to change this. I’m sure there are technical reasons, it might be rather difficult or have other limits – but come on, it can’t be THAT hard and now with all the “permadeath” content it has become way more than just a minor thing. And even if there are problems like “if you save in time limited missions the savegame will break later” or something I’m sure the player base will gladly accept that.
Pro:
Escalations would integrate better into the Hitman gameplay of experimentation and exploration if you know you can try something without the risk of losing all your mission progress if it does not work out.
The design flaw of instant fail conditions that plague so many contracts could be fixed. Yes, they might be a fun puzzle, but especially the longer ones can be frustrating - having to redo the perfect kill 7 times in a row just because you haven’t found a good way to perform the second one is not challenging, not rewarding and does not “add replayability”. It’s just annoying, punishing and frustrating.
For me personally the reason why I not only don’t play escalations but therefore also why I did not buy the DLC for the first time in this franchise. Add saving, I’m in. And I’m surely, as you could read over the last few months in this forum and on reddit, not the only one.
Escalations could feel more like real missions if you could save “your own starting locations and loadouts”, just think about how much more fun it would be if you would not have to do the same errands every time you restart an escalation.
Contra:
Nothing. Nothing AT ALL.
Because everything you would argue against it (I like the challenge, you replay more often and learn new things etc) will be simply answered by: It is an optional feature, if you do not want to use it you do not have to and the game will be identical for you with or without it.
Even if you would argue that the developement would take time and therefore we would have to wait longer for the next patch or get one or two escalations less, I would still consider this worth it, way worth it.
iO, consider this an investment. 7DS has several flaws, but one of the reason why people don’t like escalations is the different feeling compared to missions, and one of the reasons is the lack of freedom and experimentation because of the unability to risk or try anything without stress and the possibility of total loss of progress. If we could save, I’m sure many more people will buy 7DS and you will even be paid for adding this QoL feature, so to speak.
This is just an internal option in the game, saving is possible per contract/contract type. For example, you can save in some modded escalations found on nexusmods.
It is just a thought, but what if other players use saving in ranked contract/escalation competition ? It’s not fair. If Hitman was a 100% single player game, why not.
But it doesn’t matter now, competition is no longer done with in-game leaderboards for a long time now but with a recording proof, so who cares nowadays.
I have just played the pride escalation yesterday and in level 3 it’s so annoying that I’ll have to rush back to the peacock, wasting one minutes on the dull and repeated work. So it is for Baskerville Barney (the first free escalation in Dartmoor released in Feb). I love this escalation and I have played it for hours for a speedrun. But with each failure I’ll have to run to the mansion from the starting location… I can even recite the dialogue on the way…( I doubt it’s true though. He was here when the safe in Madam Crilsle’s office was repaired last week…)
It would be much better if we can save during the play. Please!!
I imagine there’s some technical reasons for why you can’t save during contracts tied to the server or something but yes, the rest could definitely use saving.
I see how it might be nice to be able to save escalations, but it would also totally change the way people approach them. I am someone who can not always get an escalation level 3 with Silent Assassin ranking, and I kinda enjoy it that way.
As I wrote, you can still do this if you like the feeling and want to challenge yourself. For my part it would also change the way I play escalations: I would play them and even buy the 7DS ones…
I personally don’t understand why HITMAN is not a singleplayer.
I don’t count leaderboards as multiplayer indicator.
Besides, leaderboards aplicable to all contracts in the game, no matter regular mission it is or an escalation.
If to mind that, regular missions shouldn’t be available for savings too, because leaderboards is a competition you are saying
As I said, Hitman is not a multiplayer game, but a single player with optional (but not less important) competitive puzzle components (online or not). The “if you do not want to use it you do not have to” must be put into perspective where rules can be shared between people in a competitive “puzzling” manner, which is one of the key aspects of the game.
I don’t mind saving in regular missions or bonus missions or special assignments…etc it’s part of the game and freedom of experimentation, but I don’t think simplifying the game design (because it’s a single player game) should be applied everwhere, especially on historical puzzle components and modes with which people are used to, regardless of their nature. This is not the right way.
100% agree - every time I try to sneak in Jingtzen Incident I get wallhacked by NPCs just to realise I have completely wasted 30 minutes of my life. One of many fixes that IO could implement in 5 minutes, yet they decide against them.
Considering the leaderboard discussion: I agree that it might feel “easier” when you can just save and load, but technically all it changes is how many perfect actions you have to complete in a row. What I mean is saving does not make the mission easier, faster to complete or anything like it, it just lessens the amount of replaying the same thing over and over until perfect you need.
In my opinion, this completely changes the way I approach them, I think if a save option was put into the contract mode or the escalations in the beggining, I would play them differently today. I would never have had the idea to speedrun/mastered some of them. I think I learned more thanks to that, replaying the same thing over and over, finding interesting routes, shortcuts and ways I wouldn’t have thought, until perfection, and share all of that on youtube/discord. This is what I like in this game too.
I’m not saying that everyone must to play like that and I understand, so I’m glad IO allows saving in other game modes, but not in contracts or escalation, it’s pretty balanced like that.
Yes, exactly. Allowing players to intentionally avoiding the easy way option but with the possibility to go back to this, leads to something completely different, I’m not sure the community would be the same as now with a save option everywhere. Same with too much OP items.
And I am much more patient in games now, thanks to Hitman
This is the eternal debate with Soulsborne or Roguelike games. IO has chosen a mix that works well in my opinion.
I don’t like this idea. Honestly: At first I really hated it that there isn’t a save option in Contracts or Escalations. But I would never have learned that much about the game if I didn’t have to do some things over and over again.
Contracts and Escalations are special challenges outside the main mission. And as challenges they should be extra challenging. Saving would make everything so much easier – and probably take out the fun of the game. If I want easy and casual I play some game on my phone.
Instant fail conditions are the problem, not being unable to save. Those conditions should simply always be optional, you wouldnt get SA if you don’t abide by them and that’s enough.
They’re not supposed to feel like real missions. They are supposed to be pure gameplay, with gameplay twists that you won’t find in any other mode.
Not being able to save doesn’t stop you from experimenting. That conclusion is false.
