Official: H3 Freelancer Closed Technical Test feedback Thread (CTT)

Yeah, it’s just disheartening IMO. Of course there are going to be a few super-hardcore people across the planet with the willpower and spare time to do it, but IOI should be making those people feel special in other ways, IMO - not throwing in Challenges that are effectively ‘sickeners’ to everyone else.

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Hmmm. Perhaps it’s in the shed then? I haven’t unlocked the inside of that yet.

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Bug: The game keeps erasing guns that I bring on missions. It’s happened with both the basic Sieger sniper rifle and with the S/A Tac4 Jungle AR. Doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it - one was Miami, main entrance start, and the other was Dartmoor, motorcycle start.

My opinions about freelancer:

Having played an entirety of 13.7 hours of the game mode, and having seen roughly all of the safehouse, I’m here to put my ideas to you all.

First off, what an incredible game mode. It has been a joy for me, going from syndicate to syndicate to the end of the campaign. The xp you receive and the bonus objectives really stand out to make the gameplay much more interesting, and the mercers are a very nice way to improve your equipment.

In general, I find the implementation of the roguelite elements fantastic, and the “checkpoints” after each syndicate was a good thing indeed.

In general, it was a very satisfying and fantastic thing to experience, and I can’t wait to play its entirety, with all maps and mastery level rewards.

However, there were minor details that deserve some thought.

First off, the use of mercers and the mastery unlocks. Mercers are a fantastic game mechanic, but seeing the ornaments and decorations for the house locked behind 40+ levels of mastery felt strange, and being unlocked through the use of mercers within the safehouse felt more natural, like if the game intended to do so but dropped the idea in the end. Just my opinion as a player, for I don’t have any experience on game creation. That would require a rework in the rewards regarding mercers, but here we go in a whole other story.

Second, the vault. As far as I went, it did not represent any relevancy to the game mode. Although an interesting way to receive mercers, it was, for me, a confusing and incomprehensible mechanic, that could be better explored into the main ideas of the game mode. Along with this, some places in the house felt unnatural and meaningless to be there. Of course, some of the areas were naturally blocked through the mastery limit but that’s just my thoughts.

Third, the problem with rewarding experience. As you go on your first campaign, you get really excited about what will happen once you finish four syndicates. After grinding, gathering weapons from the maps available, exploring and buying new gadgets (and lots of repeating it all from the beginning) you come to an ending. A cutscene, in which Diana congratulates you, and the same box you get after each syndicate down, is a very, very underwhelming and frustrating reward to the player. It felt weird to go back to the beggining, as if we had failed the campaign. I agree on replayability, and it is very important that it goes back to the beggining, but what else? What happened after the end of all the things we did? Just go back and do it again. As a suggestion, there could be a better reward, like a legendary weapon or a specific miscellaneous collection to use in the house.

And two things: the two bugs I’ve found in my entire playthrough. One is in the boat exit: 47 leaves in a boat but one boat stays behind, duplicated. And in the painting above the cleaning interaction in the kitchen: when I try to change it, the buttons disappear and I can’t interact with anything else unless I go back to the main menu and open the mode again.

Anyway, these are my thoughts in the game mode. Aside from these minor details I’ve pointed out, it’s a fantastic campaign that will certainly improve the game a lot. New ways to play, like this, are certainly what Hitman could be heading to in some time. Maybe new modes inspired in other game ideas, aside from roguelike. Rpgs, metroidvanias, even soulslike (if that is even conceivable), the options are infinite. In a sandbox like hitman, anything can be tested and explored.

I was surprised by this game mode, truly. I experienced some emotions too, when I got to the final sindicate and failed an alerted territory… Angry face and hands in the air! But getting to the end eventually happened.

I had an absolute blast experiencing this, and I say the same for the entirety of the Hitman World of Assassination Trilogy. I was surprised by every corner, enjoying every room I entered, feeling that realism very close to my heart. The Hitman games have become my all time favorites for this. I thank very much everyone involved in the creation of such a fantastic world, and giving me the opportunity to embark on this journey.

I also want to thank IOI for having chosen me to take part on the freelancer technical test! It’s been really fun.

Although I know this might be the very last update we get to Hitman 3, I would like to finish in a hopeful tone.

I hope there is more to come, and I can’t wait for it!

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Well, yes, at the start of the game. Losing all your tools after playing for a while is frustrating. I don’t consider it fun to go back to square one, and try and collect them again, especially since the most useful ones seem to elude me.

I get that it’s the intended mechanic, but all it does for me is making me choose the most careful approach at all times, because I don’t want to lose my lockpick again.

I really enjoyed playing Freelancer, thank you for giving me the opportunity to test the upcoming game mode! The concept as a whole is a more than welcome welcome addition to the World of Assassination and the implementation is excellent. Gameplay is action-packed and truly addictive, my bet is players will spend hours upon hours hunting down Syndicate Leaders come January. Here are some small thing I noticed that I find could use improvement…

  • WEAPONS AND GEAR: The “inspect” function is awesome and makes me appreciate the work of the model designers that much more! If I had to nitpick, some weapons have the fire mode selector set to safe or single shot, when it should be on full auto, e.g. the Raptor SMG and Sieger AR552. And is it just me, or do the Hackl 9S and 9R as well as the Shashka A33 and A33 H share identical models? (By the way, I never understood why we couldn’t get the regular Shashka - or better yet the gold variant! - as a mastery unlock in Colombia instead of a redundant rename. There exists an unreleased darker Shashka, so my hope is that IOI will replaces the A33 H’s wooden model with this modern rifle in a future update.) Oh, and I’m begging you to finally give the Fusil X2000 Stealth of ICA Data Facility fame a proper unique model, preferably suppressed and with some type of optic. Please!

  • NAMING CONVENTIONS AND CONSISTENCY: Let’s be honest, the equipment nomenclature has been all over the place since the release of H2 - and I’m not even talking about the Mk II stickers! For illustration purposes: The original syringes were “Modern”, later variants dropped that attribute; the ICA Micro Remote Explosive puts size before function, but the ICA Proximity Micro Explosive (together with the ICA Remote Micro Taser and Audio Distraction) does it the other way round; the black and white color schemes of the ICA Tactical Shotgun Covert are named identically (this also holds true for the ICA SMG Raptor Covert, which should be named Sieger MP577 Raptor Covert to begin with), etc. Maybe the developers find the time to do some cleaning up before January 26, that would be awesome. For some ideas on how to tackle the issue, see this thread.

  • SAFEHOUSE CUSTOMIZATION: Some rooms unlock later than indicated in the mastery overview, others unlock earlier. The same applies for a cosmetic item or two, e.g. the Minimal Furniture (supposedly) unlocked at level eight.

  • CHALLENGE REQUIREMENTS: I understand the need for challenges that require an intense grind to complete, but a goal of 10.000 target kills (apply named GOAT) is every completionist’s worst nightmare. Challenges akin to this one just seem a little over the top, and I humbly ask you to reconsider some numbers.

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You’re not back at square one though, if it’s made you more careful :wink:

The true Freelancer was the friends we made along the way.

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It kept making my silenced pistols vanish, was quite inconvenient

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I am now further confused by the Merces Lost-when-quitting-game bug, and I don’t think it’s a consistent, repeatable issue that can be isolated easily.

I’ve tried quitting when at a Normal Mission early on in Campaign #1. I lost Merces there each time.
I tried quitting when at a Syndicate Leader mission for Campaign #1 and #2. I did not lose Merces there.
I’ve now tried quitting at a Normal Mission in Campaign #3, and have not lost Merces.
Dang. I know it doesn’t matter, since progress isn’t being ported over, but this bug has frustrated me all weekend with how much it flips-flops between leaving me alone and taking my Merces away. I feel like I haven’t had a good sense of what proper Merces Progression is like due to it!

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Played till i got to mastery 25, took 2 and a half campaigns to finish.

Lighting broken in safe house after loading onto bright maps.

Interacting with the painting decoration prompt next to the “Clean Countertop” hold prompt will softlock the game’s prompts, might be due to the prompts being too close to each other.

Sometimes the triple suitcase interaction hold prompt will be ~1 meter away from the actual suitcases and closer to the intel wall, with very little room for interaction.

Currently, the game only saves when you finish a mission, but will not save if you exit the game inside the safehouse, perhaps a prompt or a bed system to allow for internal safehouse saves?

When all items in the triple breifcase have been unlocked and stuffed in their respective slots, post mission crates (that diana gives) will no longer give ANY items, this will occur in less than 2 campaign runs if the user buys all vendor consumables and only uses reusable equipment. Perhaps a solution would to be give mercers when there is no new items to give from the chest.

When a weapon is lost, (eg, special mastery weapons, expensive and rare legendary pistols / snipers) perhaps add an option to buy them from the safehouse for 2-3 times their regular cost, or some way to obtain them again without rouletting vendors)

Add a mercer penalty for killing vendors

Safes are relatively easy to crack (minus the berlin one), maybe put the clues on a further radius on the map (or the entire map), and add a master code keeper NPC much like a courier that instantly unlocks the safe code when neutralized.

Being able to mark Assassins and Lookouts using the camera would be a nice feature, 47 already has superman vision, why not extend it further?

Ornamental SMG Mastery picture does not match the actual Ornamental SMG

A map ban list would be nice, the ability to remove 1-2 maps from the pool for easier difficulties. (would not make sense to be able to ban maps on harder runs)

More gun options like the march version, the current wall of guns feels quite lacking.

The current showdown rewards system feels a bit sloppy, it would be cheaper and more economical to just do the easy mode, and then restart the entire campaign, rinse and repeat until you get all the weapons in the game. (Perhaps locking some weapons behind full runs would fix that)

As a QoL improvement, could the game be slowed by ~65% when the suspect camera is being used, much like holding breath with sniper rifles, since some details are very hard to see when the target is moving quickly, to the point where snapping a good picture in some areas becomes challenging.

The ability to save pictures into the intel section on the screen would also be a welcome improvement, in order to cross compare suspects.

Passive mercer income from safe house mastery levels would be a huge QoL improvement, maybe MasteryLVL*0.1*difficulty(1 to 4)*showdown(1 to 2) rounded down to the nearest integer (eg, mastery 9 on hardest difficulty, with a showdown = 9*0.1*4*2 = 7(.2) mercers, mastery 54 easy, no showdown = 54*0.1*2*1 = 11 mercers) every time a mission is completed

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Just noticed the challenge for completing 10 campaigns (You’ve Urned This) is bugged. It’s still showing the progress as 0/10 even though the other challenges tracking completed campaigns are working fine.

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I don’t know if this is the same target I had in Paris yesterday, cause I never check the names, but if she’s standing close to the bartender blending spot, you can make her a poisoned drink and serve it to her.

Umm, it can… :no_mouth:

I like this idea. Although rather than in the garage, I’d like to see 47 have a separate shed/greenhouse for these things (I haven’t unlocked the outside areas, so I don’t know of there is any space for that though).
Obviously it should be tied to a high level of mastery, and the craftable poisons should be different types from those that save in the toolbox.

Edit: Based on Leakerman’s post, it actually is there?

Yes and yes. Immersion ftw!

While I certainly wouldn’t be against this, I find the occasional conflicting natures quite fun as they make me weight different combinations of contracts and POs against each other. Also, sometimes the conflict ends up being beneficial, such as yesterday when my no firearms SA went sideways due to an alerted target, but it allowed me to do the ‘kill 3 guards with an SMG’ objective for half the merces :joy:

Thought about this too and would personally prefer the former I think. Only use crates/vendors for weapons/collectable gear and merces, and have useful items spawn around the map. Perhaps randomly, but a bit more frequently. I get that tying them to the crates is directed at balancing my loadout for the mission, but I miss the standard organic way of achieving these items. Having them in crates just feels too much like a… umm… game (as weird as this sounds).

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The coffin in Sapienza (the one with the “hide” prompt) doesn’t trigger the “Hide and Seek” prestige challenge timer refresh.

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Only if you have a suspect in the picture (and if the camera detects them)

I see. That did seem to be the OPs point of concern though :slight_smile: I personally didn´t try to take a picture for any other reason than to examine a still image of the suspect(s).

I think it is a very good update, I ran into some issues though…

-I brought a gun with me but it didn’t appear in my inventory, I failed the mission but it was still taken away.

-I cannot customize the kitchen, it just breaks the game.

-There is a weird lighting glitch that happens sometimes after leaving missions.

-You can Alt+F4 out of the game and the mission doesn’t fail, meaning that you can retry the same mission over and over again.

-I tried to do a takedown behind an enemy but he snapped in front of me. (I’ve seen this issue before)

Overall like I said it was a very good update and I’m excited to see it in a more polished state come January 26th!

I’m guessing that’s deliberate - otherwise a game crash could destroy your run.

It would just be up to the player to decide whether to abuse it or not, just like with Elusive Targets.

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Christ this UI is everywhere.

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Lost on showdown 3 again :weary:

I don’t think I can get through another whole campaign before the game goes away. Gonna be a long wait until January…

Edit: losses ultimately came down to bad mistakes on my part but I do agree with other people that flooding the place with lookouts & then giving you like 30 seconds to beat the level if any of them see you at all is, kind of a lot