We should be able to choose briefcase skin as we choose the suit for the mission.
2 Likes
Overall I had a good time with the test but I have some critiques I’d like to share, a lot of them are bugs and rebalance stuff so hopefully, they can be implemented before release.
I’d like to discuss the bugs first:
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Busy suppliers, it’s annoying to have them busy doing another animation when they should be trading with you, it can sometimes take a long time for them to get back to being available and one particular time with the Hokkaido trader where he was stuck in his routine all the time.
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Silent Assassin seems to be bugged, I realize it’s only a prestige objective but it seems its criteria isn’t the same as the base game, for example bodies found when using accidental KOs like bananas make you fail the objective.
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Items have a tendancy to disappear from your inventory entirely. You take a weapon or a tool and you start a mission and it’s not there, which also means you lose it from your inventory in the safehouse too which is a very annoying bug I hope to see addressed.
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The AI can be pretty jank when using the Sieker, the poison dart gun. Sometimes they can just forget to be sick when you shoot them form behind without getting spotted, then they enter combat.
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I’m not sure if it’s just a Mumbai thing or if it happens in other regions but I couldn’t replicate it there. But guards in Mumbai have a tendency to attack you instead of escorting you when you enter restricted areas, even when you’re standing still waiting for them to start their escort routine
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The ornamental assault rifle is loud when it should be suppressed
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Not sure if this is a bug or intentional balancing, but only Breaching charges can blow open a safe, which is unfortunate when you only have regular explosives for the prestige objective to open a safe with explosives. I assume it’s a bug because regular doors can be opened with any explosive.
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Mendoza’s shrine is usable as an exit, I don’t think that’s intentional because if I recall correctly, it’s only usable as an exit in the base game with the specific escalation for it
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Certain safehouse unlockables either don’t unlock when you get the mastery level for them. And certain others unlock too soon when you haven’t obtained mastery for them
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Some safehouse decorations are bugged and don’t work
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Certain areas are restricted to certain disguises that aren’t in the base game, Nolan Cassidy’s guards aren’t allowed to enter his house if you use the front entrance, and Berlin Club security guards aren’t allowed in the stairway.
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Some animations are bugged like the Binoculars in the safehouse
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Large inventory items disappear from your inventory if you quit the safehouse and reload your save file
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NPCs react to you having your camera out as if it was a weapon. It’s only in dialog not mechanically but still immersion-breaking
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No audio plays in the Paris opening
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Certain optional objectives don’t complete correctly sometimes such as poisoning guards
Now I wanna talk about suggestions for balance changes or other quality of life improvements:
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Rebalance or change showdowns in some way, they don’t escalate in difficulty from campaign to another, the only change is they add more suspects. There can be other more interesting ways to increase difficulty as the campaign progresses.
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Timed trials can feel unfair at times, in large maps if you’re unlucky and have them in different corners of the map, two and a half minutes isn’t enough.
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Showing damage statistics for the weapons shooting range in the safehouse would be appreciated. With reference to how much HP NPCs usually have
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Certain items are removed from maps, I can understand that it may change the balance if you can get powerful items early if you know where they spawn in certain maps, but I think it’s even sadder that they’re gone as it makes map knowledge much less relevant.
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Some items would be great to have available in the safehouse, such as coins or a briefcase. Maybe you can add them to 47’s office so you’d get infinite access to them when you unlock that room. Like with the wrench, banana, and such.
I wish IOI all the best and I’m looking forward to the release this January
2 Likes
Greetings!
I guess I won’t be unique in my observation and opinions, but I would also love to share my feedback since I’ve had a pleasure to take part in CTT 
What I enjoyed:
1. The Safehouse idea and its progressive improvements turned out to be extremely addictive!!
2. In general the roguelike regime really brings new exiting experience to the series (even though I could play just a little - 15 hours were more than enough to fall in love)!
3. I was impressed by the game performance and stability - apart from small loading issues between the locations and scenes everything was nice and smooth.
4. The idea of randomizing targets and smugglers is great!
What was bothering me
1. No setting up Controls in main Menu (guess that was a CTT feature costs but still)
2. Inability to hide an item in my hands (the one that could be hidable of course) - am I only one who experienced that?? The only way to put away an item was to pick up another one from the inventory. (Mb I’m not so smart and didn’t find the proper key?!)
3. Too little items on locations: I know I should struggle to get a tool I need for the mission, but in my opinion a little bit more of apples, screwdrivers, bottles, bricks, busts won’t do harm (they will of course, but for my benefit 
). Using lots and lots of that stuff to drag through the locations was one of the most enjoyable moments of Hitman- but now it looks a bit poor (but the map size and amount of NPC remained the same!).
4. Random sub-goals are nice and great, BUT at the same time:
- sometimes it’s just impossible to accomplish them (no certain weapon on the whole location, inability to interact with the target properly etc.)
- it’s clearly said that they aren’t mandatory but at the same time you won’t get any payment for just killing a target. To my opinion this ruins the whole idea of Freelancer (who would agree to work for free?!)
- weird sub-goals accomplishment counting (you DO NOT need to make any shot to get a ‘don’t miss a shot’ goal done for example)
What I would like to be changed
1. Losing tools from cases - really a pity, I would love to see my precious collection stays (mb allow me to use it for money but don’t take it away from me?)
2. ‘Locations economy system’ as I call the smugglers and lootboxes. There was no a single case in the game when those hidden cases helped me, only when I gained some money from it. As a result - I lost any interest in searching for them. I thought it would be more useful if they contain the money ONLY (especially counting that sometimes there are no couriers on a map!). And the smugglers would be much more of a use if they could provide me with the exact tool/weapon I need to accomplish the sub-goal. That would have made me to seek the cases and rob the couriers to gain enough money to make everything nice and shiny. Because in 90% of cases those features (lootboxes and smugglers) were useless, but only bringing additional risks.
3. Not sure how to express the whole impresion of the Showcase of a Safehouse feature - I was super excited and glad to collect items in here… and never ever touch them anymore because I feared to lose them while mission
To sum up - thank you for the brilliant experience and I would definitely be waiting for the release!! 
4 Likes
All in all i enjoy the new freelancer but every new feature in a game need to be used and played to understand it better and make your strategy’s before you become good at it.
I like the new hideout and you can store weapons.
I like the campaign map and its design.
The graphics are good, videos are good and it run great on my pc.
All in all a nice new gameplay feature.
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I hope that we get the option to disable the mini map and so to speak play in a harder game mode since it feel a bit like an arcade game when being able to see enemy movement in a room nextdoor. I think of it as a cheat.
Well give the players the same choice as in the current hitman 3 game where you can disable it in the menus. ( i did not check, i normal play on epic game store and forgot to see if there is such an option in the technical preview ).
personaly im the hardcore player kind of thing… I dont like to look though walls or see everything on the minimap. Sneak and peak around every corner and use ingame sound to analyze what is in the next room kind of ting. -
maybe there should be a limit of how many times you can change clothing.
example 3 times but again the player can just do as they like and make their own limits or play suit only if they like.
3). do we get a suit only bonus the game is not so clear about that.
And what if we kill someone or get spottet what is the punisment for that.
Im a bit comfused and lack info of the “game rules”.
( i think there is 0 punishment other than the risk of getting spottet.
Personaly i think it would be okay to knock people out and hide them. But if a player
Just shoot everyone and do mass murder everytime that would be a bit of an exploit if
it have no consequences for the player… personaly i think hitman is about the perfection and professionalism and the art of the kill so to speak and only hitting the taget.
4). i think is great that missions give us extra money if we kill the enemy in x way and you get more money solving the small side missions.
5). I am not a big fan of the special loot boxes on the maps it make the game feel like an arcade game and as a player im able to find the things my self if i want them.
example a hammer to silent take down people from a great distance is great can be found on all maps, including apples or coins ect.
But i see little use for boxes where i can select one item and pick inbetween an apple, a metal pipe, and an statue. Again i can find these in the world if i look for them.
personaly it just feel a bit unrealistic with these boxes in the game.
But i do admit its nice to be able to pickup example remote triggered explosives but it would be better if the game just give us more money and we can buy them instead vs a box.
An alternative thing could be there is a traveling salesman that visit hitmans hideout or he can order it online via a laptop in his computer and then you hear a ringing on the doorbel and there is a box on your doorstep where you can pickup the new stuff.
or a box spawn next to hitman that you can open.
example a hammer to silent take down people from a great distance is great.
But i see little use for boxes where i can select one item and pick inbetween an apple, a metal pipe, and an statue. Again i can find these in the world if i look for them.
6). I like there are safes and you have to look for clues. BUT it would be nice with a little help screen with an example what such clues look like.
On the sapienza map one of them is a laptop near the safe but i did not find the others though i run around looking for things to fotograph that might be a code it just feel like hmm what am i looking for. I tried looking for dates on the castle walls or ships with x things and so on but no. im a bit stuck but i figure it out sooner or later.
They say the clues are in the nearby area so it must be on the castle or something i can see from ther.
7). I understand you are not able to buy everything or the specific weapon from day one and you are supposed to not being able to solve alle mission bonuses the first time.
example a silenced pistol cost 144 money so i cant shoot the target with a silenced weapon yet as the mission require.
But as a player i feel it lact a little information since if i do mission 1 now then i cannot return to that mission again… ( or will i get another try once i finish the final syndicate mission or all of the syndicates ?.. well i find i need more info or a tip to how freelancer work.
8). Do changing clothing effect anything other than your disquise ?
well do i get a bonus if i do suit only, or is the only thing that matter just to kill the target and get away and you are free to do as you like kind of thing ?
9). I think we need a freelancer “reset” progress button so we can start a new game with everything reset… ( ofcourse ask the player 2 times do you want to reset game it cannot be undone ). In general i think players might like to reset their hitman games statistics, but keep all of their unocked stuff and ilusive targets win/loose. ( the main hitman3 game but in freelancer people should have reset everything when using such a button ).
I know there is a cancel campaign button or something like this, but dident try it.
- the location of the weapon dealer on example sapienza map feel a bit wird.
He is in the basement of the mansion where i have to kill someone.
I would make more scence if he was standing outside the villa mansion area in an alley or was in an appartment to hide his illegal activity and keep a low profile.
I love that everytime you start a new campaign that its new random missions and objectives. that is really nice.
Example if i take the campaign in the top left corner and activate it and afterwards just cancel/reset the campaign then a new one spawn in its place.
I also love the gear you get sometimes in boxes or in the boxes in your HQ is random.
You are able to buy some pretty cool stuff IF you have the money.
I now also tried on purpose to fail mission 3 where im supposed to kill the leaders.
This do indeed cost you when you loose your gear and half of your income.
I dont know if its a bug, but after i respawn there is a money coin next to the bed.
maybe its there since its a technical test and the devs are interested in that people progress and try the new features vs starting all over.
2 Likes
I’ll pop-in to mention - I had a guard next to a safe in Paris. I couldn’t KO him because it was behind the bar on the ground floor. So, I tossed a Fire Extinguisher down, then shot it… I was intending to Accidental KO the guard, but ended up opening the safe as a result. 2 birds…
Anyway… Perhaps a list of locations (when they have a safe) and what types of explosives will open them or not could be in order. 
Well, that is… someday… in the future.
1 Like
Hi everyone, thank you developers, cannot wait for the release of Freelancer - Loved it!
Really liked -
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The Safehouse - brought back great early memories with the classics, now able to fully immerse as 47 in his decorative yet deadly living space, such a cool feature.
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The challenge! It was great being challenged with less focus on Silent Assassin rating being “The best” way to play was refreshing and again brought back memories of the early games.
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Showdowns - Found it great fun identifying the suspects, with lookouts and assassins adding good difficulty into the mix. With the risk of failing the campaign looming, it did put the pressure on and immerses into feeling you are on your feet thinking like an assassin.
Didn’t like -
- Showdown alert time, too short with all other suspects instantly making a run for it… Maybe lengthen the period of alerted into escaping?
Suggestions -
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Increase tagging distance for suspect camera,
E.g On sapienza ruins I could zoom in and identify suspects visually but not tag them. -
Payouts - A small base payout for each contract completed regardless of objectives (5-10M?) which increases through the campaign? Or, the objective payouts starting lower and increasing with the difficulty as there is more risk, so more reward!
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Prestige Obj. payout balancing - I feel the Silent Assassin prestige payouts are fair however the timed ones should be higher (40-50M?), with a time-limit scaled for each location and its size.
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Scarecrow or similar at the safehouse, to practice…
Overall the Freelancer test has been great, seriously enjoyed it and cannot wait for the release!
3 Likes
Agree 1000%.
My thoughts and feedback on the CTT. Played some 14 hours, succesfully completed one campaign (after failing twice) and a few more missions, and reached lvl. 17 mastery. Overall, I had an absolute blast for the relatively short time that I got to play this. I think Freelancer is a really good mode, spices the game up significantly and provides plenty of incentives for play, providing the major issues get fixed. Looking forward to the full release in January.
Performance-wise, I had no major issues. Experienced one crash, one glitch where the screen stayed zoomed in at the table after selecting a syndicate, and had a the occasional server disconnections just like in the main game. Overall performance was fine, but I did experience pretty noticeable frame drops when looking at the gun rack. Might be just due to my GPU, but…
Experienced quite a few bugs (all of which have been mentioned here), notably half of my merces disappearing every time I started the game, the broken binocular blending, or the kitchen decorating feature basically breaking the game. The major gameplay bug was probably with a showdown in Hokkaido (this particular location seems to be suffering based on the comments here), where I had at least one suspect softlocked and standing in the garden from the very start, and another suspect or two magically teleporting away to a different area of the map after I lured them into 47´s room using a burner phone. Also in Paris, I had a suspect not coming to the phone location, although the picture-in-picture showed them as “coming”. But given that I triggered a target evacuation shortly before that, that might have been the cause.
Anyways, here are the details. Most of my takes are pretty much what others have already mentioned.
What I liked:
Summary
- The safehouse and everything about it: I love having a hub again in a Hitman game for the first time since 2006. I love being able to bring weapons from missions and build up a collection in the safehouse. I enjoy the numerous customization options, references, blending spots, and details like actual trophies for the challenges. And visually it´s nice too.
- Weapon wieving: The view mode for weapons and tools is great.
- Mastery progression and leveling: I feel like the progression happens at an adequate pace. I was generally able to increase in mastery after 2-3 missions without necessarily completing the optional objectives or playing particularly well, and felt like I´m constantly unlocking stuff without breezing through the mode too quickly. At the same time, there was no feeling of tedious grinding like with Sniper Assassin mastery. I´m also glad that the safehouse isn´t entirely accessible and customizable from the start, as it gives me motivation to play and something to look forward to. I imagine the mastery progression speeds up a bit in the full version, since the other locations will be available to play and challenges will actually start kicking in after a while.
- Showdown missions: The showdown missions in general are great, even if they can occasionally turn into an absolute fustercluck (though I felt like that´s mainly an issue if the location is alerted). I enjoyed identifying the suspects and dealing with new additional complications such as Assassins and Lookouts, as well as utilizing new gimmicks like the burner phones (didn´t try the packages though).
- The inclusion of new tools and weapons: I love the inclusion of new gameplay items and elements (many of which have apparently been around since the alpha/beta versions of H2016?), such as the burner phones, suspect camera, canisters, and new weapons. Hopefully some of them will make it into the main game modes as well. And hopefully some other weapons from the Alpha/Beta version(s) of the game will make their way in.
- The different gameplay: Although the start was a bit rocky, I ended up enjoying the fact that the mode requires/encourages me to play and think differently, while at the same time not necessarily punishing me (well, aside from the obvious fact of not paying me). It took a bit to adjust to the different rules and mindset, but once I got accustomed to them, I feel like I started enjoying the mode as whole, particularly the regular, non-showdown missions. I also enjoyed the varying optional objectives based on syndicate type.
What I would definitely change:
Summary
- Mission payouts: While I feel that the overall economy of the mode and rewards for the optional objectives are adequate, I find it ridiculous that optional objectives are actually mandatory to get paid for missions. There should absolutely be a basic payout for each mission which the players should receive regardless of whether they complete the optional objectives or not. The missions are contracts and as such should be paid. That being said, I´m fine if the basic payout is relatively small so that it still incentivizes completing OOs, but it should be there (particularly for the showdowns), and preferably in the form of increasing payouts per syndicate (corresponding to the increasing difficulty) and with higher rewards for showdown missions (e.g. a payout of 5M/mission + 10M/showdown for the first syndicate, 10M+15M for the second one, 15M+20M for the third one, and 20M+25M for the last one, or whichever numbers would work).
- Black market to purchase weapons/tools in case of loss/use: I said it earlier and others have since suggested the same. At some point during the mastery progression, 47 should gain safehouse access to a black market dealership where he can purchase weapons and tools that have previously been unlocked/collected. A lot of people here have mentioned how they refrained from using Freelancer tools or wepons because of fear of losing them, and how the punishment of losing everything after failing a campaign is too harsh. Now, I don´t necessarily think this punishment should be removed from the mode. However, as Hitman players, we are not used to losing our stuff and we enjoy having a nice big collection to gaze at, so many people might be discouraged from collecting everything again after a failed campaign. Having to play the campaign from scratch after failure can be punishing enough, especially given the invested time. Therefore, the ability to purchase previously collected/unlocked weapons and tools for a certain amount of merces would allow players to avoid this predicament and would possibly also encourage actually using the gear. This feature is notably important for the mastery-unlocked Ornamental and Ancestral weapons, which can be also lost, though I assume they start showing up at vendors afterwards. Alternatively (or additionally), the loss of safehouse weapons/tools could be a togglable option if that´s possible, so that players could chose their own preference on this matter.
- Premium objectives description: Players should probably have access to the full PO description before they actually choose one. Figuring out what some of them mean was a bit of a guessing game, even during the mission themselves. The Hide and Seek objective should probably have a longer time limit, given that it takes a good 10 seconds or more to actually get in and out of a box/closet. Also, the “all doors stay locked” objective (or whatever the name was) should either have the description updated to include “do not open doors with keys/keycards” (because that fails the objective, despite the description only mentioning forced unlocking), or should be modified so that using keys and keycards does not fail it.
- Challenges with rather ridiculous requirements: scat in particular mentioned this, and while I´m sure there would be players more than willing to devote themselves to this, many (if not most) of us simply don´t and won´t have the time or will to grind through a challenge requiring thousands of kills just so we could get 100% completion. Don´t get me wrong, I will happily spend an entire afternoon playing Hitman if I have the time for it, but given that the average time I spent on a Freelancer mission was 20 minutes, and that one campaign doesn´t have that many targets, there is no way I´m grinding 10k kills “just because”. The challenges can stay, but the requirements should be siginificanlty toned down to account for players´ real-life circumstances. GOAT in particular should have no more than 2k kills required (or perhaps no more than 1k, with the Employee of the Year being also adequately lowered). And there should preferably be some really good unlocks tied to them.
- Bugs: A no-brainer of course. From cosmetic issues such as the safehouse lighting, typos, or blend-in spots, to game-breaking issues like disappearing merces, softlocked NPCs/suspects, or the broken kitchen decorating, fixing all the stuff mentioned here should be a priority.
What I would potentially consider changing:
Summary
- Aspects of the algorithm for objectives: Others here have mentioned they are not particularly fond of the fact that the optional objectives often end up conflicting each other. Personally, I don´t have that much of a problem with that, as I found it quite fun trying to figure out which location and premium objective would fit best together, and also perceived the inability to complete weapon-specific objectives until I actually acquire said type of weapon as part of the mastery, but I can understand the discontent given the current payment system (and it is another reason why a base payout for a mission is needed). However, I would like to see no more than one timed objective at a time among the PO selection.
- The way items are distributed around maps: I´m a little at odds here, since I don´t know how much this aspect corresponds with Master difficulty (which I haven´t played on in almost 2 years), and I do appreciate the fact that removing most of the items around the map is part of the challenge of the mode. That being said, sometimes I felt like there´s way too much stuff missing (particularly in H1 maps) and that it doesn´t really allow me to make full use of map knowledge (outside of the layout that is). Dunno, would need more time with the mode to properly make up my mind here…
- Showdown complications: Quite a few people here have mentioned that showdowns can become immensely frustrating due to the sudden number of enforcers, Assassins, and targets escaping. Personally, I only had one such experience, and that was on an alerted 2nd syndicate Paris (an absolute disaster of a mission that I still somehow managed to complete thanks to a long-distance headshot and a wild escape via window and ledge/pipe climb). As long as I ensured that the showdown takes place in a non-alerted location, it was fine. Potentially overwhelming, but fine. However, some players might have a harder time dealing with the sudden increase of things to look out for, so it might be worth considering to introduce showdown complications one at a time, rather than all at once. For example, only introduce Assassins in the 1st showdown, then add Lookouts in the 2nd, and only then add more of those in the 3rd and 4th, or even introduce different types of Assassins as mentioned in an earlier post (snipers or active hunters), since the current one are mostly stronger bodyguards. As for the target evacuations, having only the actual target evacuate might make things more player-friendly. And last but not least, the number and distribution of enforcers for both alerted and non-alerted locations should be checked so that they don´t compromise players in starting locations (looking mainly at Hokkaido again, based on others´ feedback).
- Merces unlocked via mastery: I´m not sure whether having merces as mastery unlocks is a good approach, given that it´s a one-time award than can (and will) disappear rather quickly. Instead, as TheChicken suggested in an earlier post, having them as a threshold unlock for the vault might be more reasonable.
- Punishment for killing civilians: I don´t mind the “relegation” of SA to a premium objective, as it finally rids me of my subconscious need to aim for it every time I play, and I certainly appreciate the freedom of approach, but I had at least two situations where I messed up spectacularly and it turned into a contained massacre. It was neat that I could get away with it and still earn some dough, but it still felt weird… Perhaps a minor financial penalty for every civilian kill (that doesn´t count towards a potential optional objective) to incetivize a cleaner playstyle - as proposed by Dribbleondo - might be worth considering?
What would be nice to add:
Summary
- Additional things for immersion: More blending spots in the safehouse are always nice (and in the locations themselves). I was especially surprised that 47 can´t lay down on the deckchairs? Also, tomatoes in the garden, a canary/rabbit in a cage, a scarecrow… You know, we love our references. Empressofpersia proposed quite a few of these things in an earlier post, so I don´t have to go into detail here.
- New voicelines for 47: Seriously, the Ambrose approach again? It somehow worked there, but 47´s interactions with the vendors here are just off (if funny). Not to mention it´s a shame not getting any new lines from David Bateson while we´ve been getting them from both Jane Perry and John Hopkins…
- Freelancer-related achievements to Steam (and other platforms): And while you´d be at it, add some for Ambrose Island as well.
- Other versions of locations: It would be nice to see the level versions from bonus missions, Patient Zero, and Special Assignments. I know it´s probably not gonna happen, but would love it nonetheless.
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Point-shooting:
So yeah, that´s about it from me. If I think of something else, I´ll add it in the official feedback email/form. Pizza!
10 Likes
The TIMED objectives really need rebalance.
In one playthrough I’ve managed to finish one and that takes me about 25 minutes, included 3 or 4 targets and more than 1 couriers. Consider to distance between all targets that already pretty fast. So, I must refresh the timer 12 or more times in that 25 minutes, which means I wasted half of my time on refreshing. That’s not challenging just annoying.
More mechanics for planning.
I think planning can play a big role in Freelancer. All those items if player don’t know which situation they are facing they only pick the item has most uses. So we need more information. Like specific position or roughly area where we can find target, if target smoke or drink etc, general detail about the location (how many cameras, enforcers, crates, etc). And all these information could be purchasable to make some balance and become main expense in late game. Alternative, maybe we can have a scouting mode, under certain conditions player can return to hideout with no risk and replan the mission.
Increase the difficulty in other ways.
Too many suspects in a showdown only turn it into a mess and annoying. I think the late game of freelancer needs player to be more clever and more skilled not more patient. For example, the target could wear body armor that similar to icon invincible to all low-caliber firearms. So player must figure out another plan to take him down if they don’t have capable weapons. Another idea is the target has a heartbeat monitor, after you take him down all guards will hunt you forever and block most exits, so you must have a good escape plan. And more protection that player really want to take it seriously, like a sniper enforcer that always watching on specific spots. If you want poison food or take a good sniper nest you have to take risk. The better way is to take the sniper out first, but if you do so that will soon trigger all suspects escaping. So you must get a clever plan, like how to do two things at almost same time.
The more I think about it, the more I think that the Freelancer mode should have a difficulty setting. I think at this point it’s too much development work to implement it, but the comments from the various players have convinced me that it’s the only chance everyone has of being happy.
There are players who actively do not want to spend hundreds of hours grinding through failure after failure and having progress reset every time they get to a showdown that will get frustrated with this mode. Those players need a Casual mode where death doesn’t mean resetting tools to zero and progress isn’t lost. The actual showdown maps should not be the master mode maps and the number of suspects should be lower.
There are other players who probably want the game exactly as it is (was?). Call this Professional and change nothing.
There are yet a third group who will only accept the mode if it’s a Silent Assassin-friendly (mandatory?) mode where suit only is rewarded, non target kills are penalized, and Every map is set to Master mode. This may be the “hardcore” mode hinted at in the video Clemens did. Call it Master or Hardcore.
I think that the player should choose their difficulty at the Mode select screen, not per mission. The entire mode should reflect which difficulty they chose too. Hardcore or Master mode (and Professional, but less so) could have periodic attacks on the safe house a la Wrath while Casual can avoid these.
Pleasing all of the various players is impossible if everyone is playing the exact same levels. It’s not something IOI has to do, for sure, but if they want to reach the broadest player base, it’s probably the most sensible way to do it.
11 Likes
Another pile of feedback. Overall I loved the game mode, but kept a note of issues I encountered along the way…
These are in no particular order, but I’ve tried to give context to help place them in game.
The Ticket outline (used to begin a mission) remained on screen after hitting B to cancel the cutscene when starting mission
NPCs would say “whoa put that big bad thing back in your pants would you?” (and other lines, but that one deserves quoting) about the suspect camera, even though it’s not a weapon.
In Mumbai, when walking towards an exit before completing the mission, an awkward prompt appears: “EXIT MISSION / Are you sure you want to exit the Mission before completing the Objective? This will fail the Campaign” with only ONE option below it: “CONTINUE”… No indication of whether CONTINUE would continue exiting, or continue the level (it continues the level), and no contrasting option to choose the other course of action (exit mission).
In Hokkaido, after throwing the heart in the bin, there was no blood splatter. Didn’t this previously leave stains on the wall and/or lid?
Supplier issues:
- There is no prompt to interact whilst the Supplier says their “wanna buy anything” line. If you manage to start holding a button to interact before they speak, it interrupts the button-holding prompt instead of letting the NPC talk in the background.
- Some dialog exchanges make no sense or are mismatched, e.g. “You there, you need anything? I might just have what you need.” 47: “I am.” and “Wanna buy anything?” 47: “Is that right?”
- I was carrying an oil can when dealing with a Supplier, and the “Spill Oil” prompt didn’t disappear with the rest of the gameplay graphics; it was displayed on top of the available items & prices.
- In Sapienza, when the Supplier was in 47’s safe house, I rang the bell but he didn’t answer the door.
In the safe house:
- When over my carrying limit, I dropped a wrench & noticed there was an unusual prompt: “PICK UP / INVENTORY FULL” - this prompt vanished the moment I touched any button or control, and had changed back to “PICK UP / WRENCH” when I moved away and moved back over the item.
- In the pistol collection, the Assassin’s HWK does not have an outline when using Instinct.
In the Freelancer Tools cases, the vials of poison only have their lids outlined when using Instinct. - Inconsistent use of “Freelancer Tools” and “Gear” throughout the game, it feels like these cases should be “Freelancer Gear.”
- I’m sure I could pick up the Kitchen Knife one time, but on future visits it was visible on the chopping board, but not interactable. Or I might have imagined this one?!
- After unlocking the drums, I was walking around with a sniper rifle on my back & tried to play, but the prompt read “CANNOT BLEND IN / VISIBLE ITEMS NOT ALLOWED.” Is it possible to keep items & play?
- When facing the world map, Instinct shows the stack of campaigns, but there is no highlight on or around the map itself to show that it’s interactive.
- If the pre-mission gear chest contains emetic or lethal flower poison, it appears as a small vial in the chest, but as a flower when held as an item. This should probably appear as a vial, like it does after processing/distilling a poison in-game.
- I brought the sniper rifle home from Mendoza, and I think it appeared as the bottom-right Bartoli Woodsman in my collection, despite not having a rarity score in-game. Or, like the kitchen knife, this could be a mistake on my part.
Various descriptive text errors…
Loading screens:
“…and should you make a mistake? You will…” (the ? should probably be a comma “,” because otherwise the first part of the text makes no sense as a standalone question.)
“desguise” should be “disguise”
“…with the Sweet tooth Tell” looks odd because of the capitalisation; “Sweet Tooth Tell” would be more consistent
“loose all gear” needs to be “lose all gear”
“…leader profile consist of [followed by plurals]” - it’s one leader profile, it should be “consists” (e.g. the cake consists of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. “Consist” wouldn’t work here either.)
Challenge descriptions:
- Inconsistent use of the “M” symbol & the word “Merces”, e.g. see the Pocket Money and High Roller feats.
- Inconsistent use of full-stop/period character, e.g. at the end of the Poetic Justice and The Finish Line descriptors.
- In-game, the “In Progress” text for a “Collateral Kill - Accident” objective contains a stray “/li>” at the end of the 2nd bullet point.
After levelling up a little bit (level 9, freelancer mastery 7), I pressed BACK to see objectives whilst still in the safe house, and in the bottom right corner it still said SeedyE / Online - Level 6"
If I leave an item behind (e.g. Tanto when going to Hokkaido), then pick up the Tanto there (which is definitely NOT my tanto from the safe house!), then fail the mission, I also lose the Tanto from the safe house. Items collected during the level surely shouldn’t be treated as the same item you already own?
In Sapienza, killing a target and another NPC by dropping the church bell on them did not count as a Collateral Kill - Accident.
In Hokkaido, a target spawned in the sauna. I increased the heat but was unable to block the door from outside, which is usually an available prompt to kill a target. Instead, in a hurry, I knocked both out & left them in the sauna, and they eventually died, but this did not count as a Collateral Kill - Accident.
As with other users, I frequently lost all gear from the safehouse, not just what was being carried. Some comments suggest that this is a feature mentioned in a popup, but it’s not clearly communicated & feels like a bug when it happens.
Another shared experience: Many “Melée - Epic” kills did not register as fulfilling a related objective. E.g. Fiber Wire, Circumcision Knife, or Shuriken attack from behind (not thrown). Similarly, when attempting a “silent takedown - rare melée” objective, I killed with the Quickdraw (stored on the rare melée wall) but that didn’t count either.
On the level map, discovered crates don’t remain on the main map, only appearing on the mini-map.
One time I had a massive framerate drop on Mumbai, ending up with one frame frozen for many seconds. I dropped all settings to minimum, & closed things in the background (browser etc.) and it eventually recovered.
When I was only meant to use one Disguise but changed outfit multiple times, the Disguise counter didn’t go above 2/1 when changing a 3rd time.
I switched to my carried AR whilst carrying a sniper in a briefcase, during the animation when exiting a closet. The briefcase despawned, I was expecting to drop it outside the closet.
A couple of times, the post-mission “wall of challenges” briefly appears before the “bon voyage” cutscene when beginning a mission.
One time, all lighting failed in the safe house. Everything was black, apart from the HITMAN III CLOSED TECHNICAL TEST overlay. Instinct still showed items, so I could navigate around, & the issue resolved itself when I entered the next mission.
In Mumbai, a guard on the roof of the Crow hideout was walking around in the air, not on solid surfaces.
(I have some screenshots of these issues, will add them or send them to someone if needed to clarify anything.)
A final thought - No doubt there are many features & level unlocks that we didn’t see in the test. I’m kind of hoping that one of them might be a safe, as a high level addition to the safe house’s Office.
Imagine having something that works a bit like how you can leave some money behind in Rogue Legacy, before starting a run. A simple way to stash a (limited? upgradeable?) amount of cash, maybe even limited to once per Syndicate (4 times per campaign).
I don’t think it would add to the fun if it was possible to remove all risk of losing half your carried Merces.
However, there could be some strategic benefit to not taking 100% of your cash into a Showdown or a level with tough Objectives, or slowly gathering enough to buy a power weapon, knowing you’ll still have to eventually risk carrying it into a level & hope the Supplier has something you actually want.
Or it could be something more silly & lighthearted, like a Rubber Ducky shaped “piggy bank” next to your departure tickets, where you can add a little or empty the whole thing, with no inbetweens.
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I have played about 45 hours of Freelancer, raised the master level to 25, and completed the campaign once.
I was relieved to find that the "Freelancer" mode was much more interesting than I had imagined.
The fact that it is a different target each time, the fact that the stages are widely utilized in all directions, the fact that previous knowledge is also required, the fact that you have to strategize your way through the game, etc.
Overall, the mode was finished at a high level, and my impression was that it was very impressive.
Unfortunately, I could not select the language of my country.
I played with a smartphone translation app in hand, but I wish they had not cut it out as it is a language that is implemented in the production version.
Below is a summary of the points that bothered me in this CTT.
■Safe Room
・I was surprised to see that the money is halved when you return to the main menu in the safe room. I think it is terrible to treat it as a failure in the safe room, even if it is during a mission.
・The time-limit type of prestige object is too difficult.I don’t feel like playing when all three of the prestige objects you can choose from are time-limited.
・I would like to see some prestige objects that are easy to earn, but not too rewarding.
・I would like to see a suit-only (stand-alone) prestige object.
・I would like to see a supplier in the safe room so that people can buy weapons and tools before they leave.
・I would like to see a map or mini-map in the safe room as well.
・I would like to play on a shooting range, something like the shooting range in “Hitman Contract”.How many targets can you hit in a certain amount of time? How many headshots can you make in a certain amount of time?
■During the mission
・I had a problem with a suspect walking off the map during a showdown once. I was able to complete the mission because he wasn’t the target by chance, but if he had been, I would have made a mistake.
・I want a silent assassin HUD. It is hard to know if you can keep the silent assassin when you have not selected silent assassin in prestige.
・I would like to see a difficulty HUD. It is difficult to understand the increase in difficulty level. I would like to see a numerical step-by-step display of the level of time to uncover suspicious behavior, the level of change in NPCs, etc.
・I think this is intentional, but it is hard to tell where the Assassins and Lookouts are.
It is especially complicated to get a warning when approached on the upper or lower floors. I think it is unnecessary to have a notification when the floors are different.
・I would like to see the color of the icon change to indicate the element to which the object corresponds when a photo is taken of the subject in the showdown.
It was frustrating that no matter how much I looked at the thread-like earrings, inconspicuous pendants, dark hair or brown hair in dark places, etc., I could not distinguish them.
■Others
・I would like to be able to have suppliers buy back items I don’t need.
・I am concerned that sometimes there are items in the lineup sold by suppliers that are not yet available in the safe room, but are left blank.If there are items that are not yet available, please make sure that they are added to the lineup so that there are no empty spaces.
・Some of the weapons and tools that do not exist in HITMAN 3 should be made available in the main game, for example by completing the Freelancer’s Challenge.Assassin’s gun, water and oil tanks, lil flash, meat hooks.
・It is sad to see items lost when a campaign fails.
I’d like to see the supplier secure the lost items once they’ve been lost.
Instead it will be very expensive, but I would like to be able to buy it back from the supplier later.
Unless this is the case. I don’t feel like bringing in the gold shiny weapons that you get at master level.
・I would like to be able to hear the background music from the past Codename 47 to Absolution to change the background music on the first floor of the safe house.I especially want Blood Money’s Ave Maria, which I would buy even if it were sold separately as DLC.
・It would be interesting to be able to leak WaterCanister and OilCanister on the floor and have them slide down your leg like a leak in NY. (sorry if this is possible)
・I would like to see the time of day of the mission change randomly. Early morning, noon, evening, night.I think it would be fun to change the mission times every time we play.
That’s all I can think of right now for now.
I will look forward to the delivery of the January Freelancer.
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The email with the survey came:
Feels a bit sparse, I was hoping to give more detailed answers but I guess one could add most feedback in the first two questions, even if they only ask for one feature each.
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That’s because they’re not actually looking for long lists of feedback (though knowing Hitman-fans, they’ll surely be getting those no matter what). From the blogpost:
Not that I wouldn’t want many of the suggestions here implemented, but as I’ve mentioned before, it’s good to temper the expectations of what we’re getting in January for this very free mode. Just saying, they even named it the Closed Technical Test.
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Considering they’ve probably sent this survey to hundreds, if not thousands of people, I wouldn’t want to be the person who had to sort through the results if it included a lot of detailed feedback :x
I’ve summarized my thoughts in a couple of lines for each category, and I think I managed to say most of what I thought about Freelancer (basically: kinda frustrating but still very fun). I hope most players won’t send them walls of text, being short and to the point will probably lead to better feedback than nitpicking upon every single issue 
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Oh so this is where some people posted their full feedback, since the email was kinda lacking in that regard.
Let me share mine as well, maybe there are some things I might be wrong about.
-
Economy:
Mastery wise I think some things should be unlocked earlier, like the house and the outside sections so you can have a look around before unlocking the decorations.
Merces are hard to get at the beginning but you can get a decent chunk reliably once you unlock more weapons/tools.
Safes either give too little or too much merces and couriers give barely any (they shouldn’t give more than safes tho, also they could give more exp).
Shops prices seem fine (they seem based on the weapon and rarity), but it would be nice for them to try selling you items for your secondary objectives (I’ve found myself more than countless times without lethal poison/stuns/required rarity weapons for example). -
Gameplay:
I like the idea of syndicates being basically different playstyles you can choose during the mission batch, it really lets you approach them in whichever way you want.
That said I get the punishment for failing a syndicate since it’s supposed to be a rogue-lite, but it’s very casual unfriendly – I think there should be an easier more approachable mode where for example on failing you only have to do the last contract batch.
Also I think completing the whole campaign should give you a nice rewards since how long it is, like maybe trophies, a weapon selector or a hideout upgrade.
Finding the suspects based on their tells and looks really makes you have to look around to find your main target and it’s both tense and kinda silly since you keep looking at them with the camera to see if they have match the description.
But it’s hard seeing the icons on the them when they are doing a tell or they are a prime suspect, maybe they could be more highlighted or different colors.
Also they get scared somewhat easily even when the map is not in a guarded state which can take you by surprise sometimes.
The assassins are basically glorified bodyguards (which is fine) but the lookouts can get quite annoying when more of them roam in close proximity (at least they have their set roaming pattern so you know where they are, they do sometime seem to come out of nowhere and spot you immediately tho). -
Items:
It’s hard to tell which items/weapons you can bring back home during a mission, an icon on the inventory might help with that.
In addition I noticed that some weapons/items that you could find during a mission got removed and the only way to get them is via shops, which is a shame since I feel it’s more satisfactory finding special weapons in the map and bringing them home (like in the old games).
And while it’s funny seeing 47 at the end of a mission being a mule and trying to bring as many thing with him as possible, it would be better if there was a weapon crate around the map where you can deposit a bunch of them (might be like 1.5-2 your hideout capacity so you can’t just throw everything in there). -
Hideout:
As I said before, I think you should unlock some areas first the wardrobe, house and outside sections before everything else, you can admire the areas before unlocking their customization.
I’d also find myself lost sometimes while looking for the new unlocked areas or customizable places, which made me think that there should be a map showing you these things.
It feels satisfying seeing how your safehouse expands the more missions and mastery you have, but it also feels barely interactable and only something to look at instead of using to your advantage (I know there are some items unlocked with the upgrades and some blending options, but they feel too little or just fluff) – also I noticed the stock market option took some of my merces? Does it have any use because it doesn’t seem like a bug.
I did notice the trophies around the house when I completed challenges, I’d be nice to see more of that.
It’s nice to have different exit points with different vehicles, but they all are the same since the one you chose doesn’t affect your starting location or even the loading cutscenes (it happened only once when I went to Sapienza via boat and spawned at the bottom part of the ruins, but it most likely was only a coincidence).
Just a nitpick, but it would be appreciated if there was a way to on/off the secret door in the hideout tunnel that takes you to the kitchen. -
Bugs:
The decoration prompt in the kitchen above the stain is bugged, when you press the button you basically get softlocked (can walk around but cannot interact with anything, closing and reopening freelancer fixes it).
The Mumbai train exit softlocks you into the exit cutscene and its aftermath (aka you see the train leaving but the camera stays still), the only option I had was to alt+tab out of the game to force the ‘exit to menu’ prompt.
And while I had no issues with getting instantly spotted during the beginning cutscene of a level, but I’ve seen it can happen from others (especially game breaking if it happens during a showdown).
I agree. I have hundreds of hours and still found it challenging (but fun) to finish an entire campaign without dying from an accidental mistake (as there are no saves).
For the casual player or the average player the current mode will likely deliver more frustration than a challenge.
A Casual mode with progression but lacking some unlocks and challengers of harder modes seem like a good idea.
You can see a wardrobe through the window, it’s there
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Not being able to buy items in the safehouse is massive flop for me. Mission suppliers should be for the player to adjust their strat mid run, the safehouse should have a purchase options for long term planning.
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