Which, if your analysis is accurate, would be fine for IOI but would suck big-time for us as players.
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The new Berlin escalations this month are very good and almost feel like bonus missions, outside of the escalation format. We can hope the remaining sins, even if they are all escalations, feel more like that than Greed does. Greed has some interesting things going on, but the map is too similar to normal.
The issue with the Easter Content is the lack of meaningful continuity between levels. Satu on the other hand is a different story is a key example of a ideal escalation making micro levels out of a map, but the issue is not being able to choose a level after completing the escalation.
Also the Easter Content has a fully decorated interior so we know that it was suppose to be larger in scope and itâs plausible that it was suppose to be a bonus mission with 3 targets being and the black bunny being the final secret target after you eliminate the initial 3.
The issue with the 7DS is itâs a premium expansion without really expanding anything at this moment of time and that is a cause for concern for people who are cautious with their spending. While the value of a product is subjective the lack of knowing what we are spending $30 is really the issue.
Currently we only know this.
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7 Themed Content Packs revolving around a Sin.
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2 Unlocks minimum per content pack (this may differ between sins obviously)
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Potentially just escalations.
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Costs $30 USD.
Iâll just leave it at this, I donât think it would be in the best interest of this âExpansionâ if it was all Escalationâs. While yes, Escalations allow for more concepts to be freely used it shouldnât be ignored that Escalations have one big issue and that is it simply restricts the players inventory making integral cornerstones in the HITMAN series such as replay-ability non existent.
While yes the Easter Escalation had clear indications of allowing player freedom and replay-ability evidence suggests that the Seasonal Event was suppose to be up to par with Holiday Hoarders and the Snow Festival.
Iâm eager to see whatâs to come out of these content updates, but hopefully IO takes the communities feedback into consideration while releasing these so they find a fine balance in content and create real meaningful content that justifies the price point for people.
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Yeah I totally get Bond is their priority now but I still think thereâs plenty of life left in Hitman 3 yet 
3 Likes
Yes, if escalations are going to be the content focus from now on they should improve the format in various ways like picking a level. Also if the level is changed significantly (like the egg hunt) it would be cool to have contracts as an option.
I donât think anyone in their right mind would prefer escalations over real missions. My perspective is that if IOI are focused on escalations as the post-release content du jour, then I want them to be the best they can be. The value proposition of $30 or what sale price and all that is very subjective.
Sadly thatâs purely subjective to the players. From the developerâs perspective on one hand thereâs Hitman thatâs effectively been an emotional rollercoaster, with the loss of security and co-workers.
Negativity feedback to pretty much most design ideas from all around, first against episodic content, online required and then later on when they lost the budget from the players when it wasnât âenoughâ.
Like they said, they burnt out on Hitman 2 trying to salvage the situation, Hitman 3 being made by a team thatâs so limited that itâs hard to imagine they even made it what it is.
On the other hand we have brand new IP thatâs been a major part in most current game developers childhood with Rareâs Goldeneye for the N64 being one of the ancestors of console shooters i can imagine they want a repeat of that success story as well as to forget about the traumatic ride that Hitman WOA has been for them.
As the team grows and settles down they obviously might still develop a Hitman game, unlikely a trilogy where the expectations to deliver another one are high though.
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I keep seeing comments about how the easter egg hunt is âsupposed to beâ the same quality content as Holiday Hoarders or the Snow Festival. Why do we think that it was supposed to be on par with either of these? Just because itâs holiday/seasonal content?
It is directly comparable to the Mills Reverie, which was an escalation, on an existing map, which was redecorated and played out almost exactly the same. If we continually compare this easter content with other content that it is not the same as, of course it will feel âlessâ.
If you do compare it to actually similar content, I think it stacks up pretty well. What was the community view when the Mills Reverie came out? Where people as dismissive then? Iâm honestly asking as I wasnât around.
I donât know that IOI ever said it was supposed to be similar in content or quality to Holiday Hoarders or Hokkaido Snow Festival. We, as a community, seem to have latched onto the idea that it must be equivalent while ignoring the other content that is directly comparable.
2 Likes
as far as i know the interior of the club is pretty well decorated which suggests it was originally going to be bigger than it ended up being. it isnât 100% that it was supposed to be a bonus mission but i think its a fair guess
2 Likes
Dunno. They decorated the interior of Hawkeâs Bay too (and allowed access to it) so that doesnât mean much.
yeah but they didnt allow access to the interior of the club in the final escalation. so itâs clear that they had bigger plans. just how big those plans were is what is left ambiguous
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Again, maybe, but that doesnât mean that the level was supposed to reflect either of the often-cited seasonal missions that were not escalations. It is much more comparable to the one seasonal mission that IS and escalation and stacks up pretty well to that one.
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Itâs not that itâs suppose to be on par with other seasonal content, but as I said before evidence suggest that it was suppose to be a lot more which is why the Bonus Mission theory has been thrown around.
- Decorated Interior
While this is the obvious example judging from the decorated interior it could be assumed that the Berlin Egg Hunt and the targets associated with it would of been spread across the map both inside and outside with eggs hidden in the interior as well. I wouldnât put it beyond IO that they planned a Challenge Pack to come adjacent with the theory that is the Berlin Egg Hunt being a bonus mission.
- Continuity in the timeline
One noticeable thing with the Berlin Egg Hunt is that it has new dialogue. One damning piece of evidence that alludes to this Egg Hunt taking place after Apex Predator is the one in regards to the biker gang leaving the area. To my knowledge this is the first time weâve had new dialogue in a escalation which in my opinion is a little weird especially when itâs alluded to be after the main map. The only time maps have done this is with Bonus Missions. A key example is Landslide where it takes place before World Of Tomorrow. This is evident to the fact that Silvio Caruso placed the hit on Marco Abiatti.
- Doesnât feel like a escalation.
Escalationâs usually have rules and regulations that differ between each escalation through the usage of complications and kill methods. The Berlin Egg Hunt only has two notable complications, but they donât make it distinguishable in the sense that it doesnât really complicate the content at hand.
- Restricted Loadout
- No Disguise Change.
While yes I know Iâm omitting The Rabbits have moved objective, it simply is because it doesnât really change up the escalation outside of it moving their initial placement making them close together. Because of all this the Berlin Egg Hunt feels like it was changed at the last minute probably due to wanting to get out a free piece of content that has a unlock since a bulk of Marchâs content was paid for that being the Sins Content and Deluxe Escalation. Also just to acknowledge it there is no distinguishable kill methods for the targets which contrasts immensely to the usual escalation format and one example of this is the Mills Revere another seasonal content that has âkill methodâ which wasnât about killing the target but pacifying them.
- Doesnât feel like a âEgg Huntâ
I think this is the biggest flaw with the Berlin Egg Hunt. For a piece of content that was advertised as a egg hunt. In terms of objectives it has nothing to do with the content and you can breeze right through it without picking one egg up. Iâd assume if a escalation was themed around Easter and the concept of a egg hunt we would have unique escalation complications that fit it, but we donât. This is why I personally think the Berlin Egg Hunt was suppose to have a Challenge Pack tied to it similar to Holiday Hoarders and Snow Festival. In this case for the Egg Hunt we would have Easter themed challenges that pertained to find eggs and other Easter themed things.
Iâd like to reiterate that this is simply a theory that is backed up with what examples and consistencyâs we have from prior content. The Berlin Egg Hunt was a fun piece of content, but me personally I feel it was suppose to be larger in scope given its inconsistency and strange oddityâs that are exclusive to this escalation.
8 Likes
IO are heavily in development for what will be new IPs 3 to 5 years from now, Project 007 and other IP. I suspect that Project 007 and other IP will include aspects of the level design and the complex AI control systems that IO has built into the Glacier 2 Engine for Hitman.
While fans of Hitman will be upset for the next while over IO slowly moving away from Hitman support, I project that most fans will be so excited for the upcoming new IP when it comes out, all the negativity over lack of Hitman support will be far in the rear view mirror.
Hitman will become old news, and the new news will be in the big, new IP with high development costs and a larger team than in building Hitman, like Project 007.
There is only so much that IO can milk out of the WoA Trilogy, and all the risk and reward comes in the new forthcoming IP.
1 Like
Yeah if things never changed we wouldâve never had this trilogy to begin with and weâd all be bored of Hitman. Oh well, letâs hope 007 has a multiplayer like Goldeneye, but without the tiny screens shared with your friends.
Wondering if itâll be first or third person perspective. If itâs similar to Hitman sandbox itâd be a bit harder to create a good multiplayer.
I think that there is a real advantage of a third person perspective in stealth - action games. Hitman VR is a first person perspective, but I donât think this perspective works best for the genre.
My bet is that Project 007 will have action set pieces like Hitman Absolution (more Call of Duty like) and also the gadgetry of James Bond and the stealth and social stealth like Hitman.
It may be most like the agent fantasy âThe Operative: No One Lives Foreverâ, an old FPS game by Monolith Productions with stealth elements.
Project 007 could have multiplayer thrown in â such as Spy vs Spy (red agents vs blue agents)
2 Likes
Well the good thing is, IOI have already confirmed that they will return to the Hitman franchise in the future.
There was never any doubt they wouldnât to be honest, after all H3 has blown critics off their fell and IOI made back their development costs within a week for H3.
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As if to emphasize just how bare-bones this 6 week Season Of Greed seems, the Featured homepage of my Stadia copy of H3 still shows a link to the March Moral Ambiguity Roadmap, as shown by this screencap taken just now:
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Yeah, my PC version does it too. No idea if that hasnât been patched out or something.
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Just feels a bit sloppy doesnât it? Obviously itâs not game-breaking or anything, but come on IOI, HITMAN 3 has got loads of players where this is their first experience of the franchise, making sure that little things like this are handled properly makes all the difference for peopleâs first impressions.
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It took them a week to change it on PlayStation last month and I remember it taking about that long with H2âs roadmaps. Itâs weird, but I hardly ever look at the roadmap in-game anyway.
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