This is the first one I didn’t like. I enjoyed Lust quite a bit and I really liked the mystery/clue finding aspect of that one. I probably played it 10 or 15 times.
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What I dislike more is that I suspect he will always seize the same single opportunity for each target. I don’t think he’ll do anything to Hector except poison his wine.
Well, at least that plays into the idea of 47 proving he’s better. If he poisons the wine first, or does literally anything else to the guy, then he shows he’s better than the rival, who is either too slow or too unimaginative.
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I’ve only enjoyed Lust, Gluttony and Sloth. Sloth’s gameplay was mediocre but the setting and voicing was phenomenal.
I still haven’t bought Pride yet as most say it’s awful. People said that about Greed and when I bought it and played it, I agree. Greed was so mundane.
In hindsight I should have bought the season but I didn’t out of spite, not because I’m cheap 
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They were escalations in that sense, they did better than most escalations did. In the earlier games, escalations seemed like they were almost always “do the same thing a bunch of times until you’re done”. The 7DS escalations didn’t go that way and, while they weren’t quite at the same level as something like the one in Berlin with the straight jacket, they weren’t repetitive in the way most escalations were.
Greed was probably the worst of them but it was also the first of them too. The other ones, I think, show that IOI spent more time on them and learned from what the community was saying at least somewhat.
I liked Pride. I liked that you could do it multiple ways and that the conceit of the mission was that 47 could do the easy way or the hard way, but the hard way was the “right” way. I found it satisfying.
I don’t know how someone could like Gluttony but not like Pride as to me they are very similar.
Sloth probably encouraged the “take forever and make as few moves as possible” play style that I like. It encouraged very careful planning about how to get to A to B and take out C in an economical way.
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I like the concept of this escalation, but I definitely think it falls a bit flat.
I did all three levels SA/SO without the Rival ever killing one of the targets so it just didn’t feel like I was competing against someone. The escalation would’ve played exactly the same if targets randomly died at specific times which just makes the Rival feel like a different form of a timer dressed up to try and impress. 
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I liked Pride. Was a huge improvement over Greed at the time. The DLC’s only gotten better since then though. I know there are Pride haters. It’s a rather quick play, and doesn’t have much replayability — a little, but nothing like Lust or Gluttony. The unlocks being reskins may be another point against it. Anyway, I dug it.
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I actually think Greed was the best one, at least in the context of conveying what the sin is about. I played it fully straight and hoarded all of my coins, did not spend any on the frog, and that made the third stage extremely difficult to pull off SA. Pride came close, too, but I don’t think it focused enough on the repercussions of pride, since that’s considered the big daddy sin.
Personally, I would have saved Greed and Pride for last, since they are both pretty much the defining sins, with all the others really being off-shoots of these two.
Will admit, the others at least got a bit more creative as they went, if not so much conveying what the sin is about.
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I let him kill me for a laugh in the grape press, but you’re right, i didn’t notice he was there for most of it because he takes ages, he should have got better/faster as the levels went on, it’s definitely a concept they could build on
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He managed to get helen in level three once
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i was pleasantly surprised at the redesigned map. although not extensive, i love the lighting change and the little decorations around the map. very nice
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Only had the time to play the first level, didn’t really care about SA or anything, just explored a bit and tested kills out.
Man, IO put some work into this variation of the level! Skybox change, new time of day (lighting), new indoor textures for the floor and wall (marble white vs brick and wood). Pretty darn cool!
The rival is a bit stressful, though he only walks which is nice. Finding items under a constraint like that is the real stressful part 
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I thought it was fun, but whenever I use the new suit, 47 is missing his sunglasses. Has anyone else noticed this?
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You made me check. How did I miss the changes of floors and walls ?
I guess it’s true that one can be oblivious to the most blatant. I will never again badmouth the guards AI because apparently I’m no better than them.
The live team did some great work on the map. I’m thrilled to see what will come next. Between that and the DGS it seems a lot can be changed and worked on in the levels.
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After an initial reaction yesterday that was “less than charitable” towards this escalation, I did go back and complete it. It took a long time though and it was very frustrating. I don’t know that all of the frustration was due solely to the rival but it didn’t help. I’m still not in the “pro” camp for this one, but it’s done at least, so I’ve got my money’s worth for it. It was very satisfying to shoot the rival in the head at the end though.
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Even if I’m not a lover of escalation contracts, I must admit that the last one is very funny. I like the idea to fight against another killer and there are targets that I wanted to have as targets, like the Kashmirian, Helen West, Hector Delgado, Derek McInnis
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I think this escalation and gluttony and lust would be amazing for contracts mode
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This one is up there for me. I like that you aren’t confined to your suit, the depth of the map redesign and the target cameos. I think the rival is probably the best compromise possible; because I felt the added stress just by him existing but I think the “timer” he personifies would be too demanding and unforgiving if he did much more than walk, even in the later levels.
I continue to appreciate the modern escalations, sins/deluxe/otherwise, in their variety and not just being 3/5 levels of essentially the same thing. All of them may not appeal to everyone but the effort behind them should still be somewhat apparent. They’re kind of bonus mission hybrids though I do wish at least one of them would get away from the restricted load out.
First, to me the variety of the escalations IO puts out nowadays is their main strength and allows for the differing opinions of them we see now as opposed to the general dislike we saw with the older ones (though it’s probably too little too late to change minds about escalations).
Second, if I didn’t drive myself insane trying to get those 60 coins (to the point of muting my tv whenever the frog talked) only to painfully find out that there was hidden correct order to the targets (and if you didn’t follow it one of them would spawn one less coin) I might have agreed with you. As it is, it’s the only thing it’s the only thing in WOA I actively detest.
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As much as I disliked this escalation, I think it is actually a valid point against saving in escalations. None of the three levels was long enough that it took longer than 15 or 20 minutes once all of the timing and routing was figured out and being able to save after each kill would have totally ruined the tension that the rival provided.
If IOI ever does implement saving in an escalation, I would propose a two level system sort of like the normal mission difficulty missions. The first level would allow saving but not allow achievements or challenges. It also wouldn’t allow advancing to the next stage of the escalation. It’s more a practice sandbox where you can experiment, save and reload after trying different approaches, figure out how RNG may or may not affect your strategy, and alleviates the possibility of needing to wait a long time over and over for one scripted action to occur.
Once you have everything down though you’d flip to “normal” mode (or Professional or whatever) and now there is no saving but the challenges and advancement pop. This would give players a possibility of doing a no-stress, no risk practice run without endless restarting but also give everyone the option to just do it “for real” whenever they’re ready. I imagine the most experienced players would never even use the “easy” mode but it would be there if anyone needed it.
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