All those DLCs, Escalations and different Gamemodes like Sniper Assassin are unnecessary in my opinion, I’d rather have 12 Main Missions per game - as it used to be - instead of all this stuff.
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I absolutely love the WoA - for me it’s the best the series has ever been by far - but my criticism of IOI for HITMAN 3 in particular is that for me Escalations are fun to play once but hold practically zero replay value whatsoever and I don’t think Suits and Items should ever be sold separately (let alone for £4 a pop), so the Deluxe Edition and in particular the 7 Deadly Sins DLCs have seemed like especially poor value compared to the add-ons we could purchase for previous WoA games.
I bought the Deluxe Upgrade pack because I really wanted the Official Soundtrack Albums and I was interested to hear Mattias’ Director’s Commentary, but the ‘in-game’ content we got wasn’t the part of the pack that provided any value for me as a player. By the same token, I haven’t yet bought any of the 7DS content because Escalations and cosmetic suits/items etc aren’t things that I value enough to pay extra for (at least at the hefty prices they’re currently at) - those things are fun, but the ‘meat’ of the game for me is Missions (Main, Bonus or even Special Assignments at a pinch) which are far more replayable due to allowing saves and letting you tackle your objectives any way you want. IMO Escalations are great content… great free content, that is.
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Vitality barely had an impact tho, and the sloth escalation actually had quite some different routes, less restrictive than alot of other h3 escalations
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I just hope they a have a plan for some more meaty dlc content in the future. Maybe when the game releases on steam at the latest. I know they dont own us anything but it would leave a sour taste if this triology ends up with mostly paid escalations as the aftermath content.
As Hitman is a always online live game im kinda expect them to deliver as good as they used to with the other two games. Even with other projects on the horizon, they shouldnt stop short with the content and move on.
For me the live content season as good as the release itself. Its a vital part of a life game and should be supported and treated as such for at least a year.
Im not ready to let go yet as it will probably a good few years until our favourite baldy returns.
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Yeah otherwise theres no point in having this live model
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I’m sure we’re definitely getting another year of new content after the Steam release. No idea if we’ll get a Year 3 though.
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I hope you’re right, many people are treating Steam as the real launch for the game so IO should plan for that influx of revenue
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Joined this thread way too late, too much stuff to go through but did a bit of reading just now 
For me the frustration is I know IO are a very capable and good studio but for some reason they don’t do small stuff that would make a big difference when added together, or worse they actually put effort in to give the game LESS features. I’ve mentioned some of this in the content suggestion/feedback thread but keeping brief it’s stuff like:
Already-made assets being poorly or not at all used
Ghost Mode: I can live with the multiplayer being removed, but it boggles the mind they didn’t do a single player version of this. A gamemode where you have a series of random targets every single time and have to kill them with limited loadout… who cares if it’s only limited to Miami and Santa Fortuna, it’s free and very replayable content
The Brothers ET: It’s been done and finished for years, it has a briefing video, it has Diana’s lines, it has all the models and NPC paths working… I’m still holding out hope they release it in the coming months but the fact they removed it after modders started playing with it makes me not hopeful. Which brings me to…
Elusive Target formula is a waste
As many point out, current ET formula works against what makes Hitman great. You have freedom of approach, but unlike normal Hitman you are punished big-time for doing something that doesn’t end up working… you get locked out of the content and rewards. This disincentivizes all players from ever doing anything creative or dare I say ‘fun’, not to mention unless you actively follow around all new NPCs and wait for all new dialogue to finish in your playthrough then you’ll be missing out on stuff IO made and you’ll never get to experience it in game. When people have done creative runs and posted videos of it, it’s because they found a way to bypass the point of the ET system (They pulled out their internet or hit Alt F4), so if the best stuff from an ET is from people actively bypassing the system, maybe that’s a sign they should change the system…
Some people say it’s been like this since launch and shouldn’t be changed… that’s not actually a reason to keep it. Some people say if it’s changed then they “won’t be elusive anymore” A) So what? B) That’s not true either, there are like 3-4 different things going on that make a target elusive, getting rid of one of those things won’t mean they’re suddenly “not elusive” any more.
Here are things that could be considered to make them ‘elusive’: 1) The target doesn’t show on Instinct, 2) You can’t ever replay after failing or completing objectives 3) They only appear for 10 days of the year.
If it was made so you could replay them as much as you like but only in that ten day window then it’s gone for a year, I’d say that’s pretty damn elusive and it would be a very big improvement on current formula even though some people will still complain. This also still works from a marketing perspective, because if potential buyers don’t have the game for that ten day period then they’re still missing out just as much as they are now.
Entrances/Exits in H3 maps... where are they?
They said from the start H3 maps would have a heavier focus on story, but they didn’t mention that would come at the expense of replayability/contracts mode. It’s all fine and well having all the default starts be far away spawns that take you through linear areas and don’t let you bring any inventory… except when you’re not in Story mode. When you take out the pointless default spawns, and directors commentaries, and duplicate spawns in Dartmoor, each map has about 5 starting locations; this compares with H2 maps which had 6-12 each I believe (except Hawke’s Bay). This affects contracts in a mostly negative way I’d say as there are now less choices, it can be good for very specific contracts where you don’t want the player to be able to spawn in a certain disguise but on the whole it’s a negative.
Then there’s the exits… what were they thinking not having a single unlocked public exit in Mendoza? Every contract requires you to trespass and usually deal with guards. Berlin is not as bad but also needs some work, they actually removed an exit rather than fix it, and people already know about Dartmoor’s lack of exits. Lack of exits limits contract ideas AND general strats
Contracts mode being hindered
This is the 4th year since Contracts mode has at all been touched (Excluding removing the possibility of making no target contracts or modded contracts lel) and there are more than enough threads on the type of improvements Contracts Mode is in dire need of, but I just want to add that recently I discovered the framework is already in place for players to be able to specify a particular gun (or bomb, etc) in kill method (In same way as melee items) but IO chose to disable it. This entire time we could’ve been making unsilenced gun contracts, or a whole new wave of possibly interesting retrieval-based contracts; instead IO decided “No, let’s just leave that to melee weapons only for some reason”
The worst part is knowing IO could have fairly easily done these things while making H3, and still can right now and always claim they’re wanting and listening to player feedback, but they still won’t do these particular things 
Then yeah, add onto that the mediocre sponsored contracts, and restricted amount of player Featured Contracts, and the 7DS hoo-ha; but if the changes I listed above were made then these other things wouldn’t matter to me much because at least the base game would be pretty solid 
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Now that’s very surprising.
I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get some sort of Contracts Mode update in Hitman 3.
Given the way things have been going with the post-launch content, it’s clear they don’t have the manpower behind it like they used to. More Contracts options should be fairly easy to implement, be a great spot on a roadmap, and extend the game’s user-generated lifespan for a long, long time! (depending on what gets added, of course).
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I do really like Hitman 3, but there are several issues that cause the negativity towards it:
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Having to play a single-player game online constantly is still an issue five years later, and IO seem to be becoming greedier with each passing moment…
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With Covid and the Bond project taking resources away, Hitman 3’s post-launch content is obviously strained. That 7 Deadly Sins stuff is proof of this. I don’t like Escalations or tacky reskinned items. Hitman 1 and 2’s post-launch content was far better, whereas Hitman 3 has ended on a damp squib.
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Hitman 3 has basically only 5 proper missions, with confirmation from the devs that there will never be anymore to look forward to.
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And the final mission being on an Absolution-style linear train is one of the most bizarre choices they’ve made. I realise it’s supposed to be epic and cinematic, but it didn’t work for me and left me annoyed and frustrated. It would have been better if the train was a straightforward training mission or something, and then we could have six sandbox missions, with each one of the Providence Partners getting their own mission. Ah, well.
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The game itself wrapped up nicely and there is a real finality to it. Maybe that’s why I’m a bit miffed: I know we’ll have to wait yonks to see Hitman again, if we ever do see it again. And that’s something I guess I need to accept.
Peace out!
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This has bothered me the most about Hitman 3 in comparison to Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2. They advertised ‘6 sandbox locations all with full mastery’ which was just a blatant lie. They removed Ghost Mode and added nothing in return or even upgraded Contract mode since 2016. Very few (new) elusive targets. Combine this with no bonus maps or new maps added in the future and mainly just escalations it all feels very bare bones.
If you check out the Challenges and Feats tabs of the Hitman 2016 maps you’re just blown away by the amount of stuff to do. You can play for hours on end and barely scratch the surface. The World of Assasionation trilogy is now 5 years old and it peaked in 2016 imo. Actually I would say it peaked in the first two months (Paris and Sapienza).
The launch of Hitman 3 was also not good with constant online problems and the shitshow of the datatransfer. Also not forgetting the amount of bugs constantly plaguing the game. Some challenges still not unlock properly 6 months after launch. It feels like the game gets buggier by the day with Haven Island as the main example.
All of the above has made me pretty negative towards Hitman 3 which sucks because Hitman 2016 might be the most fun I ever had with a game. I played the shit out of it and now it seems that IO’s main IP is fading away when there is so much to improve/upgrade/add to make it better. Threads on this forum are exploding with good ideas.
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I still can’t stress enough how much I despise the “must be connected to IO servers to get a rating screen” aspect of the game.
Yes, it is possible to play the main campaign in offline mode, but without a rating system the game is neutered for me. This is a stealth game, it’s unacceptable to lock a core feature like knowing if you got spotted behind Always Online.
Don’t tell me about “leaderboard integrity” or whatnot. I’m a moderator of Hitman games on speedrun.com, I’m more qualified about Hitman leaderboards than almost anyone. The in-game leaderboards are incorrect not only due to cheaters on PC, but also because a lot of old times are unachievable now due to patched mechanics (ex: Druzhina wallbangs being patched). In game leaderboards are terrible and always were, they are no excuse for keeping Always Online for campaign missions.
I concede that certain missions like Elusive Targets, user created contracts, and possibly escalations should perhaps be kept in Online mode, but there is no compelling reason to prevent any main Campaign missions from giving a rating screen in offline mode.
Hope IO will change this at some point.
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Negativity towards Hitman 3 derives primarily from the same three no lifers on Steam forums. These two or three guys have literally no life.
The always online bullcrap has been an issue ever since HM1. I was always against it because it doesn’t make sense to have a full single player game bound to internet connection. Though it might be anti piracy measure.
It could be they put the always online in to combat pirates, but it’s hilariously bad at doing that since the game was cracked within a day of release.
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It’s a somewhat effective piracy measure because the cracked version of the game (as far as I understand), does not connect to official Hitman servers. Even if the cracked version has all items unlocked, you won’t be able to get to the rating screen for any mission, which matters for anyone who actually wants to play Hitman as a stealth game.
I know at least one friend who stopped pirating and bought the full game due to wanting to get a rating screen on their runs.
Having said all that, I think this is a rather extreme measure, and punishing all users equally with Always Online to hurt a few pirates is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
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It’s still “effective”, the cracked version is always like a big demo with no progression feeling. But I think it’s only a matter of time, the emulator might have an offline progression system at some point, rdil said it wouldn’t happen in 2021, maybe 2022 or later. The scoring is already available for pirate with the server emulator…
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why do i get the feeling that the pirated version will end up being more playable than the legit, vanilla version 10-20 years down the line? 
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10 years seems pretty long, I imagine it will be sooner, especially for H2016 and H2.
M&M 10 is 7 years old and it’s already having issues like this and there are others that died even faster.
Everyone is talking about Peacock as the light at the end of the tunnel but I’m sure IO will soon come hard on it as they are with mods and will demand it’s shutdown.
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The practice of publishers/developers obstructing attempts to resurrect games with servers that they themselves have killed of their own accord is a total dick move, and if IOI go down that road in future with the WoA (and I’d like to make it very plain that I’m not saying they will do that) then I’d be giving them as much shit as I would with any other games corporation that does that same thing.
Obviously, the best and most preferred long-term option for the WoA is that IOI implements a full-featured Offline Mode on all platforms (and if they don’t do that later down the line, then I think they should be criticised, because everyone who bought HITMAN 3 deserves to play it for many years to come, even if IOI can no longer justify maintaining the servers).
The second best option is that IOI didn’t obstruct the use of Peacock/other equivalents at whatever point they switch off the servers, but that would be a DISTANT second place because it would screw over non-PC players.
I really do hope they are making plans for the long-term Offline future of the game, because the WoA itself is wonderful and deserves to be properly preserved for posterity.
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