Because it has all the bad design elements that do not fit in the Elusive Target format, which, as well all know, is a limited time affair. Insta-fails that don’t really exist outside this mission, a tailing mission that is very confusing for players, background logic that fails you if you have prior knowledge on how it works (so one could argue it denies players the satisfaction of knowing how it works…in a game all about counting the clock and getting ahead of targets), and all this in a mission that takes, at minimum, seven minutes to complete. It is slow and gets very repetitive when learning everything, and that is just plain bad game design for an ET.
I’ve talked before about designing gameplay so that you’re synergizing with it and not fighting it. This mission falls into the latter camp. @Kevin_Rudd also goes into more detail about why more complex missions and high effort ET’s are bad here.
The actual core gameplay would be okay if this were in 007 First Light; a tailing mission would be very well suited for a secret agent spy thriller, as well as if the gameplay was explained a bit better. But as it is, it’s a mission in an assassination game that is limited time, messy to play, and misleading to players. I hope that helps.
There are others that are equally bad/linear (I would love to see a glitchless run of the Sensation that doesn’t involve the sprint-and-poison method)
I’m not denying that, and I do think the Sensation is worse in gameplay freedom. But The Fixer has so many more problems piled on top of it that it becomes much worse with all the extra baggage. It’s a bit like the Infiltrator; It’s actually a fairly well-made mission, but it’s hampered by the level design, guard placements, and confusing setup (and that did get a minor rework!). I still think out of all the missions in WOA, The Mercenary is my least favorite to play and to complete; it’s a pain in the arse (and that one is permanent!) specifically because its gimmick is not fun to play against.
Some mechanics have aged better than others.
And I find this very funny considering the poll that added the Fixer had some of the worst ET’s in the top spots (Pharmacist and Angel of Death, which have less issues, but are also very bad gameplay-wise for being linear and annoying to deal with). There was clearly a motive of “what hasn’t re-run in a while” by poll entrants, instead of “what do we actually want to play?”. The two ideas aren’t mutually exclusive in fairness, but still, you’d think people would choose missions they know they’ll enjoy.
If I remember right, you also objected very passionately to it being added to Arcade.
I did, but that’s more because I wanted it reworked first before doing so. I’ve also said in the past that, if I had to choose, then it being unmodified and put into ETA only is preferable than being an ET with no changes and thus lost to time. But again, I’d rather IO rework and re-release it in both formats. That makes the most sense to me.
Oh I’m not even going to try and argue there. All the (non-controversial celebrity) missions should be permanent, hopefully IO does that by the end of 2026. But another issue I have is people constantly propping the Fixer up as if it’s anything special, when the only thing special about it is how much it hasn’t re-run because of its completion rate being so low. @schatenjager summed it up pretty well to be honest. At least with the Disruptor, there was a celebrity element, and people like celebrities, even if they’ve SA’d someone. Case in point:
I said that not reworking it and releasing it as-is was embarrassing, not that the mission was an embarrassment.