For my money, 47 fighting pretty much anyone is never interesting. 47 hunting other assassins though is great!
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No it’s not; it’s terrible for the series. Freelancer will be fun for a little play mode as the WoA trilogy winds down, but that’s not going to be practical to carry the series forward if we’re gonna have the same kind of missions we’ve had throughout the series. The ICA is what made the high-profile jobs 47 would constantly get possible; Diana can’t do everything that went into those on her own. That’s why she needs to revive the ICA for future games, off of the money she and 47 get from the Freelancer missions.
That’s the trope Assassin Outclassin’, and 47 does it at least once every game. It’s always a joy.
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Right that’s effectively what I meant, I’m more saying that the dynamic that arises from killer versus killer conflict is inherently interesting, whether it be 47 fighting his equivalent with the 48s, 47 getting the jump on a bunch of contract killers in temple city, a sniper dual with agent 17, tracking down a serial killer, or avoiding the ICA agents as the mercilessly gun down anyone in their way in Absolution and hunting the agents in Berlin.
It’s always a highlight to some extent, and that sudden turning of tables has been executed in various ways with varying degrees of success.
That’s never really been seen as a point of interest in the games. The closest we ever got was Dance with the Devil, when the ICA had to effectively “shut down”. However since Diana has effectively been hyped up throughout the games as now being some kind of genius, I don’t really see the point of the ICA anymore, they were always just a vehicle as an excuse for 47 to do what he does, them being gone doesn’t really change anything now that 47 has effectively gone quasi-paid vigilante
The most contact we got with the ICA in the games was with Soders in the training missions, and that wasn’t really a ton. Before that the only other true voice we heard out of the ICA was Clera in Silent Assassin, and that was only for one single line of dialogue! The ICA has always just been the background that sets up the context for missions, but we don’t need them anymore with Diana and this now completed story arc.
It’s always just been Diana anyways, and IO has hyped up the concept of “47 versus the agency” twice now (with Absolution and now End of an Era). It’s just an natural streamlined progression now, and it also gives us an excuse to bring back a monetary system with preplanning!
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The ICA is to 47 what MI6 is to James Bond. Working without them is meaningless work. There had to be an organization, a network of people working together to accomplish a high-profile hit in order to get it done. How would anybody even know to go to Diana? ICA had government and corporate connections because it started as an offshoot of MI5. Diana is just an individual not working for anyone anymore and those who do know about her are probably the ones who want her dead, so how would people know to contact her to send 47 after someone? Freelancer is one thing, it’s clearly open bounties put out on the dark web, but that’s just waiting for stuff to fall into her lap. Things like IAGO’s NOC list at auction, or the coup in Morocco, if things like those happen again, who will anyone know to go to in order to stop them without showing their hand and getting involved? That’s the point of the ICA. They need to return to the series as the unifying force that makes it all work. They’ve always been that.
That’s why it makes the most sense for Diana and 47 to be the ones to reestablish it. The whole reason why they’re doing their freelance activities, other than not knowing anything else to do, is to keep criminal organizations in check and not let anyone have too much power that they’re not answerable to anyone. Suppose it does work out, what happens whenever they decide to retire? They need their own organization to do more jobs than 47 alone can do, and to carry on the work after he and Diana are gone. Since Diana put her whole life into her career with ICA, it stands to reason she’d want it back, but with a slightly changed directing and under her guidance. Think how they brought back Umbrella in Resident Evil 7 as a force for good, and apply it here.
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Even once literally a table being flipped over 
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I always wonder, why nobody even attempt to do this contract. It turn out that the exit is no longer available in contract mode😢. The exit icon is there but the prompt & minimap doesn’t appear. IDK is this a bug or it intended this way.
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If this was intended, then all contracts with this as an exit requirement cannot be beaten and must therefore be reportable. For that matter so should all the earlier Mendoza contracts that kick the player offline when they try to play them.
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Playing Dartmoor in Offline mode today on my Steam Deck (because despite having the wi-fi password for the jury waiting area at the courthouse, their IT has disabled wi-fi users making connections to Steam).
Only realised just now that the Permanent Shortcuts are reset back to Closed on every playthrough of the H3 missions, presumably as they are linked to Challenges which aren’t available in Offline mode. Plus (as I found out on Monday) there is no scoring/ranking done at the end of each mission in Offline mode.
Just a couple more reasons for me to repeat my well-worn mantra that despite thinking the WoA trilogy is the best Hitman experience ever created, if IOI don’t flesh out the Offline mode to be much more fully featured before the time that support for H3 ends, then we should riot and make them feel the pain in their sales numbers for future titles. Still time for them to not screw this up, but the clock is ticking.
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The shortcuts also close in contracts mode, it really chokes out your making or playing.
In the contracys mode when playing, there open but not when your making.
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You can dismiss the militiaman guarding Hsu’s cell on Ambrose Island.
And he (in the shadows with gun on shoulder) joins this guy (smoking in the light) in watching this doorway.
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I found that out a couple weeks back, it’s useful for contracts
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What?! I didn’t knew that! Always distracted him to get in the cell 
I need to try that out! Nice find!
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Yeah, I was mopping up some challenges I hadn’t gotten around to and just kind of stumbled into him and was like “wait, what?”
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I believe this is done to ensure that players making contracts with shortcuts unlocked are forced to consider those without any unlocked. Not that it would make too much of a difference outside navigation concerns.
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If you knock all 5 original guard who escorting Diana before proceeding with “Closing Statement” mission story ( except Cortazar because he needed in the mission story, knock him out after timer start) and wait until the timer is over before eliminate Yates, other guard will take responsibility to eliminate Diana in unexpected way.
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It may ruin some timing things, eg waiting for a target to walk under a chandelier or something, as you’ll have to wait for their whole route again to do it.
Now that’s some Hitman jank
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