[Tier list] What are your thoughts on the CelebrETs so far

Hitman: World of Assassination
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Since 2016, we’ve had 8 celebrity target missions. Given that there’s soon to be 9 with the upcoming Patient Zero Requiem mission next february, and probably more in the future, I want to know what are your thoughts on the ones that have been released so far.

You can make your tier list here: https://tiermaker.com/create/hitman-woa-celebrets--18958078

Here’s mine:

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-The Undying: Very simple mission but I think is the one that uses the celebrity involved and the ET format the best. Good mission plot wise and good kills.

-The Drop and The Banker: The reason why I put them in “meh” is because they had the potential to be good, but there are some issues that really drag them down for me. The Drop has all of its oportunities ruined by having Diana spoiling them and the kills are quite generic. The Banker I think is too focused on the mission story, outside of that there is not much to do, I also didn’t like the soft timer in that mission with the poker game and having to listen to the conversation with Murillo every single time you start the mission is annoying.

-The Disruptor: Yes, I’m trying to ignore the elephant in the room here and just looking at the mission itself. I think is pretty good, I like that you have the option to stop the fight whenever you want and it has some good kills. My issues are that there are very few oportunities and the mission story is too easy.

-The Splitter: Another good mission with a very good concept and good kills. What prevents me from putting it in “great” is because the targets are very static, which takes away replay value. In particular, having to go downstairs to boil the unfinished clones every time is the worst part of this mission. IMO, there should have been less targets but with more detailed routines.

-The Infiltrator: I’m not putting it in “terrible” simply because it introduces some cool new mechanics like the fighting and modifying the tournament, still, there are a lot of design problems with this one, even after the patch the fixed a lot of issues. Targets are boring, there are instafails, the safe code is still counter intuitive for non english speakers, I could go all day. As many people mentioned, the ET format really destroys anything they tried to achieve with this mission.

-The Reflection: I know some people are not enjoying this mission but I honestly think is pretty good. Doing SO runs is so fun with the mirrors and I really like the atmosphere of the map. The mission story is good, but has a lame payoff, the other kills are good though. So far the worst part of the mission is Eminem’s acting. This is the kind of shit I was expecting when 7DS was announced, not whatever the hell they gave us with restricted loadout escalations.

Overall I wish that none of this missions were ETs, I feel that IO could’ve done much better better mission if they weren’t, but still I’m glad I played them. Also, I need to include my mandatory shitting on the limited time DLCs, I won’t stop complaining until they stop making them. But this is just my opinion, I would like to hear yours.

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Above all, my first thought about CelebrETs is that I wish IOI would put the production value equivalent of one (1) of them into a Freelancer update.
Freelancer variations or Time of Day would be great.
Differently, even as paid DLC, I would honestly pay for the Lessons Learned campaign.

For the CelebrETs themselves, as missions, in order of release:

  • Gary Busey:
    • One of the worst design, a bad mission, honestly an ET at its worst possible.
    • To the point that I don’t understand people asking for a re-release above the “we want it all”, it would make the game worst, and a waste of effort and goodwill.
  • The Undying:
    • Quite fun.
    • Illustrative is the placed Striker in the security hub.
    • Either an ET or one of the most restrictive Arcade means that you never really truly play it.
  • The Drop:
    • Endearing variation of Berlin.
    • Chill.
  • The Disruptor:
    • A playful variation of the public, lower, and kitchen areas of Isle of Sgail, that aren’t really used in the main campaign, and yet are the most playful side of, and the more “swiss cheese” design of it.
  • The Splitter:
    • The ICA Facility without the flow-destroying camera and inventory opening hacking every ten steps.
    • Tedious to replay.
  • Le Chiffre:
    • Feels proper,
    • “Just nice to be in and socialize in” ET
    • Dislike the obligation and the writing of the croupier bribing/threatening.
    • Like being on the Casino floor.
  • Bruce Lee:
    • the side of me that lives for IOI creating interactive set-pieces, social manipulations, and mix-and-matches diverse scripts and opportunities loves the tournament.
  • Eminem:
    • 7DS with a loadout, playable with “wacky” outfits and loadouts and still feels appropriate.
    • From a Temper Suit/Wrath items kill everyone challenge, since the level has both the navigation for it (baseline Hokkaido, added mirror shortcuts, house for respites) and a smaller NPCs population that feels even less real than usual.
    • To the, for better immersion, Narcissus Suit (the mirror covered one) for a normal run.
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Oh what we could have had instead! Instead of Gary Busey and a problematic Elusive Target, we could have had Gary Cole (who is still in the mission, just not as the target). Also, I refuse to call the Gary Busey mission a Celebrity Elusive Target. It wasn’t really billed that way, not by that name, and was little more than just a marketing gimmick (completely with audience voting on who the actual target would be). It’s a novelty at best and doesn’t belong on lists like this. Although if you want to see what it was like, here is the OutsideXbox play through…

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Really, this one’s the worst? I’d agree with @Dribbleondo’s thoughts on the Fixer before I could see that. It may not have much to go on, but there are other ETs that do the same. Don’t see how it would make the game itself worse.

Prior to that point, I agree on the stance of too much attention being put to these when it could go to improving other parts of the game. Frankly, like the ET concept itself, I think the Celtvrity angle has run its course. It was surprising when it was Busey, it was exciting when it was Bean, but since then it’s just been more about guessing who it will be and seeing how much IOI is willing to spend to make the next one bigger.

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Not the worst.
At it’s worst. Among others. About what is “baseline component of an ET”.
The Fixer does go above and beyond under it for other reasons, I agree.

Busey ET is:

  • An NPC target walking between three spots, in public, followed by bodyguards, saying meaningless things.
  • No interaction, no intels, no opportunities, no drinks or food, no clear isloation, no larger scripts, even less mission stories.
  • It’s bad.
  • And I think it qualifies as “at its worst”.

The Fixer made mistakes, but tried.
Busey ET is just nothing.

Thank you for the nice words on my first point though. Sincerely. :slight_smile:

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It’s challenging to make a ‘valid’ tier list because preferred play styles vary a lot between players, as well as what they’re looking for in an elusive target. Are you searching for its value as a target? As a mission? Quality of design?

Example: I love ETs with a proper theme and backstory. The Undying is so good, you get to go to a meeting, talk shop, and listen to an A-list actor performing their craft. The Undying also sucks, because clearing the lab so you can kill him with the fountain pen takes ages.

Bruce Lee mission is amazing because of the top floor redesign, additional movement and exit options in Bangkok (IOI please please please implement these in the main mission), multiple avenues of approach, and overall quality. It’s also god awful because you can instafail without knowing what to do (I failed the ET because of this, before they reopened it), takes absolutely forever if you do it properly but don’t know how to shortcut it (e.g. by joining the fight as Rory Cutmore to skip the first 8 fights), and contradicts standard Hitman design by forcing you to play bodyguard.

I’ve liked all of them, though I don’t care much for the Drop. Not enough variety in mission story and kill potential. Banker also felt a bit too on-rails, though the quality was top-notch. Eminem was too self-referential but I liked the different take on Hokkaido. Splitter was good fun and McGregor puts his bits where they arent welcome

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I guess, my list would look like this:

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Mark Faba is easy my favourite. I like the mission itself, the character and the overall story behind it. I just play it every other time, just to kill the guy another way, I haven’t tried yet. Only letdown ist, that “The Undying Returns” is just the exact same mission with an eyepatch. I think, IOI missed an oppurtinity here, to make a fun continuation, with bringing Faba back in a new mission or at least tweak it a little bit.

The Drop could have been higher up, since it is in Berlin, which is one of my favourite maps. But the mission doesn’t really make use of the possibilities there.

JCVD also had the potential to be absolutely great, but as the OP said, the targets are to static to really make it fun. It’s more a processing through it than really finding solutions for all the kills. But it is fun nonetheless.

Lee and LeChiffre I just like for what they are.

Eminem and McGregor aren’t for me. Eminem because of the Dream-Stuff and with McGregor I can’t really say, what it is, but I find that mission absolutely boring. The fighting is complete shit, because you just punch the guy out and win. And the possibilities to kill him aren’t fun for me. I experimented a little around as usual, but Sgail isn’t exactly my favourite map, to say the least, so that wasn’t fun either. Just not for me.

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I just have to say that Busey ET undoubtedly the most discussed and talked about Elusive Target in Hitman franchise

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@IOI_Artjoms , Two questions for IOI:

  1. Is the other version of the Wild Card still somewhere in the IOI archives? When this elusive target was initially released, there was a marketing campaign which asked consumers to choose which Gary should be the target (Gary Busey or Gary Cole) - Busey “won”. Was there any difference between the Cole mission and the Busey mission other than which was the target?
  1. Is there any possibility that the mission itself can be released in any form? If Busey and Cole are replaced with more generic models would it be possible to release it (assuming that the reason for never rereleasing them is a rights issue)?

Given the amount of chatter this mission has gotten over the years from players (many of whom were never able to play this target) it would nice if the mission were made available again somehow.

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Disruptor became Busey №2 for a good part of players

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I believe the winner of the vote became the target and the other is implied to be to client. They have routes that are different except maybe they start the level together? I can’t remember.

Also your idea of generic Garys in the mission is cracking me up. It would be even more wild to hear a regular person singing that song at the canoe rack instead of Busey :rofl:

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I never played this one, but it seems like it was kind of fun. What is noticeable to me, is that the target seems to walk around the whole map and not just one area of it like all the other CETs. That alone should make for lots of possibilities to kill him and ways to try stuff out.

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If you have a PC, it is playable via Peacock still, but I don’t think that works on any other platforms.

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Maybe I give it a try. Don’t really know how Peacock works, but won’t be to difficult.

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IOI please remake the mission with the guy who voiced “that” Gary in Fallout 3 <3

Also:

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The Drop is great because its on the only ET that doesn’t hold your hand with a Mission Story, has hints from Diana about the various scripted kills - but its entirely up to you to figure out how to have them play out. I played this one over and over to find them all.

Meh. Excessive handholding and not much else to do with them outside of the main/Mission Story scripted event. Some have secondary ones, but they are required absolutely no effort as its mostly a copy/paste of something from elswhere in the game and just feel like a last minute throw in to provide “options”. Excessively gimmicky.

Bad. When your celeb is relegated to a minor supporting role in the mission, is there even a point to using the celeb? Confining yet another ET in Bangkok to the Queen Suite is also not a good time.

Terrible. Standard H1 ET trash. Graded based on the available options at the time based on what inventory contents were possible.

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I have the weird feeling, that it is most probably tied to legal obstacles, but I will make sure to ask the team. :smiley:

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