Two simple fixes I'd make to Sniper Assassin

Sniper assassin maps are usually fun for only about 30 minutes before I go back to playing the regular maps. While there is plenty of room for improvement for the game mode as a whole, I feel like these two simple changes would make the mode a lot more enjoyable without changing too much.

Allow saving in sniper maps like in regular maps

Not being able to save in this mode is really frustrating, especially the fact that a lot of the challenges require you to wait and do nothing for a certain amount of minutes for a specific opportunity to begin in order to complete one specific challenge. If you mess up during that opportunity or miss it, you are forced to restart and wait eight minutes AGAIN for that same opportunity and hope that you do not mess up or miss it again (I’m just using eight minutes as an example number, I’m aware that some challenges require you to wait more or less than eight minutes)! It would be very beneficial if you could save a few seconds before a certain opportunity and just reload that save if you fail or miss that opportunity. This would also be beneficial for experimenting with regular silent assassin runs. Maybe you are able to quickly kill some targets immediately at the start of the mission, but have to wait a little to kill the rest of the targets. (This is how I usually play the mode normally, IDK if others do the same, maybe it’s just me) It would be nice if you could save after you kill those immediate targets so that if you messed up your SA run, you can load back and start AFTER you killed those immediate targets without having to kill those easy targets again. Also, this game mode is not an exception to the bugs and inconsistencies that plague the entire game, so sometimes losing silent assassin isn’t even your fault, so saving would be very helpful.

Accidental Kills should NOT trigger target evacuation

Accidental kills not voiding your silent assassin rating is a core part of HITMAN, so it is so strange how this mode actually punishes you for getting accidental kills. If you kill targets with an accidental kill and the bodies are discovered, the target evacuation will start and you are forced to quickly kill your running targets. The game still rewards you with extra points for the accident kill, but it means nothing if your silent assassin rating is voided. I currently only use accident kills in this mode for two scenarios: killing the last 1-3 remaining targets so that the game immediately ends after the targets are killed and there is no time for anyone to find the body OR if the accident kill involves hiding the body, but usually shooting the target into a container or pile or shockwave ammo off a cliff is easier and more reliable than hoping the explosion throws the body into a hidden area. Hitman maps are all full of accident opportunities and sniper maps are no different. The amount of electrocution and explosion opportunities in the maps are great and would be a lot of fun, IF the found bodies as a result of these accidents did NOT trigger the evacuation. If a regular civilian finds a body in an accidental kill: you either kill that civilian witness before they trigger the evacuation (voiding SA obviously) or do your best to pick off the rest of your targets as they evacuate (basically impossible to do silently). Accident kills in sniper assassin should work like in normal modes: if a body is found due to an accident kill, the main three targets should be escorted to a safe space. After some time has passed, they return to their normal loops and the bodies are bagged and dragged into a pile, just like in regular maps. I should be REWARDED for killing targets with accidents, not punished!

Bonus idea: Let Sniper Maps be playable offline

“What?! You’re telling me sniper assassin isn’t even PLAYABLE offline?!”

Yes, the entire sniper assassin game mode is one of the many things unavailable offline in HITMAN 3, a single player game. It would be nice if this entire game mode was available offline!

Conclusion

I personally feel that these changes are not too drastic, but could really make the entire game mode more enjoyable overall. I understand that IO isn’t too focused on this mode right now, but I feel like some small, simple changes, could make this entire mode better. If the map is not brand new, then I personally can only play sniper assassin for 30 minutes max before going back to regular maps (especially since I already completed every challenge back in H2).

What do you think of my changes? What changes would you personally want in sniper assassin?

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Yep that will be great in regular… maybe someday…
And back the Multyplayer sniper .

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I personally hate Sniper Assassin because the targets are so easily evacuated. You have to essentially do it perfectly, or it’s a write-off. At least with the typical game, it can go to pot and you can still redeem it somehow, albeit not SA. But in Sniper, if you mess up ever so slightly then it comes a mad dash to get the main 3 targets before it’s a failure and you get zero points and zero progression.
It winds me up no end how accidents trigger evacuations; it’s very counter intuitive to have it happen when there have been effectively 5 games telling you that it’s fine for accidents to happen. That alone would make Sniper more appealing, and the save system a bonus extra

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Definitely agree with OP

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I wish, wish, wish there was a save function in those maps. I have one challenge left on the Siberia map and it’s the one for hiding every body. I have gotten 14 out of 15 hidden and that last one lands weird and I have to do the whole thing all over again. It’s so frustrating!

The other thing that I cannot understand is the grind required to get mastery in these maps. Again on Siberia, I have done every feat, every challenge, have played that map maybe 30-40 times and I’m on Mastery level 8 or 9. I don’t have the patience or time to sit there and play it a hundred more times just to grind out the 20 mastery levels. On the normal modes, you’ve pretty much got full mastery by the time you get all of the challenges and feats and what-not completed. Not so on Sniper Assassin.

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Big agree. I’ve actually unlocked the arctic sniper rifle from Siberia. That grind to mastery level 20 was insane. They should either tone down the grind or get rid of mastery entirely and tie the unlocks to challenges.

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I think this is what everyone has generaly agreed on, but I’m afraid it will fall flat. IOI seems to lost interest in SA maps, so we might be getting some bug fixes, but that’s about it.

Multiplayer sniper assassin was simple and fun. If the accident kill found bodies didn’t trigger the evacuation co op would be a lot more fun, since you could each trigger your own different accidents. Unfortunately, co op was mostly just doing your best to retain silent assassin until someone makes a mistake and then both people end up just sniping the remaining fleeing targets.

I agree with all of your points. I remember playing sniper assassin for the first time back in H2 and immediately going for a nice explosion kill for multiple targets at the same time with no non-targets killed, only to be disappointed that the found bodies due to the accident still triggered the evacuation and I could fail the mission if the main targets escaped.

Your point about messing up slightly is another problem I have with sniper assassin and is one of the reasons why I really wish there were saves in the mode. I almost always have an easy time picking off a couple of targets immediately at the start of the mission, only to have the remaining targets do something strange or fail to kill them silently, causing me to restart the entire mission because you get almost no points if you void silent assassin.

Exactly. The point of a games is to be fun and it isn’t fun doing the same thing over and over and over and over, seemingly endlessly.

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