What is the point of Freelancer? Why bother?

So I’ve played Freelancer mode. MEH! What is the point? You die and lose anything you
have on you and even items collected that are still in your safehouse. That make no sense.
But again meh. More dumb game mechanics to go with the “spawning, floating flash bangs”.

Am I alone in thinking freelancer is just for elite players? Surely, an elite player
who gets silent assasin and can somehow do every mission in 47’s suit is the only target of
this mode.

I enjoy stealth games when they make some semblence of sense and have a good story.
Freelancer has neither.
I am not some kid who plays Apex, Overwatch or any of these free for all “my kok’s bigger
than yours” style games. I like stealth games. I enjoy sneaking around and being silent.
I cut my teeth on Splinter Cell. I play alien isolation on nightmare mode for breakfast.
I enjoy the challenge of out witting the AI Alien. The hostiles in hitman pale by compare,
but there is still challenge: in normal game play.

Freelancer though is pointless. I wish IOI would quit plugging it so damn hard.

I know you’re just ranting out of frustration, but a few points:

As has been discussed at length in the Freelancer General thread, the Silent Assassin play style is not forced at all in this mode (outside of some prestige objectives - which are completely optional except for hardcore mode). There isn’t even a Silent Assassin rating in Freelancer.

Outside of a couple objectives which are randomized, I haven’t bothered to play “suit only” at all in this mode (and very rarely bother in the normal game for that matter).

The mode is punishing when you fail, but it’s not only meant for elite players. It’s meant for patient players though.

IOI has been very open on their blogs about what happens if you fail a mission or campaign and the player community has been very open in return about how they feel about that. You won’t lose weapons if you fail (unless you had them with you in the mission) but tools will be lost on failures. That is just a part of the mode (and it is a “rogue-like” mode where permadeath is a common feature).

I have not seen IOI “plugging it so damn hard” at all. They have been very open that it is what they consider the future of the World of Assassination to be, but that’s about as vocal as they’ve been. There has been a lot of discussion on this forum about how little communication there has been, in fact. For a company which you deem to have been “plugging it” as hard as you feel they do, they sure have been awfully quiet about it.

I’m sorry you don’t like the mode but it is as IOI designed it.

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More than likely. Since it released, a lot of people that stream on Twitch that have never really played the game before have picked it up and headed straight for Freelancer and have had a blast playing it.

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I think you’re kinda missing the point of not only Freelancer, but Hitman in general. The other games you’ve mentioned fall clearly under the traditional definition of stealth gameplay in video games. But Hitman isn’t really about stealth, at least not in the traditional sense. It certainly has elements of it, but it’s a more of a puzzle game about hiding in plain sight. You can still do traditional stealth gameplay anyway, so I don’t really get what you’re complaining about.

Plus, outwitting the AI isn’t really the point of Hitman’s gampeplay. It’s more about manipulating it to do what you want. That’s where the challenge lies. It’s not supposed to be ‘smart’, it’s suppose to be consistent and easy to influence.

This was made very clear to be how the game-mode works long before it came out. It’s a rougelike game-mode. It punishes mistakes heavily. And besides, it’s a video game. Not everything needs to make perfect sense.

I have no idea where you’ve got this idea from. People with very little experience in Hitman have been playing it and having fun with it. If you’re trying to be an absolute perfectionist, then yes, it does require a strong level of skill and game knowledge. But it isn’t a requirement to play the game-mode in this way

In fact, I’d argue Freelancer is for elite players less than the main game is. The main game encourages perfection. The highest scores are achieved by playing perfectly; which is a big ask for a lot of newer players. Freelancer on the other hand is much less restrictive and encourages different styles of gameplay. This allows for a lot more freedom of approach, which is something a lot of newer players can get behind. It means they feel less railroaded into a certain style of gameplay and can just figure things out for themselves.

Besides, do you not consider yourself an elite player? I mean, since you’re clearly a big-dick gigachad who had no trouble at all with Splinter Cell or Alien Isolation, then surely Hitman, with it’s “hostiles that pale in comparison” [FTFY] wouldn’t give you any problems

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Well there really is no story to tell as the title of the game mode is kinda of self explanatory.

Freelancer is fundamentally based after the Hitman III epilogue and the Safehouse is where 47 has based himself since Hitman III concluded. You could think of it as the Safehouse is the canon part of the story, alongside 47 killing these Freelance syndicates, however, the map locations aren’t essentially where they actually take place, very much like what happens with Elusive Targets.

So to answer your question, Freelancer is a game mode briefing showing us what 47 has been up to since Hitman III and the game mode is there to tie us over until the next big AAA Hitman game.

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I have no interest in reading the rest of your paragraph but this line stood out to me because you act like this is feat of massive skill. all the while alien isolation even on nightmare is one of the easiest walking simulators ever

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But… he plays it… FOR BREAKFAST!!!

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You don’t have to play it if you don’t like it. Seems to me this new generation of Hitman caters to many play-styles.

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L bozo, get ripped on mate, get good, you’re trash and freelancer ain’t, bruh, gg scrub, you can’t report me because my dad owns IOI

(Jokes ofc)

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You don’t though? Only Freelancer tools get removed. Take it from a CTT player, this would be VERY frustrating if it did that in live.

…uh what? What game mechanic is that?

I get what you’re saying here, it definitely does help to have prior game knowledge (hell, I’d argue it’s a necessity), but this doesn’t come off as particularly level-headed as responses go.

Freelancer was not designed to have a story, and there are some mechanics that do make sense. This is a weird opinion to hold against Freelancer

Those are different kinds of gameplay though; hunter versus hunted, and tactical stealth, which is geared more towards hardcore stealth aficianado’s. Don’t get me Wrong, Hitman has aspects of this too, but it’s not prevalant throughout all of the game.

First off, that’s how marketing works. Second, they’ve been surprisingly quiet about it, only chiming up to give their reasoning for not making freelancer tools persistent upon campaign death; and that was only made because it was, and continues to be as you, me and others demonstrated, a controversial design choice. Personally I found the freelancer tools being removed when you fail a campaign have a feeling of the punishment being inconsistent, feeling unfair, and that takes you out of the experience (something IOI even admitted was a problem), but they don’t appear to want to change it, judging by the attitude. And I don’t think CEFT’s are a good solution either.

Oh, and Freelancer isn’t pointless. I don’t need to give you a long paragraph on why that is; it’s pretty obvious that it’s not.

If you want to share you opinion on here, fine, but do it in a way that isn’t insulting the developers or the clear amount of effort put into the game mode. As much as there are issues with it, it’s still quite well made, all things considered.

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What is the point of any video game?

:exploding_head:

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to enrich and entertain i’d reckon, like all other forms of media

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You’re wrong there. It’s only for the super omega elite players, not just the mere elite ones

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Translation: I died and lost my freelancer tools and I am salty about it

The original game still exists, play that if you’re not enjoying freelancer mode

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Freelancer best game ever
I like it.

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See, that’s just the opposite attitude. That forgives that decision, despite, again, being controversial and well worth discussing, regardless of salt level. Just do it constructively instead of throwing barbs on both sides.

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Freelancer is there as a time sink for people who want more Hitman and for it to be constantly changing thru random generation. The point of Freelancer is less following the structured narrative and more about player-created storytelling, which they shouldve leaned on a bit more but its still there. For example if you defeat three syndicates and on your last one die right before a showdown and now have an alerted final mission that creates a narrative in your head that you are now having to rise to the challenge and fix a mistake you made

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I eat breakfast for breakfast. ELITE.

Fucking peasants.

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This is exactly what I’ve explained above in my comment.

The title ‘Freelancer’ is kind of self explanatory as to where it fits in line with the story.

All you need to show is two pictures………

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it’s nice to drop in and play a mission or two a day, it’s not something i could play obsessively though… the progression does feel a bit shallow at times, there could for sure be more made of that and more of an effort to involve story elements somehow