Personally, I like contracts that have a story to them, or as funknumpty said, a ‘Diana-esque’ briefing. It breathes some life and personality into a contract that might otherwise feel a bit flat and unengaging. It doesn’t have to be something super complex or deep, just something that will get me hyped up to play the contract.
For me, it’s a bit of a red flag when I see a briefing that has little effort put into it (or worse yet, has the default “A contract has been issued” text) becuase if the contract creator has put little effort or thought into their briefing, then chances are they haven’t put much effort or thought into the contract itself either. Obviously this isn’t always true, but it’s just a trend I’ve noticed.
I totally get why some people don’t really give a damn about briefings as the gameplay is ultimately what’s important, but I just can’t get engaged by what I’ll refer to as ‘speedrunner’ contracts that have a bland, low-effort briefing (if any at all) with a bunch of Any/Any targets. I get that some people enjoy those kinds of contracts, but personally, I just find them boring. I don’t care about showcasing my Epic Gamer™ skills, so you’ve got to motivate me to play the contract either with an engaging briefing, some unique/interesting gameplay concepts, or both.
Speaking only for myself, I can’t remember the last time I searched for a contract. I pretty much only play the featured or trending ones and just go sequentially down the line. I’ll play new ones first and then go from there. I’m pretty sure the only time I’ve ever actually searched for a player contract was specifically to find one that helped get a challenge.
I rarely read ANY of the briefings for contracts. Story lines are irrelevant to me when it comes to Hitman and why I play it. Also don’t care about contract names either. It could just be the stock id numbers, whatever.
@Urben said it best, there’s no single answer that will be definitive. I would say, make a contract that YOU like and think is fun.
That way at least you’re happy with the finished product, if everyone else hates it.
I hardly read any briefing
Why? I don’t speak English.
It’s really hard to read so many in a second language.
I won’t read it unless it is written in my mother-tongue…
-there is no insta fail complication
-there’s a logic behind the eliminations (either suit only, or just making sense for obtaining certain outfits)
-no over-the-top difficulty in complications/eliminations for the sake of “SASO/SONKO”
-no time limit (I absolutely hate it, when some people expect me to do not only a speed run, but to know the npc routes by heart)
-not forcing specific things to do (like triggering some opportunities from single player, or trigger an easter egg, or forcing the player to obtain an illegal item, just for making the player to travel across the map with it.
50% agreed.
If there is only one exit allowed, it should be marked. If it needs a key, fine, but tell us what exit we need to use.
Hiding bodies is fine though. There is a difference between “keeping Silent Assassin” and “not having bodies found”. You can keep your silent assassin rating and have a body be found or you can have no bodies found and not keep silent assassin. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s not about keeping SA - it’s about no one finding any bodies dead or not. I don’t like the complication, to be sure, but it’s not about accidents or not.
My logic is this: why 47 should risk hiding a body if the death is by accident? Also a body found in a closet but killed by let’s say drowning could raise suspicion. That’s because I am always thinking that sooner or later someone will open that closet.
Again, it’s not about the accident. It’s about the body. In the fiction of the game, a body found that was killed by accident doesn’t void “SA” but it’s still a found body - you don’t get points deducted but the body is still, technically, “found”. Somebody knows that the person is dead. Whether by accident or not, a “cleaner” assassin would ensure that the body simply disappeared.
Yes, eventually all of those bodies in freezers, closets, hampers, and even rivers would/could eventually be found but the time limit of the mission puts a constraint there. “Eventually” doesn’t matter.
But imagine you kill a target with a loud gun and then reach the exit just before the guards find the body. Technically is no body found but honestly I would not be so proud of that contract.
I suppose it would depend on the complication. There is “no bodies found” and then there is “hide all bodies”. A body laying in the street that simply isn’t found, but is right there in the open, does meet the No Bodies Found requirement but would not meet Hide All Bodies. The second one is more restrictive than the first, by design. It’s a harder thing to do than simply ensuring that the body isn’t found.
i guess why i add probably to many restrictions is so it can be more challenging and a way to show the hidden arts of the game itself and how to get the ai to do what you want. also i’m not good with making briefing descriptions when i have contracts that pop into my head like the contract smoking kills. a contract on PlayStation.
