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[Metal-Geo]

True, but it still felt stupid to me how parts of the map were barred off based on your unit. Can't visit the demolitions area as Spec-Ops, really? etc I know it would be too easy otherwise, but it still felt off in terms of plausibility.

The militia is a ragtag of different groups/organisations. According to a conversation between two soldiers near the plant house, these organisations usually don't get along nicely at all, and he was surprised they're able to share grounds and work together like this. It shouldn't come as a surprise the organisations still show a bit of hostility towards one another.

Holy fucking shit this actually works.

http://i.imgur.com/lLet28m.mp4

It's even better if you also put a fire extinguisher and a propane tank on the stove!

Spoiler

And a fourth nitroglycerine bottle.

 

[Jintor]

It also makes sense they're shithouse at recognising one another

Can you get Mike Myers to nitro himself, or does his normal experiments not produce an open flame so you have to engineer the overdose anyway?

 

[Intheflorsh]

I think the GB guys were actually on to something in their quick look, what's the point of having a masked target if you can't dress up as him?

 

[tryagainlater]

The game really doesn't want you dressing up as targets for some reason.

 

[Revolutionary]

I think the GB guys were actually on to something in their quick look, what's the point of having a masked target if you can't dress up as him?

Because he's one of the 4 most important people in the area and people would question why he was suddenly bald.

 

[Intheflorsh]

Because he's one of the 4 most important people in the area and people would question why he was suddenly bald.

So make him bald.

 

[Tuffty]

Because he's one of the 4 most important people in the area and people would question why he was suddenly bald.

Doesn't stop you from dressing up as the masseuse in Marrakesh, who had hair. NPC's even comment on it like security guards. "Oh, is that you Mr.Ingstrom? Didn't recognise you after losing all that hair".

On one hand it's consistent that you can't dress up as the main targets, but like Brad and Dan said, if one has a mask they probably should have let you take the disguise. Maybe the developers felt that the disguise would have broken the level as you could go anywhere without suspicion, making it too easy.

 

[Jintor]

Doesn't stop you from dressing up as the masseuse in Marrakesh, who had hair. NPC's even comment on it like security guards. "Oh, is that you Mr.Ingstrom? Didn't recognise you after losing all that hair".

On one hand it's consistent that you can't dress up as the main targets, but like Brad and Dan said, if one has a mask they probably should have let you take the disguise. Maybe the developers felt that the disguise would have broken the level as you could go anywhere without suspicion, making it too easy.

well the other three would definitely have recognised him at least.

 

[Revolutionary]

So make him bald.

As far as I remember, dressing up as a target just doesn't happen in Hitman games. It doesn't make sense from a lore perspective (what kind of reputation would 47 have after all these years if he leaves his targets naked when he's done with them? - the objective is Silent Assassin, not Suspected Rapist) and in regards to gameplay, it would probably make things too easy.

 

[Remembrance]

Can you get Mike Myers to nitro himself, or does his normal experiments not produce an open flame so you have to engineer the overdose anyway?

Despite the linked video, the nitroglycerin doesn't actually get detonated by flames. It gets detonated when the vial tips over.

So you could put it in front of the shed door and it will fall over when he opens it.

 

[Intheflorsh]

As far as I remember, dressing up as a target just doesn't happen in Hitman games. It doesn't make sense from a lore perspective (what kind of reputation would 47 have after all these years if he leaves his targets naked when he's done with them? - the objective is Silent Assassin, not Suspected Rapist) and in regards to gameplay, it would probably make things too easy.

I remember you could do it in Blood Money, specifically in the Heaven and Hell level where one of your targets had a mask. Also in the New Orleans level with the bird costumes.

 

[Bebpo]

Booted the game up for the first time in a week or so to see what new escalations there are. I can't believe there's still only 1 escalation for Bangkok. In the entire time between Bangkok and Colorado they couldn't even add 1 mission?

I gotta say, Marrakesh with 4, Bangkok with 1, and Colorado with 1 is pretty sad considering the potential in these maps to have tons and tons of great challenging missions. I mean look at how much mission content they've managed to squeeze out of the Paris map.

My greatest fear is that they get so behind on escalations that by the time they ship the game in January and maybe another month or two of support, that they call it a day and move on to season 2 and we have 4 dozen Paris Escalations, but the last 3 locations have like 1 escalation each and that's it in the end.

I mean at that point you gotta rely on fan missions, which can be good but it's still tough pairing through and finding the top quality ones.

I really hope before they move on to S2 they at least make 5-10 quality escalations for each location. Otherwise it really feels like they're wasting a ton of potential with how the levels are built. Maybe they need to like, hire another escalation designer?

 

[CloudWolf]

As far as I remember, dressing up as a target just doesn't happen in Hitman games. It doesn't make sense from a lore perspective (what kind of reputation would 47 have after all these years if he leaves his targets naked when he's done with them? - the objective is Silent Assassin, not Suspected Rapist) and in regards to gameplay, it would probably make things too easy.

It's not like it hasn't been done before. There were three missions in Hitman Blood Money where you could dress up as a target. In the casino mission you could dress up as the German weapons dealer (?) to get to the Sheik, in the New Orleans mission you could dress up as the bird assassin and in the Heaven and Hell mission you could dress up as the CIA guy.

 

[Remembrance]

Target disguises would be a good feature to request for season 2. We should keep a running list of these somewhere...

Although I think this might only make sense for missions with more than 2 targets. Otherwise it feels like there is probably never a reason not to get one target's disguise, assuming it makes the other target easier.

My greatest fear is that they get so behind on escalations that by the time they ship the game in January and maybe another month or two of support, that they call it a day and move on to season 2 and we have 4 dozen Paris Escalations, but the last 3 locations have like 1 escalation each and that's it in the end.

There are still at least ten elusive targets, and at least five of those are happening after the game is shipped (based on IO's promises that suits can still be unlocked by newcomers now and even after release).

You can't do five elusive targets in the two months after release if you want even newcomers to be experienced enough to handle them, especially if any of the later elusive targets are hard ones. And we can expect escalations to sandwich out the weeks between elusives, so I think that gives a good outlook on the release schedule.

Right now, we have so little content for later levels because so many fewer people own those levels. Once the full game releases, I think we can finally expect this Paris and Sapienza frontloading to end.

 

[Shaanyboi]

How do you access the ps4 exclusive missions?

 

[Pixieking]

The elusive targets are the special missions that are time-based, right? You can only play them for X number of hours before they're gone? Have they announced if they're going to place them all in the final game, or have I missed-out on them entirely?

 

[fstop]

They "have no plans" to re-release the elusive targets. It's kind of a waste of resources, but it incentivizes people to buy seasons two and three up front.

 

[Jintor]

hitman just got a d/l on my machine... did i miss an update or is an elusive inbound?

 

[Pixieking]

They "have no plans" to re-release the elusive targets. It's kind of a waste of resources, but it incentivizes people to buy seasons two and three up front.

Urgh, that's disappointing. Not everyone has the time to game on a regular schedule... Blah. Whatevs. Doubt I'll buy the next seasons up-front, because why should I reward that kind of thinking.

Anyways, cheers for the info.

 

[Revolutionary]

I remember you could do it in Blood Money, specifically in the Heaven and Hell level where one of your targets had a mask. Also in the New Orleans level with the bird costumes.

It's not like it hasn't been done before. There were three missions in Hitman Blood Money where you could dress up as a target. In the casino mission you could dress up as the German weapons dealer (?) to get to the Sheik, in the New Orleans mission you could dress up as the bird assassin and in the Heaven and Hell mission you could dress up as the CIA guy.

Ah yes, good memory there. I remembered Murder of Crows but I figured a "bird costume" doesn't exactly count as a target disguise lol. But yeah I totally blanked on the fact that you could disguise yourself as the scientist in A House of Cards (though I'd like to point out that the scientist is bald) or the guy in Heaven and Hell.

 

[Solaire of Astora]

You could also dress up as Fabian Fuchs during the Bjarkhov bomb mission in hitman:contracts. Though I guess that wasn't so outrageous, because Fuchs himself was a guest at that facility, so few would recognize him in his winter coat.

 

[Fury451]

They "have no plans" to re-release the elusive targets. It's kind of a waste of resources, but it incentivizes people to buy seasons two and three up front.

How much did they spend on Cole and Busey for one mission then?

I'm okay if replaying then doesn't net you experience or whatever, but blocking off that content is pretty disappointing.

 

[Moff]

How much did they spend on Cole and Busey for one mission then?

I'm okay if replaying then doesn't net you experience or whatever, but blocking off that content is pretty disappointing.

But thats the point of elusives. They want you to buy the game early.
And the elusives are the rewards for people who do.

 

[firenskill2000]

Have they fixed the garbled text bug yet?

 

[Pixieking]

But thats the point of elusives. They want you to buy the game early.
And the elusives are the rewards for people who do.

I can get that they'd be like pre-order bonuses, and they'd sell them down the line after a certain time, but making the content exclusive in-perpetuity is moronic. Akin to store-specific pre-order content for fucking over consumers.

 

[Moff]

I don't agree, I think it's very different than store exclusives. With store exclusives, you have to buy the game literally several times to get all the content.

Elusives are simply a reward for episodic players, who bring in revenue early. And they want the other players to remember that for future seasons.

 

[Pixieking]

I don't agree, I think it's very different than store exclusives. With store exclusives, you have to buy the game literally several times to get all the content.

Elusives are simply a reward for episodic players, who bring in revenue early. And they want the other players to remember that for future seasons.

They're still walling-off content from consumers who would gladly (mostly) pay for it. But you're right, it's not quite the same - because this is punishing players who can't find the time to play the content before it disappears.

Honestly, no way anyone can tell me this is objectively okay. If it doesn't bother people, that's fine (really), but you can't tell me that it's a reward for Season purchasers, when I've missed that "rewarding" content due to having a life. :/

 

[Remembrance]

Speaking of which.

The availability of elusive targets for a whole week seems to be how things will be going forward.

 

[LordOfLore]

I don't agree, I think it's very different than store exclusives. With store exclusives, you have to buy the game literally several times to get all the content.

Elusives are simply a reward for episodic players, who bring in revenue early. And they want the other players to remember that for future seasons.

It reminds me of the Brawls Blizzard are doing in their games.

 

[Pixieking]

It reminds me of the Brawls Blizzard are doing in their games.

Hmmm... I think the Diablo 3 Seasons (with their bonus items) is somewhat similar, too. But I think it's in how it's marketed, which rubs me the wrong way - D3 Seasons are "Here's some cool swag to get while you play the game". Hitman Seasons are "We're rewarding people who have bought the full game".

Anyways *shrugs*.

 

[Moff]

They're still walling-off content from consumers who would gladly (mostly) pay for it. But you're right, it's not quite the same - because this is punishing players who can't find the time to play the content before it disappears.

Honestly, no way anyone can tell me this is objectively okay. If it doesn't bother people, that's fine (really), but you can't tell me that it's a reward for Season purchasers, when I've missed that "rewarding" content due to having a life. :/

Its just a gimmick, I missed one too and they expanded it to a week. If they'd just make it available permanently the event would no longer be there, like the sarajevo six. This way people talk about the game and are excited.

 

[Tuffty]

Have they fixed the garbled text bug yet?

I'm glad someone else notices this, haven't seen anyone else bring it up. I didn't see it in the patch notes.

 

[FrontalMonk]

They're still walling-off content from consumers who would gladly (mostly) pay for it. But you're right, it's not quite the same - because this is punishing players who can't find the time to play the content before it disappears.

Honestly, no way anyone can tell me this is objectively okay. If it doesn't bother people, that's fine (really), but you can't tell me that it's a reward for Season purchasers, when I've missed that "rewarding" content due to having a life. :/

I only kinda take umbrage with the first statement here, because there were a lot, and I mean a LOT of people who were not glad to pay for it. There were (and are) tons of folks on the "wait for physical" train ever since it was first announced, so it seemed obvious there was some stuff they were going to miss out on, and that was something people were going to have to be okay with.

Personally I've missed a couple elusives as well, since I ended up taking a break from gaming for the last few months, but I don't have any expectations of going back to play that content. It's no different than a live event in an MMO, in that it's there for a little while, and then it's gone.

I don't know if anyone could say it's "objectively okay", because personally I'd like to replay the elusives as well, but I would say that it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. There have been a lot of miscues, miscommunications, and problems with Hitman's delivery, but the PR behind Elusives as being "you only get one shot and then it's gone forever" has always remained constant, ever since they were first announced. The only obfuscation of that fact has been from hopeful fans, never from the developers.

 

[Foffy]

How do you access the ps4 exclusive missions?

In the same tab that allows you to look up Contracts, Escalations, and Elusive Targets.

 

[Primethius]

I missed 2 of the levels while I was away on PS4. The best way to buy them is still individually yea?

 

[lilltias]

The point with the Elusive Target is to make them as tense and exciting as possible. They absolutely need to be time windowed or else this excitement would be lost. You get the contract, it is open during these days and once you start to play it, you commit. That is absolutely the point. It is an actual gameplay feature. To remove this, is to remove the entire purpose of the feature and rob other players from the excitement and fantasy of the Elusives. It would be to ask for a pause feature and difficulty setting in Dark Souls; it compromises the entire design.

There are TONS of other stuff to do so I don't think complaining about lack of content or being locked out is fair.

 

[Profanity]

The point with the Elusive Target is to make them as tense and exciting as possible. They absolutely need to be time windowed or else this excitement would be lost. You get the contract, it is open during these days and once you start to play it, you commit. That is absolutely the point. It is an actual gameplay feature. To remove this, is to remove the entire purpose of the feature and rob other players from the excitement and fantasy of the Elusives. It would be to ask for a pause feature and difficulty setting in Dark Souls; it compromises the entire design.

There are TONS of other stuff to do so I don't think complaining about lack of content or being locked out is fair.

Agreed. They're genuinely the most exciting part of the game, and even the easy ones still have you on-edge because there's always that voice in the back of your head just saying 'what if?'.

 

[Foffy]

The point with the Elusive Target is to make them as tense and exciting as possible. They absolutely need to be time windowed or else this excitement would be lost. You get the contract, it is open during these days and once you start to play it, you commit. That is absolutely the point. It is an actual gameplay feature. To remove this, is to remove the entire purpose of the feature and rob other players from the excitement and fantasy of the Elusives. It would be to ask for a pause feature and difficulty setting in Dark Souls; it compromises the entire design.

There are TONS of other stuff to do so I don't think complaining about lack of content or being locked out is fair.

I do think that post-physical release, these ETs should be available to replay, if only to give the game extra legs on value for consumers.

The game, unfortunately, looks like its banking its entire future on the physical release, because it's bombed so far..

 

[Turin Turambar]

The point with the Elusive Target is to make them as tense and exciting as possible.

I don't agree. The tension and excitement comes from 'only 1 valid run (or invalid, if you die)' and 'no save possible' rules, not because the artificial time window.

The time window only exists to make people pay full price for the game instead of waiting until it's cheap.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I don't agree. The tension and excitement comes from 'only 1 valid run (or invalid, if you die)' and 'no save possible' rules, not because the artificial time window.

This.

What if I'm on holiday or something over the 2 days an ET is up?
The tension comes from the one run only element, the time limit is just arbitrary nonsense.

 

[lilltias]

I don't agree. The tension and excitement comes from 'only 1 valid run (or invalid, if you die)' and 'no save possible' rules, not because the artificial time window.

The time window only exists to make people pay full price for the game instead of waiting until it's cheap.

The time window add a lot of meta excitement (gotta get home and play this thing before sunday or else...!). Maybe not for you, or anyone else for that matter, but it does for me. It is not far fetched to believe it does for others as well tough, either and the devs are likely to think in the same way. It is also a _crucial_ part of a Hitman Contract fantasy.

Of course, it will also make people buy the game before it is complete and I am not denying that there is a chance they might come back in some form after disc release to add value to that. But in terms of the fantasy, it needs to be done this way, is my opinion.

Edit: I mean if you miss one contract because you didn't have time, will this not raise the stakes on the ones that you manage to actually play?

 

[Metal-Geo]

This.

What if I'm on holiday or something over the 2 days an ET is up?
The tension comes from the one run only element, the time limit is just arbitrary nonsense.

The time limit prevents you from endlessly practicing. There have been elusive targets where I practiced for 2 or 3 evenings, to perform the perfect hit. Due to this I've experienced literal 'now or never' situations with these contracts. It's a form of tension I rarely experience in games... and it's a damn good selling point for me.

And I've also had the misfortune of missing one elusive target, due to vacationing. ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[Pixieking]

There have been a lot of miscues, miscommunications, and problems with Hitman's delivery, but the PR behind Elusives as being "you only get one shot and then it's gone forever" has always remained constant, ever since they were first announced. The only obfuscation of that fact has been from hopeful fans, never from the developers.

Yeah, which I suppose stems from the fact that many publishers have said "Ohhh, no, this is your only chance to get this thing!" And then released it later. (See: Hitman: Sniper Challenge mini-game).

The time limit prevents you from endlessly practicing. There have been elusive targets where I practiced for 2 or 3 evenings, to perform the perfect hit. Due to this I've experienced literal 'now or never' situations with these contracts. It's a form of tension I rarely experience in games... and it's a damn good selling point for me.

Both Spelunky and Crypt of the Necrodancer do Daily Challenges which are single-runs - die and you've lost the challenge. The real-life time limit (24 hours and it's gone) doesn't add anything to the challenges themselves, it's the fact that you have one life, and that's it.

But *shrugs* Just pointing out that other games do time-limited challenges very well - they are bonuses to the actual game, and not part of the game itself. Missing the challenges in Hitman feels like missing actual content. Not saying you can't gamify it, though.

 

[justjim89]

I think what they need to do is eliminate the possibility of endless practice runs. That's just lame and antithetical to the point of Elusive Targets. I understand you need to give some wiggle room in case of bugs, disconnections, or what have you, but they should really be limited. Maybe just one or two restarts per Elusive Target, keep it more in spirit. Your SA for an Elusive Target shouldn't count if you've practiced the perfect run a dozen times and have the paths of all new NPCs memorized.

 

[The Janitor]

The point with the Elusive Target is to make them as tense and exciting as possible. They absolutely need to be time windowed or else this excitement would be lost. You get the contract, it is open during these days and once you start to play it, you commit. That is absolutely the point. It is an actual gameplay feature. To remove this, is to remove the entire purpose of the feature and rob other players from the excitement and fantasy of the Elusives. It would be to ask for a pause feature and difficulty setting in Dark Souls; it compromises the entire design.

There are TONS of other stuff to do so I don't think complaining about lack of content or being locked out is fair.

The time limit prevents you from endlessly practicing. There have been elusive targets where I practiced for 2 or 3 evenings, to perform the perfect hit. Due to this I've experienced literal 'now or never' situations with these contracts. It's a form of tension I rarely experience in games... and it's a damn good selling point for me.

And I've also had the misfortune of missing one elusive target, due to vacationing. ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

But you can restart elusives, which removes the tension. And it allows you to practice anyway. As soon as things go to shit, pause->restart.

It would be better if they removed the restart function, and made a timer that only starts when you attempt the mission. That way it's still tense, and you wont miss a buch of content.

 

[lilltias]

I think what they need to do is eliminate the possibility of endless practice runs. That's just lame and antithetical to the point of Elusive Targets. I understand you need to give some wiggle room in case of bugs, disconnections, or what have you, but they should really be limited. Maybe just one or two restarts per Elusive Target, keep it more in spirit. Your SA for an Elusive Target shouldn't count if you've practiced the perfect run a dozen times and have the paths of all new NPCs memorized.

Maybe you could get three practice runs and for each practice run you start there is a deduction in the score when you decide to do the real one.

^Agreed. The retry takes away from the tension and I don't agree with that decision even though I understand why it is there.

 

[SlackAdjuster]

The time window (which they've increased now) definitely adds to the tension for me. The past 2 Elusives, I've just barely slid in, in the final few hours due to me being extra busy lately. And it added to it, it was like "Oh man, I only have an hour or so left to scout this out (I try for SA on all of them) and get it done!"

It does suck if you're completely helpless because you're on vacation or out of town or something but it is what it is. I like it and I hope they keep it that way. Otherwise they would just start piling up for me, I'd put them off until I got around to it like I have this latest Colorado mission and the backlog of 4 or 5 Escalations I haven't done yet. This feels like something I HAVE to do ASAP and I like it.

 

[Remembrance]

That's exactly it. A lot of people would simply not be playing the elusive targets if they had the choice to play them any time they want. It would all be relegated to backlog hell.

And, seriously, the restart system does not take away from the massive adrenaline rush when the assassination goes right but you don't know if you've gotten away with it cleanly yet. What it does take away is most "bullshit" feelings people get when something they plan doesn't work in the first place and everything goes south. A lot people don't want to fail because they misjudged how far away a guard is or how close an explosion needs to be, etc.

I think the current system minimizes disappointment while still leaving a lot of room for failure. Silent assassin elusive completions are still very rare, for the most part.

 

[GeeTeeCee]

I wish they'd update the site to say what's in this new patch. It's over 7GB on PS4. That's a lot of bug fixes.

 

[Remembrance]

I wish they'd update the site to say what's in this new patch. It's over 7GB on PS4. That's a lot of bug fixes.

https://hitman.com/updates/game-update-for-october-11

Often these are linked from Twitter before they're linked from the main site.