Hitman 3 (but also 1 & 2)

Thank fuck

This update finally prompted me to buy H3. Strangely I couldn't buy it from the PSN store, only from within the game itself. Looking forward to getting stuck into the campaign of 3, then I'll have a crack at the new mode. Sounds like a really smart way to reuse the old levels.

I’ve been playing the new Freelancer mode.

I never actually got on with the modern Hitman games- I could see the appeal, but once I’d gone through each level in the scripted way it suggests, I wasn’t too bothered about getting Mastery or trying all the other ways of doing it. As a result, I don’t know the maps at all, which makes this mode tricky at times.

But I properly love the risk/reward of it, I’m hooked. Only got past the first syndicate in the campaign a few times, but I’m slowly building up an arsenal of weapons to take into encounters, and unlocking more of the safe house.

The thing where you have to identify targets according to their looks and tells is pretty annoying and needs more patience than I have sometimes. But the moments when you realise your target is easy to get, and you can just take your time and rinse the map of any crates and other stuff you can steal- great fun.

I’ve been doing better in Freelancer- getting past the second syndicate around 50% of attempts. The showdowns became much easier and less trial-and-error when I started fixing it so they happened on maps I like (Paris and Whittleton Creek are both favourites).

Also I’m deeply ashamed* to admit that if I’ve taken an expensive item into a level for a challenge, and it goes tits up, I’ve been force quitting from the Xbox dashboard. It just takes you back to your state prior to starting the level and you don’t lose all your stuff and the campaign. I know it’s against the spirit of not allowing save/load during an encounter, but I’m not losing hours of progress and merces because I didn’t notice a guy behind a door or whatever.

*not really

There are challenges to complete I suppose, granted some of those will take a long time to beat and mastery level XP gain is pretty small. Given that the mode is designed to randomise every time, with difficulty wildly varying based on loadouts etc, it's just meant to be treated as something to always come back to, same way people come back to play Slay The Spire, Invisible Inc or Into the Breach etc. You could treat hardcore mode as attempting to beat a campaign without hard quitting like a cheater

The devs have even confirmed this is all the Hitman we're getting for the foreseeable future as they focus attention on the James Bond game and their newly announced fantasy game. They're not saying it's the end of Hitman, no doubt they'll return to a new entry in the series once enough time has passed. I'm ok with it, having played it on almost weekly basis since 1 came out, I still have uncompleted contract missions, escalations, challenges and gear to unlock on each level, leaving aside the Freelancer mode. The game is jam packed with content, it's one of my favourites to just sit down to with a cup of coffee and play.

I remain miffed at the lack of an upgrade path for existing 1/2/DLC owners without paying more than H3 used to cost on sale... It is a shame as I really enjoyed 1 and 2 but put off buying this until it reached Steam and my backlog shrunk a bit... Then it became World of Assassination and now I have to wait for a heavy sale...

Just completed a mission the hard way (no changing costume etc) for the first time and then the game just got stuck on the screen just before the mission breakdown, so I think I lost all that progress?

Anyone else get bugs like that? Playing on Steam Deck. I wonder if it's something to do with the always online bs.

That issue wouldn't ever affect me because I save my game literally every 10 seconds on suit-only runs.

A few months ago I finally decided to cut loose all my H1 and H2 progress on the PS4 and buy the WOA trilogy for the Xbox to go with my new OLED TV.

Just wow. Locations looked gorgeous before but seeing them in 60FPS + HDR is something else entirely. Load/reload times with an SSD for a game like this are an absolute godsend too.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of this game - there's nothing else like it.

Yeah this is one of very few games that I keep permanently installed.

Not sure what you mean by WoA, unless you're referring to the Freelancer roguelite mode in which map knowledge is very much ideal. But because of it being a roguelite, you wont have your choice of equipment necessarily to lockpick doors or poison targets etc so some avenues will be closed off to you, unless you know where to obtain makeshift items in the map. It's a tough game mode even with the map knowledge available to you, all I can suggest is maybe get a few practice runs in the maps, try out some assassination attempts you haven't done before and just take it slow and easy in the freelancer mode!

Took out Sean Bean again a few weeks back, that's still one of the best celebrity tie-in's ever done. The idea of a game of assassinating targets in repeat attempts and one of them if the man who practically dies a lot in any movie he's in.

Made and failed my first attempt at freelancer.
Started on Colorado - got spotted within about 2 min because I got distracted by trying to get to a stash crate.
Next up was Wittleton Creek. Much better. Completed the mission and took out a couple of couriers, but I left the body hidden in bushes.
Showdown was in New York. Identifed the target then got spotted while taking her out and killed by guards.

Overall I like it. Memory of the maps came back at a decent level. And it feels like a patient approach of clearing areas and remembering where key items are on each map will get me through.

Still want some updated versions of maps from Silent Assassin and Contracts but doubt it will every happen.
I would buy those games in a flash if they did them with the updated controls/challenges.