Freelancer frustrates players

[ONI-Junge]

Hello,
I'm a streamer and I tested Freelancer before it came out. And even then I listed the problems of the module in the feedback.

A lot of players from my and other communities are too frustrated by Freelancer.
Not because the module is bad. The idea and the potential is very good. But for Hitman fans to play Freelancer, something has to change. I would like to list here what are the biggest problems of the players.

1- Freelancer has 18 levels. Divided into 4 sections. Each section gets harder and harder. What most players would wish for here is that you don't always have to start from scratch when you fail.
The levels are divided into 4 sections and there are 4 boss levels.
It would be nice if you had a save point after each section / boss level. Then you wouldn't have to do everything from the beginning, you just have to do the section again.

2- Collecting is a great idea, Hitman has always been a game for collectors.
The problem isn't that if you fail, you lose the things you have with you on a mission. Although many players do not like that. Because Hitman is a collecting game, and players like to complete their collections. But no one wants to lose the items in their collection.
However, what's a big problem is that if you fail, you'll lose all the gear in the trunks. Even the gear you don't have with you. No way should this happen!

3- Let's return to the topic of collecting.
As already mentioned, Hitman is a collecting game.
Many players do not take the weapons they collect with them on a mission because they are afraid of losing the weapon if they fail. Unfortunately, this Gearfear is a problem. Because actually you should be able to use the collected weapons to complete the missions in different ways.
But the guns are not used by the players because they are afraid of losing the guns.

4- An issue that is also very annoying that if you fail you will also lose some of your hard earned money.
The equipment at the black market dealers is sometimes very expensive.
And you don't raise money very quickly.
And that for everything you lose when you fail, you also lose money, many players think is too much.

5- If you think about all the statements now, you will realize that the large amount of losses you get when you fail creates a lot of frustration among the players.
And that's why so many players don't play the game anymore.
But that's a shame, because Hitman Freelancer offers a lot of potential.
The best way would be to make the normal mode of the game for the casual gamer and collector and for the hardcore gamer to put the frustrating stuff into the hardcore mode.

6- Small idea of mine for the future.
It would be very cool if you could collect the outfits from the levels. And the outfits then stay in your collection in the dressing room.
And you could then wear these outfits for other missions as a starting outfit.

I hope this is read by someone with enough influence. To maybe achieve good improvements in the game.

[ONI-Junge]

And sorry for my terrible english.

[PewPew]

Play long enough and you find that losing gear is part of the charm. Also the difficulty becomes nonexistent if you know how to exploit the system. For starter find yourself a silenced gun and you'll never have problem again.

Large amount of losses is for bad people or new people. For mediocre players or long time fans, only hardcore proves to be a challenge. I didn't even play hitman 1 or 3 and I now have 500k money and only lost my hardcore run. Never bothered doing hardcore again cause it's too hard for how little reward it gives. My "collection" is pretty much full with everything on the shelf and the "trunk" filled. Only missing golden guns cause it's tied to levels.

Costume would be too broken, but if it's just cosmetics sure. But if it's actually a "disguise" you can bring to mission then no. Game is easy enough as it is.

The start is the hardest part of the game, but if you ask or research how to make the game easier, you find that exploiting the system is actually beyond busted that the only counter to the player is bugs/glitches/terrible detection etc. But even that can be remedied with alt + f4 before you die. So technically even if RNG/bugs mess you up, you have a split second counter.

Ofc none of this matter in hardcore cause an assassin can one tap you there from narnia. And the objectives themselves can be impossible to be do if you don't plan properly.

[SakuraKoi]

Those problems you have listed are... really trivial.

Losing stuff itself is not problem (only utterly stupid for tools) but the mode really ain't that fun in the first place. This is because the economy is all whack and what is the point of a campaign when no mission feeds into the following ones? Wherever one looks, there's too little to keep the mode interesting.

All you do is kill and then try to kill the correct one before the correct one flees. You always start in your suit somewhere where only suit onlys start and all optional objectives do is to earn you money so that you can earn more money. Once a risk is involved in achieving an objective, it already becomes a risk not worth taking since the gain sure won't reduce future risks.

[Pilzquadrat]

Seriously, if you don't use your guns cause you're too afraid to lose them that's a you issue. I always bring the epic goldballer and on almost any mission an additional epic rifle/smg/shotgun for objectives. What's the appeal of having stuff on your wall you are afraid to use?

[Devang]

You're basically describing playing the story mode and/or featured contracts

[Sayori]

Jesus christ if I have to read one more post about people complaining about freelancer being too punishing I might lose my mind.

The design is flawless, and is not intended for all players. Any issues you have with it can be solved by playing story mode, escalation challenges or contract missions instead.

Also losing gear is an absolute non issue to begin with when alt+f4 is so exploitable that it works even when HALF WAY THROUGH DYING.

[DyD&Marina]

Originally posted by Sayori:

Jesus christ if I have to read one more post about people complaining about freelancer being too punishing I might lose my mind.

The design is flawless, and is not intended for all players. Any issues you have with it can be solved by playing story mode, escalation challenges or contract missions instead.

Also losing gear is an absolute non issue to begin with when alt+f4 is so exploitable that it works even when HALF WAY THROUGH DYING.

The design is alot far from flawless.

Developers not integrated the various random systems with the side quests/prestige quests system.

This create incompatibility causing the impossibility to complete some side/prestige quests because target AI or position isn't taken in consideration.

For example there are some target AI go to puke in place without a way to hide the corpse when you have the mission "hide the corpse of the target".

This situations are against how Developers itself describe the gamemode, considered they say if player have the right tools and choice the right location can do any objective.

The design itself of the gamemode isn't working how Developers wanted.

And Design is the last of the problems of the gamemode with lack of npc target, poor AI, lack of a real challenge and in general a more cod/casual oriented gameplay enforced by side/prestige quests.

Not a surprise a so inadapt gamemode to Hitman series have failed.

[Gex]

I disagree completely. The fun of freelancer is exactly that of having to restart with very few resources. That's how the mode forces you to be creative, and it can be very rewarding. What would be the point if we could just have permanent upgrades, like always starting with a silenced pistol, lockpick etc.. making it just another variation of the main game?

[DyD&Marina]

Originally posted by Gex:

I disagree completely. The fun of freelancer is exactly that of having to restart with very few resources. That's how the mode forces you to be creative, and it can be very rewarding. What would be the point if we could just have permanent upgrades, like always starting with a silenced pistol, lockpick etc.. making it just another variation of the main game?

You not played the gamemode?

You have permanent upgrades like lockpicking and silenced pistol.

After you unlocked them you can always start with them.

You lose them only if you take them with you when you die.

And this is exactly the point of a rogue lite mode, permanent progression.

The creativity is really low in freelancer, after all the numbers of targets is really limited and the AI behaviour and pathing limits even more the possibilities.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by ONI-Junge:

Hello,
I'm a streamer and I tested Freelancer before it came out. And even then I listed the problems of the module in the feedback.

A lot of players from my and other communities are too frustrated by Freelancer.
Not because the module is bad. The idea and the potential is very good. But for Hitman fans to play Freelancer, something has to change. I would like to list here what are the biggest problems of the players.

1- Freelancer has 18 levels. Divided into 4 sections. Each section gets harder and harder. What most players would wish for here is that you don't always have to start from scratch when you fail.
The levels are divided into 4 sections and there are 4 boss levels.
It would be nice if you had a save point after each section / boss level. Then you wouldn't have to do everything from the beginning, you just have to do the section again.

Freelancer does not have 18 levels. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of what you are playing. It is an unlimited game mode, you have an 18 mission cycle that repeats forever. Completing 18 missions is not the end, there's challenges for doing that 100 times over.

The only "levels" are mastery which go to 100 and you never lose them, they are progress with unlocks that remain for you, forever.

You also don't start over with nothing. The only thing you lose for failing a campaign is the tools table, this is a disposable set of tools, many of which were one time use anyway.

You keep your wall collections and you keep your house unlocks (and the various items you can use from the rooms in the house)

2- Collecting is a great idea, Hitman has always been a game for collectors.
The problem isn't that if you fail, you lose the things you have with you on a mission. Although many players do not like that. Because Hitman is a collecting game, and players like to complete their collections. But no one wants to lose the items in their collection.
However, what's a big problem is that if you fail, you'll lose all the gear in the trunks. Even the gear you don't have with you. No way should this happen!

Skill issue. You actually don't lose what you are carrying for "failing" a mission. You can use an exit and leave at any time and you will fail a mission without losing anything that you are carrying. You've misunderstood the difference between failing and being wounded.

Being wounded is not the only way to fail a mission. You lose what you are carrying only if you are wounded. You do not lose what you are carrying simply for failing a mission. You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how the mode works and what options you have for failure.

Things going bad? Exit the mission, keep your things, fail the mission.

You won't even lose your tools table unless you also fail the campaign which is only going to happen if it was an alerted territory.

3- Let's return to the topic of collecting.
As already mentioned, Hitman is a collecting game.
Many players do not take the weapons they collect with them on a mission because they are afraid of losing the weapon if they fail. Unfortunately, this Gearfear is a problem. Because actually you should be able to use the collected weapons to complete the missions in different ways.
But the guns are not used by the players because they are afraid of losing the guns.

Go play the main game, or escalations, or contracts mode or the arcade. You have dozens of things in the game you could be playing and litterally 1000's of contracts if you want to play that way.

You're crying over one mode that is distinct from the rest and that you barely understand how it works.

4- An issue that is also very annoying that if you fail you will also lose some of your hard earned money.
The equipment at the black market dealers is sometimes very expensive.
And you don't raise money very quickly.
And that for everything you lose when you fail, you also lose money, many players think is too much.

If you were any good at the game you would make and lose millions. You're not understanding the long term design of the mode. In an 18 mission cycle you will make somewhere near 250,000 and you'll be doing dozens of these as you level up to 100

Fail and lose some of it? So what, you shouldn't have been carrying that much on you, buy the weapons and put them on the wall, only bring with you what you need specifically and leave before you get wounded whenever possible.

By the time your wall is full you'll be throwing away weapons just to have something to buy and spend money on.

5- If you think about all the statements now, you will realize that the large amount of losses you get when you fail creates a lot of frustration among the players.

If I think about all of your statements it tells me you don't actually understand the mode or how it works.

[36 bald fat lives with parents]

Yeah, wait till you have a full wall and 1.5 million merces in your wallet. You will beg to lose so you at least have something to build back up again.

This mode is trial by fire. I hate to break it to you, but that implies a little bit about your stream.

[S R]

Eh, disagree. I'm sitting on 200k and have come to relish failing an occasional mission to actually have something to spend money on again. So no, please don't nerf the mode further. Personally what I actually want is to be able to enjoy Master difficulty without having to do prestige objectives.

[DyD&Marina]

Originally posted by 36 bald fat lives with parents:

Yeah, wait till you have a full wall and 1.5 million merces in your wallet. You will beg to lose so you at least have something to build back up again.

This mode is trial by fire. I hate to break it to you, but that implies a little bit about your stream.

I have the full wall(except dlc), but only 800k.

I'm tempted to restart "hardcore" only to rebuy the tools.

I'm trying to do the challenges, but now i have only challenges about syndicate leaders.

So i have to deal with boring "filler" missions with no difficulty in wait of the showdown.

Today come out returnal, 21 come out atomic earth, i doubt i will play this gamemode alot more.

[DearestRook25]

Originally posted by Evil Gestapo Man:

Eh, disagree. I'm sitting on 200k and have come to relish failing an occasional mission to actually have something to spend money on again. So no, please don't nerf the mode further. Personally what I actually want is to be able to enjoy Master difficulty without having to do prestige objectives.

Yeah, i think besides some small annoyances (i hate how new york is the only level with a bunch of hidden merces and items) hardcore mode forcing you to play according to the prestige objectives is a bit much, right?
Hardcore mode already puts you on the hardest difficulty (more guards, better AI, more cameras, very hard combat), removes all the freelancer tools you have and also takes all your money if you lose.
Also they described it as "high risk, high reward" but most of the time i barely make more money than normal, especially since doing the side objectives is much harder than normal.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by DearestRook25:

Yeah, i think besides some small annoyances (i hate how new york is the only level with a bunch of hidden merces and items)

Mendoza has a safe in the basement that always has money in it. In story mode it just has documents. Beyond that the couriers and random safe spawns add those things to the other locations as part of the mode.

And there's items and weapons you can bring back on a variety of locations, too many to even list them all; but just as example I find the silenced SMG from Ambrose island far more useful than the knives from NY.