I love the fact that these kinds of guides, while obviously helpful in nature, further prove my point about how linear, unfriendly, and how much of a bad decision it was to reactivate the ET, without anyone considering the previous context on why the ET hasn’t run in such a long time.
Just laying these rules out proves this mission is not intuitive for players, and I find the notion of these sorts of guides being acceptable and necessary troublesome. If you need to rely on a guide to such a degree that you cannot play the level without it, then the level has issues. At that point, you’re not playing the game – the game is playing you. No freedom allowed, follow these rules and don’t break them, lest you get locked out forever.
It’s the kind of level that works in Escalations or ETA, where similar conditions are used to shake up the gameplay, but not in a time-limited level where you cannot restart.
It’s like playing Majoras Mask without a guide. I’ve tried about five times to play that game, but it has basically no clues as to what you need to do, so you have to look things up. I don’t expect the game to tell me information all the time, but in-level breadcrumbs and well-placed conversations are certainly possible to implement on a more consistent basis.
IMO the issue is more that the whole “time-limited level where you cannot restart” is a bad idea in the first place :x
It’s perfectly possible to finish it without a guide (I did it after all), you’re meant to try and experiment different things then restart the loop to see how everything works. Kinda like contracts with specific complications or escalations in Hitman.
It’s perfectly possible to finish it without a guide (I did it after all)
I admit it’s perfectly possible, but your experience is the exception that only proves the rule. That’s not what people do. Hell, the fact there’s so many guides and advice on this very thread kinda confirms that players need to be told how to beat it, because it is so unfriendly. Neither IOI back in H2, nor @PatteDeFruit on this thead wouldn’t have emphasised the rules or how the mission works otherwise.
you’re meant to try and experiment different things then restart the loop to see how everything works.
In almost any other mission, I’d agree with that, but The Fixer doesn’t let you do that, it’s coded quite deliberately so you can’t. You follow the rules or get punished. The Fixer is both restrictive and reductive of Hitman’s gameplay.
And while escalations and contracts can be restarted, I’d argue that it’s much more encouraged there as there’s less of a harsh punishment for failure. Elusives doesn’t really have the same pattern of behaviour among players, as people want to know how to beat it without failing their chance. The motivations are quite different. There’s quite a difference in looking for guides to see what’s good, and actively relying on a guide because the mission requires you to not screw up interactions.
It’s not like the main game doesn’t have story specific limitations that you can’t avoid or get around doing a certain way. We cope with that and find ways around them. Why would this one be an issue? Because so many people failed it? Run it year after year like all the others and guess what? Players will figure it out!
I was talking about Majora’s Mask, not the Fixer (I haven’t played that ET - yet). The Fixer itself doesn’t seem very different than any overly complicated mission story, it’s just that the instant fail conditions and the whole “one time only” thing really don’t go well together (if it was a special assignment or an escalation, you could simply restart it upon failure and that would be it).
I agree that the ET is problematic, but there are so many guides because their creators either enjoy making them or try to build a community on YouTube.
I checked out MrFreeze’s guide for his H2016 apperance which has 42k views.
His guide for The Identity Thief, the much easier ET that came right after The Fixer, has 37k views. Not much different, right?
I think guides and their views are no very good metric here. That is probably because the moment you realize you need a guide is usually when you failed the mission. Which makes watching a guide obsolete. Guides seem more for angsty players who watch guides for every ET.
Instead, the “failure rate” is more interesting and something IO themselves measure.
I guess? Though I should say that the gameplay loop (or to keep with the analogy; mission story) is not just overly-complicated, it also isn’t explained very well, has no obvious starting point to hear information, and, as you rightly said, instantly fails you if you deviate from the rules, and that just doesn’t go well with the whole OTO premise of ET’s.
On this thread, not on Youtube. Though yes, I do agree here.
Obligatory “ew” response for mentioning Freeze.
37k vs 42K doesn’t sound like a large difference, but one is still a larger number than the other, by about 10% I might add. Even ignoring the changes since 2016 because of Youtube’s algorithm and general state of internet media literacy and people getting more aware of gaming culture, it seems clear to me that players are searching for a guide on The Fixer over TIT (heh), even if it’s only a small percentage more.
A small numbers difference is still a difference, no matter how insignificant it seems on the surface. Having data like this should not be thrown out or dismissed out of hand, it is still important for both IO and us to consider.
Let’s broaden the pool of our data research shall we?
This is from HitmanSeries, a Youtube channel much more focused on gameplay than having a personality behind the camera, so to speak:
I don’t know about you, but it’s almost as if the more complicated challenges and targets get more views because people want to know how to beat them. No, this is consistent among the Hitman community, from everything I’ve seen this…christ…past 9 years; The more complicated a mission is, the more likely the guide they seek has more views. In fact, going off of HitmanSeries specifically, those are clearly some of their most viewed videos.
The biggest surprise here is how few views the Warlord has by comparison.
The only result on the first page that gave me more views was OutsideXbox (which makes sense, as they have a multicultural gaming audience where Hitman is not their sole focus).
Uh…what? I don’t think that’s true at all. Maybe that was true in 2016 when these targets were new, but it’s 2025 and players are at least a little more savvy now.
Guides seem more for angsty players who watch guides for every ET.
You’ve kinda lost me there.
The failure rate is a more interesting statistic, but we don’t really get those sorts of stats that often, in part because IO like to keep us in the dark about that sort of thing, which is fair enough in that case. In fact, were it not for the celebrity ET’s, where IO uses those stats as PR for said ET’s and the DLC, I don’t think we’d be getting them, outside of year-end celebrations, possibly rarer than that.
Both IO and the community need to consider all the statistics to make an informed decision. Disregarding any data that seems inconsequential leads to confirmation bias and a corrupted dataset, which leads to skewed data to point a certain way.
I wouldn’t say they’re going out of their way to measure it. They measure literally everything. The example I always use is that they know when you’re climbing a drain pipe. The analytics are over the top.
I’m not sure I still have the pdf, but I once requested my data from them via their GDPR form in 2020, and what I got back was a list of all my known steps in-game. Super unreadable, but it got the message across. They track everything.
One wonders what they must think when i’m in freecam.
I also requested that once and was overwhelmed. You would think they turn that off at some stage, nobody reads those I am sure.
But I know it from work. You log stuff from the start in case you need it, and you keep logging it as long you just need to buy some more storage space.
Neither needs to consider any statistics to make any decision. The decision has been made: The Fixer is coming back in its original format. Baring any future inclusion in Arcade mode that has adjustments to the objective or failure conditions, it’s going to stay that way.
It doesn’t matter if any data is disregarded, it doesn’t matter if there’s any confirmation bias or a corrupted data set, it doesn’t matter if anything is skewed. Fans asked for this one back, they got it back. Enough fans asked for it to remain as it is so we can beat it as it is, it’s being kept as it is. None of the data showing its failure rate, lack of favorability among the player base, or anything else matters in any way. It’s back, it’s staying how it is, those who wanted it that way have won this argument, those who wanted it to stay gone or to be changed have lost. Everybody get over it, and either play the thing, or don’t.
Yeah, picked his for being popular, intentionally not linking them.
Yeah well 10% is small enough for me when you consider statistical variation. A holiday in the Fixer’s running time? There go the extra views. Stuff like that.
I think this is more true for non-ET content than for ET content. Though I agree that line further blurred with ET reruns.
Not disregarding them, just pointing out that they “are no very good metric here”. Truth is the data we have is washed through algorithms, different motivations to watch/play and so on. That makes it impossible to give the data weight. Not at least acknowledging that makes you run into confirmation bias.
Considering the screenshot I showed, I’m inclined to agree with you there. The Santa 47 challenge pack has almost three times the views than the fixer (though I suspect that’s because those challenges are permanent and thus have a longer shelf-life, so people can go back to it).
I understand that they want to spice things and make different type of missions, but it should be at least reminded better in the game but also in briefing as it caused so much useless fails
it’s been fun reading along, let me add two small things:
(1) Majora’s Mask vs ETs: As already mentioned but very important so I want to emphasize - MM has a solid saving system and can be played for months on end, retrying and experimenting an unlimited time. The Fixer means: One single little tiny mistake - gone FOREVER, and not even in the “you have to start all over” sense but literally. Like, the literal meaning of literally. So I can see the difference here.
(2) Views on guides: You are forgetting one thing when comparing views of the videos - the other ET was repeated multiple times, the fixer was not. So the other video propably had several peaks in views over the years; that makes the “only 10% more” way heavier.
Now, continue.
btw @Dribbleondo, while we’re talking: Great videos you do!
A saving system that, until the 3DS port, was not permanent. That itself was an issue as it forced the player to commit to long runs because quicksaving was all you could do, and only at certain places. The 3DS port did fix this, in fairness, but the N64 original doesn’t have that. As for the experimentation, the game doesn’t really explain very many of its mechanics, or how to complete each side quest, so you don’t actually have the neccessary information to start experimenting properly. I’m not saying tutorialise the hell out of MM, but there are ways to give hints to the player via diegetic level hints and clues, which the game seldom actually does. Link’s basically running around clueless like a headless chicken. The game is super unintuitive to follow.
You can say the game is permanent and gives you unlimited time (which you’re against an in-game clock, so not really the same kind of permanence), but there are specific events that you have to keep track of, that it comes off as busywork.
I like the game, but it is painful to play without any kind of help.
I totally see all your points here and MM is far from my favourite. Just highlighting the key difference of “play it how you want” and “fail once and your account is banned from ever trying again”.
I assume that now the ET is listed in the game, the contract data is there.
Anyone taken a look yet to see if they removed any of the insta-fails? I’m not expecting it to have happened, but there is a slim chance they did. Can’t be bothered to figure out why fiddler decided to break itself and not work to look myself.
and general state of internet media literacy and people getting more aware of gaming culture, it seems clear to me that players are searching for a guide on The Fixer over TIT (heh), even if it’s only a small percentage more.
