Fixed 
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Hi Cake941,
I never meant that one escalation was comparable to the resources and time required of a bonus mission. That is obviously absurd. I was talking about escalations with respect to all of the escalations that have been offered to us throughout the life span of Hitman 3 - paid and free. Including the escalations that we have yet to get as part of the Seven Deadly Sins pass.
I hope that clears up my message.
Very much disagree. They’re very repetitive: forced starting location, forced loadout, very often way too linear. Majority of them simply haven’t been very interesting gameplay wise, with barely any replay value. Way too theme focused instead of gameplay focused, while the latter should be case for escalations, which have literally been labelled a playground for devs.
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You are mostly saying this in a speed runner point of view, not a general player. They were absolutely fun to play, but of course they weren’t speed runner material.
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Frote7, absolutely true.
It is a choice of IOI to focus on highly-curated, strongly thematic post-launch content, which has little replay value, By setting up specific conditions with a restricted load out, IOI are forcing the Hitman player to solve their stealth puzzle, railing the player into figuring out a little set piece that they have created. In a way these are a bit like guided tutorials, where the puzzle designers are teaching the average player how to play Hitman stealth.
For the beginner or average Hitman player, this is what they want.
An open puzzle design often leads to a bit too much choice, and indecision in what to do. Those who are more familiar with Hitman have amassed a large toolbox of game mechanic tricks to toy with NPC behavior, not available to the less experienced player.
This more curated content is less interesting because it is less open and flexible to the expert player, but closer to what the average player is looking for.
Them being repetitive in the sense of forced starting locations, forced loadouts, being too linear and having barely any replay value is simply true though.
Sure, how much value you put on that is subjective, but in general those aren’t good qualities.
Also not just speedrunners who feel this way btw.
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IO themselves have labelled escalations as playground for the devs, in which they can implement crazy complications that are not found in any of the other modes. I would also question how much a beginning player would delve into escalations as a means to learn the game. Think most would simply use the main missions and their respective mission stories for that, which do the same thing.
Why not mix and match it a bit more? Why solely cater to the average/beginning player? They had these cool, unique to escalation mode, complications like hot disguise for example. The escalations used to be far more experimental with unique gameplay elements, that’s what made it fun.
In H3 the vast majority of them force a starting location and no loadout, with a linear path combined with an obvious (and often the only one) solution, which again doesn’t make for interesting gameplay, and has no replayability.
I’m not saying that they should completely get rid of these types of escalations, but they could/should mix and match them a lot more, catering to more than just average players.
Edit:
But they are both available and obtainable, if a player is simply willing.
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I do understand where you are coming from. It is more of a personal view sort of thing. Some like linear some don’t. You’re a speedrunner so you don’t like limitations. I did say in my Jinzhen Incident thread that I like them being linear, but I hope they all aren’t since it will get old and I like the creativity when you can actually bring stuff in.
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Found this on their twitch page.
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Cool, I guess that should be the IOI Insider: Blood Money anniversary special spinoff edition (name not chosen yet 
) livestream that they talked about having next.
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Blood Money Ultra HD Remake announcement.
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i like how people called the new suit “spoon suit” lmao
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Hmmmmm. That may be a mistake. There will be a bonus stream 100%, but unlikely on the 12th 
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Just to get clarification from the stream yesterday: Codename 47 HD Remaster for Consoles isnt on the Roadmap because those are HITMAN 3 Roadmaps…? 
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Hi Frote7,
I agree with you completely that they could provide more for the expert player.
I think that IOI think of the community curated content and master mode as an avenue for the more advanced Hitman player. And of course, you have created your own awesome community within the Hitman universe for those that want to learn speed running.
There are a few different paths available with most of the escalations, so it isn’t completely paint-by-number. Having played enough Hitman, I can see where the devs are forcing the player to find a way around particular choke points. They are taking you through a progression of complexity from the first to third levels of the escalation.
There is a sense of accomplishment in Hitman to figure out each level of an escalation to a final silent assassin run at the third tier that is a serial collection of practiced actions of increased complexity.
I think this is Hitman at its best – and so I am totally in for more of these types of escalations.
The devs keep the load outs restricted so that all players have a limited number of tools, prevent kills from being just exploitation of tools such as the lethal syringe, emetic-grenade in the suitcase trick, or propane tank-breaching charge, etc.
I am not as much of a fan of the elusive targets, because you can basically cheese all the elusive targets by utilisation of tools. At least they got rid of the electrocution phone…
The rusty crowbar mechanic is kinda cool because it forces player to be choosy in which of the limited number of doors to open.
Travis states that they are likely to introduce new elements to the escalation formula, and all of this will basically create more interesting puzzle making and puzzle solving opportunities.
I treat the Seven Deadly Sins like purchase of a little phone puzzle game for 5 bucks. I think that there has been too high of an expectation of new world building in this DLC content, in my opinion.
None of those provide the cool and unique complications that they have showcased in past escalations.
The majority of them forces a linear path with almost painfully obvious solutions (also often the only one). Take the Berlin one for example.
I barely see this in these escalations tbh.
They could simply enforce the kill methods, instead of stripping away all the players tools resulting in extremely linear approaches with no replayability. And what about those forced starting locations, also horrible.
Cheesing something is up to the players, lots of players still try to find cool and unique approaches instead. Also don’t see how the possiblity of cheesing something is in any way worse than forcing a linear approach.
Super exciting
I’m talking about all the escalations
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Hi Frote7,
Yes I am in agreement that there has been a change in the escalations – and some of the most memorable for me were ones in the original Paris missions of 2016.
Some changes have been for the better though. I thought that all those escalations with minefields and tripwires wasn’t a great idea. Trial and error trying to avoid exploding yourself. Not a good design element.
Hey, I really, really liked that Berlin escalation !!! – the asylum feel and a series of different kills. Yes to the expert player, the solutions were “painfully obvious”. Not to those less experienced though.
On the other end of the scale, some of the community curated feature contracts have been too cute, too tedious, and too reliant on an insider’s knowledge of game mechanics.
It is a bit of Goldilocks – not too hard, not too easy, – the devs finding that sort of sweet spot just right for the average player, which won’t please everyone.
Fundamentally, the devs have ideas of what they want the player to carryout in the escalation, and then they reverse engineer the puzzle, setting up conditions that force the player through their puzzle.
Frote7, I’ve watched your speedruns in amazement – and even the devs were pretty shocked at what you could exploit in the game. But there aren’t many like you.
You would be helpful to the dev team in helping to create the escalations – because the best puzzle solvers are also often those who are great at puzzle making.
Again, all i’m saying is they could/should bring some variety when it comes to these escalations, instead of solely having these linear ones with forced starting locations and loadout. Just mix it up a bit.
That, and bring back those cool and unique complications. Make the escalations actually feel special again in terms of gameplay, and not just thematically.
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Well the devs will likely listen to you, because you know the game better than almost everyone.
Here is to mixing it up a bit in the future content, and bringing back the cool and unique complications.
I’ll also take the thematic and story narrative driven pieces as well. it is all fine for me. I like the hokey, cool, super spy schtick – and the devs really know how to play up this stuff. The Seven Deadly Sins is that kind of content. Devs are not constrained by the story arc of the WoA Trilogy, and can go hog wild in crazy rabbit holes.
While your speed-running past, some of us also like to hang out and listen to all that often clever NPC dialog, e.g. frustrations over building IKEA furniture, etc.
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I don’t think there’s any way to do it that will please everyone. What is cool and unique to one player is infuriating to another player. Personally, I hate timers. I don’t like them in real life and I don’t like them in games. Any contract or escalation i see that has a time complication I automatically move to the bottom of the list. Some players find that sort of thing very interesting and desirable.
I see that players focus on different things too. The Berlin escalation (satu mare I think it was) was great in one very important respect. Each level built on the previous one in that the end location of each level was the start of the next one. That made it feel like a story-driven mission rather than repetition. A lot of the early escalations were just doing the same thing three (or five) times but with one extra little change that made no sense. Why would I bother to never carry a briefcase on stairs (to name one pointless example)?
I agree that the specifics of the Berlin levels made it very linear and drove the player towards a pretty specific route and style, the build was good and well done. If we can get more escalations that have good complications that make sense while remaining story-driven, that would work.
On the subject of forced starting locations, I certainly take your point but unless they change escalations around to allow for choice in start locations, it’s something we’ll have to live with as IOI has made it pretty clear that escalations aren’t going anywhere.
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