I loved it! Quite challenging and fun to figure out. Cool vibe with the music and dog statues, and that “sin-filter” was the least annoying so far. Favorite moment was stealing the rival’s sniper rifle just before he was about to take a shot at the Miami guy. He didn’t seem to mind it. Almost felt bad killing him right after.
I think you can theoretically finish all challenges on one playthrough, but forcing replays to achievement challenges isn’t bad in my book. That’s what happens for every regular mission too.
The link with envy is less clear to me though. It felt more like pride again. I certainly felt it when completing it.
I do really like this mission/escalation, and levels 2 and 3 were not easy to do SASO. Very satisfying to pull off, and there’s enough fun to be had and freedom of approach that this is a mission folks will replay.
But most impressive to me was how this sin actually made me feel envy. I agree that on the surface, in the context of the mission, much of the “envy” is very similar to “pride,” making the thematic implementation of this deadly sin seem incompletely thought-out. However, when I see my opponent waltz through trespassing zones or poison drinks with impunity, I as a player am like, “Hey, I want to do that!”
Nothing before in these games has made me so envious of the ability of the AI to “cheat” like that, because up until this mission, the AI operated on a set paradigm and it was my player ability which could manipulate it. Here, instead, we have an artificial opponent who is more powerful than me because of a whole new set of rules, and I WANT that, and can’t have it.
Finished playing the escalation, gimmick of it was very fun and actually did feel like ghost mode in a way. The lighting / map changes were great. Can’t wait for Wrath!
I thought SA/SO would be extremely hard, until I realised there’s a lot of “fake, crowd NPCs” around where some of the targets are, so it’s easy enough to do illegal actions in those areas.
The Grape Pressing room is pretty bugged (with the silos). I’d knock out NPCs behind it, or even kill the target with the knife in the grape presser, and the NPCs on the stairs at the other side would somehow see it. (I even got a “crime noticed” on my final run, but luckily SA was still intact.
I did have to look up a guide for the Sniper condition in the last level. The trailers and promo art threw me off. I kept thinking there was a way to kill him stealthily from the Winery Outlook, but the key was to poison a drink he’s using, then use a totally different angle from the Asado area to hide his body.
I did that differently (the sniper guy). I actually followed him as he changed his route to wander up to where he would otherwise be sniped by the rival and grabbed him from behind (from inside the flower ring thing). Then once he was knocked out, I just hit him point blank with the sniper rifle and then sniped the rival. Since the rifle was silenced and the rival is alone, SA.
This happened to me too. I don’t know if it was the rival spotting me (which wouldn’t make any sense due to his different AI) because I saw him several times running somewhere after I had been spotted by someone and I couldn’t see anyone being highlighted in orange.
Same!! I feel like his AI script must use the same thing they did with Diana (can’t distract, can’t see, can’t be KOd or Killed)
But the way he runs away in situations like that (I’d often get spotted pushing the scientist into the grape crusher) made me think he has something to do with it, but I don’t see why, since in the presser room, I usually killed the guy when he was nowhere near. It was probably an NPC whose orange glow hadn’t been activated even if they were alerted.
just some residual Envy thoughts i’ve had: in The Envy Contention, it would have been neat to see Lucas Grey to make an appearance. I know in previous Sins, IOI has seemingly wanted the narrative to be uninfluenced by the story in H3, but still, seeing Grey in Envy might have been an interesting look into 47’s psyche, much like seeing Diana in Lust could have been. 47 could be envious of Grey for his better grasp on emotions, or maybe for having experienced a freer life, since Grey didn’t need to answer to the ICA. when the Rival kept sniping my targets, it reminded me of Grey in that Colorado cutscene as well. we didn’t see much of Grey in-action as an assassin through gameplay, so this would have been cool.
I think it would be more envious of his freer emotions. 47 didn’t really “answer” to ICA, he and most of their agents are independent contractors who are simply assigned workloads, with any requirements on ICA’s behalf mainly being to maintain their secrecy and professionalism if they wanted to continue to work with them. Also, Grey was employed directly as security for Milton-Fitzpatrick, so he was actually even more answerable to his employers than 47 was, until he learned they were Providence. So I think Grey’s emotional range, retained memories, and ability to fit into society as a regular person enough to live a “normal life” for 30 years would be the cause of such envy.
yes, the emotions would probably be cause for more envy. when i said he answered to the ICA, i meant it more of like, listening to his handler and constantly having to rely on someone/something for guidance. codependency basically.
But I still have a long way to reach the level of the best speedrunners 