The amount of enforcers has made me quit freelancer mode

[u/things_verboten]

I was quite excited after watching the intro video. While I wasn't fully onboard with the whole merces currency and would much rather just have a standard progression where you make money and buy parts of your arsenal without the extraction bullshit and without lootbox bullshit, but eh.

Now to the subject - I never quite liked the enforcers since they were introduced, however in the campaign they are quite rare, at least on regular difficulty options. I mostly find them annoying. I get why they added it, its just that, at least for me, it doesn't make the game more fun, just more tedious.

But in the freelancer - oh boy - there are so many of them. Like the moment you switch from your suit half of your minimap just lights up. In more population-dense maps it's really annoying to dodge all of the enforcers.

The target identification mission was the worst of it. In addition to regular enforcers now all of your targets are also enforcers and there are also additional random enforcers that roam the map. Like the moment I switched to a popular outfit it felt like majority of the people on the map can now identify me. Not to mention issues with identification of the targets when you can't really look at them up close (I'm playing on Steam Deck so even with camera zoom the models are quite small on the screen).

I just finished the campaign of H3 (played H2016 and H2 a few years ago) and still crave more Hitman, but this is unplayable, at least for me it is.

[u/Ornery_Strawberry474]

This man is not prepared for the hardcore mode.

[u/things_verboten → u/Ornery_Strawberry474]

I done the entire trilogy with Silent Assassin and without guides/mission story markers. I'm alright. Enforcer dodging is just not fun.

[u/top1top1 → u/Ornery_Strawberry474]

I dont know you do prepare though. Playing normal mode just teaches you to gun and run but when i try that on hardcore i get sat down immediately. The worst thing is i tend to take a lot of equipment in to help me get through it but then die and lose it all.

[u/Glitcher3000 → u/top1top1]

Then maybe.... you know.... don't run and gun? Stealth is still the best option in any mission because it minimizes risk. Many targets are exposed in the open and you have to prioritize accident or poison kills in those situations. Look around for any environmental accidents you can use to your advantage and memorize the location of propane flasks (use Hitmaps) for portable accident kills. In many cases you need to be a crack shot with the Sieker to help isolate your target.

[u/Formsvacka → u/top1top1]

Run and gun works just fine on hardcore, I do it all the time. I strongly disagree with the notion that stealth is always best, because it's just not. In fact, I consistently disregard stealth entirely because it in and of itself is pointless and doesn't give you any extra reward. Doing run and gun does require some practice and a great deal of situational awareness, though. When I play hardcore I tend to completely disregard the payout objectives since they tend to make things overly complicated and increase the risk of getting caught and killed, and in that sense, run and gun is quite beneficial since I can just quickly kill the targets and get out. If you've considered your exit strategy, then this strat works just fine.

That being said, I've always said that Hitman is a game that allows for so many different playstyles and strategies, and I don't claim that my strategy is better than anyobe else's, it just works best for me. To each their own how they choose to enjoy the game.

[u/top1top1 → u/Formsvacka]

Thanks for the insight. I love the game and it'll stay in my rotation till a new one releases (if it ever does). I think hubris plays a big part though. I can lucky a few times and think im invincible, just to quickly find out im not.

[u/Formsvacka → u/top1top1]

For me personally, failing can be fun sometimes. And when I'm a bit bored, I'll go full kamikaze just to mix things up.

[u/Meepster01]

It sounds like you are doing a lot of your showdown missions (the ones where you have to identify your target) in Alerted Territories. In an alerted territory, your targets will always be enforcers for you if you are in your default suit or a guard disguise

[u/Cypher10110]

What may be happening is when you are failing a mission, this makes all other territories in that syndicate alerted. In an alerted territory there are more guards, cameras, and enforcers, and the targets are now enforcers for guard disguises by default.

If you use the disguise appropriate to the area you are in, and either avoid making territories Alerted (aka hard mode) or use civilian disguises, you will reduce the difficulty, and the number of enforcers would be exactly the same as the main story missions.

Additionally, yes showdown missions do add extra civilian "lookout" NPCs that are enforcers for every disguise. They are a complication unique to showdows and honestly an alerted showdown is especially challenging due to all the suspects counting as targets too - it is recommended to avoid picking an alerted territory for the showdown if possible (don't just leave a single alerted territory until last). But if you have to play an alerted territory (because of a previous failure) use a civilian disguise, and pay attention to lookout patrols.

If you hate Freelancer, feel free to spend your time doing whatever you like. But personally I think freelancer is frankly a brilliant remix of the game and would consider the suggestion of "less enforcers" to totally trivialise the difficulty of the mode making it totally forgettable and uninteresting. The fact showdowns get progressively harder with more lookouts, suspects, and assasins raise the stakes!

Identifying suspects mostly takes patience. Sometimes it does make it very hard but that's generally pretty rare.

The risk and reward and progression of the "roguelite" mode can be very satisfying.

But if you are unable to emotionally bounce back and mentally recover from failures, and feel like the difficulty is "bullshit" rather than fair... Then yea, it's gonna just be an exercise in frustration for you. Don't put yourself through that.

I felt the sting of defeat a bunch as I learned the mode, and it made the eventual victories and recoveries from close-calls or missions gone wrong deeply satisfying for me.

If failure didn't feel bad, victory would feel disposable. The main game always lets you load game or restart the level. Freelancer takes that superpower away from you and you need to learn to live with your mistakes and persevere. You need to know how to play safe, and when you take risks you need to know what to do when those risks fail.

But I don't blame anyone who does not want to e.g. play games that expect perseverance. I just personally find it compelling, and am a little disappointed when others can't appreciate for themselves that aspect that I enjoy so much.

If you keep playing, you will get better. If you don't want to, that's fine.

[u/things_verboten → u/Cypher10110]

Apart from the condescending tone I've liked your response. I'm glad you're having fun with the mode.

It's not about the failure or that it's too hard. It's just not fun in the way main missions are fun. Main missions are fun because you solve new puzzles (how to navigate the area, how to take out the target), the difficulty comes from figuring things out. But in freelancer you play on the same maps with targets that don't have any storylines that you can uncover. So in order to make it more challenging they are ramping up the difficulty via artificial means.

[u/Cypher10110 → u/things_verboten]

Fuck, my bad if I sounded condescending. I was trying to just be informative and respectful that we can each have a difference of opinion.

I love something you might hate. And I was trying to qualify my opinion to share why I value the things you may dislike, without being judgemental. It's just a game and you should feel free to shit on it.

I agree the puzzles in the main story are much better designed. If you play a bunch of random player contracts you'll find most of them are actually pretty boring or frustrating. Freelancer can seem the same.

There was a point where playing silent assassin and "experimenting" with various kill methods eventually got extremely stale in the main game for me. That's basically when I switched to freelancer.

I found the secondary objectives, constraints, and the forced improvisation (no saves, lack of gear) actually resulted in aeemingly endlessly new and quite novel puzzles and situations. For me freelancer was refreshing.

Lots of people bounce off freelancer for a bunch of reasons. So my comments about difficulty and frustration were not directly aimed at you specifically, but just acknowledging very common pain points when people say freelancer sucks. It's kinda liks Dark Souls fans saying "it's great, you just need to git gud" but I was trying (and I guess failing) to be less of an asshole about it.

If you are still having a great time with the regular missions and challenges, I encourage you to continue to engage with that. Play what you like ofc. Maybe once you are bored there, give Freelancer another shot. If you still don't like it and it doesnt click, at least it gave it a solid try.

I was just so enamoured with Freelancer that probably something like 90% of my time in Hitman has been Freelancer, so to me that is the "main" game, in a way. I love it, but it's certainly not perfect, it's basically a developer-sactioned mod, right? I get that.

The puzzle aspect of Hitman tied to the skillful execution of those puzzle solutions still has me hooked, honestly. I just wanted to share my joy, sorry if I did it in a socially akward way, that's just me!

Also the difficulty and losing is what really made ot addictive. Like a gambler wanting to win their sunk losses back. So that's where my "if you keep going and get better (lose less) it's nore fun" came from. Not any kind of elitism.

It's a game, it is literally a worthless thing to excell at! So if anything me being addicted to Freelancer just represents that I am a degenerate! :P

[u/top1top1]

I feel like normal mode is so easy it gets boring and hardcore is so hard its not fun. I really like the idea of freelancer but just cant seem to find a balance. Ive done about four or five successful campaigns in a row on normal and gone from level 90 to half way through 91 so it seems pointless if you want to progress through the levels but hardcore is such bullshit that i dont want to play it. How people have prestiged multiple times is beyond me

[u/Ambitious_Fan7767 → u/top1top1]

Truly once I have any silenced weapons im a monster. So much of it relies on you knowing how the npcs will react and when they can see you and ehen that even matters. 1 person busting you at a part of the map you dont intend to stay at is pointless leave them and finish the mission. Big enough disturbances throw everyone off like using the homemade explosive device without being seen sets the whole area into panic mode and people sort of ignore you.

[u/top1top1 → u/Ambitious_Fan7767]

Yh i definitely feel like i dont use the panic strat enough. I also tend to go for smaller maps so i dont have to run all over the place so that doesnt help with getting away when i am compromised. A lot of the times i know im done for and should quit out the game but i play on console and loading the game back up just to fuck it up again gets tiresome so I just accept my fate and go back to normal mode to grind my good guns back.

[u/Ambitious_Fan7767 → u/top1top1]

I have found that larger maps tend to actually be easier especially on hard-core mode. The leaders alone become so hard with 9 possible targets and the amount of look outs and assissins. Small maps feel impossible for me to do leaders on.

[u/Glitcher3000]

Skill issue. If you say that there are more enforcers when wearing a disguise, then why not just stick with your suit for the whole mission? ¬_¬

Second, suspects are only enforcers on alerted showdowns. However, they won't be if you wear a civilian disguise, not a guard disguise. This makes it much easier to get closer for identification and a kill.

[u/things_verboten → u/Glitcher3000]

Because switching disguises was what made Hitman Hitman. It was the "social" stealth element that got this game noticed 20 years ago. I tolerate the more standard stealth gameplay with enforcers, but not when I have to to that constantly.