Hitman 3 Players Are Venting About Escalations

gamerant.com:

Though fans had been looking forward to the Steam release of Hitman 3, what was supposed to be a grand triumph for the game quickly turned into a huge bundle of problems for the developer, IO Interactive. One of the most egregious issues lies with the newly-released Elusive Target Arcade, where players have discovered an impressive array of bugs and issues.

Hitman 3 was released to critical acclaim a year ago, though it launched exclusively on the Epic Games Store on PC. This meant that a non-insignificant portion of the series' playerbase on PC was left waiting for the game to launch on Steam. The second year of content is only just starting, however, and the only major new piece of content is the Elusive Target Arcade.

Hitman 3 is Being Review Bombed on Steam

Now that players have had plenty of time to fiddle with the new Escalation contracts, they have started to vent about its many problems with memes, sarcastic posts, and even full-on harassment on the Hitman subreddit. The biggest grievances stem from the Elusive Target Arcade, which combines the time-limited Elusive Target contracts, missions players can attempt only once before a cooldown period, and old Escalation contracts, where players need to complete a series of challenges that greatly limit their options.

The Elusive Target Arcade as it now exists stands at odds with the things that made the series popular in the first place. Developers are well aware of this fact, too, as the game's next major content update, Hitman 3 Freelancer mode, is the polar opposite of everything that the new Escalation mode delivers. In the meantime, the memes are bound to continue.

Of course, there's plenty of criticism present on the subreddit as well. Players have explained in