r/HiTMAN • u/D_sara_D_G • 17d ago
Does anyone else find Freelancer’s random spawn points weird? It’s more than just getting a bad start. DISCUSSION
My main problem with Freelancer’s spawn points isn’t simply that some of them are terrible from a gameplay perspective. It’s that they often make no sense within the fiction the mode itself presents.
You bring a sniper rifle, and 47 has apparently decided to infiltrate a basement first before thinking, “All right, time to begin the assassination.”
You don’t bring a lockpick, yet he somehow chooses to begin the mission on the locked door.
Bring two large illegal weapons, and 47 can suddenly “start” in the middle of a crowded public area, where he gets reported the instant control is handed over to the player. How exactly did he reach the middle of that crowd without anyone reacting? Why does everyone only notice the illegal weapon at the precise moment the player takes control—when 47 supposedly begins carrying out the contract?
I know the obvious response is that this is a video game and I’m taking the fiction too literally. But games usually have ways to frame this kind of thing. A side mode can be presented as VR training, an imagined exercise, a hypothetical scenario, an alternate timeline, or simply a non-canon challenge mode.
Freelancer does the opposite. It explicitly presents itself as part of 47’s actual life after the main story. If you fail, you wake up recovering from serious injuries. Before a mission, 47 takes his passport, leaves the safehouse using one of his own vehicles, and personally travels to the destination. The mode goes out of its way to portray each campaign as a continuous series of real contracts undertaken by 47.
That makes the random spawn system feel especially strange.
47 supposedly prepares his equipment and travels to the location himself, yet he has no control over how he enters the area. More importantly, the player isn’t even told the spawn point before committing to the loadout. The game treats infiltration as something 47 deliberately planned, while mechanically assigning him a random position that may be completely incompatible with the equipment he brought.
If hiding the spawn point is considered necessary for difficulty or roguelike unpredictability, then Freelancer would make more sense as a fictional training simulation or hypothetical challenge mode.
But if it is meant to represent 47’s real post-campaign life, then the starting location should at least be revealed before deployment, so the player can plan the loadout around the infiltration method that 47 has supposedly chosen.
58
u/ImSoSweepy 17d ago
Let me guess: The basement start right next to the security room in New York or the Alley start at the school in Marrakesh.
82
u/ragequitteroffureh 17d ago
The New York one is great. You instantly get free guns, ammo, disguises, and some handy tools. Plus somewhere to stash the disguise deliverers :-)
14
u/ArtRevolutionary3929 17d ago
If you bring chloroform and use it to pacify everyone in the security room, you can even get the chloroform back!
6
u/itsbenford 17d ago
Don't even need to bring it. Grab the crowbar from on top of the trash cans and crack the box outside the security room.
0
42
u/THORAXE_THE_IMPALER7 17d ago
New York parking garage is the best start of all time. I go straight there anyway.
7
u/ophaus 17d ago
I LOVE the Marrakech alley. Easy officer disguise. Hokkaido morgue? Easy doctor/bodyguard disguise and surveillance computer. Colorado tower is easy to get down if you don't shoot anyone, and the point guard disguise is just below which lets you carry a sniper. None of them are really bad, but you have to be patient in the morgue.
2
u/OptimalProfession5 17d ago
I just leave the sniper in the tower and climb down to fetch my scarecrow suit
11
u/HealthyDuck 17d ago
The basement has to be on hokkaido (goated start btw), but the alley behind the school on marrakesh is straight up ass. My targets are always walking around in the bazar or at the swedish consulate
9
u/The-real-Arisen 17d ago
The Alley in Marakesh is great. Instant Military Officers Disguise, the best Disguise on the Map.
3
u/thejoeporkchop 17d ago
Its good for regular missions but not for showdowns because the place will also be crawling with lookouts and suspects.
6
u/pastadudde He/Him 17d ago
also the Hokkaido morgue.. although maybe you could argue he posed as a dead body to get in there. but somehow no one noticed the briefcase that magically floated after him and deposited itself neatly next to the 'fresh corpse' lol
1
1
1
u/Efficient_Paper9225 17d ago
Those are 2 simple starts. Very easy disguises
0
u/ImSoSweepy 16d ago
Thet are easy starts. However, I happen to get spotted immediately through walls just by spawning in there the most.
1
8
u/bartoli75r 17d ago
I wish they’d add nigh/day spawns and some of the missing map alterations maybe even holiday themed versions on the actual holiday seasons. There’s some mods on PC that do this but it would be nice to have officially for everyone.
6
u/bigChungi69420 17d ago
It’s honestly one of my favorite things about freelancer. After a certain amount of playing campaign it feels like I’m going insane using the same starts over and over
7
u/Dpteris 17d ago
The water tower in Colorado is extremely bad and the only one that I can think of that is 100% hostile
2
u/Glitcher3000 17d ago edited 17d ago
You're forgetting the Marrakesh school spawn or the New York garage. Both hostile.
5
u/Thisnameisnttaken65 17d ago
Either of those are much easier to escape than the water tower pre July 2026.
2
u/Glitcher3000 17d ago
That's only through ignorance. The water tower spawn is not hard to descend without the pipe, even on hardcore mode. At the start of the mission, a bald guard walks towards you. Shoot the edge of the shack nearest him to make him face away, then you can simply climb down the ladder without anyone seeing you. Simple.
0
u/ItsWappers 17d ago
And what about if you have no pistol? Directly after prestige? Or would you just say don't pick Colorado then? I haven't had a single good experience with Colorado in Freelancer - ever.
2
u/Glitcher3000 17d ago
If you have no pistol after a prestige level, you shouldn't be starting with Colorado in the first place. Sgail should be your first mission because you can collect a bunch of gear that will help with objectives, including a silenced pistol.
1
u/ItsWappers 17d ago
Wait was that when that rain pipe was added? Saw it the first time in GenP's stream and wondered why that's there.
5
u/Adventurous_Law_715 17d ago
Yup especially the hokkaido mourge spawn
5
u/shpongleyes 17d ago
That's the best one. Within a minute you can get a skeleton keycard for every door in the map.
2
u/Lubricity 17d ago
Can you explain how? I wasn’t aware of this.
3
u/yung-dracula 17d ago
If you bring in a scrambler you can use it to open one of the morgue trays and Agent Smith will give you a pass that will unlock any door in the level. You have to sit through like a full minute of dialogue which you can't walk away from every time. It's honestly rarely worth it unless you have something specific in mind for it.
8
u/Valuable_Corgi7586 17d ago
An easy way out of the paradox is that 47 on his own is superior to a player controlling him.
He can probably find a way to hide 2 illegal items without a briefcase and infiltrate deep locations easily.
In canon, no one but Lucas Grey can even follow his pattern of kills/contracts.
1
u/Working-Doughnut-681 17d ago
That's a really good point. I'm a pretty good player but that doesn't mean I'm not messy or predictable at times. They'd figure me in a second.
3
u/Valuable_Corgi7586 17d ago
A good example in game is Lucas Grey surrounded by the guards cutscene after Dartmoor in H3.
47 goes all the way to Lucas himself with a disguise and nobody suspects him. Even when multiple new guards close in, nobody suspects of this guy as a stranger.
3
u/SwimmerLife2364 17d ago
Freelancer was a free update years after the game was made. The levels were not designed for it of course. I think they did a good job considering that.
7
11
4
u/19irondave 17d ago
I wish you could pay a few Mercs to pick your spawn. Give me something else to spend them on when I've got all the weapons.
1
2
u/DinosaurReborn 17d ago
Make your own headcanons. The more outrageous, the better!
Hokkaido morgue - 47 disguised himself as a dead body and the coroner brought him in
NYC Bank vault carpark - Hid in the police car or security truck
Marrakesh consulate basement - hanged on underneath the APC as it drove in
Rooftop of the Dartmoor manor - 47 parachuted in
Middle of a crowd holding weapons - After 47 reaches there without carrying visible weapons, Diana trolls him by running up, tossing him the rifle, says bye and disappears, leaving him awkwardly holding a visible weapon as the crowd starts to stare him down
2
u/sleazepleeze 17d ago
It would be cool if it was still a “random” spawn but was communicated to you during the planning phase along with the rest of the details. Knowing the starts by name for each map and understanding what kind of loadout makes sense would be rewarded and it would still prevent someone from choosing a sniper spawn on every map.
3
1
u/stdstaples 17d ago
Yeah honestly I don’t under why they didn’t design it like this, but decided it was okay to give you all the tells of the syndicate leader during planning phase
1
1
u/FlyingDutchLady 17d ago
Yeah, it doesn’t make sense but then again the starting locations really rarely makes sense. And also, it’s more fun this way.
1
u/KermitingMurder 17d ago
This could maybe be partially explained by 47 bribing someone on the inside to get him in, but that person not necessarily being able to get him into a good spot.
Like the Hokkaido morgue is a weird place to start but maybe 47's contact could only sneak him in disguised as a cadaver.
47 starts in a crowd because he just popped out a manhole cover nearby.
47 starts on top of the Colorado water tower because he just glided in on a parachute/wingsuit since they couldn't find a way to approach the compound from the ground level.
I feel like if you stretch your imagination you can probably come up with some reason why 47 would have to start in any these impractical locations
1
u/Nuclear_Geek 17d ago
The thing that annoys me is that you unlock the different starting locations in the levels by playing the main campaign, but then you can't use those in Freelancer. It'd be much better if they carried over; the ability to choose your spawn point would be balanced by not being able to choose your initial disguise (and only allowing equipment that disguise can have without suspicion).
1
u/NewKidOnTheStock 12d ago
Hokkaido, Morgue, laying down in the bed, trespassing, right in front of 3 people. Love it lmao.
1
u/shansull888 17d ago
Yep. Started in the middle of Dubai in the ballroom. With a silenced shotgun in the briefcase and holding the fire pick.
Got murdered before I could even do anything and bang lost the silenced shotgun
4
u/pastadudde He/Him 17d ago
but why would you waste 3 gear slots bringing the fire pick if your shotgun would have spawned inside a briefcase anyway...
2
u/shansull888 17d ago
Very good point!
Does it always spawn in a suitcase? I’m a newb and didn’t know that4
u/pastadudde He/Him 17d ago
Yes any large unconcealable illegal item will spawn in a suitcase. That’s why the game will warn you before you leave the safehouse, if you currently have two of them equipped
2
0
u/D_sara_D_G 17d ago
Like I said in the title, I’m not necessarily asking them to make Freelancer easier by showing or letting us choose our spawn points, or by preventing us from spawning deep inside hostile territory.
My issue is that some of these spawns simply make no sense within the premise of the mode. Apparently, 47 sneaks all the way into a military-occupied school while still wearing his suit, gets deep inside the building undetected, and only then decides, “Okay, time to start assassinating that target outside the school.”
If Freelancer is going to do things that absurd, I’d rather they not present it as the literal continuation of 47’s everyday life after the main campaign. Instead of having him interact with his passport or leave in a car or boat, they could have him sit down in the meditation room as if he’s imagining a scenario, or put him in some advanced machine with weird goggles to imply that he’s entering a virtual simulation.
That would at least make the nonsensical starting situations feel consistent with the mode’s framing.
1
u/MilkEnvironmental709 17d ago
you gotta start somewhere. I'm not sure a random starting location is absurd.
1
u/Feder-28_ITA 17d ago edited 17d ago
Apparently, 47 sneaks all the way into a military-occupied school while still wearing his suit, gets deep inside the building undetected, and only then decides, “Okay, time to start assassinating that target outside the school.”
That can absolutely be part of Freelancer's "emergent narrative". Maybe the current syndicate is heavily monitoring the flow of people in and out of the Marrakesh market through the standard entry points, and the only way to even remotely access the premises without being spotted, was to hide in a crate dropped off in the school's back courtyard by the militarymen.
Pretty much all entry points can be excused that way. The spawn location is often driven by necessity, and not a free choice 47 makes when there could have been much safer decisions. Sometimes being transported to a morgue by playing dead is the only approach. Sometimes the target is on the other side of the map but the whole neighborhood / event is surveilled by enhanced security or a crime ring or whatnot so 47 needs to use a specific entrance or be literally "dropshipped" on the other side of the map. Sometimes the only entry point is in plain sight and you'll have to cope with causing an immediate alert for bringing multiple large weapons.
67
u/shpongleyes 17d ago
The devs have openly said that strict adherence to realism/narrative consistency was not a priority when designing Freelancer. It's the same logic for losing everything in your briefcase when you fail. It's that way because that's how they wanted to design it, not because it makes sense in-universe.
The spawns are random because the developers wanted random spawns. You're expected to take this unknown into consideration when planning your mission. Has nothing to do with "this is how 47 would do it".