Freelancer mode feels like a roguelike whereas past attempts at a roguelike game mode in AAA games (Bloodborne's chalice dungeons, AC: Valhalla's forgotten saga mode) generally don't.
We're used to thinking of genre as a set of mechanics or themes. Eg, from Wikipedia:
Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character.
But what if instead we thought of genres as a set of player experience goals? What if we tried to systematize what the 'vibe' of a genre is, and apply it through different mechanics?
Here's my version of a roguelike as a set of player experience pillars:
- I have a random set of tools, and I have to improvise with what I got
- I am balancing short-term goals (get through the level safely) against long-term goals (accumulate resources I can use later)
- Failure represents a major setback in progression (up to and including going all the way back to the start)
- My tools and resources are ephemeral and I can't rely on having them forever
- I can know some, but not all, of what I can expect
- I can push my luck, and probably will have to in order to complete the campaign
- I don't know exactly the consequences of my actions
- ...but I do have to live with them
And it's worth noting that Hitman is hitting these goals by being willing to do things that are, in a traditional AAA framework of frictionlessness, kind of hostile to the player. For example, you can get a really nice gun, take it with you on a mission, and then if you leave the mission without it that nice gun is just gone forever.
