IO Interactive has revealed its Year 2 plans for Hitman 3, which will officially begin on January 20th. The announcement was revealed in a stream and on the official website.
Hitman fans were initially left disappointed by the post-launch content in IO’s third outing of the World of Assassination trilogy. Many assumed the lacklustre Seven Deadly Sins mini-expansion was going to be the only new content coming to the game after its initial release back in January 2021.
Lucky for them, Hitman 3’s Year 2 content looks to be much bigger and better than ever before. Here’s what’s coming to the game throughout 2022.
NEW MAPS
First and foremost, Hitman 3 is getting a new map later this year. We don’t know a lot about it so far, but it’s codenamed “Rocky” and seems to take place in a jungle cliffside. It’s complete with tropical trees, a rickety wooden bridge and lots of darkness to shroud your movement.
NEW GAME MODE
Meanwhile, a new game mode called Freelancer is coming to Hitman 3. This mode introduces roguelike elements, strategic planning and a new customisable safehouse where you pick and choose how you want to design it.
The safehouse allows you to pick out a new suit, test your weapons and train for new contracts. When you’re done customising, you’ll be sent out into the field to take part in a bunch of different missions that change each time like a short campaign where you’re tasked to take down a criminal enterprise.
These missions tweak the regular missions in the Hitman World of Assassination trilogy. For example, new NPCs have been added, your gear doesn’t stay persistent across missions, and IO has even hinted at other assassins being present as NPCs. Overall, it’s very exciting.
VIRTUAL REALITY ON PC
Hitman 3’s VR exclusivity on PlayStation is finally up, and will be launching on PC on January 20th. This expanded update for VR includes the ability to use free hand-motion controls as opposed to simply using a headset with a controller. This should allow those agents out there with a PCVR kit to have more freedom and control over how they perform their assassinations.
VR is available for every mission in the trilogy, allowing you to play the entirety of Hitman 1-3 in that mode without any breaks if you so wish to.
“We’ve incorporated VR specific setups to some Hitman controls to make them feel as intuitive as possible and natural during gameplay,” says the official announcement. “For example, you use two hands to throw items; aim with your left and ‘fling and release’ with your right. Whether you throw straight-on, a ninja-like sidethrow or any other way, it’s going to feel satisfying.”
“Combining the use of two hands with the freedom to move your body and huge sandbox locations is a recipe for creativity and chaos. We’ve seen our own developers adapt karate-stances, embrace their inner boxer and even just play around with how our AI and game world reacts to the new-found freedom of VR.”
ELUSIVE TARGET ARCADE
Almost six years since the feature was initially released in Hitman (2016), the series is finally getting replayable elusive targets. The Elusive Target Arcade allows players to replay old elusive targets. How it basically works is you can play consecutive elusive target contracts, each with increasing difficulty and additional complications. Failing will lock you out of the contract for 12 hours before you can attempt it again.
This is a great change as it has been one of the most requested features by the Hitman community over the past few years. Previously, IO would create elusive target content as temporary contracts that can only be played once. Regardless of whether you beat the mission, or failed it, you would not get access to that content ever again. Many players felt it was a shame to waste the effort went into creating these levels by only allowing them to play it once. Thankfully, the Elusive Target Arcade looks like an excellent way to address that issue.
It allows the contracts to be replayable, while still keeping in the spirit of them being limited-time activities.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
After being teased in a small announcement last year, Hitman 3 is also getting ray tracing in 2022. This will give each level a little extra visual flair, enhancing reflections and lighting to make environments pop out a bit more.
The PC version of Hitman 3 also launches on Steam when Year 2 kicks off. So anyone who missed it as an Epic exclusive can now pick it up from there if they wish to.
In addition to that, another exciting announcement comes in the fact the entire trilogy will be available as “Hitman Trilogy” across all digital platforms (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC). It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass from Day 1, giving subscribers everything they need to enjoy the entire trilogy from the beginning. Talk about a win for Xbox!
Hitman 3 Year 2 will kick off from January 20th, which is next week! What do you think about the offerings on display here? Let us know on our social channels.
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Featured Image Credit: IO Interactive