Hitman 3 is Coming to Steam and Xbox Game Pass

Just a little under two months ago, IO Interactive announced that there would be a second year of content for Hitman 3. At the time, they only specified VR support and Ray Tracing support coming to PC, the name of a new mode called Elusive Target Arcade, and teases of a safe house, which hasn’t been seen since Hitman: Blood Money. More information would be revealed in early January, which would end up being a Year 2 reveal stream on January 13th specifically. A further detailed breakdown of the year two reveal can also be read on IO Interactive’s blog.

The first big news shared as a part of this brief 13-minute stream were details on the Elusive Target Arcade mode that will be added at the start of Year 2 on January 20th. This mode features permanent Arcade Contracts which require you to take down multiple Elusive Targets. Failing to finish off a target results in a fail for the entire Arcade contract and being locked out from trying it again for 12 hours. If you manage to complete it you’ll earn exclusive rewards you can use in the rest of the game.

As someone who enjoyed Elusive Targets but did wish that it was possible to replay them, this mode seems like a decent solution to the problem while also adding new content. Being locked out for 12-hours is a whole lot better than not being able to try it again until whenever that target rotates back in. I still would have preferred the opportunity for earning rewards was lost for a while instead of losing access to Elusive Targets in general, but I suppose this is a good trade-off for keeping the higher stakes failure. They also promise new objectives and complications for Elusive Targets, so there should be variety.

Bigger dives into the VR support and technical improvements were also nice to watch. The VR mode looks especially fun and it’s always nice to see more people being able to try out the game in new ways. It was also announced that in addition to Ray Tracing support, the game would also be one of the first to implement the machine learning Intel XeSS technology as well as Variable Rate Shading. Both will boost performance while also providing incredible quality. VR support will arrive on January 20th and the technical enhancements are expected later in the year.

The news that everyone (especially me) has been expecting was also announced: Hitman 3 will finally be coming to Steam! Even more exciting is that all three of the latest games will be put into a single package titled HITMAN Trilogy to make it easier for new players to experience the games. This trilogy will also be available on Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC, allowing a huge base of people to try the games out. All of these will be coming out just in time for the start of Year 2.

A new single-player mode, called Freelancer, was also announced for Spring 2022. This mode uses the safehouse that was teased previously as a mission hub of sorts. Unlike the regular campaign or any other mode, Freelancer has you pre-plan for Freelancer campaigns at the safehouse and choose all of the equipment and the outfit you’d like to start with. As you do more campaigns, you’ll be able to unlock more areas and customize it all the more to your liking.

Each campaign is a set of missions in various locations that task you with taking down a criminal enterprise as well as its leader. You can choose the order to do the missions, with the final mission and location being where the leader is. This essentially allows you to choose where you would like the final encounter to be, whether it’s a map you’re more familiar with or just somewhere that fits your role-playing aesthetic more.

To provide more variables so players can’t just memorize a campaign, the identity of the leader isn’t explicitly given in the final mission and different NPCs, such as hidden enemies and some that might alert the leader to leave, will be present. Supplier NPCs will be around to purchase gear from. The reason for this is that Freelancer takes inspiration from Roguelikes, and your gear will not stay with you after missions if you die or drop it somewhere. It’s easy to imagine how detrimental it would be if you threw out too many coins or forgot to pick up a gun you left behind.

As happy as I am that the game will be on Steam, I might be the most excited about this mode. It just sounds like the absolute perfect mode for a Hitman game that will allow for a variety of featured contracts while also being much more in-depth. Roguelike elements involving player gear are something I’ve always wanted but never knew how they could implement. I’m the kind of player who loves to try to leave a mission by picking up the suit I started with so this just sounds like the perfect role-play mode.

The final news was a new map that was teased for later in 2022. Codenamed Rocky, it seems to take place on an island or at least on a rocky coast during a dark and cloudy night. An abundance of trees, water, and a potential lighthouse that I can only hope allows us to snipe people from it, will make for a fun addition to the maps that are already available.

This reveal stream seems to have blown everyone’s expectations out of the water, especially since many were expecting something light as IO Interactive focuses on Project 007. I know I’m excited to finally play the game now that it will be on Steam, and having Elusive Target Arcade and VR support for the start of Year 2 is fantastic in terms of content. All of that should be enough to hold people off until everything else so far announced is added throughout the year.