Buying Hitman 3 Will Soon Be Much Less Confusing

The recent Hitman Trilogy has had an interesting method of support. Each new entry allowed the levels from previous games to be enjoyed with newly added mechanics and updates. There isn’t anything wrong with playing 2016’s Hitman or the following Hitman 2, but the most up-to-date method of enjoying older levels has been with Hitman 3 since it was released nearly two years ago.

This accommodating inclusion hasn’t been without some serious caveats though. While owners of the previous titles have been able to enjoy the content they owned in the next iterations, various content packs and DLCs have made it a head-scratcher for them and a nightmare for potential new players. Each game has suffered from this and Hitman 3 only exasperated it all, fostering a particularly negative reception when it launched on Steam last year. IO Interactive is looking to simplify it all with a little bit of streamlining and rebranding according to a new announcement.

Starting on January 26th, the same day that the Freelancer mode will go live, Hitman 3 will adopt the trilogy name and become known as Hitman World of Assassination. Bumping up to $70, this renamed title will offer the GOTY version of the first in the trilogy as well as the base versions of the second and third games.

Current owners of Hitman 3 will have a free upgrade for the additional content. This is basically the Hitman Trilogy package, but with the first game’s GOTY upgrade tacked on. A separate Hitman World of Assassination Deluxe Pack will retail for $30 and include the DLCs for the second and third games.

To make it all a bit easier, Hitman and Hitman 2 will no longer be available for purchase. Hitman World of Assassination will be the sole offering for this trilogy of content. The Steam version will feature complete the set functionality to ensure an even split on any content that players don’t own. Other platforms will have the DLCs available from the in-game store at an even split to provide the same benefit.

There don’t seem to be any downsides to this change. The convenience of having everything available in one package to new players was a big reason why I had the Hitman Trilogy on my list of favorite PC Games Pass titles for last year. Although there’s still certainly an argument for that being a better deal, it’s hard to deny how much less of a headache it will be for exploring this modern trilogy.