Hitman 3 Year 2 to start on January 20

IO Interactive just concluded its approximately fifteen-minute long broadcast in which it announced and detailed a bunch of new updates and features coming to its acclaimed stealth game, Hitman 3. All part of the title's second year of content, a whole range of new goodies and ways to enjoy the game will be debuting when Year 2 starts next week, on January 20.

First to be mentioned was the Elusive Target Arcade, which will be a new game mode that will be joining Hitman 3 permanently. Alike regular Elusive Targets, in this mode you will only get one chance to eliminate a target before failing, but the way this mode will step things up, is that now, Agent 47 will be tasked with taking down several targets in one run, to earn some gear to use in the rest of the game. The catch is that if you fail, you will have to wait until the following day to be able to have another go at the list of targets. IO has also mentioned that the Elusive Target Arcade will be refreshed with new content as the year progresses.

Next on the list was Hitman VR, which finally has a release date. The full Hitman trilogy will be dropping as a VR experience on the platform, next week, on the same day that Year 2 kicks off, giving players a chance to become Agent 47 like never before.

As a follow-up to this and sticking to the subject of PC gaming, IO also shared that Ray-Tracing support will be coming to the PC version in 2022. As you'd expect, this will bring better reflections and shadows to improve the visuals of the game. It was also mentioned that IO will be adding support for XeSS technology (Xe Super Sampling, essentially Intel's equivalent to DLSS and FSR) soon.

As a final note for PC players, Hitman 3 will also be dropping on Steam next week, at the start of Year 2, with all the new goodies mentioned, including the VR version.

On the topic of new releases, IO also announced the Hitman Trilogy, a game that includes all of the content in Hitman, Hitman 2 and Hitman 3, packaged together. We're told that this game will land on January 20 (at the start of Year 2), and will be available digitally on PC (Epic Games Store and Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series, as well as part of Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on launch day.

You might think this was all that IO had to share, but the Danish developer also gave us an insight into the upcoming game mode, Freelancer. This will be launching in Spring 2022, and will task Agent 47 to locate criminal enterprises and then begin eliminating targets to get a chance to take down the big boss to wrap up a contract. Unlike the traditional Hitman experience, Freelancer is claimed to be inspired by roguelikes, meaning there are more repercussions for your actions and likewise, gear will not be persistent, meaning if you drop your favourite rubber duck in a level, you will have to visit a supplier to buy a new one to make sure you're not on the back foot before hunting a target. To make Freelancer that little bit more different, this mode will also bring a customisable safehouse that you can design to reflect your version of Agent 47.

To wrap up the entire presentation up, IO briefly gave us a look at what seems to be a new location, codenamed Rocky, coming later in the year. From what we're shown, it looks like a tropical island, but no doubt we'll get to hear more about that in the future.