Hitman 3 - Year Announced, What Might We Expect?

 Hitman 3 - Year Announced, What Might We Expect?

IOI have not been one to rest on their laurels with the current Hitman trilogy, with an announcement made earlier this month that briefly highlighted some of their plans for the second year of everyone's favourite bald hired killer latest adventures.

Not that this gave too much away of what was to come, but this announcement was perhaps to be expected as IOI made it clear that Hitman 3 is a platform, allowing you to continue playing levels from the first two games in this trilogy with all progress saved, must like you could do with Hitman 1 levels when Hitman 2 came out. The platform idea makes even more sense when you consider that Hitman 1 was sometimes referred to as Hitman Season 1.

However, the release of Hitman 3 did cause some concern once the release date got closer as IOI backpedalled somewhat on this as far as the PC version, now an Epic Games store exclusive, was not going to allow PC players who had bought the first two games on Steam to carry over their progress. This resulted in lots of angry tweets of complaint and cancelled pre orders, myself included among them. 

But IOI to their credit were able to resolve this issue, and a month after release the full glory of the Hitman trilogy was available to all, with everyone's progress saved from a snipers bullet.

And now here we are with the ending to Hitman 3 now well known and fans eager to know what the next step might be. I have speculated in my own head what I'd like to see them do (more on that later), and this announcement certainly has me training my sights on IOI.

So, What Are We Getting?

"Today is all about confirming that HITMAN 3’s extensive post-launch content will continue throughout 2022 with new maps, new storylines, new modes and new ways to play.

Early next year, we’ll share an extended look at our plans for HITMAN 3 – Year 2 with a full reveal of the new content that we’re working on."

IOI's announcement was brief, and deliberately vague, with the only confirmation being that there will be both VR and ray tracing used in the PC versions, an announcement about Elusive Targets now becoming Elusive Target Arcade, as well as new maps and story modes, all in Jan 2022.

There was even a rather striking YouTube video showing some highlights, including a blink and you miss him shot of Lucas Grey and the promise of more details coming soon.

But the image they choose to use at the top of the page showed a new location not seen in the trilogy, hinting at one such all new level, a rather lovely looking modern house built in the middle of a forest. This is explored in a little more detail in the video. Some of the location details are even shown in screenshots on the webpage showing what appears to be an underground gun range.

Nothing is stated as to what this is, whether this is a targets home 47 has to break in, or possible a new base of operations for himself and his handler Diana Burnwood. Given the nature of the games however it seems unlikely that this will be some sort of player home, not unless IOI have decided to overhaul the playstyle somewhat.

Whatever the truth of the matter is, it will be interesting to see it play out, and you know it's going to be good.

With new levels and new gameplay modes being confirmed, this most likely means new stories to go with them too, of course we have NO information at all about that right now, but one bit of speculation would be the return of Providence, or survivors of that organisation trying to track down 47 and Diana for revenge, or being tracked down by the pair to ensure the total destruction of the clandestine organisation 47 took on in this trilogy.

As for what Elusive Target Arcade will be, is open to speculation. Currently Elusive Target means you have a one off attempt to find and kill a specific target with no options to save the game. Making it harder, the target cannot be found by using 47's instinct as the target simply shows up as a regular silhouette rather then a red figure. Fail the mission and you have no chance to do it again until the mission comes back into rotation at a later date.

One possibility is that Elusive Target Arcade will allow you to select the Elusive Target of your choice and maybe repeat the mission if you fail. This might be a response to some criticism the mode received as it did mean the content was effectively inaccessible for most of the time.

Things We Might Get, Or, Things We'd Like To Get.
From this point on, we enter the world of pure speculation, a wish list if you like of things we'd like to see, and in no way has IOI even suggested any of the following is the case.

More Alternate Story Missions: Another set of story missions similar to the virus mission in Hitman (2017) "Patient Zero" would not go amiss. This made great use of some modified versions of existing maps, in fact Sapienza got this treatment at least three more times. With slightly reworked maps for two other self contained assignments, with all new targets and casts of characters in the missions "World of Tomorrow" "The Icon" "Landslide" and "The Author", with the latter being part of the much larger additional "Patient Zero" mission.

This all went some way to demonstrate the versatility of the Hitman engine and the lengths that IOI were willing to go to in order to give us new content. And while there have some great additional missions for the second and third games, even seeing some of the maps modified to some degree, none of them have been much more than escalations, lacking the depth of an all new storyline running over several levels.

This is not by any means essential, but would be incredible if they pulled it off again.

Speaking Of Maps:
Hitman 1's "Patient Zero" campaign made good reuse of the Colorado map, repurposed as a sniper mission with 47 taking out infected members of a militia. Hitman 2 built up on this premise with three dedicated maps for sniper missions that 47 was never able to set foot in. Hitman 3 while including sniper riffles, didn't have such a dedicated mission.

Now imagine, if you could actually infiltrate all three of those maps and go undercover in a Russian Gulag with no load out and needing to find a shiv and an escape route? Attend a wedding in France and look off at the mountainside and hear 47 playfully recall fond memories of the view from there. And I'm sure he can find something mischief to put an end to in the docks of Singapore.

Better yet, they could all tie into their own secret little storyline.

The Murder mystery setting in Dartmoor in Hitman 3 "Death In The Family" would be perfect for yet another suspicious death to be solved. Either with the same characters or the all new owners having barely had time to settle in before tragedy struck. It would be even more delicious if each playthrough the killer was a different person, something IOI apparently did consider for the original level. This time round 47 could make all kind of references to lines from famous fictional detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Columbo and so on.

For that matters the Dubai tower especially is just crying out for a "Die Hard" style mission where 47 has to rescue hostages and take out the bad guys during a seasonal holiday office party of some sort. After all if Bruce Willis is not available, 47 is more than able to step in.

Better Gunplay Controls: Lets face its, 47 is renown from his previous games for DUEL WIELDING PISTOLS! Something he's just not been able to do for some reason in this trilogy, even if he does come across a second handgun or fifty, he still refuses to go back to his classic gunplay of old.

And even then, the gunplay in this trilogy has always been somewhat lacking. For someone apparently highly trained as a marksman, with all kinds of genetic modifications to make him a better more skilful assassin, 47's aiming skills have been sorely lacking, often much slower then the regular humans he ends up facing.

Compare this trilogy to the likes of Max Payne 3, 47 really needs to spend more time on the gun range.

It would also be nice if 47 could actually sprint, rather then try to avoid trouble and incoming fire by jogging. And instead of just opting to drag bodies, would lift them over his shoulders for more speed. His insistence on dragging a body all over the place does lend tension, and there are times it is appropriate, but for speed it would be nice if someone with great than normal athletic strength would just use a fireman's carry to help dump a body.

Giving him this additional option could even increase the risk of being caught out far more easier to help gameplay.

A Levelling Up System: Instinct, the method 47 uses to track his prey and spot targets and interesting items was never quite as advanced in the Hitman trilogy as it had been in previous games. Whereas previously he was able to paint targets to take them out quickly in gunplay, for some reason he appears to have either lost that ability or refused to use it as he does prefer to only kill his targets, not their entourages.

It also doesn't require any kind of recharging like it did in previous games, but it's toned down nature might be brought back in some way, along with weapon upgrades as 47 hasn't really been one to upgrade his gear, preferring to have a large selection of very similar weapons in all kinds of variations. He presumably has a very large gun room to keep them all in.

But what if he had the option to improve every tool in his arsenal and even bring back target painting via some sort of skill tree he can access only between missions?

Possible Remake Of The Previous Games In The Series: This is pure wish fulfilment. But it might be something that a lot of fans might be willing to kill for in order to get. The Hitman 3 engine would undoubtable provide the best possible platform for such a venture, making use of the assets they already possess would be a great time saver.

The only real issues would be trying to decided what gameplay elements from the originals would need to be carried over, such as the duel pistol gunplay, instinct, target marking, and other gameplay elements not found in this trilogy. Of course it might not be impossible to recreate those missing features, but the real question would be whether IOI would be willing to even consider such a project, especially given their untitled 007 project in development, is another issue altogether.

Any thoughts and dreams for future Hitman content, please drop a line in the comments section, and feel free to share the article.

All images copyright IOI.