Hitman was widely considered one of the best game of 2016, but even with that critical reception, it didn’t quite find a big enough audience, leading to IO Interactive splintering off to live the life of an independent studio outside of Square Enix.
After a few months to regroup and look to the future, they’ve now announce the Hitman Game of the Year Edition, bundling together all the first season content with a new Patient Zero campaign, and three new Escalation contracts, seemingly themed around the Clown, Raven and Cowboy suits and themed weapons being added to the game. It will release on 7th November.
The new campaign sees Agent 47 racing against the clock to stop a deadly virus from spreading across the globe. It won’t feature new levels, but will remix the existing Bangkok, Sapienza, Colorado and Hokkaido settings with new times of day, new music, new AI behaviours, HUD elements, challenges and more. Considering the depth and breadth these environments offered previously, that’s not a bad thing.
While the GOTY Edition is available for $60, players that already own the full first season will be asked to purchase the GOTY content for $20. However, even if you don’t want to upgrade, there’s a meaty patch that tweaks much of the game with a new UI, graphics tweaks, Xbox One X support and more. Additionally, Elusive Targets from the first season will be returning for a second go round.
The patch notes can be found in this expandable section:
Hitman Free Game Update/Patch Notes
– A redesigned UI with a new colour scheme and visual style
A fresh new look across the board and re-organised menus to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.
– New Contracts Mode features
‘Trending’ helps you find the most popular contracts, making sure you can easily find a new challenge. We’re also adding 10 ‘Conditions’ that will add huge depth to Contracts Mode, such as restricting disguise changes or requiring players to use a specific exit. Anyone who creates a contract will be able to toggle these conditions to set a more defined challenge for their contract.
– Major lighting improvements to all missions
New colour grading, readjusted HDR adaptation rules and re-designed skyboxes mean that our locations look more vivid, vibrant and lifelike.
– Commemorative Elusive Target Unlock
If you played any of the Elusive Targets we released during Season One, we’re giving you an in-game coin to commemorate your progress and thank you for your support.
– Xbox One X Enhancements
A whole host of enhancements are on the way for Xbox One X owners, including options for native 4K and a higher framerate. Specific details to come in a Xbox-specific blog post.
– Tobii Eye Tracking support for PC
Enhance your killer instincts with Dynamic Light Adaptation, Extended View and a new special feature added specifically for HITMAN. Find more details here.
– Various fixes and improvements
Full release notes will be published closer to 7 November. That should be enough time to start thinking about your default loadout for each location.
– Elusive Target Re-activation
Starting in November, we will re-activate Elusive Targets. If you missed any Elusive Targets the first time around, or if you are new to HITMAN, this is your chance to experience these intense time-limited targets. All of the suit unlocks are back in play for both new and existing players to complete their collection. If you’ve already completed or failed an Elusive Target, you won’t be able to play that specific contract again; your record for that contract will stand and cannot be altered. Re-activated ET’s will still be time-limited and the first one will be re-activated shortly after the release of our Game of the Year Edition on November 7th.
Source: IO Interactive
