IO Interactive might just have sewn up the James Bond video game license, but there’s still plenty of work to be done on finishing off Hitman 3 and concluding their World of Assassination trilogy.
Their latest video dives into how they’re enhancing the Glacier engine to take advantage of new lighting techniques and other effects on high-end consoles and PCs, while also revealing the Chongqing location that will really take advantage of these spangly new graphics.
Lighting and reflections in general have been updated through Hitman 3 – the game will also let you revisit the levels and missions from the first two games in the trilogy, which will also be enhanced through the new game engine. The rainy, neon-lit streets of Chongqing, however, make a perfect demo location for this. On PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and ultra-high end PCs, the game will support 4K, 60fps, and HDR, while previous consoles will have to pick and choose between resolution and performance, just as they do for Hitman and Hitman 2.
Ray traced lighting will have to wait until after launch, and even then it’s not entirely clear if it will be coming to PS5 and Series X. A blog post announcing a partnership with Intel only mentioned the PC version gaining the graphical feature.
Water effects have also been enhanced so that walking through puddles gives more realistic ripples, droplets will bounce off Agent 47’s shiny noggin, and he’ll actively get wet in the environment. The gameplay has been updated with fluidity and responsiveness in mind, while the game now supports more than 300 active NPC AIs to make its already huge crowds all behave in a more realistic and immersive fashion.
There’s no details here on what the Chongqing location entails, but IO Interactive have shown snippets of missions from the game previously. The Thornebridge Mystery mission set in England. This mission is slightly different as Agent 47 is put into a whodunnit murder mystery where everyone is a suspect. It is his role to find the killer.
Hitman 3 is out on 20th January for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (with PSVR support), PC, Nintendo Switch and Google Stadia. There will be free upgrades from PS4 and Xbox One to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S respectively.
