IO Interactive wrapped up its roughly 15-minute livestream last week, announcing and detailing a slew of updates and features coming to its acclaimed stealth game, Assassin’s Mission 3. The title’s second year of content, a slew of new goodies and ways to enjoy the game will all debut this week on January 20th.
The first thing to mention is Elusive Target Arcade, which will be a new game mode that will be permanently added to Assassin Mission 3. Like regular Elusive Target, in this mode you only have one chance to kill the target before failing, but this mode makes the situation even hotter, and now, Hitman 47 is tasked with taking more than one knockout A goal to earn some gear to use for the rest of the game. The problem is, if you fail, you have to wait until the next day to get back into the target list again. IO also mentioned that Elusive Target Arcade will refresh the content over time.
Next on the list is Hitman VR, which finally gets a release date. The full trilogy will be released on the platform as a VR experience this week on the same day that Year 2 kicks off, giving players the chance to play Hitman 47 like never before.
As a follow-up to this and sticking to the theme of PC gaming, IO also shared that ray tracing support will also be coming to the PC version in 2022. As you’d expect, this results in better reflections and shadows that improve the game’s visuals. It is also mentioned that IO will soon add support for XeSS technology (Xe Super Sampling, basically similar to Intel’s DLSS and FSR).
A final reminder for PC players, Assassin’s Quest 3 is also coming to Steam this week at the start of Year 2, with all the new content mentioned, such as the VR version included.
As for the topic of the new version, IO also released the “Assassin Mission Trilogy”, which includes all the content of “Assassin Mission”, “Assassin Mission 2” and “Assassin Mission 3”, all bundled together. We’ve heard that the game is expected to officially launch on January 20th (when the Year 2 content begins) and will be available on PC (Epic Games Store and Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series, and It will also be available on release day as part of Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.
You might have thought that was all IO wanted to share, but the Danish developer also gave us an inside look at an upcoming game mode: “Freelancer.” The mode will launch in Spring 2022 and will task Hitman 47 to locate the criminal enterprise and then begin eliminating targets for a chance to take down the boss so that the contract can be completed. Unlike the traditional Assassin Quest experience, Freelancer is purportedly inspired by the roguelikes genre, which means your actions have more impact, and likewise, gear doesn’t last, which means if you get lost in a level your favorite rubber duck, then you’ll have to visit the supplier to buy a new one to make sure you’re not disadvantaged before finding your target. To make Freelancer even more unique, this mode will also bring a customizable safe house where you can design your own version.
To wrap up, IO gave a brief look at the new location, codenamed “Rocky,” coming later this year. From what we’ve seen, this looks like a tropical island, but we’ll no doubt hear more about it in the future.
