IO Interactive’s “Hitman 3” coming this January serves as a ‘World of Assassination’ trilogy capper, closing out a story that began with 2016’s reboot and continued in 2018’s sequel – both of which launched to rave reviews.
The second game famously not only shipped with new levels, but also ported the maps over from the original game into the newer release whilst adding the refinements made for the sequel.
Recently game director Mattias Engstrom spoke about the technical improvements the new game affords saying one big new element of the new game is the team’s environment and lighting artists have gone all out for the new one and “screen space reflections are truly pushed to the limit” on the new title.
That’s not all though, it seems not only will the third game have all the previous levels of the first two games but the screen space reflections and lighting improvements will be added across the trilogy. Sequences like the Paris fashion show of the 2016 game have now been updated and Engstrom says: “the difference in quality was mind-blowing to me.”
Another element that’s improved is loading and quicksaves. In particular they tout the power of the PS5 for this, saying the “blitz-fast load times” encourage experimentation more than ever. Like with the second game, it will launch with six new locations (and potentially 1-2 more added later) and a world that reacts to franchise star Agent 47’s every action. So far the Dubai location is the only confirmed one.
Judging by the trailer the game is also bringing back high quality cinematic cutscenes after the second game seemed to ditch them in favor of animated interstitials that were likely cheaper to produce. “Hitman 3” arrives on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Stadia in January.
