HITMAN Episode 2 Release Date Announcement and 1.03 Update

Square Enix and IO announced that episode 2 of Hitman will be released on April 26th.

In addition details on the 1.03 update can be read below.

 Hitman 1.03 Update Details

• The Vampire Magician Challenge Pack includes 10 new challenges that were inspired by how our community have been playing the game.
  
• Each challenge requires you to wear the Vampire Magician disguise while taking down targets using a range of different methods.
• Continued improvements to load times

• The improvements will be most notable when loading The Showstopper mission in Paris and we're already working on improving all loading times even more.

• Improved responsiveness for in-game menus and image loading
  
• We've implemented an image caching system that will improve responsiveness and loading times for all images in the game menu.

• Fixed issues with scoring
  
• Primarily, this fixes an issue that resulted in many players earning a "0 second" time bonus and an incorrect score of 210,000. A leaderboard reset will be implemented at a later date.

• Continued improvements to connectivity
  
• Server stability improvements.

• Missing 'Requiem Pack' items have been restored
  
• For those affected, these items will now be available to choose from the planning screen again.

• Fixed numerous issues that were causing crashes
  
• General improvements to game stability.

HITMAN Begins Today

Io-Interactive is delighted to announce that HITMAN™, the first digital AAA episodic game launched today.

“We are doing something bold and new which has the potential to shape how we experience AAA games in the future, ,” said Hannes Seifert, Studio Head at Io-Interactive. “Hitman is back and it’s clearly the game many fans have been waiting for, so that feels pretty special. And this is just the start, now our live content begins and then in April we head to Sapienza. We have a game that will evolve, grow and improve over time and deliver the best ever Hitman experience.”

HITMAN starts with the Prologue and a Paris location on March 11, followed by the next location, set in Italy releasing in April and then Morocco releasing in May. From there HITMAN will deliver regular monthly content updates, including three additional locations; Thailand, the United States and the season conclusion in Japan later in 2016.

In addition live content begins today.

The first Escalation Contract is in the game today, with the next one scheduled for Tuesday 16 March. These are in-game contracts created by Io-Interactive which gradually increase in difficulty the more you play them.

And the first Elusive Target will appear in the game at some point in the next ten days. These are targets who appear for a limited time only, the first one will be live for 48 hours in the game. And players get only one chance to take them out, there are no second chances. This is a new character with bespoke dialogue and behavior in the game. Players will only receive their Elusive Target briefing once the new character has entered their location.  

The Intro Pack is available today priced at $15 (or local equivalent). Each subsequent location will be priced at $10 as an add-on item to the Intro Pack*. Alternatively, players can buy the Full Experience up front for $60, also available today. This includes all of this year’s content as it’s released, and guarantees not to miss any live or bonus content.

The disc version of HITMAN will ship in January 2017.

HITMAN is available on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC.