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Hitman developers explain what to expect from its "live content"

Sherif Saed avatar
News by Sherif Saed Contributor
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Hitman's real-time, live component is given extensive detailing.

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Even after changing its business model to be completely episodic, Hitman has kept what developer IO is calling the "live component". Today, the studio went into detail on what that entails.

In an official post on the Steam forums, the studio detailed the four parts of the game's server-based aspects.

Elusive Targets

These are limited-time contracts that are going to be very challenging. Targets will be custom-created, and will be added to existing maps. You only have a limited, real-time window to eliminate them, and you only get one go at it.

To make things more challenging, Elusive Targets will not appear in Instinct mode or on the map. Instead, each will have a custom briefing video that will help you locate clues and eventually lead you to their whereabouts. Saving will be disabled, and IO is calling the mode the closest thing to the "Hitman fantasy".

Escalation Mode

In this mode, your regular hits will escalate in difficulty as you play, adding new challenges that require you to perform kills in certain ways or using certain tools.

The goal with Escalation is to mix game mechanics up, according to IO. A place that favours creativity over realism. Each Escalation Contract has five re-playable stages. Like Elusive Targets, you also can't save in this mode.

Contracts Mode

The Contracts mode returns from Hitman: Absolution. These are community-created challenges that IO will publish in a featured list.

Live Challenges

These will also be community-inspired challenges the developer will add into the game. One challenge the dev is looking to create was inspired by a Twitch stream where the streamer used only hammers to knock out guards.

"At this stage, Community-inspired challenges (or whatever we actually decide to name them) are just one of the ideas we are working on to keep the game fresh and live as we go through the season," noted IO.

"These are not a guaranteed feature but something we’re testing and trying out."

The first episode of Hitman is due for release March 11 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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