Even Now, Loyal Fans Crucify Hitman 3 for a Controversial Change That Spits on Franchise Values

Hitman 3 is one of the greatest stealth games of all time. Besides Splinter Cell and Dishonored, this franchise from IO Interactive has made a special place in everyone’s hearts. The game right now has become part of Hitman: World of Assassinations clubbed with the previous two Hitman titles.

The huge popularity of this game is solely based on its badass character, Agent 47, and its intricate stealth gameplay. People liked the pure single-player experience. However, IO Interactive too followed a path, that most developers have delved in.

Hitman 3 Had to Follow the Live-Service Model

Fortnite or Apex Legends may come to mind when you think of live service games. Perhaps you’re a huge Marvel Snap fan or have mixed feelings about EA FC. Nowadays, live service games are commonplace, and most players spend hours playing Warzone, Final Fantasy 14, or any other game they want.

But who could ever think Hitman 3 would eventually enlist its name amongst the popular live-service titles? Although, fans never liked this aspect of a long-hailed standalone single-player franchise. This is what the Communications Manager at IO Interactive, Travis Barbour, thinks about the future of the live service model of the game (via VG247):

It could be, but not definitively. I don’t want to say that’s what we’re going to double down on and that’s it – I think it worked for what we wanted to do for Hitman. That basically came out of the back end of Absolution. I remember being at the Absolution E3s where we had the game designer at the time saying the way we made Absolution was that it was like a suitcase where you jam everything in, you pack it down – and then you manage to go on holiday, but you can’t fit anything else in the case. If you try to change something, the whole thing explodes and all your clothes go flying everywhere.

Live-service components can be found in even conventional single-player games. Although ranked ladders have been a feature of Pokemon games for years, Game Freak has introduced rotating raids directly from Pokemon Go to entice players to return.

A similar thing was done in Hitman 3, where the developers added a variety of missions that changed with the seasons, added new targets, or gave missions festive makeovers.

How Was Hitman 3 in a Wrapper of a Live-Service Title?

Hitman 3 placed us in the shoes of Agent 47, who wore a bald cap, and led us through missions that were based on the seven deadly sins. These time-limited missions made use of the game’s various modes.

Wrath, an Escalation mission, gave you devastating firepower to defend Dartmoor and locate a new Elusive Target in Chongqing known as “The Rage.” Considering that there are only a certain number of locations to use, this was the seventh such act of the season (obviously), and none of it felt dated, repurposed, or phoned in.

For me, Hitman‘s festive seasonal update was the clincher. IO Interactive had you hunt Santa and decked out Hitman‘s Paris location with Christmas trees and decorations.

No, really. Okay, so the real targets were Harry and Marv, who were named after the cheesy Home Alone villains, but I’ll kill him if you put a Santa who can teleport at a Hitman level, okay? When you’re dressed as Saint Nick, it feels so much better to poison wine and set off C4.