Supported by his Agency handler, Diana Burnwood, Agent 47 joins forces with his long-lost friend Lucas Grey. Their ultimate mission is to eliminate the partners of Providence, but they are forced to adapt as their hunt intensifies. When the dust settles, 47 and the world he inhabits will never be the same again.

Featuring six meticulously detailed locations packed full of creative opportunities, Hitman III gives players the unrivaled freedom to complete their objectives in a game world that reacts to everything they do. All of this is made possible by IOI’s award-winning Glacier technology, which powers Hitman III’s immersive game world to offer unparalleled player choice and replayability.

Hitman III players can import locations from the previous games in the trilogy and have more than 20+ locations under one roof. All of the improvements to rendering, animation and AI introduced with Hitman III can be enjoyed across all three games, making Hitman III the ultimate place to play the entire World of Assassination trilogy.

Hitman III Freelancer is a brand new, single-player mode that introduces rogue-like elements, strategic planning and a customisable safehouse.

As part of our preparations for the mode, we’ll be holding a Closed Technical Test (CTT) to put our servers under stress, get an early idea of player behaviour and do some economy / XP balancing in a real-life scenario on a big scale. Today, we’re ready to share more details starting with the very first extended look at HITMAN 3: Freelancer gameplay.

GAMEPLAY REVEAL

Before we jump into the details of the upcoming Closed Technical Test, we want to share something very special. Sit back and relax for an in-depth, 10-minute gameplay video of how to play HITMAN 3’s Freelancer mode. We’ll introduce all the core concepts, how to play, what you can unlock and reveal some new details.

CLOSED TECHNICAL TEST

The Closed Technical Test will begin at 1pm UTC on Thursday 3rd November and run until 4pm UTC on Monday 7th November. The CTT is only available on Steam and will be available as a separate ‘game’, meaning it cannot be accessed from the standard HITMAN 3 game. You will need a download code sent from IOI to access it and play.

Many of you will have already received an invitation email directly from IOI and you can expect further details sent to you before the start of the CTT. For everyone else, we have opened up a signup page where you can register your interest to take part. We can’t promise that everyone who signs up will get access, but we are hoping to scale up to demand and really stress test our servers as much as we can.

The HITMAN 3 Freelancer Closed Technical Test does not include all features from the mode that you’ll play in January 2023. We’ve purposefully toned down or entirely removed certain elements to enable us to better focus feedback and maintain some elements of surprise for launch. Equally, we know that some of you will absolutely rinse the mode during these days and we don’t want you to burn out either. Our aim with the CTT is preparing the mode for its proper launch, not give you untethered access to it all right now.

CLOSED TECHNICAL TEST: CORE CHANGES

When comparing the full version of HITMAN 3 Freelancer and the CTT version, there are a few differences that we want to highlight at this early stage to set some expectations.

Locations 
Firstly, the CTT will only feature 9 locations from the World of Assassination (i.e locations from HITMAN 1-3). The full release will include support for 19 locations (with only ICA Facility, Hawke’s Bay and Carpathian Mountains not supported in the full release).

During the CTT, you’ll have access to Paris, Sapienza, Hokkaido, Miami, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Dartmoor, Berlin, Mendoza. These locations offer good variety from across the three games.

Mastery 
As you’ll soon see for yourself, Freelancer Mastery is tracked through the new location at the core of the Freelancer mode: Agent 47’s Safehouse. Just as any other location, the Safehouse will have a mastery track that can be progressed by completing challenges and earning XP. The safehouse in the full release will have 100 mastery levels, but we have reduced this to 25 in the CTT. Any progression made during the CTT will not carryover to the full release in January 2023.

PLAYER EXPERIENCE

From now through to the end of the CTT, here’s the basic process: get an invite, get access, have a good time and then tell us about it. Those are the headlines, here are the details in easy-to-follow steps.

INVITE 
Firstly, you need to be invited. Many players have already been handpicked based on their in-game activity and content ownership. It’s now also possible to freely register interest and we’ll begin rolling out further invites to meet demand and our needs.

ACTIVATE 
When you receive the actual invitation email from us (most likely on 2nd November), it will include details on how to redeem your HITMAN 3: Freelancer Closed Technical Test code. This will ultimately be added as a new product to your Steam library. Then, you’ll also need to activate a particular ‘beta branch’ within that product to get access to the CTT and start downloading. If you’re not familiar with this sort of thing on Steam, we’ll have a detailed guide on this in the invitation mail, so don’t worry! You’ll also need a Steam account and internet connection to download and play the CTT.

DOWNLOAD 
Once you’ve fully downloaded the CTT, which we expect to be approx. 60GB, you will not be able to access anything other than the splashscreen (aka the ‘press space to play’ screen) until 1pm UTC on 3rd November. We expect that you’ll be able to pre-download the CTT as soon as you’ve received the download key from us.

PLAY 
From 1pm UTC on 3rd November to 4pm UTC on 7th November, you’ll be able to freely play and share any gameplay from the CTT. Take and share screenshots on Twitter, stream gameplay on Twitch or whatever you want. No restrictions, maximum enjoyment.

When the CTT ends, you can safely uninstall the build. No progression will carryover to the full release and the CTT will have no impact on any of your existing or future HITMAN 3 progression.

SURVEY 
Shortly after the CTT ends, we’ll send out a very short survey via email to everyone who received a code. We’ll have some questions about your experiences that will help us make final tweaks to certain elements of the mode. Full transparency, we won’t be making major gameplay changes. We’re looking primarily at economy/ XP balancing, enjoyment and testing our technical infrastructure.

That’s it.

Hitman III’s sandbox locations give you complete freedom to approach your objectives in any way you want. As well as the new multi-function camera, you’ll also be able to interact with the game world in new ways to access new opportunities and paths through each level. Want to organize a meeting with your target? Check. How about opening elevator doors to access a new route? You can do that too and so much more.

As you explore each mission and complete challenges, you’ll rise through 20 Mastery tracks that will unlock new tools, weapons and even Starting Locations that will let you begin your next playthrough with a big advantage – possibly even in a disguise. All of the items and weapons that you unlock in a Mastery track are added to your permanent inventory, so you’ll be able to pick and choose from them no matter what mission you want to take on next.

Hitman III has been made with replayability front and center. You simply cannot see and do everything that a mission has to offer in a single playthrough, and the Mastery tracks keep things fresh as you take new approaches, use new items and discover previously unexplored areas.

Depending on how you choose to complete your objectives, you’ll be awarded with a Playstyle at the end of each mission. From the coveted Silent Assassin to a Hired Gun and everything in between, there’s a Hitman style for every player. Maybe you’re a Marksman?

Hitman III will have full PS VR support. Yes, that means you can traverse the outside of the tallest building in the (Hitman) world in PS VR! If you own the previous games from the trilogy on PS4, you can also access locations from them within Hitman III. That’s more than 20 Hitman locations from the World of Assassination trilogy to enjoy in PS VR.

You can either play Hitman III in PS VR natively on your PS4 or via backward compatibility on PS5. To make sure all PS VR owners can experience the game in VR, we’re including a free digital copy of the PS4 version of Hitman III with all PS5 copies, whether you choose to buy it via disc or digital.

Hitman III will look, sound and play better than ever with improvements to lighting, reflections, animation and AI. Chongqing also features full water effects, with details such as rain drops hitting Agent 47 and his clothes getting wet, all adding to the immersion of experiencing Hitman III.

On next-gen consoles, Hitman III will run in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second with HDR support.

Hitman III is currently available for Nintendo Switch (through Cloud Technology), PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Google Stadia and PC (Epic Games Store).