Io Interactive has released the latest Season of Sin for Hitman 3, the Season of Sloth. Unfortunately, it’s the laziest season to date, and I’m afraid that isn’t a pun. This season has much less content in it that pretty much every prior season, and that makes for very few opportunities to get excited about it. While the season does have some significant changes in terms of the content it brings that are good, it’s now missing the other stuff that made the past seasons good. In this article, I want to explain why this shift has probably happened, and what it might mean moving forward.
First, it seems like Io Interactive listened to me because they added a new challenge and reward. You can now get a ducky gun for completing 40 Featured Contracts. This is exactly what we all wanted, and I’m thankful for it. However, it appears to have come at the cost of the two Escalations we’d usually get throughout the season. These are the activities that players love, so I don’t see the community reaction being a forgiving one for taking these out.
However, there is now a renewed focus on Featured Contracts from players rather than content creators. I’m sure content creators make good ones, but I want to play stuff that’s been made by dedicated fans, not someone who plays the game through and then dumps it. This should make Featured Contracts more enjoyable in the future, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Finally, the only interesting content outside of the major Escalation for the month are two Elusive Targets. These are so far apart that there is going to be a noticeable content drought between them. I really dislike this, because we don’t have enough of an excuse to keep playing in the meantime. Io Interactive needs to up its game if this community is to survive. We need one new Featured Contract per day. Make it from the community, have it be something the developers enjoy, and give it to players so that there’s always something new. If making Escalations takes too much time, give us more challenges associated with Featured Contracts, and double down on getting the community engaged, because we’re crying out for more content.