Hitman 2016 was an absolute masterpiece. Under Square Enix, it nearly killed developer Io Interactive, but in the hands of the developer on an independent basis, the game flourished. Five years alter, we’ve got Hitman 3 and all the content from the past two games crammed into one. It’s an incredible experience that is fun to replay and complete in a tonne of ways. I’m still discovering secrets from YouTubers that I had no idea existed, and I’m sure there are more out there. However, in a recent developer live stream, one of the Io Interactive team revealed what we could have once gotten for Hitman 2016, and it’s got me pretty intrigued about what Hitman 4 and Project 007 could be.
The short story the developer told was about the Paris level, the first in Hitman 2016. Apparently, this level was once so big that it was pretty much the size of a city. When they said this, I thought of Sapienza, but that’s ended up in the game, so it must be about as big as Paris if you times it by three. There was the mansion where the fashion show takes place, a town off to one side, and another section altogether. As you’d expect, it was way too big to make the game work in a coherent way, and there’s no way anyone would have installed all the missions if this was the case.
The developer said that they were able to snipe the target, because there was only one at this point, from a tower in the city that was roughly three miles away in the game. They’re still extremely proud of this, even though they can’t show it off. I reckon that Hitman 4 and Project 007 could follow a formula like this. Maybe not a single target, but multiple missions in a massive city like this that push you to keep playing and exploring.
Map knowledge is key in hitman games, and I think that making the map that large would be a true challenge for any player. I’d love to have the chance to experience this, but I don’t think we ever will. Still, it must be sitting on a hard drive somewhere at the Io Interactive offices.
