With the Seasons of Sin Collection now finished, I’ve been reflecting on what Io Interactive has given us this year for Hitman 3. Each DLC in the collection had a revamped version of a Hitman 3 location, and I think that’s what I loved most about them. The locations felt different enough that the Escalation almost felt like a brand new mission in the game. The NPCs had different placements, there were new challenges, and overall it just felt like you were somewhere else entirely. This reminds me of Dartmoor Garden Show, the standalone mission/Escalation that released earlier this year for Hitman 3, and I want more of it.
Io Interactive has released standalone missions for past Hitman games, but it seems as though it’s unwilling to for Hitman 3. At least, that’s what Dartmoor Garden Show being an Escalation says on the surface. In reality, the randomization element to the Escalation means that you’re given multiple missions and challenges within one piece of content. I think that players would love one of these for every location, because it adds so much more variety to the game. However, I understand that this could be challenging, which is why I would say that Io Interactive should hold off on releasing them so regularly.
I’d be happy with a roadmap that outlined one of these new mission style Escalations per quarter for the next couple of years, if that’s enough time to get them right. Io Interactive has shown that with enough time it can give us the content we’re after. Instead of focusing on giving us something new every season, make seasons longer, fill them with more Elusive Targets and Featured Contracts, and give us a new mission every three months.
I’d also like to point out that this community us more than happy to pay for new content. We’ve had Deluxe Edition Escalations, seven new Escalations with the Seasons of Sin Collection, and there’s so much more that could be done with the game. I understand Io Interactive needing to focus on Project 007, but dropping Hitman 3 would be crying shame, and I just want to have an excuse to play this game more.