Hitman is finally creating a proper offline mode

As much as I love Hitman, the game does have one nagging issue that irks me somewhat: Offline play. Hitman suffers from being one of those titles which demands a persistent online connection, which allows players to draw from a pool of rewards that include weapons, stages and gadgets. An offline connection however? It’s like going from gadget-crazy Roger Moore 007 era to the morbidly depressing no-frills Daniel Craig 007 experience.

That’s all changing right now thankfully, as the latest Hitman patch doesn’t just offer the usual tweaks. It also creates an offline profile for all those goodies that you’ve earned.”Less than a month ago, we released the Season Finale; Episode 6 Hokkaido,” IO Interactive wrote in a new blog post detailing the patch.

This November Update is the first of a series of planned major game updates that will add new content and improvements to the game, both leading up to the physical disc release on January 31st 2017 and beyond. We always set out to create a game with a major live component and over the course of the first season, we have established exactly that by releasing content each and every week on top of the major location releases. A December Update is also on the horizon, but first things first.

And here’s the patch notes, copied and pasted below with the Offline tweak taking preference. My article, my rules yo:

Offline Profile

• All unlockable items that are earned when connected to the game’s servers, are now also saved to an ‘offline profile’, meaning that they can be used when in Offline Mode.
• Items include all mastery items; including weapons, gear, starting/pickup locations as well as Elusive Target suit rewards and Challenge Pack unlocks.
• Note: You must be connected to the game servers in order to acquire new unlocks.

Stability Sweep

• Fixed different issues across all locations that previously resulted in the game crashing or becoming unstable.

Opportunity Completion Checkmark

• We’ve added functionality to mark an opportunity with a checkmark when it has been successfully completed, similar to how we show that a challenge has been completed.
• This will show you the completed opportunities at-a-glance and make it easier to track completion when trying to achieve the achievements/trophies linked to opportunities.

Silent Assassin Rating Display

• The scoring screen now displays “Silent Assassin” when a player completes a mission with that rating.

Major Update to Statistics Page

• The ‘Statistics’ page has been overhauled with a new visual design that displays the challenge completion, mastery level completion and overall location completion.

Pause Menu

• We’ve changed the background of the pause menu to be the current in-game moment, rather than the world map.

Mission Accomplished Screen Update

• When successfully completing a mission, the mission accomplished screen will now show the last frame of the exit sequence, rather than fading to black.

Contracts Mode ‘Success State’

• After playing a Contract, the menu will now show either a checkmark (complete) or a cross (fail) to show your status for the Contract.

Improved consistency for Elusive Targets Challenge Images

• The Elusive Targets Challenges now have a more consistent style.

New IOI logo

• We have a new studio logo, and now that’s in the game.

Challenge Completed SFX

• We added a subtle sound effect that plays when unlocking a challenge.

Sarajevo Six Briefings [PS4 Only]

• Briefings videos for The Mercenary and The Controller have been added to the game.

Pull an Enemy

• In this update, we’ve added the ability for 47 to pull people over balconies or out of windows, when he is hanging on a ledge or below the balcony/window.
• Unfortunately, there is a known issue for this move: NPC’s that see this move will not blame 47, even if they are looking directly at the NPC or at 47. For that reason, we will remove this ability with our December Update and fix this. It will then be re-introduced with a game update in January, around the same time as the disc release.

Fixed Issues

Paris

• Fixed an issue with trespassing whilst dressed as a Chef in Paris
• Fixed issues that could cause multiple opportunities in Paris to fail, depending on 47’s actions
• Fixed an issue where water splashes could be heard in certain areas of the attic in Paris
• Fixed an issue where 47 could vault into an inaccessible location in Paris. The vault prompt has been removed
• Fixed an issue that could cause the light rig in Paris to also cause damage in the basement

Sapienza

• Fixed inconsistent trespassing boundaries in Sapienza
• Fixed an issue where the ‘Mission Accomplished’ music could be heard during the cinematic following The World of Tomorrow.

Marrakesh

• Fixed an issue that would cause the ‘Open Sesame’ opportunity in Marrakesh to fail, instead of being completed
• Fixed inconsistent trespassing boundaries in Marrakesh
• Fixed an issue that would cause the documents to be lost when using the ‘push’ prompt on Matthieu Mendola in ‘A House Built on Sand’.
• Fixed an issue where the crowd and helicopter sounds could be heard in some parts of the tunnel in Marrakesh
• Fixed an issue where starting combat in the school will alert all guards on the map in Marrakesh

Bangkok

• Fixed an issue where Agent 47 could ‘blend-in’ without the correct disguise in Bangkok
• Fixed an issue with the physics of a guitar stand in Bangkok.
• Fixed an issue with clipping when wearing the Exterminator disguise in Bangkok.
• Fixed an issue with an invisible wall in the atrium in Bangkok.
• Fixed an issue where Jackie Carrington’s routine could get stuck in Bangkok.
• Fixed an issue where guards that have spotted 47 trespassing in one disguise, would immediately attempt to arrest him when finding him in a non-trespassing area in a different disguise.

Colorado

• Fixed an issue where the hay bale in Colorado would not drop when shot in certain places
• Fixed an issue where a door in Sean Rose’s room could not be opened by Rose’s Room Key
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Target Lockdown alert to trigger in Colorado without player action
• Fixed an issue that could make it impossible to complete the Freedom Fighters mission in Colorado

Hokkaido

• Fixed an issue where a kill involving the hot springs in Hokkaido would be classed as ‘Accident Fall’, it is now classified as a drowning kill

General

• Fixed an issue where a gun rattling sound could be heard when crouching after dropping a weapon
• Fixed an issue where a challenge notification would be displayed after the first kill in a mission
• Fixed an issue where the weapon HUD would sometimes display incorrectly when using ‘minimal’ HUD settings
• Fixed an issue where subtitles could still be seen in the Pause Menu
• Fixed an issue with Cyrillic characters not rendering properly on the Contracts Briefing tile

PC-Specific Issues

• Fixed an issue where the cinematics between missions could drop to as low as 19 fps
• Fixed an issue where the selected GPU in the Game Launcher is not the one used by the game
• Fixed an issue where some tabs in the ‘Replanning’ screen could not be selected with a mouse
• Fixed an issue with unequipping an item during the ‘Planning’ phase
• Fixed an issue in Marrakesh where heavy flickering in areas with artificial lighting would occur on specifics setups
• Fixed an issue where the framerate could stutter during combat, primarily on DX12 setups

Brilliant stuff then. There’s a January retail release on the way for Hitman, just in case you’re opting to go physical (PHYSICAL! I WANT TO GET PHYSICAL!). Alternatively, the entire first season is now out, and was on special last week. Although I’m plenty certain that there’ll be another discount close to Christmas. Because honestly, what better gift is there to show someone your love, than a video game where you spend dozens of hours arranging elaborate deaths for suitably nasty people?

Last Updated: November 29, 2016