Hitman is going to give you a second chance at killing Gary Busey

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Hitman is the gold standard for episodic gaming. What made Hitman so adept at trotting out its content, was the fact that each new mission had so much content within it. You could easily spend dozens of hours working out the perfect way to kill an analogue of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a pen, or you could slave away at murdering every single living soul in a remote Japanese hospital before you’d grow tired of Agent 47’s antics.

What IO Interactive did with their episodic release rollout, was make certain that players didn’t experience any fatal fatigue too soon. While I understand having everything at once is desirable, having Hitman in beefy slices did wonders for the game. It also made the hunt for Elusive Targets that much more satisfying and event-worthy.

This was Hitman at its finest, tasking players with using every skill and gadget earned thus far to take on contracts where the odds were stacked against you. If you fouled up, it was over. No second chances for you. You’d have to live with a black spot on your record and forever and ever. Hitman’s game of the year announcement has decided to roll back on that system however, as there will be some redemption for anyone who missed out on taking down an Elusive Target the first time around.

These timed assassinations will be “re-activated”, allowing players another crack at some of the most wanted men and women on the planet. If you bungled a kill however, you’re crap out of luck. It does mean at least, that many of you will get a chance to go after legendary Hollywood actor Gary Busey again, whose mission in the coastal town of Sapienza was downright mental:

For those of you who picked up the complete edition earlier this year after the bulk of the Elusive Targets had been killed off already, here’s a full list of second chances deserving a second shot (heh):

1. The Forger (Sergei Larin)
2. The Congressman (Anthony L. Troutt)
3. The Prince (Adalrico Candelaria)
4. The Sensation (Jonathan Smythe)
5. The Gunrunner (Vito Đurić)
6. The Twin (Dylan Narváez)
7. The Wildcard (Gary Busey)
8. The Broker (Howard Moxon)
9. The Black Hat (Owen Wagner)
10. The Pharmacist (Nila Torvik)
11. The Fixer (Xander Haverfoek)
12. The Identity Thief (Brendan Conner)
13. The Ex-Dictator (Richard Ekwensi) and The Gold-Digger (Inez Ekwensi)
14. The Chef (Gabriel Santos)
15. The Angel of Death (Etta Davis)
16. The Guru (Richard J. Magee)
17. The Food Critic (Wen Ts’ai)
18. The Chameleon (Richard M. Foreman)
19. The Blackmailer (Walter Williams)
20. The Warlord (Adeze Oijofor)
21. The Doctor (Pavel Frydel) and The Surgeon (Akane Akenawa)
22. The Bookkeeper (Pertti Järnefelt)
23. The Paparazzo (Kieran Hudson)
24. The BadBoy (Bartholomew Argus)
25. The Fugitive (Ji-Hu)
26. The Entertainer (Mr. Giggles)

The rest of the GOTY edition includes plenty of new content, the primary stuff being the new Patient Zero campaign. Here’s the description from IO Interactive on that:

After the routine elimination of a target, a contingency plan to unleash a global pandemic is triggered and Agent 47 must race against the clock to prevent a virus from spreading. This four-mission campaign spans different locations in the game, each one re-worked from the original settings with new gameplay opportunities, disguises, characters, challenges, gameplay mechanics, AI behaviour and HUD elements.

Bangkok, Sapienza, Colorado and Hokkaido look and feel completely different with a new time of day and new custom music created by the composer for Season One, Niels Bye Nielsen.

That content won’t be free to anyone who bought Hitman’s first season. Considering the sheer amount of content released during that debut season, I’m fine with that. If a purchase of the new content can help get season 2 of Hitman off the ground, then I’ll happily throw more money at IO Interactive.

Last Updated: October 25, 2017