With 2016вЂ™s Hitman, IO was able to improve these systems in iterative fashion as it released each new episode, as well as incorporate direct feedback from avid fans, streamers, and speed runners. вЂњWe donвЂ™t want to place anyone in the corner or in a chair for no reason, and the same goes for every single room and every single item in the room.вЂќ Image: IO Interactive вЂњFor every single NPC, we ask the question, вЂWhy is this guy here, what is he doing?вЂ™вЂќ Liebold says. He says the development team is often guided by what IO refers to internally as the вЂњSwiss cheese principle.вЂќ As Liebold puts it, вЂњNo matter which entry you choose, you have to make sure thereвЂ™s no visual dead ends and you can come out somewhere.вЂќ Not only that, but the team has to make sure that these pathways are intuitive or, if theyвЂ™re designed to be harder to find, that the NPCs can help guide you there through key dialogue options and other environmental hints. вЂњWe donвЂ™t want the player wandering aimlessly with nothing to do.вЂќ вЂњWe donвЂ™t set out to create massive gigantic levels, but we have a tendency to do so,вЂќ Liebold says.

Every element, down to a majority of the individual non-player characters that number in the hundreds, serves a purpose. More importantly, the level isnвЂ™t just large for bragging rights.

Players will have dozens of methods for approaching the mission, including feeding each of the men to the same rather hungry hippo, Liebold tells me. Three cartel-linked targets will be placed throughout the level, all with connections to the shadowy criminal organization Agent 47 unearthed in 2016вЂ™s Hitman reboot. The level will feature large swaths of jungle, an elaborate drug manufacturing facility, a massive village, a construction site, ancient ruins, a cartel-owned mansion, and a cave system that will link key segments of the environment together through underground tunnels. Case in point: the new Colombia level, which IO designed to be among its most complex destinations. Now, with the rebooted model more well established, IO is building bigger, better, and richer environments for players to experiment in and having them all ready at launch. The sixth and final level of the game, set in an advanced medical facility in the snowy mountains Hokkaido, was the gameвЂ™s most intricate and impressive. The episodic model helped accentuate how IO wanted its game to be experienced, and it also gave IO the tools to gather player feedback and improve the next level before it came out. The secret sauce of Hitman, Liebold says, is unearthing every secret, trying every route and tactic, and truly immersing yourself in the gameвЂ™s complex systems. He says the first game was mainly about вЂњreintroducing Hitman to new generation of gamer,вЂќ and the episodic model helped re-educate people about HitmanвЂ™s core pillar: replayability. вЂњThe episodic model was really successful for us, but we also see it in a different way,вЂќ says IOвЂ™s Sven Liebold.

But all of the learnings it gleaned from treating the game like a persistent, ever-evolving platform have remained intact. to publish the game, IO is moving from an episodic format to a full-fledged, all-in-one release for Hitman 2. Having purchased the rights to the franchise from Square Enix and partnering with Warner Bros. With Hitman 2, which launches on November 13th, IO Interactive finally has all the pieces in place to deliver the most cohesive version of the game since Hitman: Blood Money more than a decade ago. It didnвЂ™t really matter that each new locale arrived one month after the last these levels were so large and complex that you could spend 10 hours or so just knocking out the easy challenges before moving onto the hard-to-find and more difficult ones. With вЂHitman 2вЂ™, IO is moving from an episodic format to a full-fledged, all-in-one release

Hitman 2 easter eggs