Five months ago, IO Interactive revealed that they had to delay Hitman 3‘s Freelancer Mode. At the time they explained that they saw this mode as an opportunity to complete what they had failed to achieve with the main story campaign, and vaguely gave a release window of the second half of this year.

Today they have come forward to announce that Freelancer Mode is almost ready.

In IO’s own words, Freelancer is a brand new, single-player mode that introduces rogue-like elements, strategic planning and a customisable safehouse. While you will be pursuing missions in a persistent world, you will feel the sting of being in such a realistic world.

The way this mode works is gear and consumables are not persistent like the world will be. If you take and use items from the safehouse for a mission, they won’t be waiting for you back home. If you manage to keep a piece of gear with you throughout the mission, or remember to return for it, you’ll get to use it again. Otherwise, you will have to look for a Supplier and hope for the best.

IO Interactive has stated that Hitman 3: Freelancer will arrive on January 26, 2023. It is free for everyone who owns Hitman 3. In the meantime, they will continue to update us with the Road to Freelancer blog series, and also put out patch 3.130 this coming October 6, 2022.

While they are in the end stages of development, IO Interactive will still need to do some real world testing. With that in mind, they have revealed plans for a Hitman 3: Freelancer Closed Technical Test.

Given how other game companies have branded video game betas as pre-order exclusives for their upcoming games, IO Interactive is being careful with their messaging for this test. IO Interactive states up front that they will only get select players to enter the technical test.

While those players will have the ability to share some previews of the mode, IO also makes it clear that some elements are being saved for the final release. Given that it’s highly likely IO will invite members of the games media to the test, they already expect and maybe are inviting scrutiny and public media previews from them.

Of course, the main reason for the test is to check the stress capabilities of their internal servers. IO also wants to see how players will behave, and make adjustments to experience and economy rebalancing accordingly.

For now, we can look forward to October 27, 2022. On the second Road to Freelancer blog post, IO will reveal more details for the technical test, particularly the date it’s going to happen, how to get access, and how long people will be able to play. This is the future of Hitman 3, and its success or failure will determine if fans will be satiated until IO gets to making a Hitman 4.

Hitman 3 is playable on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. You can also learn more about its 2022 roadmap here.

Source: IO Interactive