Hitman (2016 video game)

The shadow client performs an assassination for Viktor Novikov, one of the heads of the international spy ring IAGO, and receives a copy of all of IAGO's gathered intelligence as payment. The shadow client proceeds to use the IAGO files to identify Providence's secret operations. To cover his tracks, the shadow client anonymously discloses to MI6 an impending IAGO auction of an MI6 NOC list, to take place at a fashion show by Novikov's designer label Sanguine. MI6 hires 47 to prevent the sale by assassinating both IAGO ringleaders, Novikov and Dalia Margolis, at the fashion show in Paris, France.

The shadow client sets two more ICA contracts in motion in order to disrupt Providence's activities without exposing himself. He first discloses to a stockholder in the Ether Biotech Corporation a secret Ether project to develop a deadly weaponised virus, who then hires 47 to assassinate the Ether scientists in charge of the project and to destroy the virus prototype housed at Ether's biolab in the fictitious town of Sapienza, Italy. Providence dispatched an agent to investigate the incident, though he was ambushed by the shadow client who coerces him into handing him a vault key before killing him.

The shadow client also discloses an impending military coup d'état in Morocco to Hamilton-Lowe, a construction contractor with lucrative government contracts in the country. Hamilton-Lowe, who wished to preserve their contacts, hires 47 to eliminate the conspirators behind the coup plot, General Reza Zaydan and fugitive bank CEO Claus Hugo Strandberg—both secretly Providence operatives—in Marrakesh, Morocco. As 47 is completing the contract, the shadow client breaches a Providence vault in New York City and steals the information on Providence's assets and operatives. As Providence investigates the incident, it soon realises that a coordinated attack has been launched against it.

The shadow client sets up an ICA contract to draw another Providence member, the recluse media mogul Thomas Cross, into the open. Cross had ordered a coverup that exonerated his son, famed indie rock singer Jordan, for the murder of Jordan's girlfriend, Hannah Highmoore; the shadow client reveals the truth to her family. The Highmoores hire 47 to kill Jordan Cross and Ken Morgan, the lawyer who conducted the coverup, while both are staying at the Himmapan luxury hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Deploying forces from a private militia under his control, the shadow client kidnaps Thomas Cross from Jordan's funeral, then kills Cross and steals billions from his offshore bank accounts. The ICA, realising that an unknown party has benefited from the Cross contract, re-examines 47's previous contracts and discovers the shadow client's role in anonymously leaking intelligence to the clients.

The ICA tracks these transmissions to a training camp for the shadow client's militia. Seeking to eliminate the shadow client for his manipulations, the ICA orders an operation prematurely due to Soders's intervention. The ICA sends 47 to the camp in Colorado, USA, to eliminate eco-terrorist and bombmaker Sean Rose and his fellow commanders. At the camp, 47 and Diana find the shadow client's research revealing the connections of the previous contracts to Providence. They learn for the first time that Providence is not a myth but a real organisation. Though they find evidence that the shadow client knows 47's identity, the pursuit of the shadow client is sidetracked when they also discover that Soders is secretly a Providence agent. The shadow client uses this opportunity to go into hiding.

47 assassinates Soders before he is able to trade a list of ICA operatives to Providence and his Providence liaison and former Yakuza lawyer, Yuki Yamazaki, at the GAMA private hospital in Hokkaido, Japan, where Soders is being treated for a heart condition. Subsequently, Providence uncovers the shadow client's role in the attacks as well. An unnamed Providence member approaches Diana, seeking to hire the ICA to target the shadow client. Upon her refusal, he offers to reveal information about 47's unknown past, leading her to reconsider.

47 receives contracts to assassinate the six former members of the Sigma deniable operations paramilitary unit of the CICADA private military company, who were collectively responsible for war crimes committed during the siege of Sarajevo, but evaded prosecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In this alternate storyline, 47 tracks each Sigma member to one of the Season 1 mission settings, with the events and characters of Season 1 serving as backdrop.

For the final contract, 47 is sent to the GAMA hospital in Hokkaido to both eliminate Taheiji Koyama and retrieve a set of files documenting Sigma's operations. If 47 approaches the target, Koyama, deducing 47's identity, confesses that he himself ordered all six assassinations to bring the Sigma members to justice for their crimes. Koyama instructs 47 to publicise the Sigma files before freely submitting himself to death at 47's hands. After completing his objectives, 47 remarks to Diana that despite the release of the files, public indifference would nevertheless relegate Sigma's long-past atrocities to obscurity.

A doomsday cult named "Liberation" masquerades itself as a self-help group and is organising an exhibition in the Himmapan hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, planning to release a bio-weapon attack in the city. 47 receives contract from a reclusive billionaire codenamed "Locksley" to eliminate Oybek Nabazov, leader of the cult, and Sister Yulduz, his second-in-command. As 47 leaves the hotel, Diana spots a series of self-dispatched messages from the hotel's network, which later is revealed to be a signal to activate the cult's sleeper agents following Nabazov's death.

ICA identifies two cult members meeting in Sapienza to exchange a viral weapon, which was retrieves by 47 after he eliminated the targets. ICA intel then confirms the exact coordinates of the U.S.-bound signal from Nabazov's deadman's trigger, which indicates a medical doctor who carries a live sample of the Nabazov virus is testing the virus in Colorado. 47 uses a sniper rifle to eliminate Bradley Paine, the doctor who has the virus, and four mercenaries who have been infected.

ICA intercepts a memo indicating that Japanese authorities detained a man who showed signs of infection and was sent to the GAMA medical facility. 47 infiltrates the medical facility to eliminate Owen Cage, the virus researcher associated with the weaponisation of the Nabazov virus who infected himself with the intention to become Patient Zero. The second target is Klaus Liebleid, an Ether scientist, who is trying to extract information about the virus so that Ether can reverse engineer the weaponised virus and profit from it. However, despite Cage being kept in the isolation ward, the virus spreads and 47 needs to kill all individuals infected as the virus will only die after the host's death. After 47 completes the contract, the spread of the Nabazov virus is contained and the virus is destroyed as well.

Danish developer IO Interactive was the developer of all mainline Hitman games. Prior to the launch of Hitman: Absolution (2012), Square Enix announced that they had established a new studio named Square Enix Montréal to work on future Hitman games.[22] Due to cutbacks and layoffs at IO Interactive, other projects were not followed through, and they shifted their attention to a new Hitman game,[23] and Square Enix Montréal turned their focus on developing smartphone and tablet versions of Hitman and other games.[24] Most of the members in the development team at IO Interactive only worked on Absolution but not older games of the series such as Hitman: Blood Money (2006).[25]

Absolution was controversial for not retaining many of the franchise's traditional gameplay elements and being too linear, as opposed to the large, open sandbox levels featured in the older games, despite being more accessible. When the team was brainstorming ideas for the next entry in the franchise, they strived to integrate the fundamental gameplay featured in Absolution and the open levels of Blood Money together. According to Christian Elverdem, this goal was "daunting" during the early stage of the game's development as they needed to upgrade their in-house game Glacier engine to accmomodate these larger maps and the majority of the team did not have experience building sandboxes.[25] According to Michael Vogt, the game's lead writer, the title was designed to be a "soft reboot" and a "reimagining" for the franchise.[26]

The major story beats and the destinations were decided by a small groups of development leads, and then a "track team" would be responsible for each level's design, rules, targets, and other details to create what the developer dubbed as a "self-contained world".[27] The first level the team created, Paris, was the vertical slice for the game. It set the gameplay rules, general level design, and the number of non-playable characters for future episodes. According to Elverdem, every level is "fully simulated", and the player is free to explore and observe the behaviours of different artificial intelligence.[28] If the players eliminates a certain NPC, the simulation would adjust itself and continue to function, though it would also react to players' actions.[29] The team listened to feedback from playtesters and adjusted the game accordingly. For instance, after some playtesters had complained about the level being too punitive, the team introduced the concept of escorting, which saw NPCs escorting Agent 47 back to public space if he is found trepassing, whereas in the early version, the guards will directly attack Agent 47.[28]

Amalfi in Italy inspired the design and the aesthetic of "Sapienza", the second episode.

The team perceived Hitman as a puzzle game with action and stealth elements. The team had several major design concepts.[28] The first was named "Swiss cheese". According to the team, the term meant that the players would be presented with an ample amount of options, and that there are always multiple ways in and out of a level.[30] There are generally two types of levels in this game. A "fortress" refers to an area that the player must infiltrate, and a "snailhouse" sees a level having a more circular design. In a snailhouse, players are encouraged to explore the peripheral areas so as to find ways to gain access to the area in the middle of the map.[28] The level Sapienza was developed alongside Paris, and was designed as the "opposite" of it, both in level design layout and aesthetic. Inspired by the Amalfi coast in Italy, the maps featured a snailhouse design. Elverdem also described this level as the "pinnicale" of the Swiss cheese design, as the map has a lot of verticality and that the pathways are interconnected, ensuring that players would not find a dead end.[31]

The team incorporated a concept known as "social stealth", in which players are expected to conform to social norms and abide to the rules in a particular setting or context and act accordingly to blend in.[32] Each area in a map is considered to be a "micro-biome" which informs the players the way they should act. In each level, the team balanced the proportion of both public and private spaces. Players are able to freely walk around in public spaces without restrictions, which enables them to generally understand the "feel" of the level and discover various mission opportunities. For private space, there are two types: professional space which often requires a disguise, and personal space, which is an area that sees the target being alone.[33] The artificial intelligence of targets displays two types of behaviours. The first type will roam around the map, while other will station themselves in a private space that is off-limit to the player. This helped diversify the gameplay loop by encouraging different playstyles. According to the team, the first type of targets encourages players to follow them and observe their behaviours and patterns, while the latter type prompts players to find ways to infiltrate a setting or gain access to previously restricted areas.[28]

After receiving complaints from playtesters about the level being too lifeless and boring, the team introduced narrative subplots into the game with mission stories and opportunities. These elements position the players on a "rail" that will ultimately guide them to their target. However, this added additional challenges to the game's simulation, as opportunities will disrupt the target's usual loop, and players can further complicate the loop by abandoning an ongoing opportunity in favour of another rail. Nonetheless, the team believed that these subplots allow players to discover creative ways that changed the AI loop in a manner that was meaningful and organic. For instance, if the Ether virus was destroyed in Sapienza, one of the targets, Silvio Caruso, who is a scientist will deviate from his core loop to visit the laboratory. Therefore, players can use this to easily manipulate the targets. Despite putting players on a rail, the team will stop giving players further instructions after they have gather all the information needed to carry out the hit. This team felt that it encourages players to freely decide how they want to approach the targets and communicates to the player that there is never a "wrong" way of taking out a target.[28]

Vogt and Elverdam placed more emphasis on the game's narrative, as they observed that the market had a desire for "quality drama" following the success of The Last of Us (2013). Vogt noted that there was a genre change for the franchise with Hitman (2016). Unlike the previous games in the series, which were "crime thrillers", the game was an "agent thriller", taking inspiration from James Bond movies such as Casino Royale and featuring a more "adventurous and aspirational" tone as opposed to the older games which were "cold and cynical". The team "elevated" the stature of Agent 47 and his targets, as 47 is now travelling to different luxurious and exotic locations and assassinating targets who are social elites. Elverdem added that with the genre change, Agent 47 became "the guy you called for the most impossible hits under the most impossible circumstances". To make the game "aspirational", the game features a "stronger moral compass" when compared to earlier games so that the assassinations committed by Agent 47 are more morally justifiable and make more sense within the context of the universe.[26]

Vogt described Agent 47 as a "quintessential blank slate character", while Elverdam adding that "since he is not anyone himself, it's easy for him to be everyone else". Agent 47's only goal was to complete his assignments. Given the nature of the character, the team cannot forcefully apply typical character arcs like hero's journey for him, as the team felt that it would cause ludonarrative dissonance. Therefore, the team introduced other characters accompanying him throughout the newer Hitman games. 47's handler Diana Burnwood becomes his "conscience" and the shadow client (later revealed to be Lucas Grey in Hitman 2) serves as his "emotions". These characters have genuine emotions and desires, and their actions and attitudes would slowly influence Agent 47 and facilitate his own character arc.[26] David Bateson returned to voice Agent 47.[34]

Vogt was initially concerned by the episodic format, as he felt that if one episode features too many narrative elements, the episode would feel like "a slice of an unfinished game". Therefore, the team decided to include subplots within each level, while the main story would slowly unfold throughout the games. This also makes the game similar to a TV show in which some episodes are entirely about a subplot that has no relation to the overarching narrative.[26] Vogt added that Season 1 only serves to introduce the game's characters, whereas the game's story would become increasingly important in later seasons. The first half of Season 1 in particular has very little story content as the team wanted to ensure that players can relate themselves to Agent 47, a merciless assassin who travels around the world to kill targets assigned to him.[35] With 47 being a blank state character, the team instead strived to create a "living, breathing" world. 47 is not a protagonist, but instead, an intruder who observes and occasionally interrupts other people's lives. To achieve this, the team relied heavily on environmental storytelling. Art director Jonathan Rowe added that the art team spent a lot of time "set dressing" every room and item to ensure that each item has a reason to be there and has a tale to tell. For instance, in the Bangkok mansion, some rooms are messier than others. This communicates to the player the story of the inhabitants who previously occupied these rooms.[36]

The game is always online due to the inclusion of Elusive Targets, who can only be killed once. The making of Elusive Targets did not impacted the game's level design, though the team employed a very different design philosphy when compared with the main game sinced they cannot be replayed. Players are not allowed to replay Elusive Targets as the team felt that it would create a tense experience and prevent players from noticing "imperfections" which would then make the experience less enjoyable.[37] Elusive Targets were designed to be memorable, though they do not necessarily have connections to the main story, which gives the team more freedom in creating characteres that fit the setting and the theme of each map. The team avoided releasing Elusive Targets in a newly released map as the team wanted to give sufficient time for the players to master and explore the level. The development team observed how players complete Eluisve Targets, their play pattern and feedback and made adjustment for future targets in order to make them more challenging.[38] Hannes Seifert, the head of IO Interactive, described Elusive Targets as "the pulse" of the experience, which have "energised" the community, ultimately boosting the game's sales.[39] This mode was meant to provide burst of content to the player during the intervals between episodes. A companion app was released in July 2016 for players to keep track of all the online content released for the game.[40]

In March 2016, advertising company Omelet announced they had collaborated with Square Enix for a new campaign called Choose Your Hit. People could vote online or through Twitter to "kill" either Gary Cole or Gary Busey, with the "winning" actor who received the most votes lending their voice and likeness to the target in an upcoming mission. It was announced one month later Busey had won and would feature as the target in a mission released sometime in mid 2016.[41] On 18 July 2016, Busey was announced as the seventh elusive target in the game, and his mission would be available for seven days starting on 21 July 2016. Cole appears in the mission as well.[42]

Contracts mode returns from Absolution. The team believed that the larger maps and the higher number of NPCs in each map have made the experience more varied, and it created identifable NPCs in order to make these custom targets more interesting.[43] When Absolution launched in 2012, the online servers were unstable due to a massive amount of players accessing the online Contracts mode. To avoid repeating the same mistake, IO Interactive invested significantly in improving the game's online infrastructure to ensure that the game would have a stable launch.[44]

While there was no post-launch support for Absolution, the team realised that players regularly re-visited the Contracts mode, where players set custom targets and share them online with other players worldwide. This mode's longevity encouraged IO Interactive to re-evaluate the release model of Hitman. They envisioned the game as a "digital platform", similar to a Netflix series. This platform, marketed as the "World of Assassination", allowed IO Interactive to release content regularly without re-building the technology. The team believed that by launching at a lower price point with fewer levels, more players would be tempted to purchase the game, thus creating positive word of mouth that would further expand the game's player base. As the team released more episodes, the expected more players would begin converting their existing version to the full version. The team initially estimated that about 80% of the players would buy the episodes separately, while only 20% of them, who they believed to be the long-time fans of the series, would purchase the full-priced versions.[25]

Originally, the game was to be released in an "intro pack" that included all the base content, including Paris, Sapienza and Marrakesh locations, six story missions, three sandboxes, forty "signature kills", a contracts mode with 800 different targets, and regular events held by the developer. New missions and locations set in Thailand, the United States, and Japan were to be released after the game's launch, and a full-priced version was to be released following the release of this post-release content.[51] No downloadable content was to be released for the game and no microtransactions were to be offered, and new missions, locations and targets were to be added to the game regularly as free updates after the game's release.[52][53]

On 14 January 2016, it was announced that Hitman would instead be released in an episodic manner; on-launch, the game would consist of the prologue and Paris missions. New content will be released on a monthly basis, including the remaining two cities of the main game (Sapienza and Marrakesh) in April and May 2016 respectively, followed by the previously planned Thailand, U.S. and Japan expansions by the end of the "season" in late 2016, as well as weekly events and additional planned content between the monthly updates. These expansions will be available at no cost to those who purchase a full-priced digital copy of the game, but those who purchase the "Intro Pack" must purchase them. Seifert explained that the move was designed to provide the team time to develop the game's levels, and to allow them to "create a living game that will expand and evolve over time and establish a foundation for the future — this is the first game in a storyline which will continue and expand with future Hitman games."[54]

The episodic release enabled IO Interactive to receive players' feedback for earlier levels and subsequently iron out some of the design flaws during the production of later episodes.[55] The very positive reaction to Sapienza boosted the team's confidence and prompted the team to further experiment with level design by adding changes to the formula in later maps such as Colorado and Hokkaido which add new challenges the players and change their expectations.[56] For instance, Colorado has no public space, while Hokkaido links the disguise system with the rooms that players can access. The team also believed that through releasing episodes intermittently, players would be encouraged to replay and master each level, and shared with other players their experience when they were waiting for the next episode to release.[57]

Other than "ICA Facility", which serves as the prologue and a tutorial to the game, Hitman features six different locations, including Paris in France, the fictional town of Sapienza in Italy, Marrakesh in Morrocco, Bangkok in Thailand, Colorado in the United States, and Hokkaido in Japan.

In addition to the main episodes, the game also features several bonus episodes. After the release of Marrakesh, IO Interactive announced a "Summer Bonus Episode". It was released on 19 July 2016 and features a remake of the Sapienza and Marrakesh levels, which features new targets, challenges and opportunities.

• In "The Icon", 47 visits Sapienza for the first time.[64] 47 assassinates actor-director Dino Bosco, to save the client, L'Avventura Pictures, from Bosco's financially ruinous budget demands while filming a superhero film for the studio.
• In "A House Built on Sand", 47 visits Marrakesh for the first time.[64] 47 thwarts a planned sale of client Hamilton-Lowe's trade secrets from Hamilton-Lowe chief architect Matthieu Mendola to rival construction magnate Kong Tuo-Kwang, assassinating both men and intercepting the documents.
• In "Holiday Hoarders", 47 visits Paris for the first time.[65] 47 assassinates professional thieves Harry Bagnato and Marv Gonif as they attempt to burglarise the Palais De Walewska on Christmas. The targets are a nod to Joe Pesci's and Daniel Stern's characters from the holiday film Home Alone.[66]
• In "Landslide", 47 visits Sapienza again. 47 is hired by Silvio Caruso to assassinate Marco Abiatti, a snake-tongued wealthy businessman-turned-politician, who has returned to his hometown to run for mayor, with the intention of turning it into holiday resorts for the rich.[67]

IO Interactive's parent company Square Enix published every episode and both the digital and the retail release of Hitman: The Complete First Season, which bundles all episodes together. The Complete First Season was released on 31 January 2017.[68] However, due to the game's financial underperformance and Square Enix prioritising other properties, it had announced that it would divest from the studio and allow studio owners to perform a management buyout, as a result of which IO Interactive became independent.[69]

Following this split, IO Interactive retained the rights to the Hitman franchise and began self-publishing the game digitally. It released the prologue of the game ("ICA Facility") for free to all players in June 2017.[70] IO Interactive then released and published Hitman: Game of the Year Edition on 7 November 2017 digitally. The re-release includes the base game and a separate campaign named "Patient Zero" which remixs four locations in the game including Bangkok, Sapienza, Colorado, and Hokkaido.[71] IO Interactive then partnered with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to release Game of the Year Edition at retail on 15 May 2018. Titled Hitman: Definitive Edition, this version includes the campaign and all bonus episodes, as well as the "IO Interactive's 20th Anniversary Outfit Bundle" which includes outfits inspired by IO's other franchises such as Freedom Fighters, Mini Ninjas and Kane & Lynch.[72]

The game received generally positive reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many reviewers regarded the instalment as a "return to form" for the series after the controversial release of Absolution in 2012,[90][91][92]

Many reviewers expressed scepticism at the game's release schedule. When Paris launched, Arthur Gies of Polygon felt the game was more unfinished than episodic.[93] Phil Savage from PC Gamer expressed a similar sentiment that, "Hitman feels unrefined and unfinished in lots of small but important ways."[94] However, as more episodes were released, critics' impression of the release format improved significantly. Mike Williams from USgamer believed that the episodic release format helped increase the replayability of Hitman, because it gave sufficient time for the players to fully explore a level and experiment with different approaches before a new episode was released.[95] Reviewers from Rock, Paper, Shotgun agreed as they believed that the episodic release model meant that the game would not be too overwhelming for players. According to them, the game "[set] an excellent precedent for having impeccable chunks once a month" and that other games should be inspired by this release structure.[96] Their opinions aligned with that of the developers, who believed that the format would encourage players to return and replay each level regularly.[97]

The locations received praise from critics. Williams liked the vast and lively levels, which he described as "playgrounds" that players can freely explore and observe.[95] Savage added that these levels were not only big but also "intricate" and "dense", meaning that players would have plenty of do in each level, encouraging them to replay the game.[98] He also liked the variety of the levels presented, especially with later levels which added new challenges to the game. GameSpot's Brett Todd also admired the complex design of all each level and commented that "the levels are so big and so packed with details that they take on lives of their own, much like separate movies in a franchise".[99] Writing for Game Informer, Jeff Marchiafava believed that the levels were too big and that players could not stumble upon meaningful opportunities in an organic and spontaneous manner. He also remarked that a lot of trial and error was needed for later episodes due to how the rules were changed, resulting in a lot of frustrations.[100] Eurogamer's Edwin Evans-Thirlwell was disappointed that the AI did not react sufficiently to the players' actions.[101] Critics generally agreed that Paris was a promising start to the series, though Sapienza was often highlighted as the game's high point due to the map's complex layout, location variety and creative assassinations. Marrakesh and Hokkaido released to generally positive reception, though Bangkok and Colorado were considered to be the weaker levels as the assassinations were less creative and the art style was less striking. The latter of the two levels was often considered to be controversial among players due to its complete lack of public space and verticality.[101][95] While critics liked the idea of a global-trotting adventure, with Williams and Todd drawing similarities between the game and the Bond films,[99][95] some reviewers lamented that the game were reusing voice actors in different locations.[99][102][100]

The gameplay received critical praise. Williams believed players were able to experiment with different ways to assassinate their targets. As the player progresses, they would unlock new tools which allowed them to discover new assassination opportunities, further boosting the game's replayability.[95] Andy Kelly from PC Gamer added that "if you have an absurd idea, the game will almost always accommodate and react to it".[90] Savage agreed that the opportunities were "entertaining" as they often resulted in very creative assassinations. Todd added that the assassinations felt like "funhouse ride than a grim series of contract killings" due to its over the top nature.[99] Jeffrey Matulef from Eurogamer also commented on AI behaviours which generated many unscripted moments for players.[103] Some reviewers believed that the opportunities were too overbearing because it offered players too much guidance and handholding,[101] though reviewers praised IO Interactive for allowing players to play with minimal hints through modifiying the game's settings.[104][95] Many reviewers remarked that the game felt like a puzzle game, about how the player deciphers AI patterns and approaches their objectives.[98][95] Savage added that the game had the "most elegant implementation" of the disguise system, since the game introduces a specific type of NPC that will recognise 47's disguise as opposed to Blood Money's "arbitrary suspicion meter",[98] though several reviewers felt that the pattern remained difficult to discern.[99][100] Several critics also disliked the game's always-online requirement and its long load times.[100][99]

Contrary to the team's expectations, the game's episodic format did not succeed commercially. Most of the players purchased the full-priced versions instead, and the volume was significantly lower when compared to traditional boxed release. Due to market confusion over the game's episodic format, even when the game's development was completed, the retail version did not meet publisher Square Enix's expectations, causing it to divest from the studio.[28] Hitman: The Complete First Season was the fourth best-selling video game at retail in the UK during its week of release, behind Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and FIFA 17 (2016).[105] However, despite the slow start, IO Interactive announced that the game had attracted 7 million players as of November 2017. More than 13 million players had played the game by May 2018.[106]

The game was nominated for Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2016 and Evolving Game at the 13th British Academy Games Awards.[107][108] Video game publication Giant Bomb declared Hitman their Game of the Year in 2016. The staff concluded that "2016 was filled with huge debuts, finales, and resurrections, but the surprise success of Hitman had us talking, sweating, cursing, and laughing more than any other game this year".[109]