Hitman's Elusive Targets Missions Delayed, But New Content Out Now

Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced the game's "Elusive Targets," a series of missions playable for a limited time only, have been delayed to April. A specific release date was not divulged in the blog post announcing the delay, but IO said they should launch sometime close to the release of the Sapienza chapter in April.

Although players will have to wait a little while longer for Hitman's Elusive Targets, new content is coming to the game sooner in the form of new Escalation Contracts. Two of these will be released each week until Sapienza comes out. A specific release date for Sapienza will be announced next week.

This week's new Escalation Contracts, which can be found in-game under Escalations in the Contracts Menu, are called The Osterman Mosaic and The Gemini Fiasco. IO said it recommends you know nothing about them before playing, but if you do want to know more, official descriptions are available below in the spoiler text.

The Osterman Mosaic tasks you with a variety of different objectives. As you might guess from the hint above, you'll be using the sabre to eliminate one of your targets. On top of that, you'll need to be quick to hide bodies, avoid some extreme security measures and take down an additional target - and you'll need to do all of that fairly quickly.

The Gemini Fiasco truly mixes things up and will test your mastery of Paris. Fan-favorite Helmut Kruger is involved in this Escalation, which includes a variety of different objectives and complications that will consistently force you to figure out a new approach. You'll need poison and good knowledge of where security cameras are to complete this one efficiently.

Additionally, IO has announced that a new Challenge Pack titled The Vampire Magician will launch in "the coming weeks." This features 10 new challenges, all of which, as the title suggests, require players to wear a vampire magician disguise while performing missions.

Launching alongside the new Challenge Pack will be a game update for all platforms that fixes "a variety of things." The full patch notes will be released later.

GameSpot's Hitman Episode 1 review scored it a 7/10.

"Hitman's opening act isn't ground-breaking, with a host of tiny problems lending it a dated feel," reviewer Peter Brown said. "When you drop a body into a freezer, there's no animation connecting the process together; there's a hard cut from dragging the body to hiding it. Load times are frustratingly long, lasting just under a full minute when reloading saves. This alone is especially disappointing, given how fun it can be to iterate on your methods by reloading saves and experimenting, a process that's tainted by extended downtime.

"However, Hitman's a veritable playground that will delight you with its open-ended design, comical NPCs, and contract creation tools. These qualities, and the flexibility to be as hardcore or laid back as you want, are much appreciated, even if they don't disguise Hitman's lesser qualities."