Hitman's Second Beta Exclusive to PlayStation Plus Subscribers From March 4

Square Enix has announced a second beta for its upcoming Hitman game that will be available exclusively to PlayStation Plus subscribers. It is scheduled to begin on March 4 and will be available for that weekend only, finishing on March 6.

The Hitman beta features a prologue set in a secret ICA training facility. It introduces both Agent 47, the ICA, and Diana Burnwood, a handler who becomes a key part of 47's ongoing career as an assassin.

Square Enix has also released a new video for IO Interactive's reboot. The cinematic is designed to bridge the 20-year gap between the end of the Prologue and the Sanguine Fashion Show, which is Agent 47's first mission in the new game. It takes viewers through a highlight real of the silent assassin's career, showing off the various creative ways he's taken out his targets. Check it out above.

Hitman is scheduled to launch on March 11 for PS4, PC, and Xbox One as an episodic title (the Prologue is included with the first chapter). The game will be updated with what IO Interactive is calling Live Content. This "covers many things," according to its developer, the first of which is limited time contracts called Elusive Targets.

"An Elusive Target is the closest thing to the Hitman fantasy that we've ever created," the developer explained. "These targets will be custom-created characters that are added to existing locations and are only there for a limited time in real-time. You'll only have one chance to take them down.

"If they escape, they are gone for good. If you kill them, that's the way that you killed them. There are no do-overs and no second chances. When an Elusive Target leaves the game world (one way or another) they never return."

Contracts Mode, which returns from 2012's Hitman Absolution, is another Live Content feature. You can read about that here and for more on why Square Enix and developer IO Interactive chose episodic as a business model, you can read GameSpot's interview on the subject.