Hitman 2 Free Halloween Event Shows The Scary Side Of Murder

Hitman 2 is all about murder, but usually it's the playful, wacky kind of murder. Once in a while Agent 47 gets deadly serious and downright scary, though, as in the case of the upcoming Halloween event. A special Escalation Contract available starting October 22 is full of spooky decor, and just to put a fine point on the festivities, the trailer is cut like a slasher flick.

The event takes place in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, but it will be given a makeover with decorations like pumpkins and skeletons. Successfully completing the contract, by killing your targets, will earn you the Tactical Wetsuit and Bat Shuriken tool.

The update will be available for free to anyone who has the (also free) Starter Pack. That acts as a demo, which means you can try out the Halloween content and then use those rewards you earned in the full game. It also offers an expansion pass for even more contracts on top of the base game.

"Hitman is about experiencing the anticipation of seeing whether a plan will work when you try it for the first time," said Edmond Tran in GameSpot's review. "It's about feeling the tension of briskly walking away from a bad situation, hoping you can lose the suspicious guards. It's the satisfaction of knowing the machinations of a level so well that when a target moves into a particular place at a particular time, you have the perfect way to intervene. Hitman 2 is a familiar experience, but in the Hitman world, familiarity is an incredible strength."

Meanwhile, Hitman developer IO Interactive recently announced it's working again with publisher Warner Bros. on an entirely new universe. It's currently staffing up for the project, though, so we may not see what it is for some time.