For IO Interactive, Hitman On PS VR2 Is A Chance At Redemption

IO Interactive considers Hitman on PlayStation VR2 its chance at redemption, and we interviewed the studio alongside a hands-on preview to learn more.

Third time's the charm might be the conventional saying, yet Hitman is pinning its hopes with attempt no.4. Previous versions of Hitman 3 for PSVR and PC VR had merits but ultimately fell short, and much has already been said about the widely criticized Quest 3 port last year. While Reloaded was handled by an external studio, it's clear IOI had unfinished business following the PC VR version.

With a new adaptation heading for PlayStation VR2 this month, it's no surprise then that Eskil Mohl, Senior Game Designer for Hitman World of Assassination at IO Interactive, sees this as a chance to make amends.

“This is a redemption for us because we ported the PSVR version to PC, and it got released prematurely,” Mohl said during a face-to-face interview at the studio's Copenhagen office. Referring to the PC VR version's mixed reception, he believes aspects of the game could've been improved with more time.

Acknowledging that not being able to use your left hand on PC VR was “horrible,” Mohl described the controls as like having a DualShock 4 in your hand, and this edition lets you use both hands. He expressed the team's love for VR, stating its priorities include “getting rid of as many face button prompts as we can” and introducing manual reloading.

“With this version, ​we are much closer to our original hope of what this game can do, these were all things we knew we had to do.”

Before speaking with Mohl, I spent roughly an hour playing a preview build across two missions: “World of Tomorrow” in Sapienza from the first game, followed by Hitman 2's “The Finish Line” in Miami.

As someone who completed World of Assassination trilogy on flatscreen platforms, everything quickly clicked into place with what to do. Sapienza saw me following the 'Absolution' mission story where you try infiltrating a field lab, while Miami was me effectively freestyling.

Even now, it's hard not to feel impressed by the sense of agency, freedom, and scale these missions offer. Most of my mission attempts ended with fleeing the scene after botching a mission story, though the sheer flexibility these games offer lets you get creative across this sandbox. Some actions like crowbar-ing a door open have some nice physicality in VR, as does physically dragging someone's body to hide them.

The PlayStation VR2 version offers welcome changes that were also seen in Reloaded, such as dual-wielding, manual reloading, and using your watch for the mini-map. This edition also adds improvements such as positional interactions, like tapping a keyboard to hack the security cameras on higher difficulties or moving a crowbar to bar open a door. Doors can be both pushed open with motion controls or with a face button.

Inventory items can be summoned with the d-pad, followed by grabbing the items off a rotated inventory screen. This isn't the most immersive approach since it's more of a fancy menu screen, yet I wouldn't call this a problem. Giving Agent 47 something like a backpack or pouch would feel out of place with his disguises, so I'm fine with this trade-off.

Room-scale movement is also supported on PlayStation VR2, something I queried since PS VR2 being a wired headset means your movement is limited. Mohl explained the game can track your position more freely, saying PSVR 1 didn't support it because it needed the external PS Camera for tracking. As such, your position was fixed on the older headset to let the camera detect your location.

“Since PC VR support was a direct port from PSVR, you didn't have room-scale movement, which meant that if you physically moved in your room, you'll be moving out of his body. That's one of the very understandable critiques that we had on PC.”

One especially nice change is the fact you can see your full outfit. Reloaded only uses floating hands, something XR Games previously attributed to stopping immersion-breaking movement issues and giving them more performance power. With PlayStation VR2's higher spec hardware, that's evidently not an issue here, and you actually feel like part of this world.

That's not to say the PlayStation VR2 version doesn't have some compromises or issues, though. One disguise's watch looks painted onto Agent 47's arm, and twisting my arm physically distorted the watch, which isn't great. Mohl also advised that you can't actually see your legs when moving in first person mode. I admittedly didn't notice this while playing, since your upper half obscures this.

“We wanted to keep the body as much as we could. I don't know if you noticed the legs are not showing, but we found out that you hardly ever see that.”

Not every action immediately feels natural for me, though I accept this may require further playtime. Personally, I didn't find it clear that holding someone you've knocked out and dragging your hand away takes their outfit. A prompt does appear telling you how to do this action, though I missed it in my hurry to not get caught. Putting that outfit on involves simply moving the clothes “bag” to your chest. Sprinting involves pressing the left analog stick in but I often needed to press this twice to get it working, which I'm unsure whether that's intentional or not.

Since IOI's porting an existing game rather than creating one just for VR, the team made some creative choices like jumping to third-person view when climbing windows or pipes. Mohl accepts some players might view this as a “cop out” but says this lets you see Agent 47 “in all his splendor,” including his legs. For me, this doesn't detract from the enjoyment that much.

Other design challenges emerged with this adaptation, since the trilogy has over 200 weapons and hundreds of disguises. Mohl calls this a massive undertaking in itself, while additional changes involved item handling, improving the sniper's scope for VR, and removing the button prompts. Not every item across environments can be directly handled, either.

With manual reloading, only a couple of guns emerged during my runs, but this involved a simple process of ejecting a clip with a face button, followed by dragging an ammo pouch into the slot. A simple approach that does what's necessary and gives you that extra immersion, though this highlighted an unexpected issue during design. In the flat version, the gun's handle would always fall off instead of the magazine.

Still, I have to ask the question. What's driving IO Interactive to attempt Hitman VR again, after all this time? Mohl believes that the original levels from the 2016 game still hold up well visually, a sentiment I have to agree with in VR, and he considers this a celebration of the original team's efforts.

Going into the technical details, IOI confirmed Hitman on PlayStation VR2 is running at 60Hz reprojected to 120Hz, which caused a noticeable ghosting effect on several occasions. Dynamic foveated rendering is also supported alongside eye-tracked aim assist for targeting enemies. Haptics for the Sense Controllers add some enjoyable yet subtle feedback, though headset haptics aren't currently supported, and adaptive trigger support when firing guns feels nice.

With all these features coming, I asked a question many have wondered since the PS VR2 version's announcement. Can we expect these changes and enhancements to reach the PC VR version? IO Interactive won't confirm any plans but, “if that happens, then naturally we're going to be building on what we've done here now.”

My preview has me optimistic that the PlayStation VR2 version could become the best to play Hitman World of Assassination in VR. Whether this will convince previous adopters to give this another try, I'm not sure, and I can understand any potential hesitancy after three prior efforts. For now, it's offering some welcome changes, and I'm encouraged by what I've seen.

Hitman World of Assassination reaches PlayStation VR2 on March 27 with a $10 DLC pack, which requires owning the base game on PS5. It's also being sold through the Hitman WOA Part One – VR2 Edition for $39.99.

Disclosure: UploadVR's travel and accommodation costs were covered by IO Interactive for this trip.