Hitman 2’s latest update, released Monday, brings a wintry mix of new content to the game for all players, including the first add-on for Expansion Pass owners.
Headlining the update is a new mission that sends Agent 47 to Hokkaido, Japan, to take out a union-busting factory owner named Dmitri Fedorov. The mission will be available for the duration of an in-game seasonal event that developer IO Interactive calls the Snow Festival. It’s live with Monday’s update and will run through Feb. 12.
Hitman veterans know that Hokkaido was one of the six locations in 2016’s Hitman; an updated version of it is playable in Hitman 2 for anyone who already owns the previous game or has purchased the Hitman Legacy Pack. As you can see in the screenshot above, IO has spruced up the snowy Japanese setting with some cheery lights for the Snow Festival. Two new items come with the event: the Ice Pick and the Snow Festival Suit. If you unlock them during the event, you’ll be able to use them permanently.
However, you can try out Hokkaido and the Snow Festival even if you don’t own Hitman 2. Starting Tuesday, Jan. 22, the map from Hitman and its updated Snow Festival version will be available as a free trial on all platforms — it will go live at 8 a.m. EST on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and at 1 p.m. on Windows PC. The trial will end at those times on Feb. 12, and progress in the trial will carry over for anyone who buys the full game.
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On Tuesday, IO will also release the Winter Sports Pack for Hitman 2, the first downloadable content for the game’s Expansion Pass. The add-on features five new items: the Winter Sports Suit for 47, plus the Arctic Tool Box, Quickdraw (climbing gear that can double as a garrote), Piton, and Snowball. The DLC, which is currently not being sold outside of the Expansion Pass, will go live Tuesday at midnight around the world.
Hitman 2 publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is selling a two-part Expansion Pass that costs $39.99; both are included in the $99.99 Gold Edition, whereas the $79.99 Silver Edition only comes with the first half. It does not appear that the Winter Sports Pack makes up the entirety of Expansion Pass 1, since both parts of the season pass will feature “new missions, a new location, a new Sniper map, new challenges, new weapons, and new outfits,” according to Warner Bros. Presumably, additional content is on the way, including, at least, a new map for the Sniper Assassin mode and a new location. We’ve asked Warner Bros. for clarification and will update this article with any information we receive.
Finally, Monday’s patch — which weighs in at 1.1 GB to 1.3 GB, depending on the platform you’re playing on — updated Hitman 2 to version 2.13. The list of changes includes various bug fixes and improvements; you can check out the full patch notes on IO’s website. The studio noted that it’s still working on a permanent solution for a change that it made to the game’s Silent Assassin rating back in November, since the change made it way too easy to earn that top honor.
Update (Jan. 22): The Snow Festival free trial is now live on the PlayStation Store, Steam, and the Xbox Games Store. We’ve also added a new trailer for the seasonal event to the top of this post.
