Hitman 2's holiday update lets us murder Home Alone's Wet Bandits again
Santa Claus is gunning you down~
Home Alone's idiot burglars - or at least a pair of very similar bumbling thieves with legally distinct surnames - are on Santa's naughty list, and they're Agent 47's target in Hitman 2's first Christmas update. While largely a repeat of the previous game's Holiday Hoarders mission, set in a remixed Paris map, it's been polished up and remastered to Hitman 2 spec along with a bundle of challenges to permanently unlock a Santa costume. Also included is a bundle of new profession-themed Featured Contracts, and a slew of bugfixes. There's a trailer under the tree below.
For those that missed out on Hitman 1's Christmas contract, the Holiday Hoarders mission is a treat. For the rest of us, it's just a good excuse to murder Harry and Marv a few more times. While bumping off the hapless villains is relatively easy, the challenges encourage you to channel Macaulay Culkin. Bonus points are awarded for repeatedly knocking the thieves out with bricks, preemptively stealing all the items they're hoping to pilfer, and then blowing them up with perfect comedic timing just as they throw in the towel. Do it all, and you get to be Santa all year round.
The update also includes a set of new user-made Featured Contracts, all based around the concept of 'ccupational hazards'. Lots of dressing up as blue-collar workers and bumping off your colleagues in these missions. Io plan to highlight another five contracts every month, and those who complete lots of them will be granted some permanent new bits of equipment. After five successful featured missions you'll get the measuring tape (for when piano wire is too classy), and the next unlock is the Handyman Wrench at 15 contracts down.
This update also bulks up the PC graphics options menu a lot, adding more options and more granularity for those wanting to tweak and tune for optimal performance. They've further refined the multiplayer Ghost Mode too, giving your opponent an extra twenty seconds if you killed someone in a less-than-stealthy way, encouraging people to play it cool. They also mention that the physics-defying homing briefcase has not been fixed, and that people shouldn't worry. Given how perfect it is, I hope they never do.
The Holiday Hoarders update for Hitman 2 is now live. You can see the full patch notes here.