Hitman 3 is launching with PlayStation VR support

Developer IO Interactive revealed during PlayStation’s recent State of Play presentation that Hitman 3 will be playable in PlayStation VR at launch.

Players will also be able to import every level from the rest of the “World of Assassination” trilogy (which includes 2016’s Hitman and 2018’s Hitman 2) into Hitman 3 and play through them in VR.

What’s unclear, however, is whether Hitman 3 will offer the game’s full experience in VR, or if there will be specific VR missions that players can compete. The official IO Interactive announcement states that players can “dress as Helmut Kruger and walk the catwalk in Paris” or “infiltrate the bank vault in New York,” but these are critical missions in the game’s standard story mode, not the additional challenges that make up the bulk of the game’s replay factor.

Still, it sounds like Hitman fans will have plenty of fun experimenting with the series’ interlocking, clockwork-like systems. Players will be able to manually pick up items instead of using a button prompt, which could really mix up the gameplay in fun ways. One example that IO gives in the announcement is picking up a frying pan, swinging it at someone’s head, and then blocking incoming bullets with it. In other words, it sounds like Hitman 3 in VR will be more physics-based than the standard experience. An accompanying trailer shows off other interactions like manually opening a door by grabbing the handle and garroting a target by reaching over his head. It all looks very immersive—you know, in a really creepy, awesome way.

IO states that it will have more information about the game’s VR capabilities in the coming months, while leaving open the possibility that it will come to other VR platforms, too. There’s still plenty of time between now and Hitman 3‘s January 2021 release window, when it launches for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.