Hitman 3 Will Reveal a New Neon-Drenched Locale Tomorrow

As if a luxury Dubai high-rise and an Agatha Christie-like murder mystery weren't appealing enough, it looks like Hitman 3 is gearing up to include a moody neon-noir city in its list of assassination locales. All due respect to Cyberpunk 2077, but I might be more excited to see what Agent 47 can get up to in a place with heavy Blade Runner vibes.

IO, ever fond of building up hype for its reveals, will formally reveal the new location tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT. For now, all we have is a preview image to go on. With 47 standing there in a wet leather coat, basking in pink and blue light like he's stumbled onto the set of Atomic Blonde, you can see a Chinese stop sign peeking out from behind his right arm. That leads me to guess that he'll be traveling to a city like Shanghai or Beijing in search of his next target.

Along with tomorrow's level introduction, IO promises a new look at the Glacier engine that powers the recent Hitman games. It seems safe to assume that this new city level might be a particular showcase for some graphical features that IO has added to the third installment—here's hoping we see some neat new lighting or reflection tech at play. Ray tracing on 47's shiny bald head, please.

Hitman 3 is set to launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, Stadia, and PC on Jan. 20, 2021. It's also coming to Nintendo Switch via cloud streaming.

While getting to finish off this particular trilogy (and step into 47's shoes in VR) is an exciting prospect, some fans might be more excited about what IO Interactive is working on next. Just last week, the studio announced that it has secured the James Bond license and is working on a game currently called Project 007. It's set to be an origin story for Bond and will use the same Glacier tech IO's been building on with Hitman. In other words, expect some equally lush locales for Bond to do all his spy work in.