Hitman screenshot from Sapienza

After an avalanche of rumors about Hitman's cancellation, and then the eventual separation between Square Enix and IO Interactive, many were worried this would spell the end of constant updates. Thankfully, this has proven to not be the case as IO Interactive has just released the July Update filled with a variety of minor but welcome changes.

Xbox One loading times have been improved, combat has been rebalanced to make Agent 47 less of a tank, numerous potentially game-breaking bugs have been fixed, and perhaps most importantly for new players, you can now unlock Professional difficulty with Mastery level 5. The developers have done a rather good job of explaining each of the changes in detail, so if you're interested in the specifics here's the full list:

Xbox One Loading Times

After a recent update, Xbox One users reported to us that the game was taking longer to load than usual, especially when restarting a contract. 

We've looked into this and now have the Xbox One loading times back to where they should be. Thanks to our Xbox One players who reported this.

Combat Changes

We've made some changes to combat across the game. The intended result of these changes is to make combat more satisfying and viable for all players. 

Specifically, we have reduced the fire rate of NPC pistols, slightly increased how quickly 47 can 'snap' to the target NPC when 'aim assist' is toggled on, reduced the damage that 47 takes at mid to long distances and increased the speed that 47's health regenerates. We are continuing to monitor and adjust these values based on our own impressions and we're looking forward to feedback from our players when these changes go live. Please note that Professional Difficulty is not affected by these changes and still offers the 'Lethal Combat' that was promised.

Backstory: With an earlier update on June 23rd, the first iteration of our internal combat changes was unintentionally released. That first iteration simply reduced the damage output of NPC weapons and resulted in what some of our community have lovingly described as 'Tank 47'. The changes that we mention above (and will introduce with 1.12.1) are based on the combat values before the June 23rd update. This is important to mention because we want to be clear that we haven't made 47 more of a tank. Instead, we've looked at the combat experience that we've had in the game since launch and made the above changes to the long-standing values.

Professional Difficulty

We've changed the unlock criteria for Professional Difficulty from Mastery level 20 to Mastery level 5. All players that currently have Mastery level 5-19 on each location will automatically unlock Professional Difficulty after updating their game to 1.12.1 (July Update). There are no changes to Professional Difficulty other than the unlock criteria.

Excuse me, I found a weapon

We've fixed an issue that could cause guards to repeatedly drop weapons that they discovered on the ground. This issue was prominent on The Icon mission.

Bathroom Break

We've fixed an issue that could cause the toilet in the Marrakesh school to behave erratically after 47 kicks it onto Zaydan. This could occasionally result in 47's death. Seriously.

Cancelling Connecting

We've fixed an issue that could cause players to inadvertently cancel the 'connecting' prompt and enter 'Offline Mode'.  

Opportunity Lost After Loading

We've fixed an issue that could cause the Opportunity Marker (the little light bulb) to disappear after a save/load cycle.

Trespassing vs Hostile Area

We've implemented a fix for a Known Issue from our June Update. The 'Trespassing' and 'Hostile Area' status messages on the mini-map now display correctly.

Maximum Mastery

We heard that some players have had issues unlocking the trophies/achievements associated with reaching Mastery level 20 in various locations. We've implemented a change so that the game will re-check whether you have reached level 20 when you launch the game and award the appropriate trophies/achievements. 

Trophy Typography

We've made some necessary updates to the trophy descriptions on PS4; corrected a few typos and mistakes.

Unconscious Witness

We've also implemented a fix for the other Known Issue from our June Update. The 'Unconscious Witness' status on the mini-map is know displayed correctly.

Miscellaneous Fixes

We've fixed other minor issues across the board to keep the game in fantastic shape.

Its currently not known what the August Update will bring to the table, but the important thing to take from this is that there will indeed be future updates! If you would like to follow Hitman's development and keep track of all the Elusive Targets, simply head on over to the official website.