I’ve just watched the IOI Showcase and look, I love IO Interactive. Hitman is one of my favourite franchises and a great model of games-as-a-service done right. 007: First Light seems really promising. And this studio has had a turbulent history, particularly under Square Enix, but came out the other side as a confident independent publisher and developer.
With all that said, the IOI Showcase was a baffling, messy experience. Let me try and unpack what I’ve just watched.
More Content Coming To Hitman: World of Assassination
This was where things were going okay. We got an extended gameplay deep dive of the new Le Chiffre Elusive Target in Hitman: World of Assassination. The Paris map has a new casino floor and interactive poker game, which looks like a great deal of fun. It was a lot of time to spend on a mission that I could also just play right now, but I guess the Bond cross-promotion deserves a lot of love.
Also announced was a wide variety of content updates in Hitman’s 2025 roadmap, an upcoming iOS release for Hitman: World of Assassination and a tease of additional co-op content where you tackle assassinations with a friend.
Hitman Is A Board Game Now!
Hitman: The Board Game translates the video game into a tabletop experience. This multiplayer board game sees friends competing as different assassins, using cards to try and eliminate the target first. Familiar items, maps and characters tie your playthough back to the video game franchise.
Hitman: The Board Game will be available soon to back on Kickstarter.
Bond. Games Bond.
If my stupid heading for this section is any indication, there’s not much to discuss about 007: First Light. We saw the same trailer that played at PlayStation’s State of Play earlier this week with a promise of more gameplay in the coming months.
I’m left questioning why the showcase was held before the gameplay was ready, or why the trailer for this game was revealed days before the IOI Showcase if there was nothing more to add.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still looking forward to this game. But no more than I was before this showcase.
We Cast Our Eye on Mindseye. So. Much. Mindseye.
We got a longer look at Mindseye, with plenty of third-person shooting, a wide array of gadgets to deploy and some driving gameplay. It all reminds me a lot of Watch Dogs 2, a game I had a great time with. But for a title coming out in just a few days, there’s a sense of jank to it that I can’t shake off.
I’m also still confused knowing this isn’t a traditional open world game, but the structure isn’t totally clear to me. There’s selectable side missions and clearly a wide open space to drive around in.
The user-generated content looks most interesting to me. An example was shown of a mission where players are driving through rings in a set amount of time. I know this is hardly groundbreaking stuff, but it’ll be interesting to see how expansive the creation tools can get.
Then we got three back-to-back story trailers for Mindseye and I felt like I was losing my mind. I think it was a mistake. I don’t know. I just wanted it to be over.
Mindseye comes out June 10 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
There Was A Q&A And I Felt Like I Was Intruding On Something
After the immersive non-stop Mindseye trailer experience, we cut back to the IOI Showcase stage where the host appeared to have lost control of the guests for an upcoming Q&A. In a wide shot with six empty chairs, we sat in on a discussion between the host and presumably a stage manager as they tried to determine why everyone had gone to the bar.
I was strongly considering pouring myself a heavy drink as well, and this was at midday local time.
Eventually, our six guests arrived, though conversation was dominated by Mads Mikkelsen and Hitman voice actor David Bateson. I guess this is fair enough as they were the biggest names on stage, but it was beginning to feel more like an awkward PAX panel than a widely broadcast livestream.
And as this was playing out, I found myself wondering why I was still watching this instead of just playing Hitman: World of Assassination instead.
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Finally, the awkward Q&A session came to an end with a rushed exit thanking the guests and as everyone disembarked the stage, the host remembered to remind viewers that the Hitman Le Chiffre mission is free-to-play as it cut to an image of Mindseye. A perfect dismount.
What Have We Learned From The IOI Showcase
Not everything needs to be a showcase.
Look, I’m still looking forward to more Hitman and 007: First Light and the new announcements (what little there were) sound like fun additions to the Hitman universe. I think expectations for the IOI Showcase were built up slightly higher than what was ever meant to be delivered, but that doesn’t mean the work IO Interactive are doing isn’t worth getting excited about.
I’ve clicked back to the live stream link several times while writing this article and I think it’s still going? It appears to just be conversations with people at the event. Maybe it will go on forever and just become an everyday part of our lives? In any event, I’ve made the decision I don’t want to watch anymore and I’m going to try and murder Le Chiffre instead. After all, it is free-to-pla….
