Something for the weekend: HITMAN 2’s first mission is now free and works great in Steam Play on Linux

IO Interactive are continuing to improve HITMAN 2 and to let people have a little taste, the first mission is now entirely free.

Thanks to Steam Play, it works really well on Linux. Without spending a penny, there’s hours of fun you can have here. So even if you’re holding out for a port from Feral Interactive again like with the previous game, you don’t even need to break any “no tux no bux” rule here to get a feel for it (not that Feral have even teased a port for this one—sadly). For those wanting to dip their toes in Steam Play, this is a fine choice.

On top of that, if you own the previous game, you will also get access to all those episodes inside of HITMAN 2 as well (with some upgrades) which is great. Find more info specifically on that here.

From the announcement about the first mission now being free, they said this:

You’ll get full access to the Hawke’s Bay challenges and unlocks – including hidden stashes, new starting locations and weapons that will change the way you can approach the mission.

When you feel like you’ve mastered the location, you can prove it with the Professional and Master difficulty levels that introduce new ways to play.

All progression that you earn from the Starter Pack will carry over into the full game when you choose to buy it.

What I truly love about the HITMAN games are their open sandbox design, so you can go at your own pace and you never really feel forced into doing something any particular way. Each mission evolves with you, as the AI reacts to what you do. A very interesting experience for sure.

Here’s a look at the first HITMAN 2 mission, played on Ubuntu 18.10 with Steam Play Proton 3.16-7 showcasing rather clearly how not to be a hitman:

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As mentioned in the video, I got a little confused about taking down the target and I totally messed up the end. The point is though, it works well and it’s damn fun to play.

I did come across two issues to note. Firstly, unless I bring up the Steam Overlay, the game will lock my mouse cursor which is actually quite a common problem even with native games. The second, sometimes it will turn itself into a window instead of fullscreen on ALT+TAB, going back and forth once more randomly fixes itself back into fullscreen.

One other odd issue, is that attempting to record with OBS Studio in this case was a hassle. The game would be running great, so I hit record and suddenly I get intense mouse-lag. Thankfully, it worked this once to grab the footage. Not a mark against the game, as it’s specifically when using OBS and it doesn’t happen every time.

Honestly, I’m amazed at how well HITMAN 2 works for such a new game. If you fancy giving it a shot, grab your disguise over on Steam.

Note: If you try to install and you get an error about an Invalid Platform, you can check the “Enable Steam Play for all other titles” in Steam’s settings. There’s probably other ways around it but I find that the most simple to do.