The people waiting for that patch to drop before they review it are going to be disappointed. It fixes the camera pop-in, and makes the start of Dubai a lot better, but other levels still have the same issues. It also seems to perform worse too with more artifacting, and also seems to have some new problems. The head tracking in crates is better but still exists, but now I get it on vines too
So they improved one area in one location, used it to have a video to send to reviewers to illustrate the Day Four patch and its promised improvement in a reassurance of what is the main negative of the game at launch/review date.
And it’s potentially at the detriment of performance everywhere else.
I do hope it’s accidental.
By the way, have you found out if the lack of item unlock was a bug or true to the design?
I think I’ll try it out this coming Tuesday. I wonder how many more fixes will be implemented by then. It’s only when I start playing it and have (what) a couple of hours to request a refund. Right?
I’ve only played the first few stages again to check, but the first level had significant pop in improvements whilst the others had the issues I noticed the first time.
As for the unlocks, they still don’t exist even after the patch. But then the rating system is also still broken too, so who knows? I have a feeling though that the game just doesn’t have them
Honestly though, after seeing that the patch made the game (arguably) worse, I just uninstalled it. After seeing this, I don’t think they’ll actually put in the work to improve it.
Really hope I’m wrong, and I’ll check it out again if they do, but I’m not so sure
Hitman isn’t really a game that can cut a lot of things outside of graphics to make it work lower specs.
Hundreds of NPCs, all of them needs to be active and tracked constantly to make the game work.
There are some tricks alleviate it, but not much more than what the game already does, I think.
Like, I remember when I dropped semi-randomly the sedative bubble-gum in the Sapienza Morgue, go to the other side of the map to do what must, and then come back half an hour later to find the Keycard and Biolab Laptop Dongle on the floor.
The scientist having found it, eat it, knocked herself out, dropped her items, be found by her bodyguard, awakened by him, continued her routine, went to the lab.
All while I was in the Mansion.
As for unlocks, may I just ask you what the default pistol is?
If it’s the simple ICA19, then it’s definitively bugged, since the Silverballer prominently appears in the trailers. So if it’s absent…
If they swapped it to the Silverballer for the non ICA Training Facility levels where there are no loadout screen, then yeah…
True. Just having it run the way it does in Flat Mode is an impressive achievement already. So having all that need to be rendered in VR (essentially twice at once) is surely difficult.
And I’m sure tweaking IOI’s rigid interaction controls in their engine to instead be momentum-based melee or touch-sensitive actions instead of button presses must be difficult.
But I guess this is why a more refined from-the-ground up approach needs to happen for the experience to “work” in VR.
But doing that for Hitman would surely be an immense undertaking.
Unfortunately we can only hope some modder with too much free time is up to the task themselves. Or, by some huge miracle, IOI has a 4th opportunity to actually, truly, have a VR-focused Hitman game a reality…
Extensive testing seems to indicate that Dubai benefitted from pop in improvements whilst others went largely untouched. However, overall performance seems worse than before, and more bugs.
I don’t think XR Games have it in them to fix this game, if this is anything to go by.
Hope IOI don’t abandon VR because of this. The PSVR one is neat for what is essentially just a VR mode on a flat game. However, I think future efforts should be made into making the older games into VR instead using either Team Beef or Flat2VR (who typically work together anyway). I certainly think H2SA, Contracts, and Blood Money would work well as a VR trilogy.
As janky as it might be, I’ve got to say it looks like one could have a hilarious time with it.
You can still play the normal game in VR (via Quest Link cable while it runs on your PC - not the headset itself)… Or, most of the levels(?) So this game just has a few things you can’t do in the normal game.
Why not implement some of the things you can do in this game into the main/“normal” version?
Well, I’m sure there are good reasons. Price, platform, etc.
Maybe… Surely, a hack will come along that will let that happen.
Edit: I’ve always said a 1st person view in a stealth game isn’t optimal. When you have an outside/3rd person view - you can pan the camera around corners.
So, maybe this could be a “fun version” to play… I think playing a serious game while in 1st person would be much harder than in 3rd.
Edit2: After having watched this - I want to toss a target into water or over a cliff, or into an out-of-bounds area.
Especially when you pair it with absolutely wild gremlin mind that talks to briefcases and adds in his own sound effects to enhance the footage
Who is this guy and why have I never seen him before?
He’s like Jack Sparrow posessed by Beetlejuice with a case of Joker Insanity…
Edit, also: The fact that you can actually toss around bodies (alive or not) is honestly pretty darn impressive! That’s like Step 1 to making a fun VR sandbox! The freedom to grab and throw things!
Granted the alive people don’t die or get knocked out unless it’s from a Designated Action already programmed in the game (or their body gets caught in a stair railing ), but wow! People need to start throwing more Hitman NPCs in VR, because all I’ve heard about the body-manipulation in the VR versions was that it was sluggish and limited…
Having finally gotten around to playing this (by having a night off from work)… I don’t know if I went over 2 hours, but I don’t care. I’ll keep the game.
Re: Dual Wielding… I almost had an opportunity to use it in Dubai. But in the VR training (it’s essentially the exact same in the normal game)… It’s ‘The Final Test’ reworked with some rooms changed to learn different mechanics. But with the use of both hands for some instances. Like using the fiber wire, holding melee items, and (of course) guns.
Lightly holding the trigger will give you an “Aim Assist/Laser Beam” showing where that particular gun is aimed. It’s only as good as you are steady… (So no ‘locking on’ type aim assist like in the main game).
There was a toggle for the grips… I was confused about throwing items because it seemed to work different than the (main) game. I have to be careful because I can easily throw something I don’t mean to… I think you have to pull, then release the trigger. I’ll look again in the VR Comfort settings to see if I can’t change that to something more logical.
First playthrough… Of course, you’ll have the elevators closed, and shortcut (thingies) locked up. I wanted to get the elevators open, but ended up having an epic battle with ALL THE GUARDS!!1 just trying to get the server… whatever. Sabotaged.
(and just like in the main game) I could only play for so long before dizziness and nausea sets in. It’s a slow build up, but I can only get to a certian point to where I must stop playing. It’s like a wall instead of steep slope (if that makes sense).
I was surprised at how well Dubai looked. I haven’t seen the other missions yet, but I’m willing to let it go for the sake of few extra gameplay perks (yeah, use of both hands). You can stash items in both hands… They’ll have rings around the wrists, so you can have 2 guns in those rings, put your hands together, press the grip buttons on the controllers, and have both guns out at the same time!
Their next upcoming game Zombie Army VR is supposed to be coming very soon (2024) but doesn’t have a release date yet… (and impressions from Gamescom were largely similar to H3VR:R)
It’s interesting how they lay off almost all of their staff just before two big high profile releases of theirs drop this month: Zombie Army VR and Starship Troopers. It’s almost like they have no confidence in their product after Hitman 3 VR made it clear that people won’t tolerate their lazy cash-grabs.
It’s only when I 
Especially when you pair it with absolutely wild gremlin mind that talks to briefcases and adds in his own sound effects to enhance the footage
), but wow! People need to start throwing more Hitman NPCs in VR, because all I’ve heard about the body-manipulation in the VR versions was that it was sluggish and limited…
(So no ‘locking on’ type aim assist like in the main game).