Agent 47 dresses as a vampire magician in Hitman's new Escalation Contract

Developer IO Interactive promised live updates to Hitman, and this week, the studio delivered them; two new Escalation Contracts have arrived, and one of them shows just how fun and silly the world of assassination can be.

Dubbed "The Holmwood Disturbance," this new Escalation Contract will challenge you to kill Faustin D'Aoust with a firearm while dressed as a vampire magician. That's not my description of the look, by the way - the game literally refers to the disguise as "vampire magician." The other Escalation Contract, called "The Mandelbulb Requiem," has you assassinate Michel Charest while dressed as a staff member of the palace. So, not nearly as silly, but I imagine stealth aficionados will appreciate the extra challenge. Both missions take place on the Paris map.

If you're not familiar with Escalation Contracts, they function similar to regular missions, except that they add more obstacles each time you play through them. While you might only need to wear a specific disguise at first, by the end of the Contract you might need to wear a specific disguise, hack a laptop, disable security measures, and deal with new surveillance equipment.

But really, let's not lose sight of the most important thing here. Vampire magician, folks. Vampire. Magician.

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Sam Prell

Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.