The official release date for the second episode of Hitman is unveiled, meeting the promised April deadline, and offering a small teaser of the Sapienza coastline.

The latest entry to the Hitman franchise had a bit of a rough start, with delays and format changes holding the title back. However, an announcement declaring that Hitman: Episode Two should be released during April as planned indicates that everything is going smoothly now.

According to a Twitter post from the official Hitman account, Hitman: Episode Two will be released on April 26th. The episode will take place in Sapienza, a fictional Italian town, which appears to be full of plenty of gorgeously detailed places to explore. A very brief teaser video was released alongside the announcement, though the only things that can be discerned from it are a floating inflatable alligator and a speedboat parked on a Sapienza beach. It remains to be seen how these may play a role in the episode.

So far, Square Enix and IO Interactive are making good on the promise of releasing an episode of Hitman every month, although April 26th is just narrowly meeting the April deadline. The third episode doesn't have a release date yet, but should still be on-target to release in May, where Agent 47 will move on Morocco. With the release of the U.S., Japan, and Thailand areas to come sometime after that, it's imperative for the developer and publisher to meet their deadlines before the physical copy of Hitman releases in January of next year.

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Fans have had mixed feelings about the decision to release Hitman as an episodic title, although the first episode of Hitman received positive reviews. While game developers sometimes use the episodic format to properly polish chapters of a game before it releases, many have argued that AAA game publishers and developers shouldn't use a format that's traditionally been used by indie developers with smaller teams and fewer resources.

In any case, this isn't the first and probably won't be the last episodic game from publisher Square Enix. Square Enix previously published Life is Strange, which was released one episode at a time, and they've even chosen to release the Final Fantasy VII Remake as an episodic game.

Some gamers have been pleased by the episodic nature of the Hitman game, while others have been dissatisfied. In either case, Hitman players can consider themselves lucky that they don't have to deal with release date uncertainty. For example, Telltale Games, which is known for its episodic games The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, generally doesn't announce the release date or even provide a release window for its episodes in advance. At the very least, fans of the Hitman franchise know when they can expect the next entry, and can always hold off until next year and pick up the completed physical copy of the game instead.

Hitman: Episode Two is scheduled to release on April 26th for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Twitter