You're standing on a balcony in Dubai. The sun is blindingly bright against the gold-plated pillars of the Sceptre on the Burj Al-Ghazali. You can actually feel the height. It's dizzying. This is the promise of Agent 47’s life, but getting there isn't always as smooth as a fiber wire takedown. Honestly, figuring out how to launch Hitman World of Assassination in VR can feel like a puzzle mission in itself if you don't know which buttons to press or which cables to wiggle.
It’s buggy. Let's just put that out there. IO Interactive did something incredible by porting the entire trilogy into a VR space, but it’s a finicky beast. You aren't just clicking "Play." You're managing SteamVR layers, Oculus Link latencies, or PlayStation VR cables.
The PCVR Setup: Steam and Epic Games Store
If you’re on PC, you probably own the game through Steam or the Epic Games Store. Since the rebranding to "World of Assassination," the VR component is included for everyone who owns the base game. You don't need a separate purchase anymore. That was a huge relief when they announced it, mostly because the community was tired of fragmented versions.
First, make sure your headset is actually talking to your PC. If you're using a Quest 3 or Quest 2, you'll want to use Quest Link or Air Link. Or, if you want better performance, grab Virtual Desktop. Once your headset is in the "Link" environment and you can see your desktop, you launch the game from your library.
Here is where people mess up. Don't try to force VR from the desktop shortcut. Launch the game normally in 2D first.
Once the Hitman launcher pops up—that little rectangular window with the "Play" and "Options" buttons—look at the bottom. There is usually a "VR" toggle or it will detect your headset automatically. When the main menu loads in 2D on your monitor, look for the "Enter VR" prompt in the top left corner of the game’s home screen. Click that. The screen will flicker, your monitor might go dark for a second, and then suddenly, you're looking through 47's eyes. It’s a bit of a clunky handoff.
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What Nobody Tells You About Hardware Requirements
Your PC will scream. Seriously.
Running Hitman in VR is significantly more demanding than playing it on a 4K monitor. You’re rendering two separate images at high refresh rates. If you have anything less than an RTX 3070, you’re going to see some stuttering in crowded maps like Marrakesh or Miami. The crowds are the killer. Thousands of NPCs all being processed at once while your GPU tries to keep the frame rate steady enough to prevent you from throwing up. It's a lot.
Check your "Super Sampling" settings in SteamVR. If it's set too high, the game will chug. I usually keep it at 100% and let the in-game settings do the heavy lifting. Also, turn off "Motion Blur." In VR, motion blur is the fastest way to get a headache. You want the image as crisp and stable as possible.
The PlayStation Experience: PSVR vs. PSVR2
The history here is a bit messy. For a long time, Hitman VR was a PlayStation exclusive, but it was locked to the original PSVR (the one with the glowing lights and the camera). You had to use a DualShock 4 controller. You couldn't even use the Move controllers! You were basically playing the game with your head acting as the camera, but your hands were glued to a standard gamepad.
Then came the PSVR2.
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If you are trying to play on PS5 with the newer PSVR2 headset, there’s a bit of a catch. While the game is playable, it doesn't have a dedicated "native" PSVR2 version that utilizes the Sense controllers for individual hand tracking in the way the PC version does. Most players are still navigating the older backwards compatibility nuances. It’s a point of contention in the Hitman forums. People want that haptic feedback. They want the adaptive triggers. For now, the "classic" PSVR experience remains the most stable way to play on console, though it feels dated compared to the PC's motion control support.
Common Launch Failures and How to Fix Them
"The VR button isn't appearing." I see this one every day.
Usually, it's because SteamVR isn't set as your "OpenXR Runtime." This is a technical bit of boring backend stuff, but it's vital. Open your SteamVR settings on your desktop, go to "Developer," and make sure SteamVR is set as the default OpenXR provider. If you’re using an Oculus headset, sometimes the Oculus software tries to take over that role, and Hitman gets confused about who to listen to. It’s like two different handlers trying to give 47 directions at the same time.
Another thing: unplug your second monitor. It sounds stupid. It works. Hitman sometimes struggles with window focus, and if the game thinks it’s supposed to be displaying on your side monitor instead of the headset, the VR initialization will just hang on a black screen.
Navigating the World of Assassination
Once you're actually in, the controls take some getting used to. On PC, you use the motion controllers to actually grab items. You can reach over your shoulder to grab your large weapon—like a sniper rifle or a shotgun—and you look at your wrist to see your map and objectives.
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It’s immersive but "janky." That's the word the community uses most.
Unlike Half-Life: Alyx, which was built from the ground up for VR, Hitman is a "VR Port." This means things like climbing pipes or scaling ledges can feel a bit disconnected. When you start a climb, the game often fades to black for a split second or shifts your perspective. It’s to prevent motion sickness, but it can break the immersion. You’ll get used to it. The trade-off is being able to literally lean around a corner in Paris to see if a guard is coming. That's a game-changer for stealth.
Optimization Tips for a Hit-Free Run
- Lower the Variable Rate Shading (VRS): If your GPU supports it, this can save some frames without making the game look like mush.
- Shadow Quality: Keep this on medium. In VR, your brain notices frame drops way more than it notices the softness of a shadow under a table in Sapienza.
- The "Reset View" Button: Map this to a button you can reach easily. Hitman’s VR centering tends to drift if you move around your room too much.
- Wired is Better: Even with the best Wi-Fi 6E router, playing Hitman VR via Air Link can introduce "latency spikes." For a game that requires precise timing for a poison injection or a headshot, you want a high-quality USB-C link cable.
The scale of the maps is what really hits you. Walking through the Dartmoor mansion feels completely different when you can look up at the ceilings and see the actual height of the rooms. The "Social Stealth" aspect takes on a new layer of tension when you're physically standing next to an NPC you're about to knock out.
Actionable Next Steps for a Successful Launch
Check your version first. Ensure you have the "World of Assassination" update installed, as the old standalone Hitman 3 launcher is essentially deprecated now. If you're on PC, download the latest "Game Ready" drivers from NVIDIA or AMD; they specifically released patches for Hitman's VR stability.
Start with the "VR Tutorial" mission. Don't skip it. Even if you've played a thousand hours of Hitman in 2D, the way you interact with the world—choking out guards, throwing muffins, or aiming the Silverballer—is fundamentally different with your physical hands. Practice the "throwing" mechanic specifically. It uses a lock-on system that feels weird at first; you hold the trigger, look at the target until it highlights, and then make a throwing motion.
Once you’ve mastered the throw, head to a smaller map like Hawkes Bay to test your performance before trying to tackle the massive crowds of Mumbai. If your frame rate holds steady in the rain on that beach, you're ready for the rest of the world.