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There is no single fix for every HITMAN World of Assassination freeze: first identify whether the game is hanging, crashing, failing to connect, or simply not offering the multiplayer mode you expect. Steam lists World of Assassination as a single-player game, and ordinary campaign co-op is not presented as a supported feature. If the game freezes or online services fail while you play solo, work through the checks below from least disruptive to most involved.
Does HITMAN World of Assassination support co-op?
The Steam listing identifies HITMAN World of Assassination as single-player. Standard campaign co-op is not presented as a supported feature, so invitations or matchmaking will not make the main missions cooperative. Older HITMAN games and modes, references to Sniper Assassin co-op, screen-sharing tools such as Steam Remote Play, and unofficial mods can create confusion. Watching or sharing another player’s session is not the same as joining a supported co-op campaign. Cross-progression, where available, is also not simultaneous co-op.
If you mean that the game cannot connect or sync while you play alone, that is a network or service problem, not a co-op failure; see Reset Windows networking.
Identify what is actually freezing
The symptom helps narrow the cause. A launcher that closes before the game starts calls for launcher-focused steps; a brief hitch every few seconds may involve load, cache, or background software; a full-PC lockup can point beyond the game itself. Before changing anything, note:
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- Whether you use Steam or Epic, and your Windows version.
- Your GPU make and model, plus its driver version.
- Whether the issue began after a game or graphics-driver update.
- Whether it happens in every mission or only a particular location or mode.
- Whether you have ever installed mods, and whether the problem occurs online, offline, or both.
- Whether other demanding games or applications also freeze.
- Whether audio continues during a frozen image, the display driver resets, the game closes to desktop, or the entire PC stops responding.
Check known issues and online service status
Before changing PC settings, check IOI’s World of Assassination known-issues page and its live service status guidance. IOI notes that the known-issues list is not exhaustive, so an issue’s absence there does not establish that it is unknown or local to your PC. The status tracker displays information from an official IOI API, but it cannot detect every local network, ISP, or regional connection problem.
Restart, update, disable overlays, and remove mods
- Restart the PC. If the game is stuck, close it through Task Manager before relaunching.
- Check for a HITMAN update in Steam or Epic and install pending Windows updates.
- Temporarily turn off overlays and recording tools: Steam Overlay, Discord Overlay, NVIDIA App or GeForce overlay, AMD Radeon overlay, Xbox Game Bar, and MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner. If that stops the problem, re-enable them one at a time to identify a conflict.
- If you have used mods, disable or remove all of them for a clean test. Mods may leave altered files in the game’s
Retailfolder; a community discussion mentionsdinput8.dllas a file to check. Restore original files with the launcher’s verification option below. Do not download replacement DLLs from random sites. This file guidance comes from a community report, not a confirmed cause for every player.
Verify the game files
File verification checks the installation for missing or corrupted files and replaces them. It is a useful, reversible check, but it cannot fix every freeze or a service-side problem.
Steam
- Open Steam and go to Library.
- Right-click HITMAN World of Assassination and choose Properties.
- Open Installed Files, then select Verify integrity of game files.
- Wait for verification to finish, restart Steam, and test the game again.
Epic Games
- Open the Epic Games Launcher and go to Library.
- Open the three-dot menu beside HITMAN and choose Manage.
- Select Verify, wait for it to finish, then relaunch the game.
Clear only the reported shader-cache files
Some community reports associate launch crashes or freezes with shader-cache files. This is a community-reported workaround, not a guaranteed IOI fix. The folder commonly cited is C:Users<YourWindowsUsername>AppDataLocalIO InteractiveHITMAN3. The HITMAN3 folder name can remain even when you own World of Assassination; it does not by itself mean you installed the wrong game.
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- Exit HITMAN and its launcher.
- Open File Explorer and paste the folder path above into the address bar, replacing
<YourWindowsUsername>with your Windows account name. You can also enter%LOCALAPPDATA%IO InteractiveHITMAN3. - Back up the folder before removing anything.
- If present, delete only
PipelineCache.binandPipelineLibrary.bin, then start the game.
The game may take longer to start or stutter briefly while rebuilding cache data. Do not delete the whole IO Interactive folder or account data as a routine fix: it may contain configuration, logs, or other user data. Community reports describe mixed results from cache changes; see a Steam discussion and a Reddit workaround report.
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Try this option if the IOI launcher crashes, closes without starting the game, or the game starts directly but not through the launcher. It is not a general fix for in-game freezing, and it should not be treated as a way to bypass account checks, online services, or other requirements.
Steam
- Open Steam Library, right-click HITMAN, and select Properties.
- Under General, find Launch Options and enter
-skip_launcher. - Launch the game to test, then remove the option if it does not help.
Epic Games
Epic’s launch-argument control may be under the game’s Manage settings. If you see a field for additional command-line arguments, enter -skip_launcher; labels and availability can vary. Reports of this option are mixed, and some players report needing the cache-file step as well. See the community discussion.
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Update or test a different graphics driver
IOI’s PC Performance Guide recommends current GPU drivers and discusses clean driver installation as a troubleshooting measure. Download drivers only from the official NVIDIA driver page or official AMD driver page. Laptop owners should also check whether their computer manufacturer provides customized graphics drivers.
- If a normal driver update does not help, a clean installation may be worth testing.
- If the problem began immediately after a driver update, test the previous known-good version as a diagnostic rollback or contact the GPU vendor. The newest driver is not automatically the right one for every specific failure.
- IOI links to Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), but it is not an IOI product and is not mandatory. If you choose it, obtain it from its current official distribution source and prepare for driver troubleshooting, for example by creating a restore point.
Check system requirements, temperatures, and graphics load
Steam lists the following Windows requirements, while IOI’s performance guide gives a different storage figure. Check your installed game’s current store listing and the IOI guide if disk space is tight.
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| Specification | Steam minimum | Steam recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | 64-bit Windows 10 | Not stated in the listed recommended requirements |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Phenom II X4 940 | Intel Core i7-4790 |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7870 | NVIDIA GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8 GB |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 60 GB available | 60 GB available |
These figures are from the Steam listing. IOI’s performance guide lists 80 GB of storage, rather than Steam’s 60 GB; keep enough free space for installation and updates rather than assuming the figures are identical.
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- On a laptop, confirm the game is using the dedicated GPU. If the laptop is throttling, test Windows’ High Performance power plan while plugged in.
- Watch CPU and GPU temperatures during play, and test with overclocks or undervolts returned to stock settings.
- As diagnostic tests, reduce graphics load, try borderless or windowed mode, and turn off HDR or ray tracing if enabled. These are troubleshooting experiments, not confirmed universal fixes.
- If background software may be interfering, use a Windows clean boot test, following IOI’s performance guidance.
Reset Windows networking if online services fail
Online services can affect play even when you are playing alone. Check the service status first; then use IOI’s PC network troubleshooting instructions if the issue appears local. The following commands require an elevated Command Prompt.
- Open Start, search for Command Prompt or
cmd, right-click it, and choose Run as administrator. - Run
netsh winsock reset. - Run
netsh int ip reset. Restart the PC after the TCP/IP reset. - Open an elevated Command Prompt again if needed and run
ipconfig /flushdnsto clear the DNS cache. - Test again. If possible, try Ethernet, restart the router, temporarily disable a VPN or unusual DNS filter, and check that Windows Firewall permits the game.
A service-status page reporting normal operation does not rule out a local, ISP, or regional connection fault. Do not set up arbitrary port forwarding without specific instructions from IOI.
Use Windows diagnostics to distinguish a game issue from a PC-wide problem
For a crash to desktop or system hang, check Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application and Reliability Monitor for entries at the time of the failure. Note any display-driver timeout or reset, but do not diagnose a hardware fault from a single event-log entry.
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If the whole PC locks, both monitors lose signal, or unrelated applications also terminate, stop treating the problem as only a HITMAN installation issue. Test at stock CPU and GPU settings, check temperatures, and use the relevant hardware manufacturer’s diagnostics. Driver instability, overheating, power delivery, memory, or other system problems are possibilities, not conclusions from one symptom.
Create a DxDiag report and contact IOI
If the steps above do not resolve a reproducible problem, send IOI support the information needed to distinguish a game issue from a system or account issue. IOI’s DxDiag instructions are:
- Open Start and search for
DxDiag. - Open the application and select Save All Information….
- Save the report and attach it to an IOI Player Support request.
Include whether you use Steam or Epic, the game version/build, Windows version, GPU and driver version, CPU and RAM, exact steps to reproduce the problem, affected mission or mode, and approximate crash time. Say whether you disabled overlays and mods, verified the files, and tried the relevant cache or network steps. Include Event Viewer details and attach MSInfo32 files if support requests them. IOI has also asked players reporting issues to provide platform, game version, and a brief description; see its support guidance.
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