From the outside Hotline Miami would appear to another one of those action shooter games that are all the rage these days. Beneath the initial impression however is a trance inducing puzzle game with a killer soundtrack, whose body count matches your own by the games end.
Granted the main gameplay premise is combat and performing mass murder. However there comes a moment as strategical plan and refine your route through a level to maximise your score and rating that you realise that this isn’t genocide; its Tetris, its Pac-man, its Threes! From the careful consideration of which mask to wear (each mask providing its own distinct ability such as killer punches or extended combo meter) to the precise time you start your strike due to your targets walking pattern lining up just right, its a puzzle game with murder as its tetrominoes. Sure there is the occasional frustrating moment which I found to be unfair and cheap deaths rather than my lacking skill and the controls don’t always feel natural, almost as if they’re working against you rather than with you but issues aside it remains fun and enjoyable enough for the games duration.
Part of the reason that its easy to overlook some of the greater problems of Hotline Miami is the style, tone and soundtrack present in the game. The music from the moment I first heard it took its rightful place on my playlist of ‘Rocking Jams’ and no matter how frustrated I got the moment it kicked in full as I stared at my shattered corpse, all was well and I hit restart. Stylistically and tonally the game is a masterpiece too. Whether its the mystic and questions behind why your effectively blackmailed and forced to kill or the strange 80’s drug fuelled look to the experience; it all comes together to mask the problems that persist and craft an experience worth seeing through to the end and revisiting to find all of the hidden secrets contained within the games stages.
As a whole though the few issues I had did detract from my overall enjoyment of the experience as the cheap deaths combined with the fiddly controls didn’t do the game any favours. That issue aside Hotline Miami remains a fun and enjoyable experience that shows what an impact tone, style and music can have on a game and bring it from being fairly average to a good borderline excellent experience. If it wasn’t for the niggling issues it would be a classic but if you do nothing else, even if you have no interest in the game whatsoever, give the soundtrack a listen. Do not refuse your playlist the songs which must be added.