Who are you? Why are you doing these things? Who are these strange figures cryptically talking to you? Why does this one guy work in every place I visit? Is any of this real? These are but a few questions you will ask Hotline Miami during your playtime and you'll seldom get some firm answers. Dennaton Games have created a brutal, violent, very stylish, somewhat strategic, top-down 'kill everyone on sight' game that everybody should play if you have the stomach for it.
The nameless protagonist you play as receives veiled instructions from his answer phone to go to a specific address and “Clean up” the place, you arrive at said address, put on an mask of your choice (which provide gameplay benefits such as one-hit kill punches or increased movement speed) and viciously murder everyone inside with whatever weapon or tool you can find until you’re cleared to continue to the next floor. Along the way during your down time are cryptic questions from animal mask wearing gentleman who may or may not be fractions of your psyche, mention of Russian mobsters and strange people who seem to know you. In fact you’re pretty much left to draw your own conclusions in the story, with only a handful of firm answers (which you don’t get until the latter half of the game) to help you piece together a somewhat coherent story from this nonsensical rampage, whatever your theory is, it’s probably right.
There’s surprising amount of strategy in the game. You may have the one objective but enemies are every bit as lethal as you are, especially ones with guns, for example if you have 2 guys in another room both with guns and you have a baseball bat rushing in there is gonna be bad news for you, but maybe if you wait for one to stand near the door, you can knock him over dropping his gun, throw your bat at the next guy, jump on the first guy and bash his head in, then as the second guy rises to fetch his gun, you pick up the other one and waste him that way, and it’ll be all over in a flash. Of course there’s a consequence with using guns which is that they’re noisy attracting most if not everyone else to your location. It pays to be ruthlessly smart and to never hesitate in Hotline Miami; it’s the only way you’re going to survive. Another thing to add is that I found enemies to be a little unpredictable (contrary to what the tip screen might say) especially in the first half of the game, it may have lead to some frustration but as became victim to trial and error I became more ruthlessly efficient and it was less of an issue (and the fact that I remembered the auto-aim after the first 2 hours helped a lot!).
One thing, Hotline Miami does incredibly well, is its presentation and sound. Everything is given a retro, psychedelic 80’s feel to it, with it’s isometric viewpoint and graphics that resemble the GameBoy Colour days with grimy use of pinks, light blues, greens and yellows, it’s 80’s Miami being fuelled by LSD and you’ll basically see what I’m getting at. The guns sound loud and impactful, and the melee has some sickening thuds and squelches to add to the violence (with buckets of pixelated blood to go along with that), but it’s the soundtrack that deserves the most applause. It creates an almost trance inducing atmosphere with it’s electronic beats, you’ll definitely be nodding your head to the beat and if you have some decent headphones or speakers then use them, it’ll make it all the more sweeter.
Hotline Miami is probably one of the most unique experiences I’ve had in a while, sure I may have had to take a break every now and again to keep myself sane but it’s shocking amount of detailed violence, addictive strategic gameplay, incredibly bizarre story and it’s flawless presentation and soundtrack make it a game that, again, anyone with the stomach to but up with it’s disturbing content, should check out.
- UKSamwise