Hotline Miami is an excessively bloody game whose soundtrack and visuals have been heavily influenced by '80's culture. During the several hours it takes to play through Hotline Miami you'll have killed a stupid number of identical thugs, and the aim of the game is basically to find out why. Throughout the game you'll be given cryptic messages that will give you various locations and names, they may clear up some of the fog but don't expect to understand what on earth is going on by the end of your first playthrough. Besides, you need to have found all of the game's puzzles to unlock the so-called 'real' that supposedly explains everything.
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Hotline Miami's excessive gore-fest is what gives it it's pixelated charm
Hotline Miami's gameplay is both incredibly simple and incredibly addictive, with some extreme violence sprinkled on top. Hotline Miami will appeal to anyone who's a fan of twitch gameplay as the game's speed and difficulty should feed their lust to die over and over and over... You'll need to plan extensively if you want to succeed, you'll need to thoroughly scan the area before you pounce and you'll have to be quick about it. You die pretty much instantly, so don't count on sponging more than one bullet at a time. However, the game rarely feels frustrating or inherently unfair and you can instantly dive straight back into the action when you die. Regardless, finishing each room in a stage is extremely satisfying and there is nothing better than drilling right through a mobster's skull and hearing the squish. There's a large variety of melee weapons and guns to endlessly kill with, all of which have a very unique feel to them which keeps thing fresh. The gameplay is a great mix of stealth, planning, and fast-paced twitchy action.
The game features vividly coloured rooms and a psychedelic soundtrack that do a great job of utterly contrasting the extreme violence and the dark undertone of the game's story, which really adds to the surrealism of the game's storytelling. The story is weird but interesting, because of its broken order and unreliable narration its very much open for you to figure it out for yourself, even with the 'full ending'. No spoilers but the 'incomplete' ending is extremely simplistic and doesn't explain anything, so you may want to go back and unlock the full ending. However, the gameplay is easily fun enough to merit endless hours of mindless violence so you shouldn't mind having to 'unlock' the real ending.
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All 26 of the game's masks, from horse to bat..?
At the end of every chapter you are rated on your performance and given a grade, these points go towards various weapon and mask unlocks. These weapons vary from drills to samurai swords, and all have a pretty unique feel to them. You are rewarded for taking risks and being downright ballsy in your play, using a variety of weapons, racking up combos, or even just efficient killing. Hotline Miami has a large variety of masks to unlock, which the player a wide range of cool abilities and tweaks to gameplay. Such as Don Juan, the horse, who causes door slams to be lethal rather than just incapacitating enemies, or Phil, the fish, who translates the game into French. I see what you did there, Dennaton... At the beginning of every chapter the player is given the choice of which mask they want to use and can only use one at a time. There are nearly 30 masks in the game, so that adds a nice replayability factor if you want them all.
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-Extremely fun and satisfying gameplay
-Challenging twitch gameplay
-Excessive levels of gore and violence make for hilariously over the top gameplay
-Weapon and mask unlocks add variation to potential playstyles
-Unique and interesting storytelling technique
-Fun disco-synth soundtrack
Weaknesses:
-Simplistic control layout can actually make the game quite difficult
-Lacklustre boss fights
-Difficulty can spike at times and randomness may seem unfair
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