From the second I started playing Hotline Miami, I was
wondering if this was the most violent game I had ever played? Forgot your photo
realism 3D graphics of modern consoles, this game portrays an incredible
visceral experience with just some excellently animated 2D sprites.
But importantly it is violence with context; that being the
story arc that takes you through various seedy locations in eighties Miami, searching
for answers to questions. Who keeps calling you to carry out horrendous contract
killings? Why are all the targets Russian mob hideouts? And even more
importantly, is any of this real?
The gameplay is viewed from a top down perspective as you
run round the enemy bases. Your goal on each level is simple, kill everyone.
How you go about it is your business, but there’s plenty of points on offer for
doing it with some style and flair. Reckless behaviour, slamming doors into
people, weapon variety and kill streaks are all rewarded. These points go
towards your rank at the end of each level and unlock new weapons and masks to
use.
The combat happens at a blistering pace, making it very much
a game of skill and reactions. If you burst into a room, you might only have half
a second to act before the nearest guard has painted you entrails across the
wall with his shotgun. You end up planning routes through the building,
deciding how you’ll take down each enemy and when. And when it all goes wrong,
you’re only a button press away from restarting and getting straight back into
the action.
In the frantic combat, anything can become a weapon. Your
fists will knock foes to the ground as well as anything you throw at them,
leaving them open to brutal melee finishers. There are plenty of close combat
weapons which will make short work off enemies, although if you’re spotted, you
enter a deadly dance as you jostle for position before going for a lethal
strike.
On top of that is an arsenal of guns, mostly pointed in your
direction as you walk through the door. You can pick up any weapon you want,
but the downside is guns are very noisy. A single shot will attract most of the
goons hanging around on that floor, so you better have a plan ready for when your
clip runs dry.
I ended up using doors as handy choke points, letting
bullets fly and the first few who entered the room before throwing the empty
gun at the next to knock him out. Then I’d charge at the door to send another
flying, grab any spare weapon I could to deal with any more unwanted attention
before rounding on those scrambling back to their feet. And all that would take
about five seconds, so it’s a good job the controls are responsive.
The biggest problem I often ran into was several weapons
lying on top of each other. On more than one occasion I thought I’d picked up a
shotgun, only to find that I had baseball bat in my hands and was swatting at
thin air before being riddled with bullet holes.
There a couple of tough enemies and boss battles which could
do with a bit more on screen prompting from the game to make them less
frustrating. Not far into the game, I started encountering some fast moving
bouncers, it took me a couple of deaths to realise I needed a weapon to take
them out as you can never hit them with your fists.
The masks and weapons you unlock add to the replay value, and
it will take you more than one play-through to get everything. New weapons just
add variety whereas the masks give you a perk. Each mask is a different animal,
some of which are used in story sequences to represent different sides of the protagonist’s
personality. I regularly used Don Juan, the horse mask as it made door strikes
to opponents deadly; very handy for bursting into a room.
One of the stand-out features of Hotline Miami is its
soundtrack. It’s an eclectic mix of synth music inspired by the eighties which
sets the high tempo for the action, with a couple of slow tunes thrown in for
the down time between missions.
Completing the main story will take around three hours,
which is a good length for this budget indie title. There are some hidden
secrets to find as well, so completionists will likely find an extra hour or so
of entertainment. Hotline Miami is definitely a game that can be described as
an experience. It’s high pace and content can be a bit draining, even for short
periods of play. I’d still recommend it though, as it’s a game you can pick and
up and put down easily thanks to its short missions.
