RETROSPECTIVE: ‘Hotline Miami’

The general consensus behind when Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is coming out seems to be: “when it’s ready.” This is great for the developers as it allows them to fine-tune the game add more guns, but not so good for us reviewers who now have a gaping hole in their schedules. 

The day will come when I finally give in and buy a PS4, but since I currently only have a PS2 and a laptop that would make an abacus feel superior - Hotline Miami 2 is perhaps the only major new release aside from Grim Fandango and Superhot that I'll actually be able to play and review whilst it’s still popular. And it's certainly popular now it's been banned in Australia (well, 'refused classificaion,' which means it's illegal to sell and purchase...which means it's banned) for featuring rape in it's opening section. 

I don't want to comment on if a series that prides itself on extreme, stylised violence should attempt to tackle rape - not because I'm too scared or totally for the objectification of women....but because the game isn't out yet. Aside from a demo, no-one has played the game and therefore I firmly believe no-one is entitled to decry or support Australia's actions until they've experienced Hotline Miami 2 themselves. I can't believe how much of a black hole has been created in this blog by the absence of this solitary indie game.

So it not being out yet means I have to blast all the way back to 2012 and talk about the original Hotline Miami in an attempt to fill this gaping void before it consumes us all. 

Back before the dark times of Early Access and the XBOX One, out of nowhere came an independent 8-bit top-down cocaine-em-up set in 1989. You play as Jacket, a silent protagonist (although, everyone communicates in subtitles so maybe he’s just illiterate) hired by an anonymous gang of masked men to blast his way through the Russian mafia, who all dress like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. But, from the very start we notice that our protagonist is a bit loopy as he sees everything in neon, and he just can’t get this awesome synth-pop out of his head.

I’ve often seen modern 8-bit games as lazy and pointless. There are well over a hundred NES games – a couple of which are actually good – and with emulators everywhere, there seems no point creating more of them. But, Hotline Miami immediately reversed my expectations by using the dated top-down style to add stylised distance from the ridiculous violence. The occasional smattering of VHS-style effects makes us think even more that we’re playing as a character that’s clearly losing his marbles. 

Bursting through the door and slicing two guards in half is just Jacket's way of saying "Hello!"

You wouldn’t think that the story would be the best part of Hotline Miami, judging by its trailers and screenshots that showcase the blood exploding from corpses and the intestines flopping out onto the neon-pink floor – whilst a joyful graphic pops up congratulating you for slaughtering three people simultaneously. But betwixt all this are short, understated, yet effective vignettes that suggest all is not well and Jacket is just a small part of an unknowable entity that may control all aspects of his life, or none of it.

The plot itself sadly collapses as the game reaches its climax, and the game doesn’t conclude with a ‘bang’ but a sudden stop – like a vinyl record in a power cut. It also occasionally falls into cliché, particularly in one pointless scene where you rescue a woman (the only woman in the game aside from one other who doesn’t speak) but leave her in your apartment for the next two acts of the game, as though she has “you’re going to come home to my corpse just before the climax” written on her face. Occasionally you’ll see her hanging around your apartment, but disappointingly you can’t talk to her and learn anything about her character. For a while I thought there was a glitch, but this woman has been conjured into the narrative for no reason other than: “every story has to have a female love-interest because…because.” 

You said it, bro.

The gameplay on the other hand is simple yet deceptively hard. You have one hit point, and anything from a bat to the scrape of a shotgun can kill you instantly. In fact, the shotgun is the deadliest weapon because its blast spreads over a wide radius. Replay-value is added via masks, which when worn give Jacket an unique ‘power’ – such as the ability to move faster, or more guns lying around. There is one unlockable mask that gives you one extra hit point…except it doesn’t work against shotguns and all the other weapons are automatic, so what’s the point? There’s also a mask that adds a black and red filter; a feature that only serves to make the visuals even more eye-straining.

The Russian Mafia also apparently recruits ninjas, as the A.I possesses perfect reflexes – not hesitating as they shoot some random guy whose gate-crashed their ‘walk idly around carrying guns’ night. There’s even one level set in a police station where it turns out even the cops are happy to shoot on sight. (I would make a joke about current events, but you’ve already made one.)

Finally, the game has an infuriating habit of placing enemies out of sight but giving them the power to see across continents. There is nothing more annoying than thinking you’ve cleared the stage, only to be shot by a person you didn’t see. Whilst I found the keyboard controls awkward, I’m glad I don’t own a gamepad or else I’m sure it would have been thrown across the room. 

Want to finish Hotline Miami? Get used to this image...

Yet the game restarts so quickly that it’s not too much of a stumbling block. Hotline Miami is certainly frustrating, but once you’ve completed the level you’re rewarded with the music being turned off (just when it begins to drive you mad) and you being forced to walk all the way back to your car, stepping over the still-warm bodies of all the fathers and sons you’ve slaughtered. It’s perfectly acceptable for a game to be frustrating provided it rewards the player afterwards, which Hotline Miami does. It provides a berserker-rush of adrenaline which abruptly stops to reveal precisely what you’ve become: a monster.

Of course, the game then swallows its cake whole as it gleefully counts your score, deducting points because you used an uzi instead of a sledgehammer to decimate Vlad; father of two. But you’ll be foolish not to try Hotline Miami if you have any interest in innovative storytelling and/or arcade-like action.

Or I suppose you could just wait until the sequel comes out and see if it’s better or worse…

Screenshots taken by me.  

Header image can be found here