As soon as my last victim’s head is kicked to bits, the music that has been guiding the rush dies to leave an eerie soundscape as I backtrack past the many fallen foes – the carnage I’ve left behind, back towards my car. When I’ve finally succeeded, I’m allowed to use an elevator or staircase to other floors to continue the killing spree. As they both slump to the ground, I kick in the first one’s head against the wall, grab the shotgun of the second and shoot the upper half of his torso into pulp. I smash his brains in, bash a door into another guard and throw the bat at his fellow guard. I run in, grab the baseball bat the first unexpected guard is holding. The run that succeeds is the one that is perfectly choreographed, flawlessly executed and adaptive enough to deal with unexpected problems. A single mistake often results in me mashing the restart-button before the protagonist’s body hits the floor. Hotline Miami is an exercise in survival at this level: any mistake I make is my last. Bright flashes, pumping music, gratuitous blood, large scoring emphasis and a combo mechanic urge me to kill faster, more efficiently and without mistake. A pumping, electronic soundtrack amplifies the psychedelic colors as the player rushes through the door and attempts to kill every single soul on that floor of the building. The player walk to the car, travels to the address and hides their face behind an animal mask of their choice. The gameplay cycle is simple: each level starts with me receiving a cryptic phone call with an address. I walk down the stairs, enter my car and leave for my first mission. As the scene disappears, I find myself in an apartment – my apartment – and find a note and a chicken mask. The masked figures – a chicken, a horse and an owl - seem to know more about our protagonist and both reflect and foreshadow terrible things that have happened. The decay is obvious – garbage lies scattered around, insects are abundant. Instead, let me discuss with you my playthrough of Hotline Miami – because I think it’s something important.Īfter the tutorial, the player’s first introduction to the game is a conversation with three masked figures in a darkened room. I could also make this a post about why you can’t just go and criticize things you do not try to understand. Now, I could make this a blog post about how important it is to play videogames before judging them. What the writer misses due to basing his opinion on reviews and a video of the game - for failing to do any real effort to play the game - is its subtleties: the themes, the subtext and the raw ingenuity of how Hotline Miami uses its story, visual style, soundtrack and interaction to convey its deeper meanings. The writer posits that the post is about the critical reception of what he believes to be a game about “amazing bloodstains you leave on the environment”. It’s a camel, because I’m half-Egyptian.Īt the surface, Dennaton's debut game Hotline Miami is exactly what a controversial blog post claims it to be – an “unstable game about killing people”. My experiences might differ from yours and that's perfectly OK.įull disclaimer: I’ve been friends with the developer of Hotline Miami since I started Vlambeer, I’m named in the credits twice and one of the ‘animal masks’ in the game is named after me. Videogames are meant to be played, not read. Not only does this post contain spoilers – we’re discussing a videogame here. Warning: If you are at all interested in exploring Hotline Miami's theme yourself & haven’t played the game yet, please do so before reading this.
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