The shockingly violent 2D birds-eye action shooter, with a heap of strategic elements and insanely f**king awesome. Picture this; the vibrant 80's film filled with synthetic beats, elusive nights filled with neon lighting, in shady alleyways and dangerous drug dealing mansion buildings.
In the case of Hotline Miami you play as a working criminal tasked with a series of building raids with various criminal environments, only way to cleanse this type of work is to brutally kill each individual enemy with a massive variety of techniques in combination with types of weapons and the world around you.
Gameplay
"various unlockable masks that give you a variety of bonus', Dennis has always been my favorite"
Thrown into various “cleaning” missions you receive from your apartment landline. The callers like to subtly point out your needed skills for work tonight, almost like that evil genius behind the desk that wants you to “dispose” of the next door neighbour in a “killer” suit, soo many inverted commas you start to understand the loss of reality as your character becomes more and more of a killer and things start to get weird and crazily questionable.
"F**king dealt with it"
Constantly on the edge of your seat Hotline Miami offers some of the most addicting game-play, with the choice to rush in run-n-gun or progressively pace and stealth yourself to whack each enemy without others hearing or knowing your existence, the endless possibilities fuel this games drive for the addiction it offers. Such combo techniques like; use doors to bash down your enemy and kick there heads in or bash up a room of Russians with a ninja sword, and the favourite hold a enemy as a human body shield as you mow down the rest of his comrades with a heap of different guns. With massive variety with options of game-play the final grade of a finished level (points-tally, combo, and all that pop), makes you strive to combo and rush levels again for better scores and become more fluent throughout the level.
Presentation & Sound
The art design is colourful, alive and vigorous; set like a classic DOS game simple point click and wasd controls, really suit the late 80's feel this retro indie game has to offer. With that very pixelated atmosphere the developers used it to its full extent with pixelated blood and gore, suited up Russian character models, and even the level of fine detail to easily distinguish mansions to drug-flats.
"pretty pixel gore"
Being a man that has a very critical response to most music, the soundtrack to hotline miami is perfect, and I say that with pure truth. That 80's Synthpop with that lovely low progressive bass and that simply played hi-hat snare combo is unbeatable, giving that awesome chill down your spine as it works wonders with the game-play and cinematic dialogue parts. With all this 80's pop, there is the dark ominous music that leaves you guessing on what is happening to our protagonist as things progress.
Overall Conclusion
From the graphics to the level design this game has been comprised beautifully, for nostalgia purposes it reminded me a lot of Streets of Rage with guns but with that Grand Teft Auto birds eye view and animations. During my time I had a lot of fun with this game and I plan to continue playing this game, but small problems I had, the interface of the menu, choosing levels and continuing from where you last left off was a mission itself trying to remember the floor layout and what chapter part you were last up to trying to complete.
For those sleepless nights, addiction action, fast to slow paced option gaming, this is a must and All in all, this game is absolutely wicked fun I loved every moment of it. The pixelated blood spilled from enemies on your bare hands to rescuing maidens with sub machine guns as you strategical kill each enemy one by one not to forgetting the boss fights which are just epic. Indie action hunting gamers will fall in-love with this game as much as I did, with the tasteful retro incandescent environment, the heart pumping action, and finally the luminously awesome soundtrack really make Hotline Miami a must have and a number one contender for GOTY for its unique approach to modern indie games.
This game deserves a 10/10
By Tails.
(pictures being added)