This…is an odd one. Available on Steam for the princely sum of $9.95 (AUS) you get plenty of content and gameplay for the price tag. More importantly you get a unique and involving gaming experience, and that’s not something many big name time titles can claim. On the surface the game involves the player guiding the character of ‘Jacket’ through different locales and horribly murdering everyone in them. Beneath the surface there’s much more at work. And blood. Lots and lots of blood.
The game designers cite the movie Drive as their primary influence, and even thank director Nicolas Winding Refn in the credits. The game is set in the 80s and features presentation the evokes that era in gaming. Everything is strictly top-down viewpoint, similar to cyberpunk cult classic Dreamweb. The player uses the keyboard to move and the mouse to look, attack and interact.
To clear each level of enemies you need a combination of stealth and extreme violence. Unlike many games that pit you against heavy odds the bad guys are an equal match for the main character, everyone taking only one hit to die. Charging down the corridor with guns blazing is unlikely to achieve good results as enemies will respond to the sound and quickly surround you en masse. Instead a reliance on melee weapons (bats, crowbars, knives, etc.) will make up many of your kills. Enemies can be knocked down with punches, by kicking down doors to hit them or throwing weapons at them to leave to them open to a take-down, giving plenty of options for murder. There are plenty of guns around the place for shoot-outs, but each has only limited ammunition so they’re never relied upon. Hotline Miami often feels more like a puzzle game. With a rapid reset when killed it comes down to trail and error with many repeats of each level needed to finish it.
Death animations are plentiful, and it’s astounding how much detail the designers got out of the 16 bit graphics. Baseball bats leave broken necks, shotguns leave intestines hanging loose and knives leave deep slashes on necks. The violence certainly reflects the movie Drive and newcomers will likely be shocked by the rooms splattered with blood and limbs that are left in their wake. With points players can unlock different animal masks that give different bonuses and new weapons, opening up plenty more methods are wreaking havoc.
Throughout each level there ac some strange graphical glitches and design choices, all of which leaves the players with the feelings of being on a cocaine fueled killing rampage. The backgrounds flash with bright color and digital interference runs constantly through the image. It doesn’t distract from the gameplay but it can make you feel disorientated, adding to the unusual tone of the game.
Storywise things are just downright surreal. Jacket seems to have been the victim of a tragedy and now takes orders from messages left on his answering machine. After getting the message Jacket lays waste to the target location (ranging from nightclubs to mansions and motels) before stopping at the bar or video library. Occasionally Jacket would fall into a haunting dream where he’d speak with apparently dead figures wearing his animal masks. It’s all very surreal and it’s interesting to see where it’s all leading to.
It’s just become available on iOS and with the price it’s going for on Steam it’s hard not to recommend it. Hotline Miami is unique, unusual and challenging, and not easily forgotten. Just make sure you’re using a mouse, as a trackpad doesn’t allow the player to lock onto enemies. Still – very gnarly.
