Legitimately glad Alex is on payroll now.

@Alex good review. I picked this up after reading this, and I'm having a fuckload of fun. I honestly wasn't expecting to have to do any planning before initiating the meat grinding slaughter, maybe that's Call of Duty mental programming. You should do more reviews, I enjoy reading your writing.

Looks ace. Pretty tempting at 7 bucks. Hmmm

hi alex

Damn this game is good. I haven't felt this thrilled by video game violence since Manhunt. It gives me the same thrill of excitement caving in heads as that game did! I love the 8-bit retro art style and the pumpin soundtrack too. I can't relate to the comments about feeling dirty, remorseful or guilty while playing this though. I feel completely exhilarated and thoroughly amped up playing this game. Enjoying every second of wallowing in it's excess. I'm thoroughly desensitized to video game violence I guess, none of it makes me feel guilt or remorse of any sort.

Am I supposed to feel guilty or remorseful for being a cold blooded killer? Nah, it's a video game and it's excesses serve to fulfill my bloodlust!

@FalcomAdol said:

So what makes this good, instead of another shitty Postal game?

Well, maybe you could start by reading the review?

Game of the Year. I haven't even played it.

@Gordo789 said:

@geirr said:

Hotline Miami and FTL, what a year.

yeah, really the two best games of 2012 for me.

Ayup. It's a real Indie game year.

Patrick should have done this review.

I dig this game.

So what makes this good, instead of another shitty Postal game?

Constantly driven half mad by brutal repetition and inevitable failure, occasionally satisfied by a well executed foe and cleared room, all the while serenaded with the eroded synth chillness...

"If you find yourself nodding your head to the background grooves while doing horrible, detestable things, do not panic. This is very much the point." Great job by Alex. This precisely describes my experience.

@geirr said:

Hotline Miami and FTL, what a year.

yeah, really the two best games of 2012 for me.

@SadisticWOlf: But those issues are being sorted out and it's from an indie dev which comprises just 2 guys. Have to cut them a little slack. Going on about techincal issues that don't affect most people could really damage sales and that would be unfair in this scenario. With the resources they had, making a bug free game would have been a miracle.

It worked fine for them on the machines they had access to, there's not really any other way than releasing it to find out how it will work on other machines. Perhaps a public beta would have helped, but I don't know what reasoning goes into decisions to do that kind of thing. In any case, they are patching it frequently.

Hotline Miami and FTL, what a year.

Great review, Alex. I'm gonna have to check this out.

@Nettacki said:

@msavo said:

I'm praying the Vita version being talked about comes through.

Same here.

I as well.

This game is art, and I really do mean that.

"Why is there so much violence in video games nowadays?"

"This game is totally violent and totally awesome. 5/5."

@Christoffer said:

Nicely written review as always, Alex.

The game looks good but I'm not sure about my patience for these kinds of games. The "enervating but fun" -genre haven't really worked on me.

But I will probably end up bying it either way.

I felt the same way about Super Meat Boy when it came out and ended up buying it anyway. Meat Boy and Hotline Miami are two of the most rewarding experiences I've played, if only for the fact that if you succeed it's all because of you.

I bought Hotline Miami strictly for the soundtrack after having seen the Quick Look and my intent was to never play it. I gave it a try one day and even though I can only play in short 15-minute bursts, it's a great fuckin' game!

Nicely written review as always, Alex.

The game looks good but I'm not sure about my patience for these kinds of games. The "enervating but fun" -genre haven't really worked on me.

But I will probably end up bying it either way.

I agree with the review.

This is a fantastic game but it's kind of hard to see it as a 5/5 considering...
 
Comment.exe has stopped responding.... 
 

Excellent review, I couldn't agree more. That game is simply brilliant, through and through. Very satisfied to have preordered it, knowing very little about it, at best.

Worth the money for the soundtrack alone

Great review for a great game.

I should really play this game.

I love, love, love, love this game. But man giving this five stars with the number of technical issues is being awfully kind.   It is, granted, value priced which maybe justifies the rating, but I'm half way through the game and am flat out unable to continue due to technical issues. That's a huge bummer however you slice it.

Alex pumping out the reviews! Good work man.

Well deserving of a 5/5.

"You kill, kill, kill until there's nothing left but bodies."

- Giant Bomb

A well deserved 5 stars. Game came out of left field and blew me away, had no idea what it was going to be and purchased it on a whim.

I just have to say this: Alex, your reviews are awesome. Some reviews try so hard to be eloquent by stuffing lots of complicated phrases in there that are only distracting from the facts. your reviews -- i find -- just bring the point across so effortlessly and elegantly. just had to let you know.

would read again!!

Game of the Year, as far as I'm concerned.

Is this game Ryan Gosling approved?

I wants my Mac version!

This game really should've had the subtitle (or even just the title) "Shut Up and Kill Someone"

Bought this off impulse because of the 5 star review.

Worth every penny.

This is definitely one of my favorite games of the year. It really messes with your psyche, and I think that's the point. It really does make you feel kind of crappy about yourself.

@Ladnar said:

Ok, fine I'll buy it already.

The game is probably awesome, but I fear I'll have a feeling of angst once playing it.

Ok, fine I'll buy it already. Not like the soundtrack isn't enough reason to get this game. Been listening it to since watching the quick look just been playing NFS:MW. Great read Alex.

@Giantstalker said:

I thought this game sucked; honestly really surprised by a 5/5 review. Especially considering the bugs, brevity, and repetitiveness of the whole thing.

Mind you, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and Alex is no different. Still... I wouldn't recommend HLM to anyone, there are better ways to spend even ten dollars.

I hope you understand the irony in saying "everyone is entitled to their opinion" in the same breath as "there are better ways to spend ten dollars." If everyone is entitled to their opinion, isn't that list bit a lie?

I've never understood why people say "I don't like this" when people say "I like this," unless they bring up and argue specific points. Battling opinions solely on their merits as opinions just seems pedantic. By all means add your voice to the conversation, but what are you adding, really? I 'unno, dude. I'd never do it, even when I want to. How many times I wanted to say "oh, Halo isn't that good" to all the perfect and near-perfect reviews it has received... but that doesn't really add anything to the conversation except a disagreement for disagreement's sake. I'd feel bad about that.

@CrossTheAtlantic said:

@csl316 said:

I've seen and heard so much of this game, and I even rewatched Drive. Why I haven't bought it yet is beyond my comprehension.

This game made me finally sit down and watch Drive, so as far as I'm concerned, the game is already a complete and total success.

same.

good thing the game is really good too!

I thought this game sucked; honestly really surprised by a 5/5 review. Especially considering the bugs, brevity, and repetitiveness of the whole thing.

Mind you, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and Alex is no different. Still... I wouldn't recommend HLM to anyone, there are better ways to spend even ten dollars.

Wait, how the hell did Patrick NOT review this? That'd be like Alex not reviewing the next Madden.

@Winternet said:

Great to see and read Alex reviewing Hotline Miami. Dude should be more active on site content (apart from the already great reviews he writes).

I agree, while i enjoy Patricks articles i wish the other Staff wrote more pieces on the site. I mean Jeff's Triple H hair piece and PS3 Stand article were awesome and hilarious. I would love to see Alex write more on the site besides the couple paragraphs for the news content he puts up.

Not in depth articles about game devs like Patrick but more of just silly pieces like what Jeff does.

@bkbroiler said:

@ChrisTaran said:

Have they fixed the game yet to work properly for left-handed players that need to rebind the WASD keys to the arrow keys? Cause it's kind of unplayable for me until they do.

I think you can rebind keys now, but controller support isn't coming until the next patch. I'm waiting until then to buy this game. You're probably all set though!

Yay! Thanks for the heads up :D

A patch went out on Steam today that adds functional 360 controller support. So anyone who was waiting for that, wait no longer.

I'm praying the Vita version being talked about comes through.