Hotline Miami 2 just doesn't seem nearly as good as the first game to me after playing it for about 1,5 hours. I'm still pretty early of course, and perhaps I'll learn to like it a lot more in the future. But so far I'm not digging the extreme focus on guns. The way rooms were set up in the first game, you could just tackle them with melee weapons if you planned it out right. That seems impossible here. You have to use guns, the way rooms are set up. The first game felt like you were puzzle solving each floor. Here it just seems like the emphasis lies on brutality, chaos and madness. I found myself having to constantly hold Shift to even see who could fire upon me; otherwise you get shot instantly from off camera. They made enemies not react to hearing gunfire to compensate it seems, but I just like this gameplay style a lot less.

The music is as great as before though. I'll definitely play more of it. It seems like I might get sold on it later perhaps? Just not digging it right now. How are you liking the game so far?

I like it, and actually I think what you said about the guns is a plus, I barely saw any reason to use guns whatsoever in the first one but now they are much more effective, and I don't think you absolutely HAVE to use them, I mean I just went in a level with the "fists only, no weapons" dude and did pretty fine, you just have to make ample use of the "lure dudes to you by quickly making yourself visible then retreating" technique.

The only thing I'm really disliking is the story.. if you can call it that, makes absolutely no sense at all, in the first one it was bizarre and all but at least it had a understandable build up and continuity.

@onarum: The story definitely sucked in the first one, it just accomplished some sort of intrigue by being extremely vague all the time.

I love the gameplay. It's harder, but it's not half as hard as people make it out to be - it's just that the levels are bigger and the game likes to change the rules with the characters.

Story, I'm not so sure. Hotline Miami was a brilliant narrative, this one seems even more like an acid trip and the ending is really weird. I don't really understand what happened for a lot of it, but I'm also fairly sure that there's another ending, based on at least one level (Jake's second chapter) and the notes you collect in intermissions.

I'm really loving it. I actually don't mind the guns because I didn't use them that much in the first one so In a way it feels like a vastly different game because of the new focus. The soundtrack is amazing and generally I feel like there are more "story moments" like Pigmans breakout that feel really awesome.

I'm actually pretty into the narrative stuff but not feeling the gameplay as much. I don't know if it's the room layout or what but I don't feel like I have as much choice as the first one. It feels like most levels have a correct way to tackle them, even down to the weapon. Also some other aspects are just clunky and not great. The brother and sister combo just doesn't work well at all, the second person is always getting stuck on geometry, she even got stuck out of the level entirely three times in a row because she wouldn't go in through the door.

They mentioned enemies shooting you from off-screen as a negative in the IGN review and it does sound like it would be frustrating. apparently there's a lock on system to negate some of the randomness of it but it seems like a bad idea to me and an obvious consequence of wanting to make the levels "bigger"

I don't get that off screen shooting thing, that was in the first one and was part of the challenge. Are games supposed to just be cakewalks now?

I think it's a lot more interesting mechanically simply because of the way it swaps characters on you and they each have their different restrictions and strengths that makes approaching things an interesting challenge. The rolling guy took a little bit to get used to, I kept rolling after finishing a guy on the ground, but once you get into that groove it's really satisfying to roll under bullets and just straight up gank dudes.

The gameplay I like better because of the character stuff. It adds a fun twist.

I like it more than the first one.

I agree, I spent about an hour with it earlier today and it just didn't feel like it had the same magic that made the first one so great. I can't really place my finger on why that is just yet though.

I'm really enjoying the game so far. I have found that there seems to be more of a focus on looking ahead this time around. Due to the open nature of many of the floors, running in head first doesn't seem to be as valid of a tactic as it was in the first game.

I also don't think guns are required at all. There are certainly a lot of guns available, but that doesn't mean you have to use them. There is even a stage where guns are not even usable.

What I'm really looking forward to though is the Stem Workshop integration, which is supposed to be coming this Spring.

I can't say much because I haven't played too much but so far I am way into the soundtrack. It's just awesome.

Though, there does seem to be a lot more wide open spaces. It makes it really hard because often time you get killed right away from someone way off screen. It can be annoying. More so than the first game. But eh, growing pains and all that.

It does feel too reliant on guns, the less interesting style of combat, but I'm impressed by the multiple protagonists, and the style of the game still gets me.

Feels more like a shooter and not a very good one at that. I feel like Im just luring people to come attack me so I can blow them away in just one corner and then mop up the rest. There seems to be more waiting for enemies, which slows down the pace of the game, which doesn't feel very hotline miamish.. The characters aren't really likable, Jacket at least had some sense of morality when he saved the girl, this just seems like an acid trip with a bunch of pyschopaths. I don't like the level designs because of how many windows and open spaces there are compared to the first one.... like you literally can just spray and pray at certain parts and just get ridiculous combos. The soundtrack is pretty damn awesome though.

I changed my mind this game is awesome. WHO NEEDS GUNS!?

Um, sometimes I feel like I'm suffering a catastrophic disconnect from reality. Still gonna throw this crazy thought out there: I think it's not Hotline: Miami's primary goal to portray likable characters.

Just downloaded and got started however. I'm thrilled, I can't wait to really tackle this. RPS and TB seem to think I'm gonna have a blast and I can't wait to find out if they're right!

Tony is such a fucking boss. When the level editor comes out, I'm not using anyone else.

@ghostiet: Fuck yeah. I loved punching people to death in the first one and then this guy comes along and he can only punch people to death. It's great.

Also I'm pretty sure he hit a Rock Bottom off on that dog.

@n7: Yup. The fact that he's practically immune to big guys and dogs is fan(GET IT)-fucking-tastic. I kinda hope you unlock a mode where you can play as any character in all the levels after finishing on Hard.

Yeah, just beat that level. Used Tony as well. He was the best in the last game and is still the best.

I dunno, I played it for like an hour and the soundtrack still is the amazing, trance-like "murdermurdermurdermurder" techno fever dream that was so good in the first game.

@zevvion: I like the early game alot more than you but I feel it get worse. Here's an eariler comment I made somewhere else:

"Hotline Miami 2: Act 4: 14th Scene - Stronghold is where I am at & it is making quite sad. I was enjoying the smartly designed combat puzzles but then that came along. Christ. I wasn't good at playing the original Hotline Miami, I enjoyed it a lot but I never graded highly and now this is just getting way too difficult for me :(

I'm gonna wait until someone does some youtube walkthrough on that bit cos' the enemies that charge you and take multiple bullets are in full effect. Unfortunately there isn't much room to back up to shoot and when you can do that you use up ammo and the character refuses to pick up the enemies' weapons. So you have got to conserve your ammo across a multi-stage level, the ammo crates are very very rare and only have 10 bullets in them max. I don't know how to get through. :'(

...I think I'm just gonna walk away from Hotline Miami for now. The story in it seemed weird and mysterious in an intriguing way at the beginning act... but it's just repeating the same weird and mysterious feelings again and again. It just feels like an intro for 4 entire acts. I think I'm starting to not like hotline miami..."

So if you don't like using the guns the later army missions are no fun at all.

At ~100 minutes in and just hitting act 2 I'm kind of loving it so far. It's taken me a while to get used to how open things are and to mix up using guns AND melee (I find a good mix of both to avoid triggering guys goes a long way) has got me slowly making progress. Overall it is super satisfying and sweet lord above the music... (unsurprising on that front)

As someone that never played a second of the first game...

My god this game is awesome. It is annoying being shot by enemies that you can't see (offscreen) but I'm getting the hang of hiding behind walls and picking my spots better. And I'm very much digging the story so far even though it's not really coherent... all the characters are super scummy and I feel almost dirty playing it. But it's all so good.

Maybe I'll go back and play the first as well but there not being as much an emphasis on the story (from what I hear) kind of puts me off. I like all the story bits between killing rooms in the 2nd game.

Don't cheat yourself! The story in the Hotline Miami's story may be sparse but it's well told for what's there and it's really more of an experience than a narrative. Basically instead of telling you a story it makes you trip balls.

This game could have come out broken and not even able to launch, but as long as I could rip the soundtrack from the game files, I'd buy it.

I hated the story of the 1st game until I read up on it and figured out some of the meaning behind what was going on and had it made clearer to me, at that point it became a story I really loved.
Maybe I need for that to happen again with this game because the story is just... I don't know, it's like they set up a bunch of stuff but never get into what any of it means. I mean, I like the way it unfolds on screen as it is happening, each chapter I enjoy seeing the characters and the environment and the dialogue, it's enjoyable as it is happening. But when I try to go "Okay, but how does that fit in that? And how does that guy fit in with that other guy? Does any of this have a point, or it it just a bunch of hand waving 'look at how mysterious it all is' bullshit?" Maybe I need some time to think on it, or wait for a smart person to figure it out all out and read/hear what they have to say.
As for the game itself, I did find myself using guns a LOT more than the 1st game, but didn't really mind, I felt like I was playing John Wick the video game or something, it was rather fun, hard as shit at times though, really hard, and I think I only managed to pull one S rank out of my ass somehow with chainsaw guy and a handful of A's due to the slow paced nature I found myself needing to play to beat it, show myself, run hide, stabstabstab repeat.
Though I suppose the first game was like that for me as well and really was meant to be replayed over and over until perfection is achieved.
To parrot everybody else, another great soundtrack.

In any case, I'm glad this is the last of the series it appears, at least for now. If they did such a good job with tone and music and just pure atmosphere with these games, I would be really excited to see what they do with a fresh game series.

I think its dope, but the first one was sooooo fresh and surprising to me that obviously this one can't replicate that same feeling of elation through discovery. This is basically a complete expansion on all the things that made the original great

There's a level (In hotline Miami) that you can play-through without killing anyone (in hotline miami!?), that's fucking awesome, you can be batman, or you can go all axe-murdery and you throw off your jacket. (ITS HOTLINE MIAMI) That's amazing.

The gameplay is different but I'm excited for all the new characters, they really play differently, the masks were neat but they never really changed things too much.

It's fucking awesome. Like the original but with way more crazy. The biggest difference gameplay-wise with this is that I found myself using waaay more guns than I remember ever using in the first one. That said, my favourite missions by far are the ones where you're the writer.

Didn't take too long to beat. One sitting, 6 hours. Felt longer though. But Steam's got my time played for Hotline Miami 1 at 4 hours, so sequel confirmed I guess.

Wasn't very broken either. Occasionally the dogs would freak out and do donuts, and far less often enemies would get stuck in doors, spinning around really fast. Kinda just makes the whole thing seem more insane.

So far I like it quite a bit. The constant deaths don't bother me so much because of the incredibly quick restarts the game features. I also appreciate how it builds upon the difficulty curve of Hotline Miami 1, rather than restarting it altogether.

Incidentally, is any duder here willing to do some trade thing so I can have the OST as well? I managed to snag a Steam key via Humble, but I can't do the same for the OST.

Edit: By trade thing, I meant that I would be willing to buy something for you that's worth the same amount/a bit more than the OST in exchange for the OST.

I think I'm with you... About two hours in and I'm having fun, but the story just seems to be all over the place. The gameplay is fine but doesn't seem to have the novelty or energy that the first one had. There's plenty more to see, I could totally change my mind by the end. But that first game is a hard act to follow up...

I'm 4 hours in and I'm enjoying it immensely. It is just different enough from the original that it feels fresh but its still has that hotline miami feel. As for the story, I'm hooked but still confused. I'm hoping the ending will clear things up from where I am right now.

I'm not far at all into it yet, but I'm really enjoying what I've played. I do wish they had focused more on melee (guns always felt like cheating to me in HLM), though.

I'm not sure how I feel about all the talk of the difficulty being vicious later on. On one hand, I like the process of dying and restarting until I find the perfect path through. Especially since they're pretty adamant that this is the last one in the series, so I want the game to last. On the other, HLM1 was plenty hard already.

EDIT: Somebody remind me never to look at Steam's forums unless it's absolutely necessary. What a shitshow.

I'm kinda coming around on it. Just did the first soldier mission and enjoyed it a lot actually. Gave me exactly what I wanted with the 3 smaller areas with multiple entry points. Also interesting mechanic in terms of managing ammo and switching to the knife to not call all the other enemies. It may even be my favorite level overall.

The level design doesn't seem as good so far and the story is getting kind of annoying. How light the story was in the first actually did it a favor. I'm thinking Ori might have been the game to get today, but oh well. There was no way they could capture the magic of the first.

Seeing lots of wildly different reactions in this thread.

That makes me excited.

Gameplay's as fun as ever. But I really need my guy that kills dudes with doors back.

Well people seem to love it.

It's actually my disappointment of the year so far :(. Like OP, the level design that encourages using guns is a big minus for me. Obviously, the game is beatable without them in any level where they don't force you to use them, but still.

The open environment forces you to look everywhere, which slows down the gameplay. But even then, sometimes you cannot look far enough to see some ennemies with guns and they will totally get you. In the first one, since the room were smaller most of the time, that was never a problem.

I feel like the level design force me to use the crappy AI to my advantage. Said AI is extremely unreliable, sometimes hearing you from afar and sometimes being beside you without realising you're there. I can do exactly the same thing twice and die one time and survive the second time. It was the same thing in one but, again, it wasn't as much as a problem in the first game.

The music and style is obviously still there. So that's good.

I really hope I'll enjoy it more by the end. The first one was one of my favorite game ever. I'm actively hating some parts of Hotline Miami 2 right now.

Edit: I need to add. There's a lot a big dudes that you can only kill with guns and that don't die instantly when you shoot them. I hate them, not that I can't deal with them, just that I hate the fact that they obey different rules.

Does anyone know if the console versions are going to have access to custom maps and content like the PC version is with Steam Workshop support? I doubt it, but is there even going to be a level editor or anything like that? To me, that is the chief attraction of this game. If the editor and workshop support is well done, Hotline Miami 2 is a game I could end up coming back to over and over.

No way it seems so much more awesome than the first one, I'll keep playing.

Edit: It's really good, I noticed a couple levels very similar to the first one but overall it keeps getting better as you go along, just like the first game.

@mb: They have not even announced it for PS4. I highly doubt it ever will get announced, either. It will most likely forever be a PC only feature.

@mb: Console troll lolzors evilcat

I may not have had any interest in this series, but it's one I enjoy watching people play who are really good at it. Loving what I've heard of the soundtrack too.

Seems totally fine so far.

This is what happens when you decide everything needs a sequel. Hotline Miami didn't need another game.