A brilliant puzzle-slasher with a thought-provoking story
Hotline Miami is a blast. One of my top 10 for 2012. It is ridiculously fun and rewarding, and excitingly gruesome.
It has some of the same hooks as games like Super Meat Boy or Bit-Trip Runner, which is to say you always feel like death is your fault, and you can see how it could have been avoided and you never feel like the game mechanics are hindering your ability to complete the level; it is your fault. That is where the parallels can be drawn. But Hotline Miami is an entirely unique experience in which you complete floors in a very puzzle-like fashion, spraying blood and brains everywhere. The simple act of hitting a dude with a baseball bat is so satisfying that you don't get bored of it in the short time the game gives you. The different puzzles and the game's willingness to not restrain itself to a puzzle format, by which I mean that the game doesn't always have the same "You have killed everyone, you can leave now" level structure you think it would, making it so varied you finish the game feeling completely full, like after Thanksgiving.
During the first half of this game it is nothing more than a complete acid trip, fueled on blood and gore. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but it was just a mindless kill-fest. But after about the halfway point, it really starts taking your world and turning it upside down. Characters who are constants are simply removed and replaced, with their corpse lying there on the ground, right in front of you. After boss battles the games questions your motives and gives you the option to not kill them. It really becomes a amazing criticism of the player and on games in general, but it doesn't feel like it is preaching to you. It feels like a good friend is giving you a reality check. I honestly could go into an entire review on the story and the symbolism of it all.
Other than that the story part of the story is relatively shallow, but it doesn't feel like it is. If you don't think long and hard about what is actually happening and what it can all mean, the story is going to be pretty bland. But you still have enough story to continue playing without getting bored, but that's all you really need because of how stupidly fun it is to just play the game.
There is nothing that carries on between levels, other than your collection of masks which give you skills and perks that can be really useful. The score system makes you want to point-whore, which can be devastatingly hard to do. Also the soundtrack is awesome and the art style is different enough to be remembered.
Buy this game.
