Only one word to describe it: Delicious
How can a game so violent and so difficult be so incredibly good? Hotline Miami is an odd beast. A top down shooter with a plot that would make Suda51 smile, in a lot of ways the game presents itself as a love letter to 1980s action films as you guide a voiceless character through unimaginable series of slaughters against small armies of hitmen.
There's very little in the way of narrative, as the main player character wakes up one afternoon and receives cryptic, euphemistic phone calls from an unknown party asking for you to "control a pest problem" or deal with "noisy neighbors." These jobs are ultimately revealed to be hits on unidentifiable suited soldiers as each stage tasks the player with killing everyone in the building by any means necessary. While mindless slaughter is the game's raison d'etre, Hotline Miami does something incredibly smart: it turns the act of murder into a puzzle. Manhunt this ain't! Enemies are strategically placed in nearly every room of a level and in order to complete the stage, you'll have to figure out the most efficient and safest way to dispatch foes. Upping the stakes is the character's extremely limited health as one hit from a fist, bat or gun will instantly kill. While you certainly could brute force the stage, the end result will be a few "X to Restart" screens too many (to the game's credit, reloading is super fast). It's best to constantly examine the environment, accomplished by dragging your finger across the Vita's screen, in order to locate enemy placement and analyze patrol patterns. For the most part, enemy movements are predictable but once in awhile they will break their routines and really disrupt play.
Combat is as simple as picking up weapons found around the level or dropped from enemies. While guns have limited ammo, melee weapons (such as pool cues, knives, baseball bats and machetes) can be used with reckless abandon. That said, switching between different weapons is a good way to stay alive. During this mad quest for violence, the protagonist will collect a series of animal masks that impart special bonuses, adding a strong element of strategy. Chosen at the start of a level, masks offer all kinds of perks from starting with a knife to dogs to ignoring your presence (a VERY useful tool indeed). That said, some masks are more valuable than others and I've spent a good chunk of the game using a mask that causes enemies to drop dead in the event a door slams open in front of them. Hotline Miami's gameplay looks silly and mindless yet it is anything but. The mix of wanton carnage and deep strategy makes the game entirely more fun despite its tendency towards frustrating difficulty. You might need to keep a swear jar on hand.
As great as the gameplay is, it's the graphics and thumping soundtrack that steal the show. The dated, pixelated look of the adventure matches the old school beats of a 1980s video game. The presentation is that of a wild drug trip as the game's background pulsates with a disturbing yet warming neon glow. Pixelated blood pours out your victims and while intricate details are hard to make out, the effects of your violence result in a lot of missing limbs, exposed guts, snapped necks and slit throats. Backing up this dark, bloody tapestry is one of the best video game soundtracks that no review can properly describe. Hotline Miami's music is so incredibly awesome and I want nothing more than to be a part of it. To be drowned by it. The beats are hypnotic and I love getting lost in the slick tracks. I WANT to be lost, I want it to take me away! Seriously, it's that good.
Is Hotline Miami worth your time? Absolutely. Slick, retro-infused visuals combined with "Oh my god, this is good" gameplay, an incredible soundtrack and David Lynch-style mindfuckery makes this a "Must Play" in my book.
