Quick Look: Hotline Miami

"This is like the best Micheal Mann movie I've ever seen!" - Ryan Davis

SOLD ME

i'd be interested if i didn't think the difficulty would drive me to homicide.

I grew up and I currently live in Miami & this game perfectly captures the feeling of being on drugs in Miami. This game's presentation is just fucking awesome. I really feel like I'm fucked up on South Beach when I see and hear this game.

HOLY FUCK! This soundtrack is spectacular, the tracks in the QL are nothing...

That soundtrack! Amazing!

Fun Quick Look and a really, really fun game. Been enjoying the hell out of it.

@ShineyCheese3 said:

FORGET ABOUT FRIENDS, THIS IS MIAMI!!!

FINALLY THAT REFERENCE IS RELEVANT AGAIN!

Could never see myself playing anything like this for a prolonged time.

Though it sure as hell looks good and is enjoyable to watch.

@benpursley27: Inside your head, on every beat...

This is the best Patrick QL I've ever seen and the ost on this game sounds amazing.

Great QL. All gameplay, no comments. Pure, visceral, high energy. I couldn't look away.

You know, if there's one thing small downloadable games have brought to this world, it's fucking crazy good soundtracks.

What I did: Watch first two minutes of this Quick Look, stop watching and immediately buy on Steam.

Holy shit! This game looks so awesome!

Awesome. Had to buy the game after seeing this. Been yearning for something Manhunt-like, and this seems what Manhunt would have been like if it had come out at the same time as the first GTA.

I just knee-jerked-purchased this on Steam. Holy shit it's so worth it.

Not even funny how fucking bought this game is.

I believe this settles the knife vs. bat debate. Knife is clearly superior.

I may or may not have just purchased the game after watching this QL. It's a dollar off on GOG at the moment, so if your tastes skew DRM free you can save yourself some change.

Wooow, holy shit this is intense. Love Patrick's "Oh I just love the little variations in the-" *dude opens door* "-oh what the"

Intro screen had me sold.

Watched the Quick Look, bought the game and still bathe in the brutal pixel reminiscence of Dreamweb...

Man, someone should pick up the mantle and do another adventure similar in tone and weirdness to Dreamweb

Been playing for a few hours now. Cannon Fodder/Syndicate/Manhunt + an awesome atmosphere/music multiplied by smooth as silk gameplay = an incredible experience so far. Highly recommend it.

@RetroVirus said:

@ShineyCheese3 said:

FORGET ABOUT FRIENDS, THIS IS MIAMI!!!

FINALLY THAT REFERENCE IS RELEVANT AGAIN!

As Patrick said, for only $9.99 this game is HIGHLY recommended. I've played a few missions longer than what is shown in the quick look, it gets harder, faster, crazier, it's just plain fucking awesome. GOTY shit right here.

Also, I'd love to see more of Patrick and Ryan playing this, Ryan's evil laugh never gets old while watching this game.

Soundtrack links;

http://spacerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/hotline-miami-ep

http://soundcloud.com/devolverdigital/sets/hotline-miami-official

Fucking tasty.

This has Breaking Brad written all over it

@BBQBram said:

Soundtrack links;

http://spacerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/hotline-miami-ep

http://soundcloud.com/devolverdigital/sets/hotline-miami-official

Fucking tasty.

Am I being stupid? Can you download (as in pay to) from SoundCloud and I'm just missing the option somewhere there?

The way I've been playing it is by attracting the guys with sound and then just have them line up in front of my gun.

Also here's some music for y'all that smells of Miami Hotline

This game has a lot of charm. Really great commentary as well. All around a very concise, informative and fun QL.

Bought it, played it, lovin' it. Great stuff.

Some of the soundtrack reminds me a lot of "I Come To Shanghai", Robert Ashley's band. Also Valerie Collective. Good stuff. I think Ryan hit the nail on the head with "Drive", the game. More Refn than Mann, but there's a lot of Mann in Refn. It's all win.

@MoonwalkSA said:

@ptys said:

Looks like a sweet game, but slightly lacking graphical polish. Personally, I lean more towards the visual side of gaming.

The game's graphics are obviously very deliberate. They put a lot of polish into making it look sketchy as hell. It's visually kind of incredible, in that sense.

Yeah I get what you mean. I personally just like a richer artistic experience, being a drawing enthusiast myself. Some indie games (not saying this one) tend to overlook the value of great art and character design, IMO.

Holy Shit Please tell me they sell this soundtrack...

@tdous: on soundcloud the owner of the song can decide to activate download or not. so sometimes you can listen to the songs but not download them.

@ptys: To be fair, Cactus is known for churning out games at a crazy pace, sacrificing graphics and art style for game design. At this point the simple aesthetic has become a hallmark of his style.

Dat music.

Where is this so called Mac version?!?!

Middle click auto locks on enemies. ( ;

I just finished this game, and holy shit you guys... it gets WEIRD.

I don't mean weird like what we've already seen in the quicklook, but, like... REAL weird. You should all buy it.

I don't know if I am really good at this game or the advanced knowledge that I gained from this quick look and TNT made the game much easier to figure out, because I blew through the levels that Patrick was having trouble with. It gets insanely harder though. Patrick needs to learn how to be more aggressive and get into a rhythm of constant killing. Don't think too much. Act. Any time thinking is less time killing dudes. Patrick's conservative playing will not help him in the later chapters. He tries to avoid ballsy situations and divides and conquers when he doesn't need to. He needs to adapt to how fast the game is and react accordingly. He needs to learn the limits of what he can get away with. He needs to attack people in quick succession. The game really rewards reckless abandon. Eventually you start picking up on vulnerabilities and movement patterns, and then the game flows beautifully.

This reminds me so much of a Net Yaroze game. Can't remember (/be bothered to find out) what it was.

@CobraCalling: They're working on patching this one first, including getting the controller support working, and working well,and then they're going to port it to Mac.

That title screen...my god.

@ptys said:

@MoonwalkSA said:

@ptys said:

Looks like a sweet game, but slightly lacking graphical polish. Personally, I lean more towards the visual side of gaming.

The game's graphics are obviously very deliberate. They put a lot of polish into making it look sketchy as hell. It's visually kind of incredible, in that sense.

Yeah I get what you mean. I personally just like a richer artistic experience, being a drawing enthusiast myself. Some indie games (not saying this one) tend to overlook the value of great art and character design, IMO.

The aesthetic sensibilities are off the hook; you can't say the game hasn't got an atmosphere. The colours, the deliberately "sketchy" look, the soundtrack... I will defend using 8-bit and 16-bit styles in indie games as long as there are indies that understand that it's merely a tool to create a game that both pays homage to their roots and creates an opportunity to solely focus on a lot of really unique graphical styles. McPixel has great character design, almost like an 8-bit version of a cartoon strip. That game wouldn't look nearly as fun as it does without the 16-bit style and colour pallette.

It's not every situation - there are games where it's a lazy excuse to create nostalgia. But I've always found the constraints of lo-fi payoff in unique and excellent ways, visually. Designs are bolder, colours have more contrast, the designs have to be purposeful... you can't throw everything you want on-screen, you have to be very careful. "Deliberate," I would say. I wouldn't prefer it, if I thought that it was more suited to another style... but indie developers have a knack lately for "retro-modern." I understand why people wouldn't like it, but I've always really loved it, especially in passion projects inspired by games of the developer's own childhood.

Woah. I just went for two whole paragraphs. Oops.

Ryan has turned into Beavis in this.

"Yeah! YEAH!!!"

This game just turned Patrick and Ryan into the brutal murderers. That triumphant cry when Patrick finally cleared out the room on the left ....

Pretty cool

Oh come on did you guys even check the control scheme and tutorial? :P

You can silently kill people from behind, you can lock onto targets for easier ranged combat and you can throw your weapons (including knives) at your opponent to stun or kill them.

There also should have been notes about how incredibly many weapons and masks there are in the game, each with their own unique feeling. The story is awesome too, especially the way it's presented to you.

And lastly after a while of playing you will be playing this at super high speed, rushing through all doors executing unaware enemies, you probably won't play through the entire game this slow.

Still great video. But if you do a quick look for such an audience the people deserve to know everything that makes this game awesome or you will not give the right impression.

Not on Mac yet?

Fuck