Hotline Miami Review
Posted 03/22/2013 at 11:00am
| by Mikel Reparaz
Only three things really matter in Hotline Miami: speed, surprise, and savagery. Highly stylized and yet shockingly realistic in its depiction of violence, the game pits a seemingly mute, possibly psychotic vigilante against buildings full of heavily armed Russian gangsters, and gives him just one goal: Kill everything that moves. True, that description could apply to any number of other bare-bones video-game plotlines, but Hotline Miami's mix of taut top-down strategy, hair-trigger ultraviolence, and neon-drenched '80s style make it utterly unique.
Your enemies mostly consist of identical white-suited baddies, and while plenty of them are armed to the teeth, most can be killed in one hit. You can too, though, and that means rushing headlong into danger is a surefire way to get your 8-bit brains splattered all over the floor. Especially when you consider that the nameless hero starts each level armed with little more than his fists, the ability to stun people with swinging doors, and a growing assortment of creepy animal masks that can do things like silence your shots or make thrown weapons lethal.
Even finding a weapon isn't a guarantee of survival; your enemies will immediately try to rush and kill you the second they see or hear you, and the somewhat disorienting mouse-and-keyboard controls can make them difficult to fend off (the Mac version lacks the PC edition's gamepad support, at least for now). Luckily, you've got a couple of big edges over the gangsters: first, the levels are short and your resurrection is instantaneous, so while dying resets everything, it's a good way to feel out levels by trial and error and get a sense of who's patrolling where. Second, you have total awareness of your surroundings; you know exactly what threats lurk behind every wall and closed door, making it possible to pause and plan your attacks before rushing in and rapidly bludgeoning everyone to a pulp. This gives Hotline Miami a sort of puzzle-game vibe; each room is a new problem requiring a fresh solution.
The alternately tense and frantic pace is complemented by a throbbing, hypnotic electronica soundtrack, as well as by tons of raw splatter that — even given the game's bright, simplistic visuals — straddles a line between cathartic and disturbing. Consider that alongside the creepy storyline (the hero receives his marching orders via cryptic messages left on his answering machine, and suffers weird, hallucinatory visions throughout the game) and Hotline Miami becomes downright unsettling. It's smartly executed, however, and while the action takes a little while to get used to, it's undeniably fun.
The bottom line. It may not look like much, but Hotline Miami is gore-soaked, unforgettable, and riveting from start to finish.
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Hotline Miami screenshots
Requirements
Mac OS X 10.6 or better, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or better, 1GB RAM
Positives
Addictively fun, hyperviolent action that can turn from calm to insane on a dime. Disturbing but engaging storyline. Amazing soundtrack.
Negatives
Mouse-and-keyboard controls are a little awkward and take some getting used to. No gamepad support (yet).