Hotline Miami Review

Hotline Miami is a game by Devolver digital games is a top down shooter/brawler game that takes place in Miami during the 80's. The game was received very well by gamers and critics alike calling it the best "fuck-em-up" game released in the past few years. However many non gamers voiced their concerns about the extremely violent and bloody manner that the game purveyed.

I personally love the gameplay of hotline miami its extremely easy to pickup and play while still being hard to master and very unforgiving, one hit from an enemy and you are down and need to restart the stage from the beginning forcing the player to through trial and error choreograph the perfect murder rampage. The game is played using the wasd keys to move around shift to move your view around space to finish off a downed enemy and the mouse to attack, interact and lock on to enemies. As you progress you unlock more and more masks each giving the player a certain perk like faster walking or more powerful weapons. The weapons vary in the game from beer bottles to assault rifles, each weapon being useful for different situations (a hammer is better suited to be swung than a knife which can be thrown) Guns are always the most effective option but pose the threat of giving away your position (this can also be useful for luring certain enemies out of their regular positions)

You play as an unnamed protagonist (called jacket by fans because of the Letterman jacket he wears) who after meeting with three strangers wearing animal masks each discussing what he will do in the following days wakes up to find a message saying that a box of cookies was delivered to him, upon opening the package jacket finds a rooster mask and instructions to go to a specified address and retrieve a briefcase. Upon arriving at the address jacket murders everyone and takes the briefcase to the specified drop zone. The game plays out similarly throughout the rest of the story you receive jobs from an unknown caller and proceed to the address to carry out the murder occasionally getting visits from the three strangers in the mask.

There is not much more I can say without ruining the plot but the game is definitely one of my favorites, It has an interesting art style and game play mechanics amazing plot and surreal 80's synth style music that all melds together to form an extremely addicting game that's simple enough to just pickup and play for a few minutes or hunker down and play for hours trying to get the perfect score on a level.

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