The elevator stops at your floor and the doors open, acting quickly you hurl your
empty shotgun at the guard, knocking him to the floor. In a second you
are on him, smashing his head against the floor in a shower of blood, another guard enters the room and you dash at him, flooring
him with a right hook. Taking his pistol you grab him by the neck and
pull him to his feet, and using him as a human shield you enter the next
room, firing at the guards seated on a sofa. Another catches you by
surprise and unloads a shogun at you, killing your hostage, his body
slumping to the ground as you dash for cover. Bursting into a
bathroom you quickly slit the throat of a urinating hostile, before
being set upon by a vicious guard dog who tears out your throat,
decorating the walls and floor with fountains of crimson. You are
dead. Again!
If you thought that GTA was the
pinnacle of video game violence then you ain't seen nothing yet.
Hotline Miami is a new indie game that fuses together elements of the
original top-down GTA games with the sickening ultra violence of
games like Carmageddon, and Man Hunt. With a sleazy Neon 80's vibe that brings to
mind movies such as Scarface and, more recently, Drive, and the hazy
psychedelic insanity of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, this game
is a brutal and twisted adrenalin rush from the very beginning.
Coming from the twisted minds at
Dennaton Games, whose previous game Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf was also a
work of utter insanity, Hotline Miami has arrived with a lot less
hype than many other Indie titles, but has been the surprise hit of
the year. It has been wowing gamers with it's crazy arcade action
gameplay, over the top violence and gore, and fantastic 80's
soundtrack.
Hotline Miami has you assume the role
of an unnamed man who, after being taught how to murder by a
deranged looking homeless man, begins the game in his sleazy
apartment (he should really hire a cleaner). Upon receiving an anonymous answer phone message with
coded instructions you are then visited by 3 mysterious men in animal
masks who offer you no clues as to who you are or why you are
carrying out your murderous missions. You then drive off in your DeLorean
(yes, the Back To The Future car) and arrive at your
destination. What ensues is a wave of frenzied blood letting, and a
body count that would make a Rambo movie green with envy.
Following
the recent popularity in incredibly difficult games (Blah Blah Dark
Souls, Spelunky etc) Hotline Miami follows suit and is fiendishly hard. You will die.. constantly, but thankfully
the developers have taken a leaf from Super Meat Boy's
book and so a quick press of a key instantly places you back at
the start of the level / floor you died on, meaning there is no time
to get frustrated.
Using
the classic WSAD and mouse controls you must kill every person (and
canine) on each floor of the building. Enemies stroll along set
paths but can be diverted when they hear you fire a gun or see you, or evidence of
your 'work'. Sure, you can rush in and stab stabbing, bludgeoning,
throttling, and shooting everyone in sight, and this tactic may even
work on occasion, but more often that not this will see your brains
decorating the nearest wall.
The fact that you can only take one
shot, or blow to the head, means you have to apply method to your
madness. You must constantly look ahead and plan your moves on the
fly. You can hold shift to
look a little further around you which helps no end, and you can also
middle mouse click on
enemies to stay focused on them, meaning you can enter a room ready
to fire in their direction. Doors can knock enemies to the ground if
opened at the right time, and this can give you valuable seconds to
kill another bad guy before returning to swiftly finish off the
temporarily stunned foe. This mild stealth mechanic gives the game
much needed depth and replayability, you have to be quick on your
feet and think ahead.
The
finishing moves are particularly vicious. Pressing space next to an
enemy will slit their throat, and engaging this finishing mode while
standing over an enemy you have knocked down will lead to a variety
of gruesome fatalities that would make Mortal Kombat wince. Drills
are driven into skulls, thumbs burst into eye sockets, heads are
swiped off, or just pummeled against the floor. It is extremely over the
top and gory and if you have a weak stomach for pixelated gore then this certainly isn't a game for you.
Due to the 8-bit
style and overall rough look of the graphics, the game never becomes
as nasty and sickening as Condemned or Man Hunt though. The visuals have a neon
haziness about them which gives the game the appearance of a drug
sequence in a movie, the slightly wobbling screen and the subtle
flashing lights outside the main play area that mimic the on-screen
action (red when killing someone naturally) all add to this. It
echoes the tongue in cheek vibe that previous controversial games
like the original GTA, and Carmageddon had, and the arcade style
top-down gameplay make it feel more like Gauntlet for Psychopaths.
The hideous animal masks are further evidence of this, each one a
grotesque visage of a different animal complete with amusing name. You start with only one, but doing well on a level will unlock
more, every mask giving the player a special bonus i.e. Faster
movement, starting with a knife, guard dogs not attacking you etc. My
favourite is Don Juan, the horse head, which makes opening door
fatal to enemies.
Each level is
separated by a playable cut scene of sorts where you visit a
convenience store or pizzeria and talk to the weird clerk who works
there, getting more info on the story (as well as a snack), then it's
off home to bed before waking up to start the whole sorry saga again.
The story gets more disturbing as the game progresses and keeps you
hooked and determined to get further so you can find out what the hell is going on. I played the whole
thing in one sitting, which took about 2 hours or so, but after a
much needed break, I wanted to play it again, it's very addictive.
Each level also gives you a rating which can be improved upon by
being faster or more brutal in your killings, and you will find
yourself returning to stages over and over to do so.
The soundtrack is
part of the games overall appeal, with a collection of excellent 80's techno, sinister drone pieces, chiptune tracks and
more. It not only suits the game perfectly but is also a great
soundtrack in it's own right, and you will want to listen to it when
not playing the game (I am listening to it as I write this). The
way the music instantly stops (complete with vinyl rewind sound
effect) when you kill the last bad guy in a stage works wonders for
the game's atmosphere. You must then retrace your steps back to your
DeLorean, accompanied by a hazy ambient backing track. You then get
to really see what carnage you have caused during the mission as while
playing you are too focused on survival to really take in the utter
mayhem going on. It's on this walk back that you see the bodies
littering the floor and the amount of blood lining every surface, it
doesn't exactly make you think about your actions or anything deep
like that. Hell no, but it is a shock to the system after the
frantic pace that proceeds it, and is a reminder of how gory this
game really is.
Hotline Miami is
not without it's faults though. The controls can often feel a bit
off, WSAD and mouse is my preferred method of controlling most PC
games, but here it felt a bit loose and was often hard to get my
character to face in the right direction in the heat of battle. With lightning reflexes needed and zero room for error this leads to
many unnecessary deaths. The boss encounters are a weak point, being
overly difficult and dubious with regards to collision detection. I
found them to be quite irritating and unsatisfying and just wanted to
get back to the regular stages.
As for
the presentation, the graphics, while cool and retro, are rough
around the edges and could have used a little more polish to bring
the characters and game worlds to life. These are fairly small gripes
mind you, Hotline Miami has produced one of the most insane and
enjoyable gaming experiences of recent months. After the hugely
disappointing Retro City Rampage, it is great to have a retro style
top-down action game that really hits the spot and doesn't just rely
on crap jokes and a barrage of tiresome references to 80's movies and
games (tee hee Ninja Turtles,
ho ho Back To The Future
ha ha Saved By The Bell
etc etc ad infinitum). A hybrid game taking the best elements of both
titles would truly be the best game ever made.. developers take
note.. make this game.. IMMEDIATELY!
Overall Hotline
Miami is violent beyond belief, sleazy and sordid, indeed all kinds
of wrong. But is also a breath of fresh air and a hugely enjoyable
game deserving of high praise. Sure it is not going to win over any
of the doubters in the 'Are Video games Art?' debate, but it's bloody
good fun and should be experienced by everyone.
Hotline Miami is
out now on Steam and GOG.com
The Good:
- Addictive Arcade Action
- Amazing 80's Soundtrack
- Crazy Violence and Disturbing Atmosphere
- Great Fun and Very Challenging
- Gotta Love Those Animal Masks
The Bad:
- Rough Around The Edges
- Dumb Enemy A.I.
- Controls Not Perfect
- Boss Encounters Slightly Weak
