Hotline Miami 2 is an extremely violent top-down shooter. It’s one hell of a lot of fun to play at first, but there comes a point when you start to feel the flaws and trying to get through each level becomes more about luck than skill. It’s an example of a well implemented game let down by a flawed design.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number sucks you in right away. It’s set in the 90s, and takes full advantage of the setting. The graphics shine out in bright neon colours, contrasting yet complementing each other as 90s graphics did. The music is tech-noir, modern but reminiscent of that 90s sound that was influence by 80s dystopian movies.
It is a game of extreme violence, where you cave in peoples skulls, eviscerate them, or blow them apart with rifles and shotguns. The gore is kept at a maximum, and you will paint the levels with blood as you carve your way through the enemies in this game.
What stands out in regard to violence, is you are often forced to move back through the entire level after completing it. The blood-pumping music replaced with silence as you step over the corpses of everyone you’ve just slain. The carpets soaked in blood and covered with entrails. The game forces you to confront the violence you have just inflicted, and how the character you are playing may feel about it after the fact.
I found the story in Hotline Miami 2 to be hard to follow. It not only jumps around multiple characters, it jumps around time as well. The main characters seem to be our four masked vigilantes, who have a hobby of raiding gang headquarters and slaughtering everyone inside. There is also a detective who is investigating these vigilantes, a non-violent reporter who is also investigating them, and a man undergoing trial after being told by a chicken to murder people.
There’s a lot going on and it can be tricky to follow, but thankfully you can replay any part of the game at any time and get a handle on what’s going on.
Playing the game feels fun, fast, and furious. The basic controls are easy to learn, and I was quickly running around dodging bullets, slicing people open, and blasting people apart in no time. Unfortunately there is a point where the levels become frustrating, forcing you to repeat the same kills over and over again. Many levels almost feel impossible, and when I would finally beat them it felt more like it was out of luck rather than by improving my skills.
There are some glaring design flaws in the game that make it feel this way. For example, the way enemies detect you is inconsistent. There is a “hearing” mechanic in the game, where enemies will rush to your position if they hear (e.g.) a shotgun blast. But this only works sometimes. In one instance, nearby enemies didn’t hear me, but the attack dog on the other side of the map heard me.
Couple this with the fact that enemies can often see you before you have a chance to spot them. When an enemy with a gun sees you, they will instantly shoot at you. In a game where you die from a single bullet this feels especially punishing. The only way to avoid these kinds of deaths is to learn where the enemies are beforehand, and spray some bullets in their direction hoping to hit them before they spot you.
Often you’ll find yourself stuck with a melee weapon and facing enemies with guns. Since one hit kills you, the only way to get around this is to rush into a room and get them to follow you out, hoping they miss you with their first shot. Then you kill them before they can fire a second shot. Half the time they won’t spot you, and you’ll have to repeat this a few times, each time risking an instant death. Playing this way gets boring very quickly, since it feels like you are exploiting the game mechanics, rather than engaging with them.
The ultimate example of bad design is the chainsaw character. He is equipped with a chainsaw so has to get in close to kill enemies. Admittedly his violent kills are especially fun, but it does lead to you having to use the “luring” tactic described above. To counter this, they give you a second character that follows him around with a pistol. You can shoot with the right mouse-button to kill enemies at range when you can’t get close enough with your chainsaw.
The problem is that this gunman often gets stuck around a corner or on a door for half a second or so. Maneuvering him into a place where he can actually see the enemy takes a little longer because of this. And that’s enough time for the enemy to see you and shoot you. Effectively, the gunman following you is rendered useless by the other mechanics of the game.
I did have some fun playing this game. I love the nostalgiac 90s aesthetic, the technoir soundtrack, the huge amounts of unmitigated violence and gore. It’s a well implemented game that feels smooth to play at first. Unfortunately it is drawn down by design flaws that render the game impossible to win through skill alone, and can lead to frustration, rage-quitting, and ultimately giving up on the game completely.
