Hotline Miami

Hotline Miami is a shooter meets puzzler where your goal is to kill all the Mafia members on a certain floor as quickly as possible. You have a variety of weapons at hand to do this with, ranging from your fists to baseball bats and guns. The extreme violence of the game is tempered by pixelated art, pink shadows, and electronic music that balances the horrifying nature of what you are doing. The only graphics that look ‘real’ come after you’ve successfully killed someone and their blood is pooling on the ground, but a big showy display scoring your kill adds balance to this as well.

Right or wrong?

An interesting aspect of the game is that while the purpose of the game is to kill, there’s no distinct pat on the back when it’s all done. Instead, everything goes quiet and you’re left with a long, silent walk to the getaway car. It’s interesting and unique that rather than patting your back or praising you for the carnage your character has brought forth, the game is distinctly silent on whether what you did was right or wrong. All you get for finishing the levels is a score and a few pieces of loot.

Loot is also randomized, so if you played through the game before and are counting on getting that awesome weapon to carry you through—there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get it.

Gameplay keeps you on your toes

As showy as this non-stop gore-fest is, it’s not all blood and mayhem. The game provides a surprising amount of variety, and while there is plenty of repetition on some of the floors, there’s also a few surprises. The bosses are often unique and AI sensitive enough to react to you when you get close.

The goal of the game is to get through it without making mistakes, but sometimes people can still surprise you by shooting through a window or hearing the sound of your gunfire and jumping you all at once. In order to get through perfectly, its encouraged to rest the level after making a mistake to try and correct for it. If you’ve ever played Trials HD or Super Hexagon, the concept is very similar.

Not appropriate around minors

The whole point of the game is mass murder, and though pixelated the game shows a lot of bodies, and a lot of gore. It goes without saying this isn’t appropriate for kids to play, but you may also want to wait for kiddos to be in bed so they don’t inadvertently see the blood bath and be scarred for life.

Pros:

• Challenging levels
• Constantly changing loot
• Interesting sub plot

Cons:

• Inappropriate for all ages