Hotline Miami

It seems to be a very interesting time for video games. the AAA titles seem to be scaling down in terms of creativity, and a lot of the bigger names still going are trading genres for more accessible styles (such as resident evil, thats now a pants action game rather than a survival horror) . As a side line to this, the indie scene is pretty much thriving. A game like Minecraft with poor blocky graphics sold millions of copies. The indie game scene is where all the creativity is going at the moment. and to go along with that, I thought id check out one of the big names, Hotline Miami.

Recently I did a review where I complained about Max Payne 3, and how it glorified violence because the main character was a useless drunk. Here we have a game where the main character is basically a total psycopath, that goes on rampages for little or no reason. Yet...I cant argue with any of it. Hotline Miami is a top down shooter, where you infiltrate buildings and have only one goal, kill every enemy inside. you then leave in your car (which is basically a back to the future de lorean) go to the shops after each mission, grab a pizza, go home, then you wait for a phone call to go and do it all over again.

Any image you see of this game may not necessarily show you what its really about. It has much more to offer than just wanton violence. You see, when you enter one of these buildings, if you go in and shoot everybody, you alert more men, then get owned. if you miss a shot, you get owned. if your not fast enough beating up and killing the guy you just punched down, then he gets back up, alerts his mates, and you get owned. Basically, the game forces you to be strategic. It is not as simple as entering a building and taking out every guy, you literally have to memorize the map and know where each target is before you can continue. and herein lies the addiction. There is also the addition of the masks, which work like perks, such as a horse mask that means doors are lethal. or a rabbit mask which makes you move faster. Hotline miami also has a fantastic soundtrack, that basically gets you moving as your playing, and in a way, makes the game even more addictive. When I first started the game, it quickly became clear here was something a bit different, and to be honest, I feel that its a game that HAS to be experienced. Id recommend it.

Hotline Miami is pretty much the gaming version of Crack.