Hotline Miami

One of the most impressive things in a game narrative is to make gameplay an important aspect. Many have tried with various levels of success but most talk about Titanfall 2 or The Last of Us. Hotline Miami does this perfectly. I already did a really long review on my steam so you can check that out if you are so inclined on the account Ranesir, but this game excels in every aspect.

Hotline Miami is a visceral and adrenaline-pumping top-down action game developed by Dennaton Games, blending neon-soaked aesthetics, an unforgettable soundtrack, and ruthless combat into a uniquely thrilling experience. Released in 2012, it remains a cult classic, celebrated for its unapologetically violent gameplay and layered narrative.

Gameplay At its core, Hotline Miami is an intense, fast-paced action game where players control a nameless protagonist, known as "Jacket." Missions unfold in a series of hyper-violent encounters within tightly designed levels. Players must utilize a mix of melee weapons, firearms, and environmental tools to clear each area of enemies. The twist? Death comes quickly. A single hit from an enemy spells instant death, forcing you to rely on quick reflexes, careful planning, and trial-and-error to succeed.

Hotline Miami is one of my favorite games of all time. Here's some highlights.

Great soundtrack. The ost perfectly captures the surreal aesthetic the game portrays

Cool mask collection. Each one giving you a unique ability like super speed or fists of fury

Interesting story. Jackets journey is one to behold, it's simple yet bizarre with some twists here and there

Large assortments of weapons. Like sledgehammers, katanas, skorpians etc

There's a few downsides though.

Some masks I find to be useless like the George mask.

Melee combat can be broken at time sometimes if you attempt to attack the enemy your weapon will sometimes not do any damage and the end up just killing you.

I still recommend playing it through.

Hotline Miami is ver good. The sprites all look great, the music and atmosphere are great, and the story is really trippy and weird (in a good way). Combat, however, is a double edged sword. Sometimes it's really dynamic and fun, but from my experience, the lock on system is completely broken. In something like Zelda Ocarina of Time, pressing and holding the lock on button will lock on to an enemy, and letting go and holding it again will syphon through different enemies on screen. This works great and I never had any problems with it in that game. In Hotline Miami, pressing the lock on button will result in you locking on to an enemy. When you press the lock on button again, lock on will turn off. To syphon through enemies, you need to use the right control stick, which is incredibly imprecise and often locks on to the wrong enemy. Whenever I killed an enemy that I was locked on to, the game wouldn't auto lock on to the nearest enemy, instead it would auto lock to any random enemy, even offscreen ones. If you kill an enemy that you were locked on to and another starts running toward you, the game will either not lock on to anything or not lock on to the enemy that is running directly at you. I died a lot because of the clunky lock on in this game and it was very frustrating. The game is still very good and is worth playing, but the lock on is so bad.

I was late to the party on this one, the reviews were not lying! Hotline Miami is fast, violent and frustrating fun, you receive a phone call from someone asking you to kill a building full of Russian mobsters, simple as! The combat is gory and fast paced, melee weapons are silent but short ranged, whereas guns are loud and long ranged. It's only £8 on ps4 in the U.K, pick it up, please.