3.5/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Hotline Miami.

TLDR: Come for the vibes, stay for the uh, the vibes. Gameplay: I'm not even gonna lie to you. The gameplay is scuffed to hell. Anyone who has played knows the feeling at least a little bit. I'm suprised it's not spoken about more. Hotline Miami makes me throw up my hands in frustration more than any other game. I found that the shooting mechanics are the worst example because it can be super unreliable trying to hit anything moving / close to you. And if there is a door between you and your enemy then the gun is absolutely worthless. The door just flips every which way, getting in the way of your shots, sometimes knocking down the enemy, sometimes just letting the enemy kill you. The doors can be your favorite or most hated thing. Or just equip Don Juan and win. I don't believe there is a lot of games like Hotline Miami. A top down shooter that doesn't encourage shooting and tows the line between a tactical experience and scuffed mayham. But it's mainly scuffed. You can go crazy and make crazy plays. Or just hide around a corner holding left click with a knife. Guess which one works better. And the level design is not very good. Lots of level starts that are not balanced and will lead to most of deaths occuring within 5 seconds of the floor loading. In the van boss battle, the checkpoint starts you in the path of the van and it's so fast that you will frequently die and then hit R and then get caught off gaurd by the van and die again and it's nuts. But when it works, it's a lot of simple fun. Run through floors killing folk at high speeds, playing carefully but also making risky plays. This is also like, my 4th playthrough so clearly my patience has dwindled a tad. Story: Hotline Miami is a great mystery that requires the sequel to get any answers. That's fine but at the time the mystery and world building was really cool. The "alternate history america" where we are at war with the soviets, San Francisco has been nuked and the Russian mob is in Miami. And if you can figure any of that out of your own then good for you because I couldn't. But it's also a story about Jacket's psyche even if you don't know it yet. Graphics: I love killing bald men in white suits! Hotline Miami is seen from a fully 90 degree angle looking downward. And at that perspective with pixels, I'm impressed they were able to make anything legible. Sound: It's a vibe. You know it's a vibe. Everybody does. Shoutouts to Level Complete theme and Jacket's Apartment. Extra: Throughout every level is a mask with a different ability and a letter that will unlock the secret ending which explains a lot of what has happened. Favorite Thing: I indirect story telling they do with the girlfriend is really nice. With no words or even any attention at all we see how the girlfriend fits into Jacket's life after he takes her and it's my favorite part of the entire game Not My Favorite Thing: There's some stupid feature where if your mouse is too far away your gun doesn't work and it's incredibly frustrating to be smashing your mouse trying to fire off your shot as a dozen goons come running in and it just doesn't