[Preview] Hotline Miami

Lekon · 10-08-2012, 08:48 PM

Hotline Miami is a most disorienting game. You are cast as the as a fellow with beings in rubber masks giving you vague orders, before you wake up in an apartment. From this apartment, you'll be getting various missions on your answering machine. You're free to wander around, explore a bit, but eventually, it's work time. The messages are of course vague, asking about being discrete, vermin infestations, and "retrieval" of goods. In reality, once you hop in your Delorean to head to the job site, some people are going to die.

A whole mess of masks.

Once at your job site, your goal is simple: Everyone needs to die. There may be a pickup, but for the most part, everyone of the white suit wearing thugs needs to off it before you can move on. You'll start by picking a mask, with each mask giving a small game changing bonus. One lets you start with a power drill, another lets you avoid dog attacks. None are necessary, but all are handy.

The game controls damn well, it's easy to aim with the mouse, and locking on a certain enemy only takes a key press, making hitting folk across the room with an assault rifle a breeze. That said, combat in Hotline Miami is brutal. Almost everything dies in one hit from a weapon or gun. You included. A stray bullet from off screen can kill you just as fast as a pipe to the head. Most enemies die in a single swing of a pipe or melee weapon, but a few will simply be knocked down, requiring you to finish them off... or use them as human shields. Melee weapons are silent, allowing you to get a few kills in before everyone notices what's going on. Fire one gun though, and half the floor will notice and come running.

Here we see the start of a mission, You'll learn to hate the dogs.

Chances are, you'll end up dead. Often. Really often. Dark Souls Often. You'll miss the enemy in the corner with a shotgun, you won't rush in fast enough, or you simply will get careless from the amount of enemies you will need to take down. Death is only a minor problem though, Just hit R and you're restarted. Checkpoints happen every section of every level (Between floors or wings of a house, for example). You may die a dozen times in hails of bullets, but that one time you figure out the routes, and everything clicks, there's a magical feeling of murder in the air.

And here we see how most of your missions will end.

It is damn hard to put an easy genre or category on Hotline Miami. Grand Theft Auto: The Puzzle game comes to mind. Top Down Death Tetris also comes into play. Make all the components fit, and everyone is gone in a bloody mess! Hotline Miami brings memories of the first GTA, of Ikari Warriors, even of the old PC game Dreamweb, all while giving you an incredibly disorienting presentation. The screen is always glowing with neon colors, and tilting just enough to keep you off center. The overall effect gives an incredible feeling of unreality.

That feeling of unreality tends to break though, once you kick down a door, knocking down a guy in a white suit, only to throw your knife at a shotgun wielding guard across the room, giving you enough time to kick the first guy's head into a counter and run across the room to finish the knifed fellow off. The violence always tends to drop you back into the fact you're doing horrible things to people for no reason other than a telephone answering machine tells you too.

When you pull a mission off though, it's Dark Souls levels of satisfaction

It may seem that Hotline Miami is a mindless kill fest. It is also important I dispel that thought. There is a very creepy story here. It's told through the phone, through the people you meet between missions in bars or video stores, and through dream sequences. The build I played was incomplete, leaving a lot of the story open, but you can bet I'll be picking it up on release day to find out what happens. The plot points I saw were nicely unsettling, giving a possible reason to why everything seems so neon and distorted in the game.

Expect a lot of brutality and confusion when Hotline Miami releases on October 23rd. I'll be airing out my Dennis mask until then.

Hotline Miami is currently available for pre-order on GOG, Steam, Gamersgate, or Getgames. All three sites have around it for just under 9 bucks. GetGames offers a bonus "expo" level if you pre-order from them in addition to a Steam key for redemption.

Libuke · 10-08-2012, 10:11 PM

The story aspects you mention have me intrigued. The video I saw for it a little while back didn't give me much enthusiasm. The crazy blood shed just did not appeal all that much to me.

menage · 10-09-2012, 01:37 AM

Yeah, had the same thing. Seemed really violent. Not sure if I'f enjoy playing it.

Lekon · 10-09-2012, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by menage

Yeah, had the same thing. Seemed really violent. Not sure if I'f enjoy playing it.

I'll admit freely, it's unashamedly violent. Also has me really curious just where the story is going. A bit nutty, but I'm curious what *kind* of nutty.

If you're turned off by ultraviolence though, then yeah, skip it. The screenshots I brought in are from an early stage (3 or 4) of the game, to show how carnage heavy it can get. On the other hand, game's a blast to play.

Wilkz07 · 10-09-2012, 04:59 PM

looks awesome. will get it ... preordering now.

MagGnome · 10-09-2012, 08:04 PM

This is another of the couple dozen indie games I am looking forward to this fall. So many great things coming out!

Purple Santa · 10-10-2012, 04:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagGnome

This is another of the couple dozen indie games I am looking forward to this fall. So many great things coming out!

Should you be playing such violent video games? I think it's time for a chat with bf to censor some of your gaming

MagGnome · 10-10-2012, 06:50 AM

I have to work out my anger issues somehow.

10-08-2012, 08:48 PM	#1
Lekon Indie Prophet Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 2,618	[Preview] Hotline Miami Hotline Miami is a most disorienting game. You are cast as the as a fellow with beings in rubber masks giving you vague orders, before you wake up in an apartment. From this apartment, you'll be getting various missions on your answering machine. You're free to wander around, explore a bit, but eventually, it's work time. The messages are of course vague, asking about being discrete, vermin infestations, and "retrieval" of goods. In reality, once you hop in your Delorean to head to the job site, some people are going to die. A whole mess of masks. Once at your job site, your goal is simple: Everyone needs to die. There may be a pickup, but for the most part, everyone of the white suit wearing thugs needs to off it before you can move on. You'll start by picking a mask, with each mask giving a small game changing bonus. One lets you start with a power drill, another lets you avoid dog attacks. None are necessary, but all are handy. The game controls damn well, it's easy to aim with the mouse, and locking on a certain enemy only takes a key press, making hitting folk across the room with an assault rifle a breeze. That said, combat in Hotline Miami is brutal. Almost everything dies in one hit from a weapon or gun. You included. A stray bullet from off screen can kill you just as fast as a pipe to the head. Most enemies die in a single swing of a pipe or melee weapon, but a few will simply be knocked down, requiring you to finish them off... or use them as human shields. Melee weapons are silent, allowing you to get a few kills in before everyone notices what's going on. Fire one gun though, and half the floor will notice and come running. Here we see the start of a mission, You'll learn to hate the dogs. Chances are, you'll end up dead. Often. Really often. Dark Souls Often. You'll miss the enemy in the corner with a shotgun, you won't rush in fast enough, or you simply will get careless from the amount of enemies you will need to take down. Death is only a minor problem though, Just hit R and you're restarted. Checkpoints happen every section of every level (Between floors or wings of a house, for example). You may die a dozen times in hails of bullets, but that one time you figure out the routes, and everything clicks, there's a magical feeling of murder in the air. And here we see how most of your missions will end. It is damn hard to put an easy genre or category on Hotline Miami. Grand Theft Auto: The Puzzle game comes to mind. Top Down Death Tetris also comes into play. Make all the components fit, and everyone is gone in a bloody mess! Hotline Miami brings memories of the first GTA, of Ikari Warriors, even of the old PC game Dreamweb, all while giving you an incredibly disorienting presentation. The screen is always glowing with neon colors, and tilting just enough to keep you off center. The overall effect gives an incredible feeling of unreality. That feeling of unreality tends to break though, once you kick down a door, knocking down a guy in a white suit, only to throw your knife at a shotgun wielding guard across the room, giving you enough time to kick the first guy's head into a counter and run across the room to finish the knifed fellow off. The violence always tends to drop you back into the fact you're doing horrible things to people for no reason other than a telephone answering machine tells you too. When you pull a mission off though, it's Dark Souls levels of satisfaction It may seem that Hotline Miami is a mindless kill fest. It is also important I dispel that thought. There is a very creepy story here. It's told through the phone, through the people you meet between missions in bars or video stores, and through dream sequences. The build I played was incomplete, leaving a lot of the story open, but you can bet I'll be picking it up on release day to find out what happens. The plot points I saw were nicely unsettling, giving a possible reason to why everything seems so neon and distorted in the game. Expect a lot of brutality and confusion when Hotline Miami releases on October 23rd. I'll be airing out my Dennis mask until then. Hotline Miami is currently available for pre-order on GOG, Steam, Gamersgate, or Getgames. All three sites have around it for just under 9 bucks. GetGames offers a bonus "expo" level if you pre-order from them in addition to a Steam key for redemption. __________________ Gamertag Twitter Last edited by Lekon; 10-09-2012 at 05:47 PM.

10-08-2012, 10:11 PM	#2
Libuke Elephant Bug Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 1,704	The story aspects you mention have me intrigued. The video I saw for it a little while back didn't give me much enthusiasm. The crazy blood shed just did not appeal all that much to me. __________________ Do you want a second opinion?...You are also Ugly!

10-09-2012, 01:37 AM	#3
menage Praise the sun! Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Seritei Posts: 8,760	Yeah, had the same thing. Seemed really violent. Not sure if I'f enjoy playing it. __________________ Now playing: Borderlands 2/ Skyrim/ Guacamelee itsanother.me PSN: Menage00 Steam: Menage00

10-09-2012, 04:59 PM	#5
Wilkz07 blarg? Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 4,282 Blog Entries: 3	looks awesome. will get it ... preordering now. __________________ LIVE: Wilkz07 PSN: Wilks08 Now Playing: Random Games

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