PRESENTATION
I've found it increasingly difficult to begin my reviews with a small description of a prior experience during whatever I am writing about. Though it may be an example of a particular game, it feels kind of uninteresting to the viewer, and irrelevant to forming a basis of just how good a game is. So I'm just going to head straight to the good news, and boy is there a lot of good to talk about. Hotline Miami, Dennaton Games' frantic, fluid and stylish shoot-em-up, is a brutal, merciless and morally deprived masterpiece that uses ambiguity, atmosphere and mystery, in parallel to its reverent, cynical ultraviolence. It's a satire of modern entertainment, a wildly-paced, extremely self-aware exercise in dehumanization. It is also one of the most impressive games I've played in a very long time.
Hotline Miami follows an unnamed protagonist who meets with three mysterious men who give him ambiguous questions regarding his identity and his actions, and who answers strange, falsified phone messages referring to places around the city, wherein he must "clean up" or "visit" them. These task him with donning one of many animal masks, and brutally murdering everybody in sight, before leaving the blood-soaked place and driving back to his apartment. It's a very intriguing story, where no answers are given until the end, and its also brilliantly written. It keeps you guessing, and brings the character's (and your) morals to the forefront, and will have you questioning your own actions a lot of the time. Why is he killing so many people? For what reason does he deem these actions as justifiable? Does he like it? These very unsettling motifs form the basis of Hotline Miami's great narrative, which goes hand in hand with its remarkable presentation.
Hotline Miami is set in, of course, Miami in 1989. The layout of each environment, the character's dingy apartment, the VHS and pizza stores, and the many buildings throughout each chapter are decidedly retro and are dripping with atmosphere and ambience. The vibrant pink/purple decorative visuals are fantastic, highlighting the "trippy" feel of the overall game, and lending great tension to each piece of story exposition. The sound is also brilliant. The sound effects are crunching and pop, and the soundtrack is phenomenal, by way of heavy synth, floaty bass and adrenaline-fueled rock. It's one of the most memorable soundtracks in any game to date, and really sells the deprived, slick and stylish take on '80s Miami.
GAMEPLAY
Hotline Miami situates itself on fast, fluid and addictive gameplay. The combat mechanics are excellent and drive the game's score-based nature perfectly. The game has a surprisingly deep sense of strategy in each level, forcing the player to navigate each area, killing and learning new routes and gameplay opportunities upon each restart. It's a towering example of how "trial-and-error" based games do not need to force that concept on the player, instead giving them an immediate restart and encouraging caution and memorizing each map layout. Death is inevitable in Hotline Miami so a lot of the time you will be dying, trying again and dying some more before finally pinpointing that run to a tee. It's hugely satisfying to blast through a level in seconds, and getting that addicting score bonus. Combos are the name of the game, so killing enemies as quick as possible is required - and hugely rewarding. You get a stat menu at the end of each chapter, displaying the efficiency and flexibility of each fight, and a grade is rewarded at the end. Getting A+ is the highest honour, and chasing that grade in every chapter will be a challenging but ultimately satisfying long-term objective.
The actual combat is outstanding. The controls work great for the most part, so you'll be punching and smashing enemy heads on the ground, stabbing, decapitating, slashing and blasting away hundreds upon hundreds of henchmen. The nature of the gameplay seems like a repetition exercise, and may look that way too, but know that it most certainly is not, and is one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had. The mechanics actually combine stealth and all out relentlessness. There are dozens of weapons to use and unlock including melee items such as machetes, knives, baseball bats, pipes and even throwable objects such as bricks, beer cans and shurikens. The melee weapons are really fun and are probably the way to go in terms of gameplay, but there are also some awesome guns, too. Pistols, shotguns, SMGs and assault rifles form the variety of munitions, and they are great fun to experiment with. As a side note, the blood splatters, deranged executions and brutal beatings form one of the most visually mind-blowing montages in recent memory, and will stick with you for a long time.
There are a couple of minor imperfections, however, including an imprecise crosshair target that can sometimes prove unresponsive, and resulting in a bullet in your head. The AI, as accurate and challenging as it is, can also be exploited easily, which makes some of the tougher areas a little easier. The few boss battles in the game suffer from underwhelming design and insight. Though giving no hints is fine, you can often be fighting without actually knowing how you're supposed to defeat him/her. However, the final boss is better designed, though still suffering from the same issues. Another complaint refers to a chapter where stealth is forced on you. It feels completely out of place in a game leaned toward a lightning pace.
The aforementioned masks are equipped before each bloodbath and consist of different mask-specific bonuses such as fists of fury (one hit melee kills), faster movement, a wide range of view, bigger combo windows and many more. Experimenting with these masks is what will make the game so much fun, and extends its replayability significantly.
REPLAYABILITY
The first playthrough of Hotline Miami will run at over seven to eight hours of the main 16 chapters. However, there are five more extra chapters after the credits, including a satisfying epilogue that concludes the story in awesome fashion. There are puzzle pieces to find in each chapter that reward the player with an alternate ending, and there are also level-specific secrets to find, that are both satirical and mysterious - which is very much descriptive of the overall narrative.
There are leaderboard stats, too, which highlight the scores of each chapter. Getting the previously mentioned A+ grades will obviously increase the score, so there is very good replay value with this game. The trophies will also provide a satisfying challenge. Just know that you will be in for an extremely good time with Hotline Miami.
SUMMARY
Presentation 10
Gameplay 9.0
Replayability 9.0
Overall - 9/10