Hotline Miami: A Brutal Nostalgic Trip

Style is a concept that can be tricky to nail down. You know it when you see it, but can’t really describe it. Very few games have managed to deliver on both style and substance and Hotline Miami isn’t one of those games. But despite its retro look and feel manages to create a great mixture of the two.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgXM7ivgYTo[/youtube]

“Rhythm Is Gonna Get You”

To discuss what exactly makes Hotline Miami stand out, would also spoil key points of the game. I won’t be going over the plot of the game and will instead focus on the gameplay.

The basic concept of HM is that it is an action-puzzle title. Your mission is to clear out buildings full of thugs, one floor at a time. Everyone, including the player can normally only take one hit from any weapon, making combat fast and decisive.

Since you are always outnumbered for each stage, you’ll need to make use of several tricks at your disposal. Enemies will not hear any melee attacks, or thrown weapons, allowing you to use stealth as much as possible to whittle down the enemies.

While guns are an option, they will attract nearby enemies and have limited ammo, which can be both a blessing and a curse depending on your strategy.

Restarts are quick, which is a good thing as death is fast in HM. One wrong move, enemy off-screen, or charging dog is all it takes for your run to end. Clearing a floor, checkpoints the level, this offers some stability to the chaos.

While each level in HM is a set piece, there are several elements that help to keep things fresh. First are the masks, at the start of each level, the main character will put on an animal mask of the player’s choice before beginning his murder spree. Each mask with exception to the first one has a special bonus: From starting with a weapon, to taking an extra hit and so on.

As you complete levels, your score will be tallied which affects the grade that you’ll receive.  At certain high score thresholds you’ll unlock new weapons that can appear in each level. Damage remains constant, but each weapon has different swing speeds, and reach.

There is also randomness to the enemies in each level. The available weapons for the thugs are shuffled on each level based on which ones you’ve unlocked. On one load, you may have two enemies wielding guns and then on the next load, one may be carrying a sword and the other a shotgun. Every enemy has a patrol pattern, but may do something different to mix things up.

Even the opening screen screams style

All the carnage of HM is wrapped up in an impressive soundtrack. That sets the mood of the game brilliantly.

While the graphics have a neon hue to them keeping with the 80s theme, that the game takes place in. The backgrounds pulse as the player kills enemies, as blood and limbs fly all over the place.

What makes HM work is that there is complexity hidden in the simplicity. While the game is about running around brutally killing people, there is a method to the madness. You need to time your attacks and do everything that you can to control the situation. The plot: Performing hits on the mob in Miami, hides the deeper story behind the game. Which as I mentioned at the start, don’t want to give away in this post.

The game grades you on how quickly, and efficiently you complete each level. Requiring you to move fast to dispatch each enemy to keep your combo up. In this regard, HM reminds me of skill based games like Trials HD and The Club. Where for expert players, it wasn’t enough to beat a level; you had to beat it with a high score.

But not everything in HM shines like the neon hue of the 80s. HM relies on player progression: in which the player’s skill level is the determining factor of success for the player to see everything. The masks and various weapon unlocks will only supplement the player skill, but not give the player the freedom to screw up.

However, the game’s mechanics are a bit too unpredictable and clash with the player progression. While randomizing enemy patrol patterns and weapon layouts are fine, the problem comes with how the same tactic plays out differently for no reason.

For example: an enemy is facing away from the player in a corridor with a gun. The player turns the corner and dashes at the enemy and kills them. Then if the player dies and restarts and does the same exact thing, this time the enemy may turn around and kill them. The problem is that there is no indication to the player as to why the former or the latter happened.

They’re going to need a lot of garbage bags

While having luck is a factor does make the game exciting, it does get in the way of the player progressing and developing their skills. It’s hard to learn what tactics to use, when the results are not consistent.

The same situation happens when using stealth, as sometimes the enemy will see the player and sometimes they won’t under the same circumstance.

There may be some kind of behind the scenes action at play, but the retro graphics prevent the player from getting any kind of tell. Gun detection is also weird, in how firing a gun at the same place on two different plays may result in different amounts of detection.

While the random results do keep the player on edge, it prevents the game from completely rewarding the player through mastery.  Since each level plays out like a puzzle, as the player tries to figure out the best way through it. The somewhat unreliable nature of the game does get in the way of that.

“It’s hard to learn what tactics to use, when the results are not consistent”

The controls of the game, specifically aiming with weapons were a bit wonky. I’ve had cases where I couldn’t hit an enemy in close range with a gun even if what appeared that the cursor was on them. HM features a lock-on feature that becomes absolutely mandatory at the later chapters.  This is needed for aiming at enemies, or performing combos where you stun one enemy and attack another.

The game is also short, with a typical gamer can finish within 5 or 6 hours. But the high score list and un-lockables do give players something to do.

One of the many masks, complete with a unique benefit.

My last problem is that currently the game has a number of major bugs. For people using Steam, there have been reports of the steam overlay causing crashes and problems in-game.

At the time of this post, gamepad support which was advertised has been taken out due to problems. During my time with the game, I had a hard crash that forced me to restart my computer, and I lost the ability to hear music while playing.

All in all, I had to re-install the game 3 times before it appears that everything is back to normal. The developers have apologized and are working on patches to fix the issues, along with DLC.

Hotline Miami is a game where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  And hopefully once the bugs have been taken care of, the developers can focus on expanding this stylish, yet violent world for us.