Such a hectic and maniacal experience of a game. The neon themes of Miami, the incredibly catchy synthwave soundtrack and the immense satisfaction of spraying a drug dealers guts all over the wall is such a wild experience. The mechanics are smooth and unforgiving, requiring some serious planning or trained practice. When you die, it’s (mostly) your fault. But that damn soundtrack keeps me going to try again.
The Hotline Miami collection is a set of games that asks us to confront acts of extreme violence and the pleasure it can give us, when you finish a level you walk through the blood and corpses you defiled, HM1 in particular is really good at getting you into a killing flow state and made me have the time of my life as a result, that’s so evil I love it.
In my opinion 1 excels in its gameplay and presenting it’s themes through gameplay, while 2 tries to go for a more narrative focused experience and drags down the gameplay as a result as their is more story downtime and some stages feel like the narrative of the stage is more important then the gameplay of the stage and I prefer 1 as a result. 1 feels much more tightly designed and focuses a lot more on the chaos of the violence committed.
The presentation is on point in both games. The music isn’t to my tastes, but the vibes it creates is phenomenal.
These issues may be present in 1 and I just didn’t stumble upon them, but in 2 I had to restart 2 levels, once because I clipped into a wall moving to a different screen and second because of a crash that I think was from changing screen before post completion dialogue played.
Overall I don’t think these games are perfect, but it was really nice to play something outside my usual tastes and you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least play the original.
In my opinion 1 excels in its gameplay and presenting it’s themes through gameplay, while 2 tries to go for a more narrative focused experience and drags down the gameplay as a result as their is more story downtime and some stages feel like the narrative of the stage is more important then the gameplay of the stage and I prefer 1 as a result. 1 feels much more tightly designed and focuses a lot more on the chaos of the violence committed.
The presentation is on point in both games. The music isn’t to my tastes, but the vibes it creates is phenomenal.
These issues may be present in 1 and I just didn’t stumble upon them, but in 2 I had to restart 2 levels, once because I clipped into a wall moving to a different screen and second because of a crash that I think was from changing screen before post completion dialogue played.
Overall I don’t think these games are perfect, but it was really nice to play something outside my usual tastes and you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least play the original.
I didn't really get in the flow with the Hotline Miami games. I barely ever went out on these insane murder sprees, but played it safe most of the time instead. The first one was fun. A nice short game that doesn't overstay its welcome and it's super fast paced. But the gore also made me kinda uncomfortable. The second one frustrated me to the point where I simply couldn't continue. Skill issue I guess. I think these games just aren't for me.
When the Hotline Miami Collection released on Switch, it was the first time I had ever heard of these games. The top down, twin stick shooter gameplay seems simple enough but the clever level design makes each stage feel like its own puzzle to be solved. This is not a game for kids, it’s surprisingly gruesome but definitely a very fun game to play.