Hotline Miami feels like a shining example of the saying "less is more", barely any dialogue yet a very tight engrossing narrative mostly conveyed by the stylish murder simulator gameplay, some of the coolest moments gameplay wise i want to point out are the moments when a mission ends and the music stops and it's replaced by this low buzzing ambience as you walk back facing the hell you created back to your car, kills off the vibe, really highlights the deplorable nature of Jacket's actions, which for a moment initially gets drowned by the sheer frenzy of the chaos that repetitively takes place in each mission. Maybe you can take solace in the madness and be distracted but when it's all said and done you're left with nothing but to contemplate your actions kind of, feels like post nut clarity for gore fans. But to hesitate or ponder during the killing spree? absolutely not, game demands your actions to be perfectly choreographed and not allowing for a single hesitation because even a single mistake will lead to your death. Story progresses through similar patterns, you have this beardy guy working in all these places jacket visits and provides him with the same kindness and words, there are exceptions though, i have no idea what to make about that. I did take notice how Jacket's house changes as we progress through each level, showing changes in his life, most notable of them being when he rescues the drug addicted women, we now know he isn't devoid of empathy completely. You have these weird calls that keep forcing you to follow their orders to murder. You find yourself tangled in a terrorist group of ultranationalist with a scope, a goal that we apparently try not to fathom, (Richard warns us that at a certain point, our actions our meaningless, possibly singling us out for not purposely attempting to confront the truth?)

All the while our memories and perceptions are clearly distorted, clearly highlighting the fragility of our sanity, there are examples of delusions, such as gruesome corpses popping up in most nonsensical places, innocent folks with masks being targeted by Russian mafia, perhaps implying the gradual increase in jacket's sense of guilt? another weight chaining him down. jacket also suppressed his memories about the the murder of his love interest (another instance of him running away from the reality which Richard is constantly trying to seize him back to) which were gradually unfolded since during his comatose state since he was reliving his memories in an unordered fashion. As for the endings I believe the first one was some meta commentary about the meaningless of the all the violence both the players and jacket ig brought upon. (You wanted this didn't you?), (Do you like hurting people?), providing us with anti-climatic answers that could never justify all this depravity. Jacket was hanging on a tightrope, trying to balance out his enjoyment for violence against a specific group of folks, attempting to justify it to shift the blame ig, all the while deepening his bond with someone he has clearly connected with, Second one tho is plot focused and answers the biggest questions of the narrative
All in all, for a game that's short enough to be done in a single day, definitely had me impressed by how it utilized it's features, not by telling me to feel this or that way, but by a combo of interactivity, dialogue, visuals, audio and environment which the gaming medium excels at.