Achingly mid. Sure, it ~resembles~ Hotline Miami, in a very shallow sort of way, but it lacks that special touch.

Where Hotline Miami (1, anyway) is bold, shocking, beautiful, transgressive, and lovely, this game is completely rote. It lacks so much of what I love about that game, and instead replaces it with a drab monochrome roguelike. A game about careful positioning and clever engagement reduced to slo-mo and dodge rolls. You can't kick a guy into a wall and bash his skull in with a hammer, or use doors as improvisational weapons, or ride the tense razor's edge of a single hit. The mildly intriguing premise quickly gives way to tedium. And the music sucks.

I might return to this later, but where I voraciously devoured Hotline Miami in an afternoon, I have been procrastinating playing more of this. I'm going to take that as the sign it should be and shelve it for later.