It’s always surprised me how much harsher the general opinion of Hotline Miami 2 is in comparison to the first one. Like I mentioned in my review of Hotline Miami 1, both games are extremely important to me, and 2 is no exception. I’ve always enjoyed this game, to the point where I’ve spent a little over 100 hours playing and replaying it in comparison to the 20 hours I’ve spent with the original. I understand and sympathize with a few of the reasons why most people don’t seem to like it. Its approach to level design is vastly different from the previous game, and a good amount of the levels don’t accommodate the way a majority of people preferred to play the original. I don’t believe that this makes the game inherently bad, though. It definitely has some problems, a few of which are shared with the first game, but overall I think that Hotline Miami 2 is a fantastic successor and most people judge it a little unfairly.

Nothing has really changed between the first game and the second in terms of core gameplay. You’re still clearing out rooms of enemies that all die in one hit while avoiding that instant death yourself. This is both to Wrong Number’s benefit and it’s detriment, as pretty much every single problem with Hotline Miami 1’s gameplay goes unaddressed here. Enemies still don’t react if someone in front of them gets shot, and it’s still a bit random whether or not they’ll consistently react to the sound of gunfire. The cursor is still really thin and hard to see, it doesn’t contrast well with the game’s environments at all. There’s still the problem of not being able to tell which weapon you’ll pick up from the ground when multiple weapons are in close proximity to one another. It’s actually a bit of a worse problem here because the level design of Hotline Miami 2 generally forces you to manipulate enemies by alerting a squad of them to your location and ambushing them, meaning you have to frantically comb through piles of weapons stacked on top of each other rather frequently. It’s pretty disappointing that these problems from the first game don’t really get addressed here.

What does get addressed though, is the undercooked mask system. It’s pretty heavily reworked to fit the large cast of playable characters. Some characters have a smaller selection of minor gameplay modifiers you can pick before a level, like Jake and The Son. Others like Beard and Evan Wright have their own playstyle or spin on the core gameplay. I greatly prefer the changes Hotline Miami 2 has made in this regard. I really enjoy being forced to vary my tactics slightly depending on who I’m playing as, it keeps things feeling fresh.

The biggest and most controversial change from Hotline Miami 1 is Wrong Number’s approach to level design. While the game starts off with shorter and more cramped levels comparable to those of the first game, the levels gradually increase in terms of scale. They get much, much bigger and far more open. These levels can force you to change up how you approach them compared to the smaller and more claustrophobic levels of the first game. You can’t really run through them guns blazing, as constantly exposing yourself will subject you to gunfire from enemies that aren’t even on the screen. Instead, they require you to rely on manipulating enemy behavior and having them come to you, either by briefly exposing yourself to their line of sight before taking cover, or with the sound of gunfire. This allows you to take out groups of 6, 7, 8+ enemies at once in an adrenaline fueled scramble that’s just as satisfying as the gameplay of Wrong Number’s predecessor. You’re definitely not going to realize this initially though, especially if you have a lot of experience with the first game. I think that’s a big reason why people dislike this game so much. Coming to terms with its level design approach is pretty essential to enjoying it. One could argue that this makes the gameplay boil down to trial and error, but in all honesty, I don’t see it as any more trial and error than Hotline Miami 1’s gameplay, especially its latter levels.

Second to the level design, Wrong Number’s next most controversial change is its approach to storytelling. Unlike Hotline Miami 1, which was sparse on story details and generally required the player to fill in the blanks themselves in regards to how the world works and what’s going on, 2 tells a much more detailed and involved story with a huge cast of characters and a lot more dialogue. It presents a series of events that take place before, during, and after the events of the first game that really flesh out the characters and world. However it presents those events in a non-linear fashion, and in conjunction with the surreal aspects of the plot, it seems to cause a lot of confusion among people who initially experience it. Personally speaking, I’ve never found Hotline Miami 2’s plot to be confusing or hard to follow at all. Yes, each character’s story does take place at different points in time, but that character’s story is still presented in a proper sequential order, and even if you’re not paying attention to the dates that are displayed whenever you switch characters, the game offers plenty of context clues in regards to when a certain cutscene takes place.

I love this game’s story, in all honesty. The alternate take on the Cold War and its effects on history is fascinating. It enriches the story of Hotline Miami 1 by providing gut wrenching context to the world and the events that transpire in that game, including Jacket’s motivations. I love all of the characters and what their individual stories represent. The game might beat you over the head with its core messages and themes, but considering how the themes of the first game largely went over most people’s heads (including my own initially), I can’t really blame the devs for taking a more direct approach with their storytelling this time around. The developers had a lot to say with this game’s story, and they said it loud and proud. I don’t like to go too in-depth with story details in my reviews, but the video Hotline Miami 2 is a Misunderstood Masterpiece by Ovandal does an immaculate job explaining the symbolism and appeal of the game’s story in great detail, and I highly recommend it (spoiler warning, obviously).

The game manages to have an even better and more bombastic soundtrack than the first game. A big reason why this game is so special to me is because it introduced me to the absolutely phenomenal music of Carpenter Brut, who became one of my top 5 favorite musicians of all time. His music continues to motivate me and hype me up to this day, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I’ve been able to lose dozens of pounds working out to his songs, which are blood pumping synthwave masterpieces. Roller Mobster and Le Perv, are used in the game’s soundtrack, and in my opinion, they are two of his best works. I don’t want to get too off-topic though, pretty much every track in Hotline Miami 2 is fantastic, and used to brilliant effect. The opening scene to the level Execution, where The Henchman tries to reach his girlfriend on the phone as The Fans pull up to the Russian bar is synched to the intro to Perturbator’s Sexualizer, and the way the bass kicks in just as The Fans’ van screeches to a halt gives me goosebumps every single time I come back to this game. The developers utilize this game’s music in a way that I wish more games did. Writing a scene and creating a level based on a specific song amplifies the song’s effectiveness and really adds to the immersion.

Hotline Miami 2 is a powerful and bold statement, and I feel like most people that play it just don’t want to hear what it has to say. It just completely floors and frustrates me that people don’t see the value in Hotline Miami 2, that they get so blinded by their frustration that the game isn’t what they want it to be that they write it off entirely. The learning curve is higher than the first game, the approach to level design forces you to play differently from before, and the story requires you to slow down and process what is happening, where it’s happening, and why it’s happening. Not everyone wants to go through all of that to enjoy a video game, and I get it, but man does that make me sad. I treasure both Hotline Miami games, but a lot of what I love about this series comes from Wrong Number. I hope that as time passes, people give it another chance, and see it for what it is. It challenges its players not just through its difficult gameplay, but also to see the bigger picture regarding its themes and messages as well, and coming to terms with those challenges led to one of the most rewarding experiences in video games I’ve ever had.

100% convinced henry had a lobotomy shortly before the events of the game because there is no other explanation for the complete nothing going on inside of that man's brain.

you can see team silent pushing up against the boundaries of silent hill in the fourth entry even more than they already were in the third. there are enough unnecessary connections to the previous games and jarring aesthetic choices (why the burping enemies? who the hell...) that if you told me this was the first outsourced silent hill title, i might have believed you. as it stands, silent hill 4 has about 1 interesting character, a half-competent soundtrack, 2 scary monsters, 2 cool areas and 2 good cutscenes spread across the longest runtime of the original tetralogy. about half of that runtime is spent battling jank or tedium. in other words, the polish i would expect from the series is barely present. "well, then isn't this game a total failure?", you ask doltishly. while the answer is probably yes, i pushed through the slow start and found that it's not all bad.

the apartment gimmick (ie. the part people praise about this game) got tedious very quickly, but the massive escort mission (ie. the part people hate about this game) was the most fun combat in a team silent title. it's got this resident-evilian "oh jeez oh no how long has it been since i saved" tension to it. post-y2k survival horror games tend to be too easy and i found it refreshing to have to play smart to keep your girlie safe. she's pretty and i like her. would smooch, including her giant, terrifying evil head. iykyk. and although i shittalked the aesthetics twice already, that giant head is an example of some of the stuff 4 gets right in that department. the unrelenting barrage of torture stimuli that henry goes through (stone-faced, of course) is pure infernality in its best moments. hell, there's such strong atmosphere that the feeling carries into its worst† ! the water prison/child torture dungeon and the two-headed freaks that roam it are almost fucked enough for me to blanket recommend this game.

however, the story that should be there to motivate you to push through the archaic puzzles and more difficult combat zones is where this game falls apart. to put it simply, it's deeply fucking stupid. buildups, payoffs, drama, mystery and intrigue, it's ALL absent and what we instead get is the world's most uninteresting man being uninteresting as he goes on his unenthused way through a series of hellholes, learning about a mentally deficient serial killer along the way. you can really feel the weak hinges of the plot threatening to break - those hinges being a throwaway newspaper clipping from silent hill 2. if it weren't for eileen, i would have no investment in the story (or gameplay!).

i wonder if this game could have been better if it had a sequel, more dev time, or its own franchise. as it is... it's undercooked. just play fatal frame iii instead.

†: its "worst" obviously being the monkey-infested building world or the hospital where you get chased around by scooby-doo-tier monsters.

DAVID CAGE

STOP FUCKING MAKING GAMES

i still like you a tiny lil better than riot games