Instead of a silent cipher slaughtering his way through an unprepared city (as in the first game), the characters in Hotline Miami 2 have voices, and visible lives outside of the scope of the game. Where Hotline Miami asks if you enjoy hurting people, Hotline Miami 2 knows that you do-and places you in situations where indulging this desire will lead you to ruin. Forcing him to act against his nature and execute an enemy will send him into an uncontrollable rage, tinting the screen a lurid, overwhelming red and leaving your character vulnerable for an extended period of time. Having a pacifist journalist pick up a gun only causes him to unload it, disabling its use and giving you a grand 1000-point bonus. Character is communicated through gameplay, and your choice (or lack thereof) as a player. The playable cast of Hotline Miami 2 stars over seven horribly broken people, each dramatically changing the way the game is played due to their unique abilities and personalities. Long after I felt that the game should have been over, I suddenly didn't want it to end-and what an ending it is. Synth beats combine with a rapid live-die-learn-repeat loop to drive you forward, encouraging you to hammer the R key after every death, late into the night.ĭelivered over six chapters and roughly ten hours, I had more than enough time to question where the hell the story was going and why the game didn't end after the bastard-hard third act, only to find myself stunned as the scattered threads came together in its final two chapters. What truly sold its particular brand of delightful darkness was an overwhelmingly satisfying presentation, expressed through its art style and killer soundtrack. The fact that the original Hotline Miami introduced moral questions about the experience you’re enjoying (hurting people) isn't, in itself, revolutionary. In the wake of the false heroism of Spec Ops: The Line, Hotline Miami captivated players with a simple question: do you enjoy hurting people? Within Hotline Miami’s tightly designed, neon-bathed confines, the answer was a resounding ‘yes’. And then, you use this knowledge to kill every last person standing in the most brutal, gratuitous manner possible. You discover the difference between someone holding a baseball bat and a semiautomatic pistol the hard way. You learn where enemies are placed, and what direction they’re facing. Restarts are instant, because death is only a single enemy bullet away. The original Hotline Miami practically established a genre unto itself, using the form of the top-down indie shooter for relentless, unapologetically ugly murder sprees-whether the victims deserved it or not.