Hotline Miami Review
Developer Dennaton Games
Publisher Devolver Digital
Platform PS Vita Reviewed (Also on PC & PS3)
Release Date Out Now
Hotline Miami takes on the extreme drug fueled violence of 1980’s Miami in a stylish amalgamation of everything that was great but also awful about the 80’s action movies and video games.
Visually the first two things you will notice is the top down view and 8-bit styling. They also throw in lots of neon and loads of cool tricks from that era to tie the game together. The game is simple yet effective.
The story starts with you waking up to a strange phone call, if you follow the directions you find a mask. These masks play a role in the game, at the start of each mission you choose a mask to wear. These are more than just a freaky disguise as each mask gives you some different outcomes in terms of moves and weapons.
The player can pick up a number of weapons from Knives, bats and steel bars. To pistols, automatic rifles and shotguns. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks. Noise being a huge factor when approaching missions sometimes a silent attack with a bat suits rather than a loud blast from a shotgun which draw unwanted attention on you. Other times you need the stopping power of a shotgun with a wide spray to take down a group quickly.
Each mission ends up being more of a puzzle that you learn through trial and error as you have to work out how to approach each mission without getting killed yourself, and you will die …a lot.
The game is difficult and unforgiving with many missions requiring a lot of replays, while the enemy locations do not change at least the weapons do but it is not enough to stop it becoming repetitive having doing the same mission over and over.
Overall : The styling, theme and gameplay are initially fun but before long I was left thinking that I have done this before, and I had. It was 20 years ago when top down shooters like this were cutting edge. It was fun to re-explore this genre.
If you want a blast of retro over the top violence then Hotline Miami is the game for you, but be warned it is just as limited as a 20 year old game so it may not be for everyone. It also comes with a pretty hefty price tag when you consider what you get. In saying that if you didn’t grow up on games from this era then you might get more out of it than we did.
SCORE 3.5/5.
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