He's a strong-but-silent type protagonist who relies on it to tell him where to go, what to do, and who to kill through cryptic voice messages left by unknown callers. "I need a babysitter to come by and take care of some rowdy kids," one said. Another hints that my blind date "will be waiting for me at Southwest 53rd Place." After I fast-travel to the mission location via my DeLorean (because this is totally the 80s, man) it becomes clear that by "rowdy kids" my tipster actually means Russian mobsters. And that blind date? That's a hooker on the verge of overdosing who needs to be saved. Where those calls come from (or if they're products of my character's deranged mind) isn't important -- Hotline Miami is all about delivering hot, fresh vigilante justice.
A Real Hero
But before I walk through the doors to dispense some of the old ultra-violence, I need to pick from one of several latex animal masks that provide my hero with some unique powers. For example, equipping the Tiger mask will allow me to bash in skulls with just one hit, or the Wolf mask will let me start the level with a knife instead of having to beat down an armed thug to claim a weapon.
Clearly you guys don't know how to take care of records. Time to teach you a lesson.
But there's more to this whole vigilante thing than just walking through a doorway and kicking ass. There's a lot of planning, skill, and timing necessary to succeed, especially since all it takes is one bullet or a smash to the head to kill my hero. And the action is wicked fast. Running into a room full of machine gun-wielding thugs with nothing but a knife is a great way to get reduced to a puddle of brains and blood before I can blink.
One-Hit Killer
Because of Hotline Miami's top-down view where my character is the centerpoint on the screen (kind of like the original Grand Theft Auto) and absence of fog of war, I'm able to see enemies moving through levels to plan my attacks. For example, I can see that there are two guards on patrol in the next room, so I time my attack just right so that when I kick down the door I temporarily knock out one guard who's standing behind it. Before his friend notices I quickly run over and punch him in the back of the head, causing him to drop his shotgun. I pick it up and fire off a couple of rounds to finish them off, but that had the unfortunate side effect of alerting every enemy in the level to my presence. I go out in a blaze of glory and learn a valuable lesson: stay quiet as long as possible.
And so my life came to a close, somewhere between checkered and striped square patterns.
Death happens a lot, but it always feels fair: I rushed in, I didn't scout enough, I was overconfident in my ability to take out a room of bad guys with nothing but a knife. Hotline Miami wastes no time in getting me back in action, instantly respawning me at the start of the mission, like it can't wait to watch me become a bloody pulp as many times as possible. Of course, that also means I can try a variety of strategies until I find just the right pattern for success to take out every thug. Once the last enemy has been dealt with, I wade back through a horrific scene of violence and blood to get back to my car. I drive back home to my apartment, fall asleep, and wake up the next day to see that there's a new message waiting for me on the answering machine. Time to go to work.
It's been hard to pull myself away from playing this preview build, and I hope the final version isn't too far off. No release date has been set in stone just yet beyond "2012," but we do know that it'll be available on Steam whenever it does arrive. Bloody justice waits for no man.