Review – Hotline Miami

Retro Shooter

Miami is nice.  So I’ll say it thrice.

Danny

Hotline Miami is a weird game that came out of nowhere. Made by a couple of dudes on Game Maker, the game is a stealth-action shooter set in the late eighties and has a faux-retro pixelated art style, viewed from a top-down perspective. Oh and this game is brutal. So very brutal.

Despite the stealthy nature of the game, you are required to murder whole apartment blocks full of Russian mobsters (which goes about as well as you might expect being just one man) in a particularly gory fashion. The idea of the game is simple. Take out everyone in the level and preferably quickly so you rack up a higher score but the player must also use tactics and learn the AI’s patrol routines and the level layouts to their advantage.

So much blood...

The thing is it’s easy to die. Most people, including yourself, will go down in one good hit from a melee attack or firearm. And you’ll be taking advantage of the game’s quick and easy retry system and firm but fair checkpoints.

The game is at its best when the player finally works out how to beat the level and feels like a total badass for killing waves of enemies in quick succession. There are also unlockable weapons and masks that alter gameplay so you won’t just be replaying level for the score (the whole game is one big score attack).

What really sells the game is its style. The story and gameplay evokes an old school ultra-violent exploitation film vibe and the music is excellent, it really sells the game. Literally. After watching a trailer with some of the music being played in the background I totally broke down and brought the game on Steam right away.

This game, like most small dev-team games is not perfect though. For a start it’s made on Game Maker which can be a buggy bit of kit at the best of times as I know all too well myself. Many of the initial technical glitches have now been patched out but others may remain and still be an issue for you so check out the demo first. Also, the game’s twenty chapters will only last you a few hours and retrying levels over and over can hurt your hands if you don’t use a controller and whatever method you use, the controls can be a little fiddly when trying to do stuff in a hurry (which you’ll be doing pretty much all the time). Boss battles can also be underwhelming but despite these issues, I did really enjoy my time with Hotline Miami and it is well worth checking out. Especially for fans of indie and retro gaming.

Rating: 8/10