"Hotline Miami" Game Review
A gleeful mirror held up to bloody digital violence.
Hotline Miami is a tight, compact experience that tempers its immaculate presentation and buckets of bloody fun with moments of thoughtful introspection.
Gameplay is simple and intuitive, getting a lot of mileage out of a scant few buttons, and the levels function as puzzles with multiple solutions depending on playstyle and player expression. Frustration does rear its head at certain points. The boss battles are unexciting and painfully linear, and it can be incredibly exasperating when the limited control scheme works against you or your perfect combo is cut short by getting shotgun sniped across the map through six layers of glass by the one goon you forgot to bash. Other than these momentary dips, the levels are consistent in quality across the board, and the scoring system gives perfectionists and masochists plenty of opportunities to hone their craft.
Gameplay aside, I think where Hotline Miami really shines is the subtle narrative framing that examines player agency and our relationship to violence in this medium. The opening tutorial wastes no time in inciting the bloodshed with "I'm here to tell you how to kill people." Once the killing starts, it doesn't stop, but your motivations, your purpose, and your enjoyment of it are constantly questioned within the text of the story and the moments of Sisyphean quiet between levels.
If you want it to be, Hotline Miami can easily be enjoyed as a fun shoot 'em up on its own merit. But underneath the dripping red pixels and the pulsing synthwave beats, Hotline Miami holds up a mirror that asks "Do you like hurting other people?"
4/5
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