I can see how some of you who can remember a few articles back might wonder that I talked about how Spec Ops: The Line delivered a smart message against videogame violence, and today I’m talking about Hotline Miami, which spills blood by the bucketload. You may entertain the notion that my moral compass is a broken piece, suffering the effects of a terrible attention span, but that’d be flat-out wrong. Not about the attention span though, that’s pretty much on the money.
Turns out Hotline Miami is also a snarky dig at the atrocities that a player can perform once the justification of the mission objective is employed. Unlike Spec Ops, this one actually sharpens the mechanics to a fine point and encourages outright aggression to the point where suicidal berzerker tactics actually come across as the normal way to play. The game plays through an oldschool top-down perspective, much like the first two GTA games, except it replaces the sprawling open cities with a tight, mazy room-to-room level design. The lo-fi ethos reflects all over the place, from the limited player choices to the blocky pixelart to the scratchy downbeat electronic soundtrack. Not too surprising, considering that it’s largely the work of a two-man team at Dennaton Games, and they really commit to the style, vividly channelling the neon-drenched seedy underbelly of Miami.
Story details are sketchy, and like many indie games, a lot of the time it’s what they don’t tell you but just leave you to figure out that has the most impact. It’s never really mentioned that you’re an in-demand hitman, they just start each mission with a poorly disguised brief about how you’re supposed to discipline someone’s child, or take care of some VIP, and then the next thing you know, you’re standing outside a house with a baseball bat in your hand, looking at the white-jacketed Russian mobsters wandering around inside. Doesn’t really leave much room for alternate interpretations. It doesn’t help that your protagonist never speaks and nobody ever mentions his name. Fans of the game had to actually give him the unofficial nickname Jacket, thanks to his distinctive attire. Throw in non-linear sequences and an unreliable narrator, along with all the dream-state shenanigans that brings with it, and you’ve got a plot that you’ll probably have to pay close attention to if you want to get the full picture on the first go itself. Don’t expect this to be an open-ended experience — while there are different endings based on how much info you gather, it’s pretty much a linear affair. This is Jacket’s story, not yours, and you’re just along for the ride.
I’m impressed with developer Jonatan Soderstrom’s understanding of how the gaming ecosystem is set up. Upon the game being added to torrent site ThePirateBay, Sodestrom commented in the torrent thread, announcing that there would be an update soon, and urging uploaders to host the new version once it was out. He even stuck around to offer quick-fix solutions for controller problems and other issues. I’m willing to bet that there were more than a few extra sales of Hotline Miami after word of this incident came out.
Finally, for a game that offers commentary against violence, it does a damn convincing job of depicting it. Every hit can be felt, and I suspect the pixellacious art style actually adds to the creepiness when contrasted with the content. While I like that trip, I can definitely say it’s not for everyone.