Hotline Miami

Literally destroying the excess of colors and neon lights of the bulky eighties, Hotline Miami narrates the horrendous everyday life of an ambiguous figure, a shell apparently empty and devoid of any humanity. Within this excellent pulp novel there has never been a drop in rhythm, not mentioning fillers or chapters inserted only to artificially lengthen longevity: each episode is in its own way memorable. The epilogue comes after a five-hour spiral of violence, at the end of which, finally, some of the many questions about the enigmatic protagonist will find partial satisfaction, leaving open in any case wide margins of interpretation.

Not all people in Miami are hostile. Maybe.

With its iconoclastic destruction of that hedonistic decade, Hotline Miami could only take the form of an old-school shooter with a top view: in urban architecture (offices, discos, unhealthy apartments and so on), it will be necessary to make your way accumulating corpses, trying to bring home the skin. Although the rules of the game are rather clear, it cannot be said that the road to the carnage is free of obstacles and risks, since the urban jungle is a territory where the least distraction can cost very dear. The skillfully measured difficulty curve passes from short slaughter to long man-hunting sessions, in which it becomes imperative to alternate blind violence with the most sophisticated silent killing techniques.

As much as it is an irresistible temptation to take up the powerful sawed-off shotgun, there are situations in which it is much more effective to act sneaking, without attracting attention, thus avoiding being surrounded in a few seconds. The elements controlled by artificial intelligence apparently seem devoid of reason, in their continuous wandering through the levels following a predetermined path: just enter their visual space or cause a moment of disarray to literally see them change their personality, assuming an attitude diametrically opposite to. At the first encroachment of the "safe zone", the apparently helpless victims of the bloodthirsty avatar are transformed into tireless hounds, whose ferocity can only be appeased by an even more animalistic and lightning bestiality.

Firearms are often the worst way to deal with the situation.

Hotline Miami is a whirlwind of excitement, anxiety, restlessness, emotions dominated by the constant fear that the black comforter may peep at any moment, in the form of a fan-assisted submachine gun, a katana blow or the tearing jaws of a dobermann rabid. The constant brutality, the accumulation of which makes you uncomfortable, are the only language to reach territorial supremacy, elevating the splatter to grammar of the action on the screen and therefore giving it aesthetic value. The primordial survival instinct is the constant of every mission, as well as the spring of every killing. And, not to be overlooked, Hotline Miami is primarily damn funny, because every anxiety-inducing sensation is inserted in a playful context of absolute quality, in which total freedom of approach stands out: ninja or warmonger that you are, here you will find a way to give free rein to the most perverse fantasies.

The excellent use of perspective gives prominence to the settings, lugubrious, rotten places, as if they were in constant expectation of a tribute of blood. Assorted offal, recreated with surprising anatomical precision, pour from mangled bodies, skulls reduced to wretched mash which drag themselves in the vain attempt to save the skin. To get a cinematic comparison, I invite you to think about the final massacre of Scarface: here, the tones are even more exasperated here than in the film by De Palma. The artistic direction, capable of mixing the pulp with more than a note of psychedelia, testifies the courage of the indie developers, the only ones currently able to free themselves from the exclusively photorealistic rendering of violence. An expedient for easy controversy becomes here the centerpiece of a mature title (not only as regards the rating). The soundtrack, composed of a fabulous selection of independent tracks ranging from experimental rock to the most pounding beat, further enhances this journey to the underworld. Every single trace frames a particular moment of the plot, a fragment, a detail that becomes so memorable.

Whoever pulls the trigger first will be able to take the leather home ...

Hotline Miami is one of those cases, incidentally quite rare, in which the amalgam of the components is so perfect that analyzing each element individually is even diminishing towards the entire work. It is a sort of neural network: violence, apparently gratuitous, fits perfectly into the playful context and frees it from accusations of morbidity, the deliberately raw, yet refined technical aspect, best expresses the feral tension of every single summary execution. This creates a perfect information exchange system, to the point that by removing one of the joints the whole system ends up collapsing. Hotline Miami strikes viscerally, not only moves the lower instincts, but also triggers reflections of great stature. And this is no small thing.

Lorenzo Baldo has never trusted who wears a mask, first of all who does it in everyday life. And perhaps he is not entirely wrong.

The other day in Hotline Miami . We get out of the DeLorean, pull the pig mask over our head, look at the multi-story building in front of us and take another deep breath. We slam the front door of the first Russian in the back. Before he even knows what is happening to him, we're on top of him, grab his head and smack him against the floor - over and over again. We'll take his silenced pistol with us.

A toilet on our left. The mafia member at the urinal still has time to turn around and stare into the barrel of our gun before distributing his body fluids over the wall tiles. Further up the corridor, one of the gangsters is on guard. We approach, aim, and "CLICK" - no more ammunition. Our enemy moves, no time to think.

We rush ahead and throw our pistol, which slams into his face with full force. Actually the gangster doesn't move anymore, but we play it safe. After our work is done, we enter the living room and notice a twinkle on the couch. A katana. With the Japanese long sword in our hand, we perform a few trial strokes. Might be helpful for the second floor.

Pink Velvet

Attentive readers have already noticed: Hotline Miami is certainly not a child of sadness when it comes to violence. But behind the violent course of the game - not in »realistic« 3D, by the way, but in an overdrawn, rough pixel look - there is much more. Dennation Games´ two-dimensional top-down action game takes us on an abysmal, bloody journey into the late eighties, during the course of which we ask ourselves more than once whether what we experienced could not just be a fantasy of the nameless hero.

At the beginning of every mission we are in our apartment, where we receive our assignment by phone. The words may vary, but the goal remains the same: Drive to the target building and kill all your enemies (i.e. members of the Russian Mafia). What looks boring on paper works in the game for two reasons: On the one hand, the well thought-out story, which reveals our motivations in bits and pieces, comes up with both an interesting twist and an alternative ending and often gives us the feeling of being in one playable David Lynch film. On the other hand, there is the game mechanics.

Almost like in a zoo

Free two or three floors of the enemies present? Sounds simple! But in Hotline Miami, it's not just the opponents who die in every nook and cranny, we too. One ball, one blow, that's all it takes, and we find ourselves at the beginning of the respective floor.

Anyone who wants to survive must use all available resources. In order to give us a better view of the area, for example, the image section can be shifted at the touch of a button. So that our weapons (of which we can only carry one at a time) do not miss their target, opponents can also be targeted individually.

After each completed mission, we also receive a new animal mask that has a certain property. We can run faster with the rabbit mask, but the wolf mask gives us a knife when the mission starts. And the pig mask from the beginning distributes more firearms in the level. Since the face cover can no longer be changed during an ongoing order, we have to think carefully beforehand which bonus is the most important. By the way: if you keep your eyes open, you can find additional masks hidden in the levels.

Bonus or not: Get into the building, grab a machine gun and rivet everything that has a heartbeat, sometimes works, but not always. Other enemies could be attracted by the noise and cause us real ammunition problems. It can also happen that a mafia member suddenly deviates from his patrol path and greets us with a load of lead. This is exactly what makes the missions as unpredictable as they are exciting. Sometimes we assassinate ourselves quietly with the knife, sometimes we let the assault rifle do the talking, but we should always be prepared for both scenarios, also because of the scorer.

The latter shows us at the end of each order how well we have done. Maximum values can be achieved above all through a quick and efficient procedure and the use of different weapons. And also high score haters should keep an eye on the final bill, as it unlocks new killing tools. Nice: once finished, each section can be selected individually from the menu.

Ugly but hip

Pixelated 2D graphics, sparse types of opponents, few details and no voice output. At first glance, this game really doesn't win a technology flower pot. And yet Hotline Miami's neon world of the eighties with its spartan design fits perfectly with the story told, full of coldness and uncompromisingness. The main reason for this is the excellent electro soundtrack, which always appropriately accompanies the bloody hustle and bustle. Not infrequently we had the feeling that we were in an 8-bit oversoft of Nicolas Winding Refn's neo-noir hit "Drive".

While the control with mouse and keyboard is easy to handle, the operation via gamepad is less successful. Especially in later levels, in which every action has to be carried out precisely and quickly, this variant proves to be too tricky. Anyway, that's why we play on the PC.

Hotline Miami came out of nowhere. It did not exist in the minds of players before its premiere. Created by two people in the Game Maker program, it bought the hearts of reviewers who felt the journalistic obligation to advertise and present this gem to the world. Rightly so, as I can say without exaggeration that Hotline Miami is one of the best indie games I have come across. Nay! One of the best productions of this type that went on sale this year!

How to describe the creation of the Dennation Games studio in one sentence? A cross between Manhunt and Super Meta Boy on GBA in the atmosphere of the movie Drive . The action of Hotline Miami takes place in 1989. We play the role of a nameless bully who accepts orders by phone to "clean up" at the addresses provided. In short, it kills everyone on the spot. They are criminals, members of the mafia, but this does not mean that our hero has any moral advantage over them. He murders and abuses without wondering why and what for. What is Hotline Miami about then ? About us. After all, the game asks, "What did you feel when you were doing this?" How do you feel right now? How do you feel about what you felt? ”

The mechanics are very simple. The action is shown from above, we use the "WSAD" buttons, shoot with the left mouse button, and with the right button we collect a new weapon and throw away the old one. We kill enemies with one shot / hit, except for bosses and occasional "fat men", which require a bit more attention. But don't think of yourself as a Terminator. One hit is also enough to knock us down. Our only advantage is intelligence and careful planning.

Before each mission, the hero puts on various types of animal masks - we unlock them during the game, and they provide certain bonuses that we use while playing. These are, for example: increased view range, silent shots, greater gun magazine capacity.

By eliminating opponents at close range, we do not make noise and do not attract the attention of our opponents. Worse, if we decide on firearms - then we can be sure that the adversaries will come from all over the area. Then woe to us. Artificial intelligence is practically non-existent - enemies run towards us without hesitation in groups, but they are the perfect contradiction of the Imperial Stormtroopers. They always shoot well. If you do not have the reflexes of a military plane pilot, you will approach each level several dozen times. Is it wrong? In no case.

Playing Hotline Miami is surprisingly rewarding. The creators managed to turn the disadvantages of their production into advantages. They did it so well that while playing, I wondered if the apparent deficiencies were actually planned. We don't have artificial intelligence? Let's accelerate the gameplay to an unprecedented level and give up the health bar. Our hero can't reload his weapons? Good, it will be more dynamic. The effect is that each level is a mixture of stealth, combined with silent elimination of enemies, and counting each shot when several deadly enemies are pushed through the door. Puzzle, stealth action game.

Describing the game in one sentence, I mentioned Manhunt . For many years this position was posed as an example of excessive brutality. Strangling people with a plastic bag, sadism during execution, and the passionlessness with which we murdered other people. The same thing occurs in a pixelated form in Hotline Miami. Beating with fists lying until death. Breaking your head with a crowbar, baseball bat, drilling through with a drill. Slitting in half with a katana, killing those trying to crawl out, sticking thumbs into the skull. Hotline Miami doesn't know when to say stop or won't say it.

In a duet with exaggerated brutality, there is an incredibly narcotic vibe achieved through the use of neon colors, a filter imitating an old TV set and rhythmic synthesizer music. Did I mention Hotline Miami has one of the best soundtracks in video game history?