So a little while ago I picked up the game Hotline Miami. It’s an action game done in the nostolgic, pixelated 8-bit style that seems to be pretty popular these days — especially with independent games (like the game Lone Survivor I got a while back with a Humble Bundle and highly recommend).

Anyway, in the game, you go floor to floor in each level quickly killing everyone. It’s a bit of strategy, a bit of stealth, and a lot of reflex and every enemy will kill you just as quickly as you kill them. You also can choose a mask for each level which gives you different special abilities (for instance, one mask makes it so that if you hit someone with a door, it’s an instant kill). And there are tons of weapons in each level like pipes and knives and guns (though using those makes noise and causes everyone nearby to rush you). It’s very quick-paced and very violent (though the violence is all done is very blocky pixels). I liked it. It’s fun and a nice short diversion if you can pick it up cheap (it’s normal price is just $10).

Some complaints though. You get used to getting killed and restarting a lot, as just being half a second off can mean the guy killing you with his pipe versus you killing him with your bat. This is fine for how quick-paced it is, but it does get tedious on some of the longer levels where you get killed by the last guy and have to do everything over again. My biggest complaint was the ending — or lack thereof. The story starts out really weird and trippy and continues in that path until near the end where it gets more grounded in reality. I was expecting some mind blowing reveal at the end explaining all the weirdness, but never got it — even if you collect all the hidden letters throughout the level to get the full ending.

But anyway, a fun game. Nothing more.