Hotline Miami Review | A Must-Play Video Game
Meet the Game that Inspired the Game that Inspired John Wick 4’s Top Down Action Sequence
Meet the Game that Inspired the Game that Inspired John Wick 4’s Top Down Action Sequence
An engaging, thrilling loop of endless top-down arcadey violence, set to one of the best soundtracks to ever grace my ears, HOTLINE MIAMI continues to stand the test of time as an incredibly fun game. NameBrand
Hotline Miami is a short game to complete, and your first run through it to the credits shouldn’t take you longer than 5 hours. If you’re replaying it, it might take you 3 hours or less. So, it’s a bit shorter of a game to pick up and play.
What makes Hotline Miami compelling despite its run time is its arcade style gameplay. The game is split into a series of easily digestible levels that award you a score based on your performance, which makes it easy to replay some of your favorite stages in attempts to challenge yourself to get the best score.
This makes Hotline Miami the perfect game to pick up and play for any length of time, and makes it feel infinitely re-playable, greatly accessible and deliciously addictive. Anytime I feel even a little nostalgic about playing, I can easily work in a few stages alongside other games I’m playing to scratch the itch.
Gameplay is fast, fluid, and violent. Every scenario with every enemy placement, and all the weapons within, are all meticulously designed to test you. You’re punished for not thinking through a strategy, with restarts aplenty. If you have the skill, you’re rewarded for bold maneuvers to clear the stage as fast as possible. It’s impossible to not engage with the scoring system to try and top your best attempts, to try and unlock all the weapons and all the masks. Even if a high-score doesn’t drive you, it’s easy to restart a stage and try clearing it again differently, simply because it’s incredibly fun.
The soundtrack alone is a masterpiece. I’ve listened to at least 50 times over — far longer than my total time in game — because it’s that good. The odd narrative mystery in the game is every bit compelling as it was to me the first time I played, and both of these have influenced my own creative works. It’s a real work of art.
Ultimately, It’s hard for me to not recommend Hotline Miami, because of how good it is for every second that you play it, and for its great personal impact on me. I highly recommend you pick it up and play it, and will even tell you I consider it a better game than its sequel. It is a must-play.
Check out my Hotline Miami 2 review to see where I think they went wrong:
Good Game, Bad Sequel | Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Review
The Sequel That Takes Steps Backwards and Plays Like A Prequelpublication.thenamebrand.co
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.