I feel really, really bad by doing this. Look, I love the first game, it's probably my favorite indie game of all time, but this? What the hell, Dennaton?

I find Hotline Miami 2 to be a very unenjoyable experience, and the main reason for that has to be the level design. This game basically consists of ridiculously open football field sized buildings made entirely out of glass that are packed with dogs, fat dudes, and gun-wielding enemies that react to you in a nanosecond and kill you off-screen. This game is fucking hard, but not in a good, fun way like the first game. It's hard in a frustrating, bullshitty way.

In Hotline Miami 1, when you died, 90% of the time it was totally your fault. This time around though, 90% of your deaths are due to the god awful level design or to some cheap glitch. Hope you like doing nothing but using guns to try and snipe off-screen enemies two miles away while constantly holding shift for the entirety of the game, something that contrasts greatly with how you could almost exclusively use melee weapons to complete most levels in Hotline Miami 1 (with the exception of quickly picking up a gun to kill fat guys or enemies in inaccessible areas). The fact is, there are less ways to get through each level compared to HM1 since the level design often forces you to play in a specific way only. The game barely ever allows for creative strategies. The first game encouraged you to be reckless, it told you it was okay to fail, but this game forces you to be slow and methodical, which just feels like the antithesis to what Hotline Miami should be about. Something else that contributes to the levels being poorly designed is readability, which can often be abysmal. Sometimes it's very hard to differentiate between what you can be shot through and what is proper cover. Honestly, most stages feel like they were ripped out of some hardmode fangame: they're poorly designed and unfairly hard.

On the technical side of things, this game is an absolute mess. Hotline Miami 1 wasn't exactly polished but, in my experience, I've encountered far more glitches with this game that often got me killed, and the fact that a single floor in HM2 can take several minutes to get through just makes dying to a cheap glitch MUCH more frustrating than when it happened in the first game. The enemies react more like robots than ever, like how common it is for them to witness dozens of their buddies dying right in front of them and not react at all, as well as hearing gunshots going off right beside them and not get alerted. There are some "special" enemies like the dogs and the prisoners that run at a supersonic speed to try to strangle you that can just materialize through doors, and if you are even near a door when one of them is chasing you have absolutely zero chances of surviving. Also, HM2 has a lot of input lag by default because turning VSync off in-game doesn't work, you're gonna have to do it manually through your graphics card's control panel. Wish I knew this earlier, because I played through the entire game (INCLUDING HARD MODE) with that horrible input lag at first.

The game carries something that was a minor annoyance in the first game and turns it into a major one: there's no way to know what weapon you'll get from a pile of guns. Since the best strategy to kill enemies in this fucking game is to show yourself for a second to lure them to a corner, you'll just end up with dozens of weapons stacked on top of each other, and then you'll try to pick up one of them to kill that fat guy that is running towards you and you'll just die horribly because you picked up a gun with no bullets or a melee weapon.

Another thing that heavily frustrates me is how you are now unable to get points by knocking enemies down, unlike the first game. It's absolutely infuriating to accidentally knock over a large group of enemies now, since HM2 has excruciatingly long animations for executions and no way to cancel them, so knocking enemies over can easily make you lose you combo or even get you killed. Thanks to this mechanic I never even try to go for highscores here, which is something I loved doing in HM1.

And then there's hard mode. I'm willing to believe this is just a sick practical joke implemented by Dennaton to laugh at our faces. It's pretty much impossible to finish the game on it without cheaply dying at least a couple hundred times. Forcing myself to beat Hotline Miami 2 on hard mode was one of the worst experiences of my life, not even joking. I got no gratification or feeling of accomplishment from it, just a feeling of "thank god that's over."

Now, some people might appeal to the braindead """argument""" of "you're just bad at the game" while ignoring all of my points entirely. My dude, just check my Steam stats for both this game and the first. I got all the achievements, which means I finished the game on hard mode, and I'm able to get an S ranking on most stages with relative ease, so these opinions are coming from someone who's very experienced with both Hotline Miami games and probably much better than you are. I don't wanna come off as being arrogant here, but some people are just unbelievably dense and can't provide a single counter-point to refute me outside of that.

One thing I feel like could have been done to improve the game quite a bit would be the implementation of a system where, after you beat the level for the first time using the character that's supposed to be there for the story, you could choose any other character when you play that level again, like in the LEGO games. Maybe let you play as Jacket (with all the original masks) and maybe even Biker. From a story perspective that wouldn't make sense of course, but why should that matter? Fun/replayability/variety should be the priority here.

Now, for some actual positives. The soundtrack is absolutely incredible, as expected. Go and listen to Roller Mobster, The Way Home, Le Perv, In The Face of Evil, Bloodline... Hell, just listen to the entire damn thing. Graphics also look fantastic. Very stylized like the first game while managing to look much smoother and being able to pack much more detail into every level. Only problem is, that detail can sometimes make enemies harder to see, and there were times when I died to an enemy that was behind foliage or something like that, but again, that's more of a problem with the level design than anything else. Animations are also pretty good and generally smoother than the first game. And finally, I actually think they did a pretty good job with writing an interesting story, deepening the lore, and tying everything together with the first game, but (without spoiling anything) the ending just felt like a lazy cop-out.

So, in conclusion, if you're a HUGE fan of Hotline Miami 1 you might want to grab this for the story, but if you're just looking for some reckless, fast-paced and fun gameplay you're better off playing through the first game again.

It’s always surprised me how much harsher the general opinion of Hotline Miami 2 is in comparison to the first one. Like I mentioned in my review of Hotline Miami 1, both games are extremely important to me, and 2 is no exception. I’ve always enjoyed this game, to the point where I’ve spent a little over 100 hours playing and replaying it in comparison to the 20 hours I’ve spent with the original. I understand and sympathize with a few of the reasons why most people don’t seem to like it. Its approach to level design is vastly different from the previous game, and a good amount of the levels don’t accommodate the way a majority of people preferred to play the original. I don’t believe that this makes the game inherently bad, though. It definitely has some problems, a few of which are shared with the first game, but overall I think that Hotline Miami 2 is a fantastic successor and most people judge it a little unfairly.

Nothing has really changed between the first game and the second in terms of core gameplay. You’re still clearing out rooms of enemies that all die in one hit while avoiding that instant death yourself. This is both to Wrong Number’s benefit and it’s detriment, as pretty much every single problem with Hotline Miami 1’s gameplay goes unaddressed here. Enemies still don’t react if someone in front of them gets shot, and it’s still a bit random whether or not they’ll consistently react to the sound of gunfire. The cursor is still really thin and hard to see, it doesn’t contrast well with the game’s environments at all. There’s still the problem of not being able to tell which weapon you’ll pick up from the ground when multiple weapons are in close proximity to one another. It’s actually a bit of a worse problem here because the level design of Hotline Miami 2 generally forces you to manipulate enemies by alerting a squad of them to your location and ambushing them, meaning you have to frantically comb through piles of weapons stacked on top of each other rather frequently. It’s pretty disappointing that these problems from the first game don’t really get addressed here.

What does get addressed though, is the undercooked mask system. It’s pretty heavily reworked to fit the large cast of playable characters. Some characters have a smaller selection of minor gameplay modifiers you can pick before a level, like Jake and The Son. Others like Beard and Evan Wright have their own playstyle or spin on the core gameplay. I greatly prefer the changes Hotline Miami 2 has made in this regard. I really enjoy being forced to vary my tactics slightly depending on who I’m playing as, it keeps things feeling fresh.

The biggest and most controversial change from Hotline Miami 1 is Wrong Number’s approach to level design. While the game starts off with shorter and more cramped levels comparable to those of the first game, the levels gradually increase in terms of scale. They get much, much bigger and far more open. These levels can force you to change up how you approach them compared to the smaller and more claustrophobic levels of the first game. You can’t really run through them guns blazing, as constantly exposing yourself will subject you to gunfire from enemies that aren’t even on the screen. Instead, they require you to rely on manipulating enemy behavior and having them come to you, either by briefly exposing yourself to their line of sight before taking cover, or with the sound of gunfire. This allows you to take out groups of 6, 7, 8+ enemies at once in an adrenaline fueled scramble that’s just as satisfying as the gameplay of Wrong Number’s predecessor. You’re definitely not going to realize this initially though, especially if you have a lot of experience with the first game. I think that’s a big reason why people dislike this game so much. Coming to terms with its level design approach is pretty essential to enjoying it. One could argue that this makes the gameplay boil down to trial and error, but in all honesty, I don’t see it as any more trial and error than Hotline Miami 1’s gameplay, especially its latter levels.

Second to the level design, Wrong Number’s next most controversial change is its approach to storytelling. Unlike Hotline Miami 1, which was sparse on story details and generally required the player to fill in the blanks themselves in regards to how the world works and what’s going on, 2 tells a much more detailed and involved story with a huge cast of characters and a lot more dialogue. It presents a series of events that take place before, during, and after the events of the first game that really flesh out the characters and world. However it presents those events in a non-linear fashion, and in conjunction with the surreal aspects of the plot, it seems to cause a lot of confusion among people who initially experience it. Personally speaking, I’ve never found Hotline Miami 2’s plot to be confusing or hard to follow at all. Yes, each character’s story does take place at different points in time, but that character’s story is still presented in a proper sequential order, and even if you’re not paying attention to the dates that are displayed whenever you switch characters, the game offers plenty of context clues in regards to when a certain cutscene takes place.

I love this game’s story, in all honesty. The alternate take on the Cold War and its effects on history is fascinating. It enriches the story of Hotline Miami 1 by providing gut wrenching context to the world and the events that transpire in that game, including Jacket’s motivations. I love all of the characters and what their individual stories represent. The game might beat you over the head with its core messages and themes, but considering how the themes of the first game largely went over most people’s heads (including my own initially), I can’t really blame the devs for taking a more direct approach with their storytelling this time around. The developers had a lot to say with this game’s story, and they said it loud and proud. I don’t like to go too in-depth with story details in my reviews, but the video Hotline Miami 2 is a Misunderstood Masterpiece by Ovandal does an immaculate job explaining the symbolism and appeal of the game’s story in great detail, and I highly recommend it (spoiler warning, obviously).

The game manages to have an even better and more bombastic soundtrack than the first game. A big reason why this game is so special to me is because it introduced me to the absolutely phenomenal music of Carpenter Brut, who became one of my top 5 favorite musicians of all time. His music continues to motivate me and hype me up to this day, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I’ve been able to lose dozens of pounds working out to his songs, which are blood pumping synthwave masterpieces. Roller Mobster and Le Perv, are used in the game’s soundtrack, and in my opinion, they are two of his best works. I don’t want to get too off-topic though, pretty much every track in Hotline Miami 2 is fantastic, and used to brilliant effect. The opening scene to the level Execution, where The Henchman tries to reach his girlfriend on the phone as The Fans pull up to the Russian bar is synched to the intro to Perturbator’s Sexualizer, and the way the bass kicks in just as The Fans’ van screeches to a halt gives me goosebumps every single time I come back to this game. The developers utilize this game’s music in a way that I wish more games did. Writing a scene and creating a level based on a specific song amplifies the song’s effectiveness and really adds to the immersion.

Hotline Miami 2 is a powerful and bold statement, and I feel like most people that play it just don’t want to hear what it has to say. It just completely floors and frustrates me that people don’t see the value in Hotline Miami 2, that they get so blinded by their frustration that the game isn’t what they want it to be that they write it off entirely. The learning curve is higher than the first game, the approach to level design forces you to play differently from before, and the story requires you to slow down and process what is happening, where it’s happening, and why it’s happening. Not everyone wants to go through all of that to enjoy a video game, and I get it, but man does that make me sad. I treasure both Hotline Miami games, but a lot of what I love about this series comes from Wrong Number. I hope that as time passes, people give it another chance, and see it for what it is. It challenges its players not just through its difficult gameplay, but also to see the bigger picture regarding its themes and messages as well, and coming to terms with those challenges led to one of the most rewarding experiences in video games I’ve ever had.

Kind of funny how I replayed Hotline Miami, which was one of my favorite games, then disappointingly realized it aged poorly, followed by its sequel bringing back the familiar satisfaction the original made me feel in 2012.

Hotline Miami 2 recontextualizes the original's flawed commentary about violence, changing the framing approach to the issue by using elements that were already in the first game, bringing it to a whole another level of complexity. This sequel isn't so much about merely shaming players for enjoying violent video games, but a reflection of human nature's self-destructiveness on the cycle of violence, and the insidious influence of nationalism and propaganda. While secondarily working as a criticism of the film industry, similarly as how Hotline Miami was to gaming, still flirting with the notion of glorifying violence, it does so in a more nuanced and thought-provoking manner.

If you enjoy games that make you think about its themes and philosophy, this is your wet dream. It's been a long time since a game made me ramble in my own thoughts this much. I do have to point out that there are some ideas here that maybe I don't know if I 100% agree that much, mostly about how nihilistic some of its commentary is, but overall, this game is fucking awesome, and a reminder as to why I love this medium so much.

Lastly, something I have to mention. I'm seeing a recurring complaint people have about this game and its level design, which is players dying by off-screen fire... Question, you all know you can press SHIFT to move the camera further, right? I know it sounds like I'm being an asshole, but I'm not. I didn't know either; I tried like 3-4 different times to get into this game, but never could... and I think not knowing I could use the SHIFT button was the main reason. So, yeah... use it, lol.

★★★★ – Excellent ✅

I don't think I've ever been as conflicted on a game as with this one. For it definitely took the original's premise and tone and made a far more engaging and thought provoking story, further exploring the theme of violence in very nuanced and interesting ways, with memorable characters and moments to spare, and even adding a bit more context to the first game's happenings. The variety in level design and gameplay modes made sense for the longer duration of the game and made the game feel a bit more immersive, with the way the story beats translated well to player input.

But all that came with a price, since the focus that made the first game so great is dearly missed here; with the story being needlessly convoluted and confusing, taking away a lot of the punch from the narrative and dampening emotional attachment to the characters; and the game itself playing...not great, since the constantly changing gameplay styles prevent you from mastering any of them, the large and inconsistent level design always puts you in a disadvantage, with enemies killing you from off screen at all times, and the AI is way more reactive and punishing, making bait and kill nearly always the optimal strategy; which are all ways to make the game more restrictive and frustrating instead of fun, which the first game, despite its extreme difficulty, never ceased to be.

Despite those severe inconsistencies, specially the unfortunate letdown that is the gameplay, the atmosphere, themes and, specially, soundtrack, that made the original iconic are amplified to their maximum potential, with that dreamy synthwave aesthetic coupled with the dark tone of the game making for a very unique combination that, coupled with the story beats, makes for a hypnotic and fascinating product, continuing the tradition of its predecessor in a satisfying way. Had this game been a bit more focused, maybe toning down the pretenses a little bit, i could easily see it surpassing the original in every way; in its actual state, it's still the one that actually stayed with me for some time afterwards, for the immersive mood and impactful story, but the original is the one i will be returning to the most.

I can't help but surrender to its ambitions.

Has less in common with the 80s and 90s films its constantly referencing and more with tv projects like the second season of True Detective or Lynch and Refn's recent ventures in the medium. It's specially interesting how much Dennaton is capable to channel Refn to a point where this and Too Old To Die Young share some of the same thematic elements: from the increasing pressence of nationalist movements in US to the overall depiction of violence as some sort of comfrontation for the viewer's accomodated expectations of it in the medium.

Flawed to the core. Where the barebones of a narrative worked for the first game's own deconstruction and exploration of the vacous nature of its protagonists, here it plants so many threads it feels mostly loss of what it wants to develop, not because is really that difficult to understand, but because of its adherence to explore/connect the audience to these characters that feel less compelling in their archetypical nuisances, and the design of the levels can be really frustrating at times. By making these spaces more open, it also makes one of the first game's way to make the player more adjust to it (being able to create you own path to finish it) less effective. Instead, it seems that it wants you to go more for stealth and mantaining an active approach, to be contantly urgent and knowledgeable of the enemy placement, and i love that this develop into making these space more oppresive for the players to explore and limiting the options to these individual characters as their own form of expression through the violence (specially that one of the characters can't kill if you didn't pressure him to make the game easier), but when it does it wrong, it limits our vision badly, making the option of looking beyond the established field of view an afterthought: where we can kill an enemy in one point of the map, but our behind is constantly exposed or we don't have enough view to avoid getting shot and/or take cover on time when we are in front of them.

For the rest, i love that it's essentially about sequels, more or less about the exploitation of its own metanarrative being constantly appropiated to continue the satisfaction of its audience. Jacket is nothing more than an inspiration for wannabes who do nothing but projecting a way to escape from the roles that the zeitgeist have placing them or abusing the power that they are already given by the narrative itself.
But i think is the end when the game completely adheres to this idea the most. Finds the sense of going back to the past without any sort of futility to explore the present as some kind of meaningless endeavour. It's more thematically exposed than its predecessor and i found this game surprisingly melancholic in its final stages because of it. Jacket and Biker can retroactively change their own path for their own benefit, no matter how dissapointing the end result may be. Here, every effort is pointless in the long run. Almost no one comfronts what they are as individuals, don't go against the narrative at play, but are trustworthy to it until it catches them and devalues them to simple images, npcs and enemies to defeat.
Makes the end of the world a beautiful conclusion in which even the illusion of another title screen give a sense of hope that the own player can make the better call.

A slow burn Spiral into Madness

If Hotline Miami was the time everyone had simple fun, without much care in the world. Hotline Miami 2 is the horrible hangover and the direct response at what happened after and before the first game.

You take the role of multiple protagonist, way more than in the first game. Each with little gameplay quirks while not being totally different from one another. Each one having to deal with their very own problems throughout the game, all tied with the events of the first game.

The story is fractured in little fragments so you'll have to piece together those events if you really want to experience something that makes more or less sense. The gameplay is exactly the same as the first, take down every enemy on the floor and keep moving until everyone is dead. It really isn't that complicated for a game loop. It can be enjoyed while being a bit hard at times if you are not patient enough and just threat it like the first game. Be careful approaching this game.

If you want my quick opinion of it I think it's a great sequel to an already great game, everything is aplified, expanded and enhanced on some of the areas the original that lacked polish. Though, it won't be as simple as the first as I said before and this game wants you to get invested in what it offers.

So far what I said it's the general description of the game. What people could expect jumping from the first or game or like me and started with this one in particular. But it goes a lot, more deeper than that. I took notes with what this game tried to do, so if you want to keep reading it's going to get a lot dense from here on out.

Hotline Miami 2 are the rammifications of the first game, in general. Critics, fans, new players, and even the reception of people not affilated with games at all. Hotline Miami was both acclaimed critically and by fans, or those who eventually turned into one with this game. But Hotline Miami 2 changed some of the fundamentals or the core pillars of why people liked the first game, a big tone shift. You know, the neon lights replaced with a somewhat less picturesque color palette. The fun psychedelic party-like songs replaced with melancholic or overly agressive tunes and so on.

The characters went into a big shift as well. Instead of 2, we get a total of 12. Some get more screentime than others and affect the story in a greater or lessen extent than others but everyone all contribute to the story, the symbolisms and the general message this game tries to convey by the end.

Every character for better or for worse replicates what Jacket and Biker, the protagonist of the first game did back in 1989. Take for example Martin Brown, the Pig. He's star actor of a slasher movie. The events that inspired the movie are loosely based on the story of Jacket and the Russian Mafia. As the movie goes on, his reality starts to break and take the role more seriously than needed perphaps, he starts acting like The Pig outside of the movie studio. What is real and what is not starts to be a challenge for him, this is a constant for some Hollywood actors already and their personality changes overtime because of it. What was supossed a movie to make a quick buck on the events of Jacket, turned his main actor into a maniac. That very same movie wasn't even the correct interpretation of Jacket's story, instead they portray him as a lunatic murder with an animal mask that kidnapped girls because he wanted to. This perspective can be shared for the people that saw the original Hotline Miami and didn't really understood the action of Jacket and decided to spread only superficial information and didn't want to go deeper than it, what can be visually shocking. I can personally attribute this either bad journalism, or even the press those who didn't got the message and still decided to speak their mind about it. What I just explained is presented in a matter of two levels.

On the other hand we have Evan Wright, the Writter. He's in charge of investigating the events of the first game. As he goes along his journey he will try to interview people that may or have not been involved with the Russian Mafia incident back in 1989. His main gameplay gimmick is that he doesn't "hurt" people in the way we really know. Yeah, he doesn't kill at first glance he just knocks them off and leaves them unconscious. A man who go obsessed with the case, so much so he was consantly risking his life for so little information the goons and the mafia were able to provide to him. He never had to be involved, unlike Biker but he wanted to. This character mirrors the people that wanted to really make sense of the events of Hotline Miami, the first one. The friendly and non violent actions of Evan can be reflected through the people that made theories about the first game and got obsessed by it. Both of them turn crazy at the end of their story arcs. Evan with his book that never got finished and Martin when his reality shifted at the "Final Cut" of the movie. And this are just 2 of 12 examples, 2 that I thought were the most important and that can easily relect what I meant.

There are countless examples out of the 12 characters, reflecting the reception of the first game, and Dennaton just made a story out of it. The story is full of symbolisms and hidden meanings that can't be noticed in the first playthough. If it never made sense to you, try to interpret what this characters meant. Even while playing you'd feel the characters personality while killing their enemies, though it may comes just as incosistency in design at first glance.

Let's moves to something more easy to digest. The levels themselves, aren't they any good? Yes, and no. The levels are bigger than the first game and are more spacious as well. My personal advice is to threat this game with patience, even I after 500 hours can't complete some levels without dying on Hard Difficulty. There aren't many scripted sections in this game outside of gameplay, is all mostly straightforward to the end and if possible a cutscenes that puts the level you played in context. This is the reason I lowered half a star, people can get to annoyed the first time around and feel it isn't their fault and I think they are right, it can get very overwhealming to some.

Believe or not the technical state of Hotline Miami 2 is miles ahead Hotline Miami. When it comes to enemy hit detection is much more accurate, and the AI while not perfect it's in a much better state and prepared for combat, makes so much sense after you get use to it. I won't even talk about the music, you know it's good.

Those were the main factors that made fall in love with this game. It's subersive while at the same time being more Hotline Miami with a twist so it isn't what you expect but at the same time you are familiar with it. Everything a sequel should strive for.

Hay casos en que veces menos es lo que hace más grande a un producto ,hotline Miami Number wrong cree que sobrecomplicando su narrativa lo hace más profundo pero para mí solo lo hizo frustrante yendo y viniendo metiendo situaciones a medias para que al final el impacto que da en el final ,uno bastante potente ,no me importe en absoluto ,Aunque me gustaron los nuevas formas de juego de cada personaje , el diseño de mapas a partir del acto 4 empezó a ser un desastre con lo mucho que se ampliaron

I have a lot of feelings towards this game

This game has a lot of effort put into it, that's for sure.
The gameplay has been polished and really sharpened, it made you play as a different character each act which was something that helped the game be more versatile and spiced up, as opposed to 1 where you played as Jacket for most of the game and only Biker at the end. This was a massive improvement when I started playing, however as I went on, the game became frustratingly harder and the levels were simply too big to work with combined with the AI that feels like it's omniscient knowing your every move, I felt this way about the game until the 24th scene (which took me too many tries to finish), it made me realize just how fun this game can be with good skills, all I needed to do was be better at the game, git gud literally. Take Over really was ideally the "final boss" of Hotline Miami in terms of gameplay, testing everything you've been doing for these 2 games thus far in one big ass level.
In terms of aesthetic, the game still has a strong one like 1 while focused less on the 80s and more just the general style of the drug world in Miami at that era, I really liked it.
The story itself has a greater focus and is more direct compared to 1's subtle narrative, naturally as you play with 6 different characters each act, you have multiple perspectives on the narrative, each character with their own set of issues and their motives for exactly why they do the things they do, it has brilliant writing with fantastic surreal imagery and a fantastic ending giving the saga its conclusion.
Overall, I think this game is good and absolutely deserves a 2nd playthrough, this is currently my rating for the first playthrough with my issues that I had with the levels while playing.

it's strange to me that this game has received a lukewarm response compared to its predecessor when it builds upon everything that came before it. the levels are more varied, there's more going on in the narrative to draw you in, and the music is to die for. everyone and their dog complains about "big open areas with too many gunners", but i only found that to be an issue in the soldier's levels (dear god getting A+ on the soldier's levels was always An Ordeal Of The Day). i think this game is worth your time if you liked hotline miami 1, because there's so much more going on under the hood here, both from a narrative and gameplay perspective.

i might be one of the 17 people in the whole world to think this one is just as good as the first one.
its way more ambitious, the levels have a different design philosophy to them which makes it so you can just rush through the stages carelessly, you have to take a balance between quick thinking, fast reflexes and recklesness, which in turn makes it way more satisfying to get an S rank on almost every level.
Contrary to popular belief i think the levels with beard are actually pretty solid even tho they're by far the weakest ones in the whole game

fuck the Genocide achievement tho
that shit can go suck my nuts.

While some find the level design to be a step back from 1, I disagree, the frustration it can add certainly creates tension, but in a way that benefits the games story and themes tenfold.
The story is both deeply layered, interesting, and proves its point in such a beautiful manner.
The Soundtrack is possibly one of the best in gaming, and the muddy grungy graphical style helps sell this bleak world incredibly.
One of, if not my favorite game of all time, certainly one of the most influential pieces of art I have experienced in my life.

Hotline Miami 2 é tudo oque uma sequencia deveria ser, o jogo mantem o seu tom auto-consciente e auto crítico sobre sua violencia, gore, quebras da quarta parede porém expande elas.

Adam Smith do site Rock, Paper, Shotgun disse que "Hotline Miami 2 é um jogo sobre a dificuldade de fazer uma sequencia de Hotline Miami", e eu não acho que tenha um jeito melhor de descrever esse jogo. Com uma história confusa e não linear, a sequencia responde todas as perguntas do jogo anterior, da mais profundidade pra personagens do primeiro jogo enquanto conta novas histórias, cada um com um estilo de jogo diferente, várias vezes eu me pegava preso em uma fase morrendo de novo e de novo só para que eu conseguisse que o multiplicador de combos subisse um pouco mais, e a música então, não sei como mas eles conseguiram deixar ela ainda mais imersiva e hipnótica, não só quando você esta matando mafiosos russos, mas também quando você estiver investigando assassinatos ou conversando com algum personagem do primeiro jogo num bar.

Unravelling my thoughts on Hotline Miami 2 was about as difficult as it was to understand its story. On the one hand it iterates on the gameplay of the original in interesting ways, there is a tonne of variety thanks to the whole host of characters you control throughout the story and the gunplay is as tight as ever. However, for me the story was disjointed and there are a few missions with weak level design. I think the more open level design is effective in some scenarios but in others it slows gameplay down too much. Overall though this is still a thoroughly enjoyable gameplay experience, and as gameplay is king for this genre of game, the lacklustre story is forgivable.

2015 Ranked
Indie Recommendations

This is a hard game to rate. The story is jumbled but when you look at the bigger picture surprisingly well done. The gameplay is largely the same as the first for better and worse, exhilarating and fast paced but janky with enemies that react differently everytime you respawn making learning the pattern painful, enemies that shoot out from across the map that you couldn't possibly see, and sometimes meleeing someone just plain doesnt work. The Ai is also not the best especially with the twins and some of the masks the characters get are literally just the same ones for other characters. Its unfair and its frustrating and its certainly bullshit, but I think the fact I felt compelled enough to actually complete this (a rare occasion for me especially for difficult games) proves that despite the assholery its so much damn fun and addicting beating and shooting and slicing your way through everyone in so much bloody style.

Nancymeter - 79/100

Edit: I've been thinking about this a lot still even a few weeks after beating it, It deserves a new rating.

Nancymeter - 85/100

Edit Edit: Nah this shit too good wtf

Nancymeter - 94/100

On a particularly bored day, stuck inside by rain and without much to do, I saw this game on sale and decided that I may as well give it a shot. I can't accurately describe my experience as I swore and sweat through beating it one sitting, and I think it's one better suited to keep for myself anyhow. But its something that never leaves my mind. I replay this game often and I'm never able to quite replicate that feeling. I suppose its a bit of a hopeless endeavor, trying to chase a fleeting feeling. But its become a habit of mine. This game is special to me.

By far one of the best, if not the best game i've ever played. It feels like almost every story beat does something new and interesting that no piece of media before or since has ever done for me. This game has a lot to say, and people take that as it being loose and disconnected.

Hotline Miami 2 is a VERY good commentary on a lot of things. Hyperpatriotism and white nationalism, fans of the original game, the military industrial complex, addiction, and capitalism are just a few of the topics this game tackles, and I think it does all of them excellently, even if it does sometimes struggle to connect these topics. Each individual story beat is so incredibly interesting to me, and they all combine up to create what I can only say is the most interesting and poignant story I have ever seen told in any game before. I got attached to every character emotionally in SOME significant way, a goal the game goes for and succeeds at wonderfully.

Beyond the absolutely brilliant story (which I have seen some lambaste before), I think this game also succeeds in every other aspect. The soundtrack for this game is just incredible. From the schizophrenic, nervous vibe of Run by iamthekidyouknowwhatimean, to the thrill and excitement of Roller Mobster by Carpenter Brut, to the sobering vibe of Untitled by The Green Kingdom, I can't think of a single bad song on here. Every composer for this game did absolutely brilliantly. It all builds up to the game's ending song, You Are the Blood by The Castanets. What a fitting song for such an ending. No spoilers.

The gameplay is seemingly very controversial within online spaces, with some thinking the gameplay is completely unfair and unfun, almost gameruiningly so in comparison to hotline miami 1's. I am not one of those people. Hotline Miami 2's gameplay is challenging, and thought-provoking, but clearing rooms feels absolutely incredible and exhilirating in a way I can't truly describe. This game makes you FEEL smart for solving each room. It's a perfect mix between tight execution and remembering what goon is where, and which has what. At the end of it all, you're left with a feeling of triumph. The controls feel much more precise and careful than those of Hotline Miami 1's, and the mask / character gimmicks are incredibly fun, ranging from controlling 2 characters at once with the twins, Alex and Ash, to playing as a pacifistic man who can render enemies unconcious and rack up combos by disassembling guns. Or, you can simply say fuck that and play the game normally by going into his rage mode. It is worth noting that this game IS absurdly difficult, but never to a point where it made me genuinely consider putting it down for good. It also uses this difficulty to deliver a message on multiple occassions.

I feel like hotline miami 2 use's its rather limited visual style to deliver a game that looks very good, with some of the set pieces and effects in this game looking genuinely incredible, and the character art seeming to have vastly improved from the weird, offputting character art of the first game.


In total, this game is absolutely incredible. I don't regret playing a second of it. It's a totally unforgettable experience that I don't really think will ever be matched.

10/10.

Technically it's more Hotline Miami with more variety, more masks and more scenarios. However, it truly fails in everything it tries to do in comparison to the original. The story is more convoluted than it needs to be, the focus changes so fucking much I had no fucking clue who I was in the end and what exactly this game was supposed to tell me. The "Flow" of the first title is nowhere to be found. Enemy placement and level design goes against what the player want to do - shoot shit and play aggressiv. Where Hotline Miami feels like the player has complete freedom on how he/she plays, the sequel feels like it forces the player to act in a certain way and punishes you if you go off the beaten track. The masks feel far more gimmicky than useful and by the end, it was more frustrating than fun.