Hotline Miami

genuinely one of the best games i've ever played, very short but sweet. strong visual style and awesome OST, with cool lore and underlying themes about how violence is glorified in media

100%ING this game is making me lose my mind. (SPOILER WARNING AHEAD, SKIP TO TL;DR IF YOU WANT TO AVOID)


Overall: 8.5 out of 10. Absolutely fantastic overstimulating violent gore-filled game.

Part one: extremely good introduction to the games and its mechanics, Enemy placement feels decent; quickly gets you used to the overall feel of the game. No real bad levels.

Part two: more rocky than Part one; still not that bad. Bigger levels, bigger fun.

Part three: this part can kinda drag with a few levels, not bad; but Crackdown and Hot&Heavy will forever live in my nightmares. If your skills and reflexes still aren't that sharp, than Part three will not be forgiving to you.

Part four: I don't know if this is a hot take, but his part of the game kinda blows. Trauma is objectively the worst level in the game and kills the pacing. most of the levels (besides Assault) are pretty forgettable and the final showdown also feels like a weird change of pace from the rest of the game. In my opinion, this part of the game is the reason for the rating.

Bikers Epilogue: I was not expecting to really enjoy playing as a one off boss, but I did. Showed a really good "what if" portion of the story I think more games should do.

The Puzzle: In every Jacket level, you have to find a scrabble tile somewhere in the level. Its a decent time finding them; but they are super small purple pixels on your screen that sometimes feel impossible to find without a guide. And yes, there is a Scrabble piece in Trauma.

Secret ending (tied to the puzzle): once you find every scrabble tile and put them all together, it will spell out IWASBORNINTHEUSA, which biker uses to enter the telephone operators computer. They go on a big lore dump about the game (Wont go into it because it would reveal way to much about the sequel, just find the pieces for yourself).

Bonus 2 levels; these are unlocked after beating the game (any ending) as biker. They are pretty fun challenges for people who want to do a bit more of the standard Hotline Miami formula without achievement hunting. And if you want all masks in the game; you have to play these two levels.

(TL;DR); Hotline Miami is overall an 8.5/10. Extremely good game, addicting, and fun. But there are some points in the game that feel wrong in a game like this. If you have the money, or get this game gifted to you: play it.

I can certainly see where a kickass game like this shaped indie games going forward, with quick restarts and blink-and-you're-dead action. The vibrant aesthetic combined with that truly makes this a hell of a time. Typing this out and seeing a lot of familiar indie dev names in the special thanks. Big fan of this title, i am extremely curious what they do with the sequel.

I have WAYYY more hours on this game on my Nintendo switch but I just want to say that the Hotline Miami games completely changed my life. Amazing soundtrack, gameplay, story, characters, etc. There's so much I want to say about these games but I'm probably going to do it on my Hotline Miami 2 review. Whether I'm listening to the soundtrack or replaying these games, it will always hit different and I will be full of emotions. Thank you Dennaton games for making such a life changing and unforgettable experience. To whoever is reading this, PLEASE try these games for yourself.

Fun, gory, hard, yet nothing describes the sensations it leaves inside of you when you finish the game.
The story is great and with the company of the amazing soundtracks this experience provides it's such a gem.
I personally think everyone should at some point try it, even if, like in my case, it's not some genre you're used to play. It might take a bit longer to complete, but it's absolutely worth it.

Hotline miami avg experience:
enter the game
finish the tutorial
kill gangsters in the most brutal way
get angry at dogs
enemies phase through walls
get all masks
get all puzzle pieces
get all achievements
still play the game for fun because you love jacket and biker

This game kinda sucks until you get used to it. Then you start indulging in the crack that is going for full combos. The speed of combat is infectious.
I personally think the art direction of this game is over hyped (particularly the music), but the visual style is still very cool, and the restrained, intentional writing is truly commendable.

A simple, stylish and challenging arcade shooter - complete with Verhoevian ultraviolence, a sick retrowave aesthetic, and one of the best indie game soundtracks of all time.

Incredible game with tight, demanding, satisfying action, with detailed and unique art, and an amazing soundtrack. Somewhere in there is a story too, but I couldn't tell over how much I enjoy the vibes and combat.

Intensity from level to level is something else. So many interesting elements are moving all at once from the story to the visuals and music. Not many experiences out there like this one, in my opinion.

best game i've ever played, seriously

this game is kinda difficult though

The controls are maddening and hard to aim correctly with. Your biggest battle will be trying to get the game to do what you want it to do.

this game is soo fun. the 2d element makesa it so fun and the combat sytem is also fire

very good game, has very nice story and funnyness moments where you hurt the bad russian people because your insane chicken man, and the funny bike man says the funny dead meat quote so thats cool

do you like hurting other people

one of my fav games, played both on my switch so wanted to experience on my PC too :3 wasn't the type of game i expected to enjoy but the soundtrack is amazing, really great plot and the game is so fun to play

I don't get to say this about games I play that often
This game is truly amazing
the gameplay is fast and encourages one of my personal favourite gameplay styles in any game ever
play, die, learn, repeat
the story in this game is nothing like what came out at the time and even now when you think about it
this game has influenced my own stories and characters that I've been building up for years and years
it is easily in my top 10 games of all time
there is no other game in the world like hotline miami
and it's sequel gets even better

Wish I knew of more games like this. Just 100% this one and almost done with 100% on 2. The story in both games is great. But as far as gameplay I think 1 is much better than 2

Love the Retro vibe, unique movement, and it only took 23 hours to get every achievement. Great game.

After doing the same lvl on my first run more than 8 times in the span of 2 min gave me the answer if i like hurting people because that was hurting me

One of my favorite games OAT
Really fun game play, a great story, AMAZING music and gratuitous (although pixelated) gore
Score system makes replaying levels really fun
The game sends a powerful message about violence, nationalism and what happens to a person when he looses all compassion for his fellow man

It's a short but great game where you try to understand the story of why you're just here to kill everyone.

Great deal if on sale.

This is THE game of all time. Truly convinced me into investing time to learn how to play on keyboard and mouse and I haven't turned back since (time for me to invest in a full time PC and not just my laptop)

No hay nada que decir sobre este juego que no se haya dicho. Para todos los cerebros cansados de tanto fotorrealismo hecho en vano, desperdiciado en juegos terribles y sobrecargados de porquería. Es impresionante que una mecánica tan simple, pero tan bien ejecutada, humille a tantos juegos con unos presupuestos obscenos y cuyos resultado son decepcionantes.
Mucha acción, mucha diversión. Muy buena música también. Le pongo 9/10 nada más porque el diez me da mucho pudor.

High energy gameplay that kept me coming back no matter how hard it got. 100% must play

Finished this game a year or two after i first got it because i got stuck on assault and quit, love everything about this game (besides the dogs and the tanks). 10/10, not going to 100% this ever.

Do you enjoy hurting other people? The first time i read those words my mind started to race and i remember the more time i spent with this game the more i feel like i understood it and i still to this day dont think i fully understand it and i might never the gameplay is hard but heavenly and the story is amazing but its the philosophical themes that will bring you back. whatever you do dont skip hotline miami 1 and 2.

This game is amazing! It employees a thrilling high energy playstyle with stimulating visuals but also includes an interesting and engaging story. Additionally, the game possesses lots of replayability due to it's wide variety of masks.It should be addressed that this game isn't without bugs however they are few and far between very rarely affecting gameplay but for the price I could not recommend this game enough!

The game is very difficult but that's what makes it fun and there is a sense of pride when you can complete each level.

I love this game, it is very beautiful in terms of its gameplay or even the style of the game. It is a beautiful game that is worth paying $5 for. I advise anyone to give this great game a chance.

Such an incredibly tight game, mechanically and aesthetically. There are no frills or distractions here, no fluff or side games or bullshit. Just ultraviolence.

Best soundtrack, quite seriously, of any game ever.

Dennaton games one hit wonder that put devolver on the map. Played it on Playstation, switch and now PC. In a game all about your reflex time i really suggest playing it on something handheld, feels like it is made to be played that way. Unfortunately the sequel is a huge downgrade.

Honestly its a masterclass in indie game developement. 2 people made one of the most influential and fun games just for shits and giggles. Worth the price without a doubt in my mind. Its so easy to just switch my brain off for an hour and kill people as jacket

An indie so foundational that it feels generic, with a meta-narrative so overdone in the years since that it feels cliche. Hotline Miami is, of course, neither generic nor cliche. It is a game that redefined notions of what a small team can unleash upon this industry, and that brought extreme violence back into the center of our interest. Joseph Liberman rejoice, the murder simulator never died.

This game has a very arcade-y feel, a lot of fun if not a little frustrating at times. The overall story is vague but it is a great one once you discover it!

I try to kill in different ways
-Press R to Restart
i have plan
-Press R to Restart
do sneaky
-Press R to Restart

I pick up a knife and go towards the enemy with left click

I won

very good game with nice style to it
and excellent soundtrack, but it's not devs to praise here

A brilliant game, a real psychedelic journey. It's quite difficult, but you can start again after pressing a button, so it doesn't get annoying. The 80s atmosphere is delightful. 10/10

This game is actually pretty good, hard as balls tho, but would recommend

Just play the game already, free psychological trauma is fun :D

Jokes aside, game's really good. Prefer this over 2 for more closed spaces and "nicer" mechanics, once you figure em out

Hotline Miami é um jogo que mistura caos e precisão com maestria. Cada fase é um desafio estratégico, onde a violência não é gratuita, mas cuidadosamente orquestrada. A trilha sonora imersiva mantém você em estado de alerta, enquanto o ritmo frenético exige reflexos rápidos e mente afiada. Por trás da brutalidade, há um subtexto intrigante sobre identidade e controle. É mais do que ação; é um quebra-cabeça psicológico para quem aprecia algo além do óbvio. Genial, intenso e viciante.

Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter by Dennaton Games, where the player controls a mystery man of few words known only as Jacket as anonymous phone calls send him to perform hits on different places belonging to some sort of mafia.

Graphically the game is... Well it's primarily gorey pixel art from a top-down perspective with the added layer of trippy flashing colors, blinking lights, shakey camera, moving text... yeah, in general, the game gives a rather strong impression in that regard, and definitely isn't intended for those with epilepsy.

Sound design, you mostly get basic sound effects like gunshots, melee hits etc. The interesting part is the music, which is a hit-or-miss for me. Some of the electronic renditions are headbang-worthy (my favorites are Perturbator, Inner Animal, Knock and Turf Main), but some others just make me wish it would stop. Generally the more, well, trippy scenes have the less bearable music, which kinda fits I guess.

The gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect: get in and make sure everything dies. Every kill is bloody and, well, satisfying, if you have a tendency for being a psychopath. The game in general is a lot more technical than you'd think - while your enemies aren't very bright and will charge or shoot you the moment they see you and generally die to a single weapon hit or shot, the same applies to you, meaning cover and careful movement are your friends. There is a pretty large selection of weapons, melee and ranged alike, with each one behaving a little differently. You can charge in guns blazing and survive, but only if you're good enough to do it. The game also heavily encourages it with its combo system for kills, but that's only if you care about getting high scores (and unlocking some extra stuff). If you die, you can restart the entire floor instantly by pressing a single button, and you also get infinite lives, so it's fair in that regard. The game itself tends to be rather well balanced and not amazingly difficult, but fairly challenging at times, except for a few specific floors that can be a bit of a difficulty spike.

The story does not appear to be very clear at the start, with maybe some extra newspaper scraps you can find around the main character's house each day giving some background as to what the hit was about clearly. The normal ending also does not explain much either.

Overall, this is a pretty good, if a little bit... sensory-overloading experience. The gameplay is fun but gets a little bit repetitive if you play for longer than an hour at a time, and the conclusion is actually a little deeper than you'd think. This definitely isn't a game for those who are sensitive to flashing lights or pixelated gore, but otherwise it's worth giving a try.

Very fun gameplay, amazing story and lore, 10/10 easy to learn and keeps you engaged

SO fucking good. A great gameplay experience that offers a great challenge that forces you to use the tools at your disposal and create your own strategies.

I still have to get the secret ending, but the game is still very fucking good

Such a fucking good game. Bought it again to support but damn this game is top 10 of all time. Played it like 20 times now

as they say, this game is very FRUSTRATINGLY ADDICTIVE. fast paced top down shooter with peak soundtrack. recommended fr

this game is fun and great story :]

This is quite a good game. The controls are simple, yet the gameplay offers variety. You can be slow and calculated, or panicky and frantic. Quite often I felt, stressed, or thrilled. The feeling of accomplishment was akin to other 'hard' games like dark souls. I turned the music off, although the soundtrack it great it felt repetitive. The sound effects are great. The game relies on artstyle rather than graphics - the whole thing works really well. The story was OK, but story isn't a reason I play games - so I didn't really care. I care about gameplay, and this game had plenty of that. Overall I'd recommend this for a good, short, simple - yet engaging single player game.

This isn't really a review on game design, maps or other game-play elements (as I don't really write reviews), I just wanted to share a cool moment I had with this game.

One of the missions in particular really grinded my gears. I was stuck on it for what felt like hours. I got so angry and frustrated at times, I wanted to punch my monitor. i kept saying to myself "why am I playing this stupid game?!". But then, after many fruitless tries, I did it. I beat this infamous mission, up comes the familiar "LEVEL CLEAR" text, and off I go back to my car. However, in all of my anger and blind, demon-like rage, I had gone through this mission in some sort crazed blur, not realising just how many enemies I killed. I was forced to back-track through the hotel I had just shot up. Just then, as I was passing by all the lifeless, bloody bodies I had made, a previous conversation with a certain masked character re-entered my head. It all just kinda "clicked", from beating that one impossibly hard mission. The narrative, characters, why I was even doing what I was doing, all seemed to make a bit more sense.

I do enjoy hurting other people, try this out, you might too. It's on the house!

The most fun I've had in a video game ever. Hotline Miami deserves all the praise it gets. I would spend $60 on this game easily, fully recommended!!

Some of the coolest looking characters and gameplay, I can see why people like this game. I couldn't get into it but I still recommend it as it for me just comes down to personal preference.