Hotline Miami

The game starts great. You love it. The pacing is exhilarating and the violence is rewarding. The story gets weird and everything is great until you reach the final level and the boss is on auto aim within a split second after you spawn you're dead before you even move. This makes you want to smash your keyboard, curse your worst and regret buying the game. Don't do it.

I hated Hotline Miami at first- I just didn't quite get the gameplay, and was trying to strategically sneak around corners, retreat when spotted, creep up behind people... eventually everything just sort of clicked and I realized the best strategy is to run completely on instinct- rush in there in a blind panic, kill those two guys before they have a chance to fight back, throw your weapon at the third guy, rearm yourself before the next guy gets through the doorway, blast through into the next room before they can react... once I got into the flow of it, I suddenly went from sucking at Hotline Miami to being very, very good at it. I can't think of any other game that rewards this frantic, instinctual style of gameplay where every decision is split-second and every level feels like you're in constant danger and surviving by a combination of luck and reflexes. You'll still die a lot, just on pure chance, but you can try again so quickly that it doesn't become frustrating. It also fits the atmosphere of the game really well- you're almost certainly in some kind of drug-induced hallucinatory haze, and the gritty, bloody, nightmarishly gory rampages you engage in feel like the coked-up frenzy of a scared, violent, vulnerable lunatic rather than the cold, clean, precise work of a professional hitman. I can't think of any major complaints with the game. The gameplay and story complement each other perfectly, it's fun but creepy and disturbing at the same time, and the simple graphics and garish neon colors evoke the steamy 1980s Miami atmosphere very well. Highly recommended.

I love Manhunt. It ranks high in my top 10 list of games I've played. Metal Ger from the NES is amazing also. Being given the chance to play a twin stick stealth murder game with near zero load times between deaths was too good to pass up. Man, am I glad I got this game! An interesting mystery unfolds as you take control of an unnamed protagonist. You'll take jobs from shady characters. Job that have you meting out vigilante justice against people who deserve every violent and bloody death you deal. Then you'll find yourself, and your chaacter, questioning why you've agreed to all this. Levels are just right in length to finish in a single session but long enough make it worthwhile. Weapons are varied and the usefulness of each one comes in to play in a rapidly changing situation. Sometimes you want that shotgu but then you'll gladly pass it up for a silent baseball bat. Ammo is in short supply too so you'll have to keep changing weapons. They all last just long enough. You can also buff your charachter with different animal masks you unlock as you play the game. Each one grants one special ability. You'll have to choose well since you can only wear one mask at a time. You'll die A LOT. Over and over but once you've got the mission figured out you'll love breezing through your final attempt like the badass psychopath you need to unleash. And like I said earlier, load times between tries are short. People praise NeuroVoider for the music but Hotline Miami has the best soundtrack as far as I'm concerned. I'll find myself humming tunes from HM as I go about my day. I loved this game and can heartily recommend it.

This game strikes me as a isometric, pseudo 80s version of Madness Interactive. The soundtrack is good, the first part of the game is pretty entertaining and can even be challenging at times, but the authors clearly did not think the concept through and the second part(they call a part of it "bonus" for some reason) + ending is very disappointing. Admittedly it is basically a gore shooter, so the "story" is as important as it is in porn (I think Romero said that), but I would not call this "cult" material by any means - it is more reminiscent of gory comics we drew in 9th grade. All in all the game is worth its few bucks, has the effect of 5-6 drinks without the liver damage and a morning after. It can help you to waste a few hours during a long weekend, but don't play it, if you can't afford to kill a few brain cells.

This game is just perfect, it has a perfect balance of stealth and just mindless killing, with a thrilling story that makes you think and colorful graphics that make you want to keep playing, which is also perfect for those woho like games with scores to beat. With a lot of unlockables to get that greatly expand your gameplay style, it's certainly going to make you play for hours. Just a warning, those with a really weak stomach or aversion for even the slightest violence, abstain. Also i don't know if this game has epilepsy warnings, but those who suffer from it, be careful.