What are your guys's interpretations of the ending? Or how about the story in general? That last bit at the phone company and sewer really skull-fucked any sense of sanity I had left. Are the motorcyclist and man-in-the-mask one in the same? I won't be able to sleep tonight without knowing... A truly god-tier game nonetheless though.

Have you found all the puzzle pieces yet? That will provide a few answers to what I too initially felt was a mindfuck of an ending.

Regarding the alternate storylines, I get the feeling that the motorcycle dude's storyline arc is the true one, since there are a few clues during the masked dude's chapters which imply that it's not actually happening.

Such a good game, even if it is a bit short and occasionally buggy.

Everything after Crackdown is not real. It's directly said so. Trauma onwards are just feverdreams. It can be argued that the unreal nature starts earlier, for there are some talking corpses around before that, not entirely sure if that is after or before the protagonist kills the motorcycle guy.

If nothing else makes sense, see it as an alternate story :P

All the levels leading to Trauma are dreams the protagonist has while he is in a coma, hence the surreal shit that keeps happening then.
He wakes up, have his revenge and finishes his mission, which at that point you still don't know what is.
We then see an alternate storyline with moto-dude that takes place in a reality where he won the combat against the protagonist. In the end of this one you get to know about 50 blessings, their goals and why all their members are insane psycho killers.

By the way, I think the protag's name is Richard. Chicken mask was the one sent to him and all that.

I got all the "highscore masks"(Including the biker guy ones) and weapons but I'm still getting all the in lvl puzzle pieces and masks AND I STILL DONT GET IT.

Esc > Puzzles > Assemble it > Computer on the very last level > Check it > Go talk to cleaning dudes

Also, where did you get the Alligator mask?

There's a good reason why he says the line 'Everything you do from this point on is meaningless' Because as people have pointed out is most likely him either dead or in a coma just dreaming what he would do (Which explains why he is able to fight an entire building of cops armed with guns and win)

But my theory.... well alternative theory, is that the chicken mask guy is referring to the death of the man in motorcycle helmet because the main guy never discovers the truth but the other guy does. So the main guys effort is pointless because he's simply a pawn in the 50 blessings groups diabolical game of chess.

One thing we can all agree on is, I'm sure... is that the entire game is pretty much one long flashback, at least until he's shot.

I loved the game's story even if it's a total mindfuck. Here's a confusing and poorly written list about some of the things that confuse me:

1. Not sure which parts are real, a flashback or just a dream.

2. Are the masked horse, rooster and owl characters different sides of the protagonist's personality? The one with the rooster mask wears the same clothes as the protagonist.

3. Not sure if the Biker Dude's story is an alternative "what if?" story or if both endings happen.

4. Which one really wins the phone company fight ?

5. Is the protagonist in a coma because he got shot by the Rat Mask Assassin or because Biker Dude really won the fight and injured him badly, and everything after that is just a coma dream? It does look like the Biker Dude crushes his head when he wins the fight though.

6. In the beginning the Friendly Guy (is he even real?) says he was worried because the last time he saw the protagonist was when he was depressed about losing his girlfriend. Is he talking about the girl saved from the mobsters and later killed by the Rat Mask Assassin?

7. When talking corpses (past victims including Biker Dude?) appear and the generous Friendly Guy(s) who works everywhere gets killed, the guy replacing him at every place seems to be the Rat Mask Assassin. Are those just nightmares about the guy who killed his girlfriend?

8. What is that piece of paper the protagonist gets from the hospital and throws away after killing the old man? I presume it's the same piece of paper.

There would probably be more, but that's all my tired and confused mind can think of right now. I'm sure someone has it all figured out already though.

This is a rather elementary observation (as I find it to be fairly obvious), but the two cleaners at the end represent the two developers. The entire game is an allegory of video games' allowance for mass pointless killing, similar to the idea behind Spec Ops: The Line. Every answer you receive from them at the end can be interpreted as the developers speaking directly to the player. Is there any meaning behind it at all? Is that even the question you should really ask yourself?

I think it's a careful and balanced interaction, one that allows for introspection without becoming pretentious. The ending isn't overly smart, as all of this is poorly masked, but maybe that's the entire point. Hotline Miami is, after all, nothing more than a score chasing kill-a-thon throughout. I think the developers are sensible enough to accept that, but smart enough to examine the reasons as to why people want something like that in the first place.

Idk, I cant get the alligator or octopus ones.

I know what you mean by this, and this ending definitely seems to be the developers talking to the player. But, if you solve the puzzle, enter their computer and then talk to them, you actually get some proper answers from the two characters. These answers are definitely about the game's plot itself, not just the devs breaking the fouth wall.

Ah ok I haven't done that yet.

Is it one letter per level? I have eight of them so far, though I've acquired them sparsely throughout the game.

I think so, you can see in the Chapters menu which levels you've collected them from, by a tiny symbol next to the mask icon.

LOL stupid me, I thought that was an empty spot indicating there's a mask on that level i hadn't acquired yet :-P

I think that there's some kind of connection between the "Friendly Guy" and the Rat-masked killer. They both have green eyes and they both appear in the pizzeria, video store, and bar in the relatively same place. The video store and pizzeria 'friendly guys' seem to be already acquainted with the MC, but not the bar one. They all let the MC take what he wants for free. When you go to the places when the Rat-masked assassin is there, he's always like "What the hell do you want?". They are like polar opposites. And then there's the prediction the three masked figures tell you, 'someone you know is not who you think they are'. There's very few characters that could apply to.