Hotline Miami is a superbly balanced, tightly tuned action game that uses retro graphics and a top-down view to give you a dispassionate distance from the actions you're carrying out on screen that grows more disturbing the more you think about it. The music and color scheme fit the game perfectly. You really, really need to play this. Its fluidity may be something completely new...or at least very rare. Boss fights aren't well implemented - simply puzzles that require you to die over and over again until you figure out what to do. But they're not particularly difficult, and there are only two of them, so it's a minor annoyance at best. If I have one real complaint, it's that the game's story never delivers (and yes, I've solved the puzzle and gotten the more complete ending. and yes, I know it's leaving the door open for a sequel). Ultimately it is better at intriguing and engaging than it is at delivering on its promises. When you start to learn the whys and wherefores, the brilliant nihilism gives way to disappointment. I think it probably would have been better if they'd left the story in the last few missions out entirely...ultimately it detracts rather than enhances...the plot should have quit while it was ahead (though the gameplay in those levels is a fun change...they're still very definitely worth playing). I'd characterize it as a minor complaint at worst however - and I say that as a VERY story driven gamer. Let me be clear - YOU STILL NEED THIS GAME. Just don't play it with any children around.
There's so much to like about this game. And I wanted to like it. Intensely. Yet in the end I find myself quitting this strategy game out of annoyance, most often because of the incredibly worthless minion AI. I know they're trying to spoof Bond films here, and I know the minions are lame and stupid in Bond films. Yet I have to ask myself if having minions THIS stupid was really intended to be fun. 1. Traps that do little to no good against enemies, yet consistently slaughter my more valuable minions, no matter how many barracks, archives, and breakrooms I build trying to keep them from getting too forgetful to disable the trap? Check. They DO helpfully disable the trap successfully whenever an enemy is nearby. Thanks guys! 2. Henchman who excitedly fires rockets inside your base, doing significantly more damage to components and your minions (due to exploding things on fire) than to the actual attacking enemies? Check. 3. Heavily armed minons who ignore their heavy machine guns, rifles, etc to charge in to hand to hand combat with enemies? Check...why do I even bother going to yellow alert when 75% of the time they don't use the damn guns? 4. Long training wait to replace all the high level minions who ran in to their death...oh yes...check. 5. Minions who get "lost" on the edges of hotels, trapped, unable to be killed with entering debug mode, yet taking up a minion slot and possibly holding up entire construction and training programs? Check. 6. Arbitrarily invincible Super Agents who wander blissfully through your base despite being confused. Super Agents who will decide to kill your minions at will, but can only be knocked out until you "discover" the secret of killing them...Check. Did I mention they can kill your henchmen? Did I mention your henchmen charge into combat with these Super Agents they cannot kill no matter how many times you tell them to stand in the corner on the other side of your base? Stop me when I tell you something that sounds like fun. And I could go on and on and ON. And yet I DID have fun...for brief moments when I wasn't grinding my teeth. And I was addicted for hours and hours. But somehow I felt like there was a major masochistic element. And ultimately I couldn't finish the game because the further I got in the more obnoxious it got. Such a shame. Such a great idea, such a neat style, such a pain in the butt.
