Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Hotline Miami 2 has exactly the same engine and the same mechanics from the first game. The graphics and the design didn't really change. The music, that is as good as the Hotline Miami 1, is in the same shape (electro-retro). There is a story, which is more developed, with a lot of new themes and characters. 1 - So, if you liked HTM1 in its every aspect, you'll like that new opus. But ... I'm goig to say it straight : Hotline Miami 2 is a lot harder than the first one. I had to change my way to play I had from Hotline Miami 1 to finish that one. And that's maybe the main difference ! The levels are twice huge than the levels of HTM1, and the enemies maybe four times more large, there is maybe four times the number of enemy in each level. So, you'll easily be outnumbered. That means that the game will be less forgiving for you mistakes. For the first time you'll have to think, sneak, be silent, be patient, and have good reflexes. Being cocky is less rewarding, and you'll can't go and shoot straight forward to accomplish your mission. And sometimes, some mission looks like a "Commando" mission than a "Mindless kill everything that fucking move" mission (but, sometimes, it does nonetheless) And that's fine for me. Because it proves that HTM1, with the same engine and mechanics, had a lot of potential that were unexploited. It proved me that the "HTM engine" is more deeper than expected, and being "hard" is a way to renew your way to play HTM 1 & 2. It's absolutely not a "poor design choice" (I've read that somewhere here on GOG...). It's a very good one. It's just harder. And you'll have to play it differently. You thought you was a deep mofo when playing HTM1, try this one instead ! 2 - The new characters bring a lot of new fun. In that opus you'll play unexpected and different characters. Somes are really basic, others are really new and bring new stuff : the duck twins (Cut guys in half with your chainsaw while your twin shoot them it da face !) ; the bear (double SMG = double fun = double your badass attitude) ; the writer (don't kill people, and try to be a "moral" guy in that world of violence) ; the commando (knife and machine guns !) etc ... It's very different from the system of the masks that gave you a special bonus. Here, your characters are specialized with some variations you can choose. Some are more or less useless, but they're all always fun. 3 - The story is more crazy and disturbed, and maybe more violent than the first. There is more short cut scenes. It's more build like a puzzle you have to solve. The design follows the path build before and go further. And the music is still awesome, punctuating the violent action perfectly. 4 - The game has some bugs. But nothing really "game breaking" (played on win7). The AI is really dumb, but that's not new, and it's assumed as a mechanic of the game. Just don't be dumber. I would advise to the ones that have never played HTM1 to play it first, before trying this one. Because, from my point of view, it's really made as a sequel, even in the difficulty and the game play aspects. The big bad thing is still the controls, that are still strange, and often not in your favor. It was a change needed from HTM1 that didn't happen here. Sad. There's also the score system which still a bit hard to understand 5- It deserves four stars or more. Sure. It's not just HTM1 with new levels, it's a different game with clever changes.

I've finished the game and these are my thoughts, so lets get to the point. The game is pretty bad. There are many issues, game breaking bugs that ruin the pace of the game (enemies getting stuck in doors, enemies that spin around in place, crashing) Unlike the first game that kept things unclear (in a good, interesting way) and ambiguous, the second games throws that out the window and explains all so many of the things that happened in the first game, completely ruining it. It's alright in its own right, but taking it into context, it falls short. The biggest issue is the level design however. Levels are WAY to big (and no, shift doesn't help) Enemies constantly shoot you through the many, many glass walls pretty much every level is filled with. There are way to many enemies. Enemy placement is all over the place. There are no longer weapons laying around so you have to relay on enemy weapon drops. There's a bigger focus on guns. Some levels are straight up cover shooters and you're forced to use guns pretty much all the time. Some may argue that this makes the game "harder" and it requires more "skill" well, that's not true. The first game was as hard as you made it, if you just wanted to get through the game then it wasn't very hard, but if you wanted to get A+ on all chapters, then it was a challenge. This game is a poorly designed mess. All-in-all, i really wanted to like this game, but i can't. There are good aspects. The soundtrack is once again amazing. The esthetic is still there and as mentioned, the story is interesting in its own right. But because the level design is a total mess, it's probably one of the least well designed games i've seen, it falls short, reeeaalllyyy short. Wait for a sale.

I've to say I'm a big fan of the original Hotline Miami. Im my opinion, despite the bad reviews Hotline Miami 2 is receiving, the quality level is kept, great music, good atmosphere, the story evolves, ... But the game is ruined by the amount of unexpected crashes and bugs. I'm playing the first or second update it got I think, and it's still randomly crashing at startup. Also I lost some of my progress for some reason, and when a game is difficult like this one, it's frustrating. I think they should have fix all this before the release, because as I said, it can be really frustrating. I'll wait some time to get more updates and continue playing. I really hope they make it stable, it's a shame a great game like this is ruined by the lack of testing and QA.

This game has a very poor Linux port! Look out! Also note the Linux port is only a 64-bit binary, so if you are running a 32-bit o/s forget about it. For 64-bit Linux users, you may have keyboard control problems as well... buy with caution!

The other reviews have said it repeatedly but I'll say it again - you're going to get from off-screen. Like, a lot. The original Hotline Miami wasn't without its flaws, with white-knuckle twitch-style gameplay occasionally betrayed by less-than-intuitive controls but beyond that, there was a fun challenge worth the learning curve, and it was designed with these pros and cons in mind. Levels were generally more enclosed, asking the player to be quick, creative, and clever. Hotline Miami 2, it what feels like a means of artificially inflating the difficulty in the laziest possible way, simply makes the levels enormous so that you have little awareness of your surroundings. They encourage you to use a 'free' look feature to scroll the camera over, but it's limited in how far it'll go and comes at the cost of being able to see the area around the player character, making it risky to even use the function. And since you need to use it constantly, what you get is a clumsy, frustrating gameplay experience which undermines the fluidity offered by the original. On top of this, various arbitrary handicaps are added to certain characters, such as limited what weapons or methods can be used and oh my god, do I hate being saddled with the Zebra mask that makes the 'finisher' button double as a roll-dodge button. Pressed the button one too many times while finishing someone off? Now you roll out the door and get shot. Fun! I can accept that some people might love this sequel or even prefer it to the first, if brag-worthy difficulty is all they're looking for, and as a Contra and Ghosts n' Goblins veteran, difficulty is nothing I can't handle. It's what made the original worthwhile. But while HM2 is not insurmountable, to me, it's just not fun to surmount. It can be done but why bother when a functionally identical but way better game already exists in the form of the original? That was my takeaway.