I Played: Hotline Miami

I Played is a quick look at opinions of a recently completed game in the form of a short review.

Hotline Miami is an interesting game. Everything it does that sets it apart has nothing to do with the actual gameplay or it's mechanics. Hotline Miami stands out because of it's unique presentation, message, and emotion it evokes in the player.

The game tells a confusing story of a mafia, and a plot to take them down using brainwashed serial killers. But the story is bland and unimportant. At first glace, the game is run of the mill 2D top-down shooter akin to Geometry Wars or Smash TV. The player's objective is to kill all of the enemies in the level, and then move on to the next. The game rewards variation on kills, using different weapons, getting combos, that sort of thing. The better you do, the higher your score at the end. However, you can only take one hit before dying, so if you make one mistake, you have to start the level over. To alleviate frustration, pressing the 'R' key at any time, will instantly restart the level, allowing you to try again immediately. Each level is an exercise in perfection, and try after try, you make a little progress each time. It is easy to say that it's been done before. However, its when you eventually reach the end of the level where the game becomes something more.

You see, Hotline Miami is extremely violent. Even for 2D pixel art. You can disembowel people with shotguns, knock them down and gouge their eyes out with your thumbs, beat their head into a bloody pulp with a crowbar, or slit their throat from behind with a knife. This again, is nothing new to video games. I told Brittany that it made me feel slightly uncomfortable and she looked at it and said "It doesn't look any different than other games." But no other video game made me feel like this with violence. I finally figured out why.

It is the act of playing the game. It is the way that the gameplay is designed. You are moving so quickly, killing so many people, and restarting so often, that you aren't focused on specifically what you are doing but instead on the mechanics of the game. You can spend upwards of a half an hour on some levels, replaying the same bits over and over, killing the same people again and again. The point of the game is to perfect killing an entire building of people in one try, quickly, and as brutally as possible. You lose sight of the meaning of the game while you are playing it, and it isn't until you are forced to walk back through do you realize that your character committed mass murder. The bodies of the people you've killed still lay there. Some in pieces, all in pools of blood. The screen is flashing neon colors in the background, and everything is slightly swaying from side to side. Its disorienting, discomforting, and it is here when you realize that the game intentionally kept you focused on the mechanics and not the content. And at the end of each stage, the game then reveals to you the content, without the game.

Video game violence usually doesn't bother me. I know it is fictional, pixelated, and disconnected from real life. I know the difference between violent video games and the violence you see on the news, and I know that video games can't make anyone commit violent acts. Clicking a mouse isn't the same as pulling a trigger of a real gun. I've played first person shooters for years, and to this day, guns scare the living crap out of me. I refuse to touch them. And this difference is the message that Hotline Miami is sending. When you play a game, its the mechanics, the score, the controls that you are focused on. By separating the game from the content, you can see that games are just games. A lot of games chose to paint their mechanics with violence, and many don't. Hotline Miami chooses to strip off it's coat of violence, and show you both sides. 

I would be remiss to not mention it's outstanding sound track. Upbeat, 80's inspired songs by various artists pump loudly on each stage. All of them fantastic, and great of setting the tone for the game.

As a game, I would say Hotline Miami is simply ok. But the game's ability to evoke a feeling of discomfort to vocalize it's message is why it has been getting so much attention, and why it stands out to me.  I would say if you can find Hotline Miami cheap (it's usually around $7 or less on Steam), then at the very least check it out. The game has an interesting message that is worth hearing, even if everything else about it is pretty standard.