Retro-Looking "Hotline Miami" Has Old-School Difficulty
Last year one of PC's biggest surprises was Dennaton Games' Hotline Miami, a top-down old-school looking game that had the look of an old-school NES game, the sound of a cocaine-covered nightclub, and the vibe and gore of a Nicholas Winding Refn movie. A few weeks ago the game was ported to both the PS3 and Vita (with the cross-saving function), finally giving console players the chance to get their hands dirty.
For those who don't know the storyline of Hotline Miami, here's a brief synopsis: you are currently backtracking through your jobs thanks to three masked men, who are trying to find out just who exactly you are. (You yourself don't quite know, either.) It all started with a weird message on your answering machine regarding a delivered package of cookies, only to find out its contents are really a chicken mask and instructions to kill and retrieve a briefcase. After the success of that mission you are then tasked to complete other jobs that use your "skills."
In each level you are to take out and kill everyone in your vicinity, whether by hands, guns, bats, swords, and other weapons. It sounds easy enough, only Hotline Miami has the gameplay aspect of one-hit-and-die. Find yourself dead, and you'll have to start the level all over at the floor you are on. That may not come across as a bad thing, but when you have taken out just about everyone around you and then the last guy manages to kill you in a blink of an eye, then you'll see how frustrating the game can be.
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