Redial Trial and Error – Hotline Miami 2 : Wrong Number Review

<p><em>Hotline Miami <&sol;em>and its sequel&comma; <em>Hotline Miami 2&colon; Wrong Number <&sol;em>are games with a passionate cult following&comma; fueled by their adrenaline-pumping soundtracks and low-res ultra-violence&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a fast-paced game with an awesome soundtrack that you can&&num;8217&semi;t help but bop your head to&comma; and is not for the weak of heart due to both its often mind-numbing frustrations and its penchant for extreme violence&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t fully understand the story or the appeal of the first game but after revisiting the original and working through Dennaton and Devolver&&num;8217&semi;s latest  foray into mass-murder&comma; I think I have a much better understanding of what makes it so great&comma; and also why so much of it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The real strength in both games is the gameplay mechanics&period; I really couldn&&num;8217&semi;t get into it at first&semi; you aim with the right analog stick&comma; one button to pick up weapons&comma; another to throw&sol;shoot&sol;swing them or punch if unarmed&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s pretty much it&period; You can also lock onto enemies by clicking in R3 and then flicking it to switch between targets&comma; but I personally found that to be helpful only rarely and too clunky to be relied upon&period; While the controls leave something to be desired&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s precisely what makes the panicked reactions and befuddling combat so addicting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;assets&period;vg247&period;com&sol;current&sol;&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;Hotline-Miami-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1440" height&equals;"768" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Between the soundtrack&&num;8211&semi;and I can&&num;8217&semi;t emphasize enough how fantastic the synth-charged music is&&num;8211&semi;and the high-intensity low-control enemy encounters&comma; this game will get your blood pumping&period; It has one of the most thoroughly addictive gameplay loops I&&num;8217&semi;ve ever played&comma; wherein you&&num;8217&semi;re spending a lot of time running trial and error on the same area&comma; attempting step-by-step level paths until you nail it through methodical execution&&num;8211&semi;or sheer luck&period; I would often find myself opening the same door and dying to the same 5 enemies in the same 8 second scene countlessly&comma; before finding a path that worked and moving onto the next few seconds&semi; this loop is seriously addictive and less frustrating than it sounds&period; The moments of just barely killing the last enemy to clear a level or dying to the last one from a dumb mistake after getting that far in a frenzied mess of careful planning and knee-jerk reaction plays&comma; are both intensely satisfying and rage-worthy&period; This gameplay loop is <em>Hotline Miami&&num;8217&semi;s <&sol;em>greatest strength and hence one of the most glaring problems in <em>Wrong Number&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The level design makes some welcome improvements with more detail and varied locations&comma; but it also expands the sizes of some levels to point of a fault&period; Brutally pushing through dozens of failed attempts before finding the finesse of that perfect run is challenging as all hell but also immensely satisfying&comma; in equal parts&period; That balance is lost in <em>Wrong Number<&sol;em> with some comparatively colossal levels that lean away from satisfying and more towards frustrating as you grind through them&period; The overhead camera is very limited and you will spend way too much time getting killed by enemies you can&&num;8217&semi;t see&comma; which is especially frustrating after pushing through that trial and error loop clearing reasonably sized rooms&comma; as it effectively stops that wonderful loop dead in it&&num;8217&semi;s tracks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;reddoorbluekey&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;2014-04-09-16&lowbar;19&lowbar;12-Hotline-Miami-2&lowbar;-Wrong-Number-Dial-Tone-YouTube&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1276" height&equals;"718" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition to the larger levels hindering the core appeal to the gameplay&comma; there are some additional gameplay changes that come off as a mixed bag of better and worse&period; You play through <em>Hotline Miami <&sol;em>as the same character&comma; able to wear a variety of masks that are unlocked through level progression&comma; which endow you with different abilities&period; While it&&num;8217&semi;s a neat concept&comma; and you will dabble with different options such as faster movement speed&comma; seeing further and finding more weapons&comma; most players will all end up using the mask that allows you to kill enemies by opening doors into them&comma; as it gives you an almost game-breaking strategic advantage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the options were a great idea&comma; in theory&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s made null by most players always using the same ability eventually&period; In <em>Wrong Number <&sol;em>your choices are much more limited and most often you&&num;8217&semi;re not even given the choice&period; The result is simply that the levels with fun abilities are fun and the levels with bad ones are bad&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t like controlling two mirrored characters at once or not using gun&comma; you have to push through those levels&period;  It&&num;8217&semi;s changes like this that make <em>Wrong Number<&sol;em> almost feel like a prequel&period; It tries throwing more varied elements into the mix&comma; but the first game just plays better overall&comma; and while the 90&&num;8217&semi;s aesthetic is an interesting change&comma; the 80&&num;8217&semi;s feel of its predecessor was a better fit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are a lot of people that are strongly opposed to this game because of it&&num;8217&semi;s gruesome&comma; albeit graphically crude&comma; depictions of violence&comma; and interestingly just as many making very intelligent arguments in support of Dennaton making a critical statement on game violence with these games&period; The hardcore fans will tell you all about a story that promotes a deep reflection about violence as it constantly asks the player &&num;8220&semi;Did you like that&comma; well did &&num;8216&semi;ya&quest;&&num;8221&semi; after every heart-thumping finale to each massacre you complete and I can&&num;8217&semi;t really dispell that theory&period; What I can say though&comma; is that the story is so incoherent&comma; the dialog so vague and ephemeral that I could never quite grok that theme out of it&period; If it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t for some googling and cliffnoting my way through some analysis&&num;8217&semi; of the series&comma; I would still have a fairly tenuous grasp on the overall themes and plot points&period; So while that critical thinking may be a driving force behind all that frenetic gameplay&comma; its execution is disorienting and may fall on deaf ears&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all the gameplay is still challenging and satisfying&comma; but with a balance several notches below its predecessor and the soundtrack is yet again the ultimate highlight&period; If you loved <em>Hotline Miami&comma; <&sol;em>then you&&num;8217&semi;ll still get a kick out of <em>Wrong Number<&sol;em>&&num;8211&semi;but expect some unwelcome bumps along the way&comma; and if you never saw the appeal of the series&comma; just buy the soundtrack and up the intensity of whatever else you&&num;8217&semi;re playing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;