Hotline Miami was a game I absolutely adored and was soooo excited when I heard a sequel was coming out. Here we are 3 years later and I've FINALLY gotten around to playing it, and it's alright. Hotline Miami 2 was originally just going to be DLC for the first game, but the project ended up expanding in scope so significantly that they just decided to call it a sequel. However, with the way this expands upon the original, I think this does fit far better with the first game when viewed as an expansion rather than a sequel.
Almost entirely gone are the new masks after every mission, and in its place is a far more coherent plot than the first game. Instead, around half the missions focus on folks who don't wear masks, or the same small group of mask users. Most of these other non-masks have "masks" in how they have different load-outs you unlock, but proportionally there are a lot of clone load-outs between characters. Some characters have no load-outs at all. The story is neat, but I definitely preferred the design philosophy of the original in comparison to this one. The limited load-outs for each level make them more specifically catered to those stages, but it removes the kind of min/maxing for the most optimal masks for each stage like the original had (or just finding your favorite and goin' to town with it). Mechanically the game is still as fun as it ever was, and they've really cranked up the stylistic flavors for this entry. Verdict: Recommended. It's definitely lesser than the first game for me, but it's still fun. If you liked the first game, I'd say check this one out, but if you haven't played the Hotline Miami 1, definitely give that a try before this one. This tried very hard to be a different, not so much better, experience than the first one, so if you go into this with the perspective that it's more of an expansion than a sequel, I think you'll dig it a lot more.
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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