Hotline Miami

[jakonovski]

Just beat this game after playing it obsessively for two nights, what an incredible experience.

It's basically a retro styled top down action game, only it's the most brutal and fucked up thing you can think of.  It also has the best soundtrack of the year, hands down.

Go watch a video if you're skeptical:
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-hotline-miami/17-6723/

[Teleku]

What the fucking fuck

[satael]

Also related:
http://torrentfreak.com/games-developer-gives-customer-support-to-pirate-bay-downloaders-121026/

[Amarr HM]

Saw the pre-release advertised on GOG last month, but that video has me sold.

[Falconeer]

Thank you for posting that link.
I just developed so much respect and admiration for these guys that I am instantly going to buy their game to support their work and their take on society.
There. Done.

[Amarr HM]

Completed it earlier, absolutely mental, soundtrack is a cornerstone.

[Amarr HM]

Forgot to mention it's a very fun game.

[Falconeer]

Holy hell. The soundtrack alone is worth the 9 dollars. Not a single reason not to grab this gem.

[jakonovski]

The soundtrack is just ogg files in the game's folder, so you can just stick it in your portable player thing. Unless you're an applist.

[Falconeer]

I'm a gamer. Why should I have an Apple anything?

[Ingmar]

There are a lot more things that don't play Ogg Vorbis files than just Apple devices. 

[Sky]

I don't know why I like this game. Horrible music, horrible art style, I don't like top-down shooters or retro gaming.

And yet it's awesome.

Actually, I do know why. Fun, bite-sized gameplay. You're never more than a couple minutes back and the game encourages trying outrageous things while also rewarding planning and slowing things down at times. Great mix.

[Rendakor]

This game is fucking crazy. What the hell am I playing? Also I don't get the love for the soundtrack, and wish I could mute it while still hearing the game's sounds.

Edit: Made it through mission 7; the first boss fight was pretty tough. Found one hidden mask so far, that lets you survive a single bullet wound without dying. I like the one that lets you kill people by opening doors so far, and the one that lets you run faster.

[Sky]

I'm only on 4, using the one that lets you finish guys faster, but lately I've just been chopping dudes up so quick it's not a huge boon. I do love the sword and wish it would spawn more.

Last night I ran the first mission in chap 4 like 20 times unsuccessfully trying different ways to rambo through and almost making it half the time. Tons of fun, about 20 minutes of intense gaming. And never finished the first floor of the first mission. Turned it off because the WAF building to dangerous levels due to the crappy soundtrack. I can mostly ignore it while I'm playing, but it's atrocious.

[apocrypha]

Fuck me this is hard. And crazy.

Half an hour of it is like gatecrashing a party and drinking cheap rum for 6 hours with total strangers who say FUCK YEAh a lot and wear too much jewellery.

[Amarr HM]

Also I don't get the love for the soundtrack.

Sets an amazing tone, this track in particular stood out for me -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-a9K4mysEg&feature=relmfu

[DeathInABottle]

Also I don't get the love for the soundtrack.

Sets an amazing tone, this track in particular stood out for me -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-a9K4mysEg&feature=relmfu

That's... beautiful.

[Falconeer]

I think it's a collection of very awesome and rather original tracks carefully picked to follow a subtle theme and convey a certain atmosphere. I really think it's fantastic, and it's way more than the sum of its parts. But hey, it's music, it's made to delight some and torture some others. It's always like that.

EDIT: While I can't pick a favourite, this is definitely worth showcasing. If nothing else for its 8-bit references.

[Hawkbit]

The "Horse Steppin" track by Sun Araw is my favorite so far.

That youtube channel has some really weird suggestions in it, like the Spaceology skit from the IT crowd and a Nier soundtrack piece.  How odd.

[koro]

I think the Hotline Miami soundtrack is barely-listenable dreck, but at the same time it fits the game's style so well that I don't think anything else would sound right in its place.

I'd certainly never go out of my way to listen to it own its own though.

[Sky]

Motorcycle helmet boss guy on chapter 7 sucks the fun right out of the game, unfortunately.

[jakonovski]

Motorcycle helmet boss guy on chapter 7 sucks the fun right out of the game, unfortunately.

He's really easy, just run away until he throws his weapon, then go wild on him when he goes to pick it up. You only have to do it twice.

[Sky]

Yes, I know the mechanic. It only took me about forty tries to knock him down once. It's not fun.

The rest of the game, trying a level 40 times is fun.

When I finally gave up after fifty or sixty tries, so my fiancee didn't have to witness nerd raeg, I checked and of course I have to run the previous 4-level map to get back to him. It's surprisingly uncool for a game that had been really casual up to that point (in a way). Life is too short for garbage like that, it's why I never got into shitty console games in the 80s and 90s. Ewok Line strikes again, I guess.

edit - and the one time I knocked him down, I actually did evade him until he threw his weapon again. But rather than stick in the wall, it landed on the floor, so when I closed in thinking I had him, he killed me.

[Rendakor]

Yea I thought that fight was bullshit as well. I spent an hour on it the first time I got there before ragequitting; I had to try again the next day and it still took me a while before I got it. The timing to dodge his knife throw is pretty tight.

[Sky]

I got it in four or five goes today. Still not fun like the rest of the game. Rest of the game is still fun.

[jakonovski]

I must be some kind of a twitch savant, I thought it was incredibly easy once you figured the trick.

[Falconeer]

I am not that good at videogames actually, but it took me 15 minutes top. It's all about kiting until he throws his cleaver. It's not really a timing thing, you just circle-strafe him until he throws. If you are circle strafing there's no way he can hit you. Granted, the way the game works some random you just have no more room to circle strafe (especially because if you cahnge the direction of your circle strafing he hits you) but if you manage (again, randomly) to have enough room to keep circling in one direction, he just can't hit you.

The way I see it this fight is more about the random chances of him giving you enough room to keep circling then any particular skill. And you get the lucky RNG about 1 times out of five. So yeah, not that great of a fight but definitely easy when you figure out how it works.

[apocrypha]

Motorcycle helmet boss guy on chapter 7 sucks the fun right out of the game, unfortunately.

This. What a shit thing to do to a great game.

[Falconeer]

 

[Gets]

http://soundcloud.com/devolverdigital/sets

[apocrypha]

It's OK, I got over it, after 20 mins of trying.

Still love the game, the story is 16 kinds of awesome, but boss fights should be fun, not something you felt you managed to endure. Applies to the entire gaming spectrum.

[Sky]

Ditto. Unfortunately it also kind of broke my enjoyment of games. I haven't been gaming since.

[Falconeer]

Not that I had any doubts about where the authors drawn inspiration from for this game, but in the end credits they thank...


Really cool to the end, and beyond.

[Vaiti]

Little trivia tidbit or something for this game.

There was a big debacle at the Steam booth at this year's Gamescom in Germany where the event officials were trying to ban the game from being shown for being too violent.

The outrage from the industry, journalist and fans quickly made them reconsider that stance.