Hotline Miami: a phenomenal new approach to gaming storytelling

The delightful thing about Hotline Miami is that it's totally unspecific. You play as an unnamed protagonist tasked with various tasks of ultra violence, but who that character is is up to you. Perhaps you're a professional assassin, charging premium prices for your macabre services. Maybe you're an innocent man, forced into murder against your will. Or you might be a drug addled psychopath, simply killing as you please. The choice is yours, because this wonderful guilty pleasure of a game never explains it.
 

Your mission in Hotline Miami is simple: each mission sees you receive an anonymous phone call informing you of your destination, before you travel to the location and kill everyone inside. Like your character, who the enemies actually are is never revealed, leaving it up to you to create your own story. Of course, it's more difficult than it sounds; your opponents and intelligent and well armed, meaning that you must make use of a variety of weapons, strategies and power-ups to destroy the opposition. In addition, one hit from any weapon will end your quest, but respawn is instantaneous, making for an incredibly fast paced experience.
 

This pacing fits perfectly into the game's 1980's setting, and is powered along by a truly stunning soundtrack. The top-down view and pixelated graphics only add to this nostalgic feeling. Of course, this superb sense of style would be nothing if the game wasn't fun to play, but it is. Brilliantly. There is huge freedom of choice in how you take out your enemies, you can go in all guns blazing, or attempt to silently eliminate the antagonists. Inevitably, you're going to die, a lot. But the game actively encourages this, and as you are immediately returned to the game once you are killed there is plenty of room for experimentation. This all leads to supremely addictive and incredibly enjoyable gameplay.
 

What we have with Hotline Miami is a game that provides both flawless gameplay and a great new take on gaming storytelling, giving the player the power to use their imagination to create their own story. This stunning innovation and fabulous stylishness makes giving Hotline Miami a perfect score an absolute no-brainer (no pun intended).
 

10/10
Reviewed for PC.