Hotline Miami

[toblix]

But then, I enjoy literally every genre of music.

Come on, that's not even possible!

[Twig]

Come on, that's not even possible!

TRY ME

There are definitely some artists I don't like, but I can find something I DO like in every genre. Although, to be fair, I only consider genres on a very broad level. When you get down into discussing the deep, dark levels of Math Doom Opera Metal, I lose interest and fall asleep.

EDIT: I would probably listen to math doom opera metal if it existed...

[Chris]

But then, I enjoy literally every genre of music. So I'm allowed to lord my smugness all over your hating behind.

As someone who spent his college career studying music, I find it extremely difficult to believe you've even heard of, let alone heard examples of, every genre of music.

[Twig]

Fine. Everything I've heard of or heard examples of. I'm really very open-minded when it comes to music, though. I have trouble believing that someone could find a genre I don't enjoy on some level.

[Vegas]

Speaking of music: https://twitter.com/...883947892482049

There's the link to all the current hotline miami music available for purchase/download.

I love when you finish a chapter, the music shuts off so abruptly. All you have at that point is a pile of bloody corpses. Great hard juxtaposition.

Also is anybody else having the experience of being so frustrated by this game that you could murder somebody, then being immediately appeased?

[TurboPubx-16]

I've hit a wall trying to beat my A ranking on chapter three. Higher scores definitely correlate to higher letter grades, but I don't grasp the causal links between the former and the latter. In the moment it seems like executions net a lot more points, but when the level is over I end up with less points then I do when I just run around slashing everybody with a knife.

When I get spotted a lot it seems to penalize my letter grade, but being ghost isn't rewarding me the way I expect it to. Killing a guy gets you 400 points when they don't see you, and 600 when they do; shouldn't it be the other way around? I just had a run where I wasn't exposed a single time, threw lots of different weapons and killed everyone on both floors over three combos strings, and I got a B+.

I don't know what to say other than quit being a baby? Dunno how you got through life up to this point if you can't tolerate people finding joy in things you dislike.

But then, I enjoy literally every genre of music. So I'm allowed to lord my smugness all over your hating behind.

I already admitted that I was being silly; if you didn't take my more aggressive comments as sarcastic in nature I guess I'll have to add more emoticons next time.

[Gormongous]

I've hit a wall trying to beat my A ranking on chapter three. Higher scores definitely correlate to higher letter grades, but I don't grasp the causal links between the former and the latter. In the moment it seems like executions net a lot more points, but when the level is over I end up with less points then I do when I just run around slashing everybody with a knife.

When I get spotted a lot it seems to penalize my letter grade, but being ghost isn't rewarding me the way I expect it to. Killing a guy gets you 400 points when they don't see you, and 600 when they do; shouldn't it be the other way around? I just had a run where I wasn't exposed a single time, threw lots of different weapons and killed everyone on both floors over three combos strings, and I got a B+.

I had to run that about a dozen times through (not counting individual death restarts) to get an A+. I finally managed to edge over 46,000 points barely by wearing the frog mask (Zack) that gives you longer combo windows, switching weapons every couple kills, and clearing both floors with one long combo chain each. Even after I figured that out, it took me three more runs before the point fairy decided I deserved the thousand-odd points keeping me from an A+.

When you start trying to maximize points, the truly eccentric aspects of this game come to light. You get more points for constantly moving while attracting guards to your presence. You get more points for melee weapons. You get more points for knocking guys out and taking the time to kill them later. It rewards a style of play pretty alien for anyone otherwise habituated to "empty a space of all life with just one guy" games.

[Nappi]

I take it the Steam purchase does not include a standalone soundtrack? I think I'm more interested in it than I am in the actual game.

Now, when will the next Humble Bundle be up....

[Korax]

Don't know about the other versions, but the Steam one sort of has the soundtrack available in that all the music is just sitting in the base folder as OGG files. That said, as soon as I can pay money for the full soundtrack, I totally will.

I've finished the game a first time, and now I'm going back through with the owl mask to find all the hidden letters and scoop up the other masks I missed. Then I expect to spend time experimenting with the different masks and doing the high score thing. It's just so satisfying to find that perfect sequence and rack up a 12x combo.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Reading this thread, I seriously question if I want to play this game. Also if I should be calling the authorities or not.

[Twig]

I already admitted that I was being silly; if you didn't take my more aggressive comments as sarcastic in nature I guess I'll have to add more emoticons next time.

I was being silly, too. I was hoping the last statement in that post would give it away. U:

[Vegas]

this song rules

[TurboPubx-16]

If you kicked down my door, bounced a brick off my bedroom wall so it hit me in the head, sat on top of me with a raised golf club, and asked me what my favourite song from Hotline Miami was, I think I'd choose that one. His/her name is Sun Araw? I kept reading it as Samus Aran, doh!

There's an easy way to get A+ on every level:

The Grasshopper mask comes with a drill, that when used in an execution gets you something like 5,000 points.

I used it once and it felt like cheating. It taught me something pretty useful though: executions are key to getting high scores. Alert guys to your presence, get them on their backs, and then get sadistic as possible. I just ran through five chapters and got A+'s on all of them without too much effort. After dying hundreds of times just to get through the game the first time, there's nothing like beating a level on the first attempt and getting a great score too.

I love how the guards have a bit of unpredictability to them. Every once and a while a couple of guards will totally deviate from their normal path and what ensues is always hilarious. I also love how the weapons are randomized. It encourages me to be aware of what's at my feet, not be totally focused on the next dude. Quite a few times I've meant to stand over a guy and beat him with a baseball bat, only to realize that I was actually holding a sawn-off shotgun and now the dude is my hostage. I play so quickly that I'll undoubtedly unload both shells into a wall before I've realize what's going on.

Finally, after getting all the puzzle pieces and all but two of the masks, I've come to really appreciate all the details in the levels. There are a ton of unique or twice-seen pieces of art in the game. One great example is a room full of stuffed animal heads that drive you crazy if you're looking for masks.

[sammorris12]

Really been enjoying this game so far. It works really well with a controller instead of mouse and keyboard. You can enable controller support by creating a blank file called xbox2 in the root folder, it works fairly well (except for back being the pause button, and you can't remap it as far as I can tell). I think they disabled it because it was buggy, but I haven't encountered any so far.

The violence is off-putting, but personally I'm just enjoying it as a puzzle game. At least if you're going to have over the top violence in your game, make it interesting through the gameplay. I think they just about get away with it, the gameboy visuals and binary AI states make it fairly trivial anyway. I wouldn't let it be an issue, if you're on the fence.

I'm torn between this and Fez for soundtrack of the year. Tough to call either way.

[Gormongous]

That's a great write-up of the game, TurboPubx. I can see Hotline Miami taking a place beside Far Cry 2 as a game where I boot up whenever just to kill a few dudes and some time.

And Jesus, you're right about the drill. My tightest playthrough with any other mask comes out to maybe half of what I get just fucking around with the grasshopper on.

Also, I finally found all the masks, thanks to people on the internet.

One I missed because, being obsessive like I am, I had the puzzle finished long before the last chapter and therefore didn't get the "normal" ending. The other two were the octopus hidden in Ch. 16, the Chinese restaurant, and the alligator hidden behind the house(!) in Ch. 15.

Amazingly, this has done nothing to sap my enthusiasm for playing, which is unusual in and of itself.

Edit: I just tried the controller hack you suggested, sammorris12. The controls themselves work fine (although I'm sad to see that the middle-mouse lock-on button doesn't have an analogue), but they break the keyboard controls if you try to switch back without deleting the "xbox2" file. "Enter" and "Esc" randomly don't work and general keypress detection is off. I'm assuming that's why the fix isn't official yet.

[Twig]

I used it once and it felt like cheating. It taught me something pretty useful though: executions are key to getting high scores. Alert guys to your presence, get them on their backs, and then get sadistic as possible. I just ran through five chapters and got A+'s on all of them without too much effort. After dying hundreds of times just to get through the game the first time, there's nothing like beating a level on the first attempt and getting a great score too.

I actually got all A+'s without specifically going for executions. I just rushed through getting my combo multipliers as high as possible. After beating the game once, I had it pretty well figured out, and was able to get most of them on the first few tries.

Highest combo I managed to get was 13, although I don't remember which level it was.

DETAILS IN THINGS:

I love how your apartment changes as you progress. At first it's just a gross, messy bachelor's apartment. It gets a little messier and messier as you beat a few levels. Then you rescue that girl! Suddenly, your apartment gets cleaner! Then she starts reorganizing things. She takes away your video games in putting the TV out in the living room! What a jerk. She sleeps on the couch for a while, too, before eventually moving into the other bed in your room. Lots of little additions all around the apartment.

Strangely, you never get a toilet!

So awesome. I don't know why, but that's one of my favorite things in the entire game.

[Orv]

E: Argh, forums!

[coaxmetal]

So I have long suspected, but I just got to

the hospital level

and that made it seem like this is more than simply a mere (very well done) murder simulator. I am interested in the story now. For such a seemingly simple game, Hotline miami combines incredibly well done and compelling gameplay with what seems to be an interesting narrative.

e:

also that level conforms to the trope of stealth levels in non-stealth games being pretty shitty

[Vegas]

I honestly didn't have a problem with that level like other people seemed to. All you need to do is

watch the policemen reading their papers and the guards in the halls. stealth gameplay 101: just watch and wait.

[atte]

I'm usually suspicious of ultraviolence in media but I thought Hotline Miami used it in an interesting way. It's not just a game with plenty of aggression, it's a game about aggression. A shaky analogy could be that if modern military shooters are The Expendables, Hotline Miami is The Raid.

If it was a barely interactive 15 minute gamejam game that just shoved the blood in your face, Hotline would not obviously work very well, and after playing it through a couple of times the violence really starts to disappear and all you see is the mechanics. But when I was immersed in both the mechanics and the aesthetics, it was powerful stuff.

The game took me into a strange place, a feverish nightmare that had progressed beyond paralyzing fear into a frustrated and desperate aggression. That "F this, I just need to get through this mess" feeling. And yes, somehow that was a very interesting and positively memorable gaming experience for me.

[TurboPubx-16]

That's a great write-up of the game, TurboPubx.

Thank you! It looks like one of your post made to the Idle Thumbs Blog (blog.idlethumbs.net).

[sammorris12]

Edit: I just tried the controller hack you suggested, sammorris12. The controls themselves work fine (although I'm sad to see that the middle-mouse lock-on button doesn't have an analogue), but they break the keyboard controls if you try to switch back without deleting the "xbox2" file. "Enter" and "Esc" randomly don't work and general keypress detection is off. I'm assuming that's why the fix isn't official yet.

That makes sense. I'm now following their twitter account and they told Gary Whitta that they'll be adding actual controller support soon. It's kind of a shame that it was launched with as many issues as it has. Although not many have affected me directly.

[coaxmetal]

yeah I guess I got lucky, I started playing after the first patch, and even steam integration is working fine. No crashes, but I did punch a guy out of the map once.

[Korax]

I honestly didn't have a problem with that level like other people seemed to. All you need to do is

watch the policemen reading their papers and the guards in the halls. stealth gameplay 101: just watch and wait.

Except that the level isn't really that well designed/signposted. The intent is for you to head straight up (while avoiding the hospital personnel) and grab the keycard from the room on the upper left. Because the enemy vision areas are really ill-defined and there's no way to tell what doors are unlocked, I managed to work my way across the bottom, up the right side, through the middle area, and into the room right behind the card-lock door before finding out that it was locked. That wouldn't have been so bad if it had just let me do everything normally from there, but because I didn't actually grab the card and unlock the door, I couldn't progress. I don't even remember if you have to do anything other than exit at that point, so not being able to run right to the elevator is strange.

[CaptainFish]

I was interested in this, but being reminded on the most recent thump ep made me pick it up. There's some really decent storytelling in here, in terms of form and content. Most of it occurs just naturally in game, which is nice. I've 'beaten' it but now I'm going back to get the stuff I missed, which maybe could've been surfaced a bit better. If I hadn't picked up a letter by mistake trying to get a weapon I don't know if I ever would've figured that out.