Seneste anmeldelser af Cloudy

A neat interactive showcase from the people behind Shadow Warrior and the idiosyncratic minds of Devolver: Devolver is always pushing the boundary in content presentation, and their originality should be noted. Thanks for publishing so many amazing games over the years, and the future is looking bright.

A Half-Life mod that has a great presentation, rad setlist of tracks, thoughtful level design/structure, and overall hearty challenge. Short and sweet.

Hotline Miami 2 has its moments, but it is definitely something I can't recommend to absolutely everyone. Due to some players not playing the first one, they might perceive the game differently than I do.

The Right:

- Some Fresh Gameplay Elements:
Dennaton took a gamble with a few of their gameplay design decisions for HM2, and it definitely pays off in some areas. The character Evan Wright, for example, handles the violent and carnage-filled gameplay in a different manner. Evan dismantles and unloads guns, knocks out enemies, and doesn't kill them. The player is in fact rewarded points for not killing anyone, as sort of a wild card to the regular formula. It's a totally different type of satisfaction, and it's very welcomed. Though if you're still keen on the killing route, Evan has a somewhat secret rage/killer mode. Traditional Hotline slaughtering remains intact for all other characters.

- Of course, those incredible tracks:
If there's one distinct thing that people praise Hotline Miami for, it's the powerful, bass-thumping, synth-infused electronic soundtrack. This time around, they took the soundtrack to an entirely new level. This game locks in at about 50 tracks, and not a single one of them is bad. Apologize to your friends in advance, because you'll be blasting them for weeks straight.

- The Level Editor:
This is a nice idea for the game, despite it being unfinished and seriously broken. I'm mixed on this one.

- The Looks:
Even though a lot of the textures and objects have been recycled, there are plenty of new things to engulf you in Wrong Number's locales. New assets such as: animated environments, weather effects, new textures, destructible objects, more enemy animations, more gore, screen effects, and other things to make your eyes dazzled. Also, the pause menu is the most perfect rendition of a VHS style menu in a video game that I've seen.

The Wrong (number):

- Some Levels and Gameplay:
Hotline Miami was a tight-knitted, close-cornered rush of a game. Combos and the adrenaline had players, including myself, returning and wanting more of that sweet hotline carnage. In Hotline Miami 2, the levels were practically tripled in size. This resulted in frustrating issues. In both games, there are problems with off-screen enemies killing you. It is far more prominent in the sequel due to some awkward level design and abrasive level sizes. Because of this issue, it encourages a hide and seek play style, baiting and picking off enemies one by one, and stopping and panning the camera ahead. It can really interrupt the pacing and flow of things. If you go against this style, you'll be pressing R twice as much as you were before, and for the wrong reasons. Though this issue resides, there's still sections of the game where you're able to pull off using a mix of ranged/close-ranged weapons and getting combos.

Also, did I mention there are windows everywhere?

- Glitches / Inconsistent AI:
Dennaton, you had months to fix these issues. You delayed the game for bug fixing. Why would you let these problems slip into release? Hotline Miami 2 contains: enemies with twitching bodies, doors that are actually airplane propellers, occasional game-breaking spawn bugs, occasional crashes, dogs that chase their own tails, getting stuck in walls and screen edges, awful pathfinding with Alex and Ash, enemies with random and inconsistent attention spans, and some other distrustful things that slew around in this game.


Hotline Miami 2 has some purely enjoyable moments, but it lacks some of the design coherency, consistent atmosphere, and polish that Hotline Miami had for itself. I feel that the sequel was trying to be too much over its predecessor, and it resulted in the recurring flaws sprouting out more noticeably. Overall, it's a good game. It just has issues that are stopping it from being more enjoyable than it already is.

7.8/10

What is Hotline Miami? What does it do that captivates players? Is it the fast-paced action? Is it the violence? Perhaps, it's the music and 80s vibes. What presents Hotline Miami as such a special and visceral experience?

The game starts off in an apartment, located in an 80s Miami. You control an unidentifiable person (he stays anonymous throughout the entire experience). He receives an abrupt phone call from a number that goes under “Tim's Bakery”, but is implied to be a hitman service. The player is told to open up the box of “cookies” and an “ingredient” list, on the nearby doorstep. Rather, the character finds a rooster mask and a list of information on a certain target. You are instructed to take the target out, extract his briefcase, and rid it in an alleyway dumpster. After going to the location, beating faces to a pulp, ridding the briefcase, and ending another life, the main character bends over and profusely vomits. This shows that he's disgusted with what he's done. This moment defines where Hotline Miami truly takes initiative with its story.

As our once-innocent denizen eats away at Miami's population of crackheads, he starts to relish it. Ideally, this is shown through the gameplay and subtle progression of the main character. He learns new styles of killing, takes on bigger amounts of mobsters, and devolves into a complete psychopath. You see the damage you've done and the lives you've taken, as a blood-soaked protagonist walks back out of every area he's obliterated. It really provides for an effective atmosphere and unsettling set of emotions. That's just a prime example of what makes Hotline Miami so powerful.

Each style is earned through receiving new masks by level completions, high scores, and achievements. There are a variety of mask styles to choose from, and they truly tip the re-playability scale. For example, you could choose the “Brandon (panther)” mask. This mask makes the character run faster. Players could also use the “Zack (frog)” mask, which allows for a larger combo window. As killing goes, there are different ways to go about taking down your targets. One can go in guns blazing. Or, they could take a slower, melee-based attempt. The levels are designed for players to take multiple, different attempts in each playthrough. As they progress through this game with discomforting repletion, they will soon realize how short it actually is. This twisted Miami tale could be described best as a one-day visit to a favorite theme park.

Through pulsing, bass-hitting beats, this game ensures that you'll be killing in style. From synthwave tunes to dark electronic throttles, one will be consumed by the soundtrack's flaring and bold atmosphere. M.O.O.N, Perturbator, Scattle, and Jasper Byrne are a few artists involved with providing this. The soundtrack is truly one of HM's strong suits.

The story telling, the brutality, the gore, the neon-soaked 80s aesthetic, the atmosphere, the subtle implications of the main character, and the soundtrack make Hotline Miami a staple indie title. We take control of a character that has everything stripped away from him, as he's brainwashed into killing everything in sight. As he's subjected to the gruesome nature, he begins to adjust to it. The tailoring of the human mind is expressed in Hotline's story, and the game should be appreciated for how well it incorporates its story with its gameplay.

9/10

TL;DR Get the damn game.

This game is surprisingly really fun! The writing is hysterical and the conversations are odd, funny, and amusing at times. Overall, it's an entertaining time. Believe it or not, this is actually a really solid/hard puzzle game. If you need a laugh, or you're just a person looking for a well crafted and extremely challenging puzzle game, I think you might enjoy this title.

Pros:
- The art
- Soundtrack
- Writing. It's satirical, hilarious, and it's fully aware of what it is. If you're looking for a serious VN or dating sim, look elsewhere.
- Voice acting
- Challenging and solid gameplay that encourages strategy and experimenting
- Character personalities and variety
- Amount of content

Cons:
- Dialogue lines can get repetitive.
- Characters feel underdeveloped after finishing all of them. Why can't we find out more about them and the things they mention? (I realize story wasn't their main focus, but I feel like it was a bit underwhelming)

I highly hope I glitched the game into beating it in about 2 hours. Because if not, a $9.99 price tag is kind of unacceptable. Hopefully they'll add more content, areas, length, etc. during Early Access. I loved the atmosphere, the creepy/subtle scares, and sound design, I'll give it that. It has to be one of the most unique horror games I've ever jumped into. The ending though, made the least of sense. Montas is still worth checking out though, even in the state that it's in. If you're a horror/atmosphere buff that's willing to pay a $10 admission, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Update: Development has been abandoned.