Review: Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a darkly complex thriller. It’s an intense, white-knuckle journey through a twisted re-imagining of post Cold War America. It’s confident, brutal and uncompromising in its vision and is far and away the best gaming experience I’ve had in years. Refused Classification in this country, Australians have been deprived of a true tour de force and a shining achievement in postmodern gaming.

Hotline Miami 2 follows the first game’s story of Jacket and the mysterious phone calls that directed him to massacre the Russian mafia. A series of non-linear vignettes that jump between time periods, both before and after Hotline Miami, focus on several characters new and returning. Together, they reveal the complex and disturbed world created by developer Dennaton, whose confidence is proudly on display in terms of story-telling, design, gameplay, soundtrack selection, and most importantly, confidence in the player. Hotline Miami 2 doesn’t dumb it down. It knows it’s an adult game and caters to that audience.

Comparing games to films is largely pointless because they’re two very different mediums, but in this case it’s apt. Aside from Hotline Miami 2’s over-arching theme involving slasher films and VHS — which is more a device to cement the game’s time period — there is a more appropriate comparison: Pulp Fiction. Whether it’s intentional or not, Quentin Tarantino’s seminal, postmodern masterpiece is evidently part of HM2’s DNA.

The non-linear storytelling techniques, bizarre non-sequiturs and extreme violence all harken back to the 1994 crime caper that introduced ‘Royale wit’ cheese’ to the pop-culture lexicon. There’s a wit and crackle to proceedings that make this pixelated world feel more alive than any release in recent memory, including any offerings by big-name studios. If Hotline Miami 2 is Pulp Fiction, gaming’s recent string of AAA titles amount to a Michael Bay flick: pretty, yes, but moreso shallow and flashy. There’s a depth to Hotline Miami 2 that’s rarely evident in gaming and it’s a joy – a dark, twisted joy — to behold.

Hotline Miami 2’s citizens never make that connection; their lives are bleak, joyless and falling apart around them. Whether they’re fighting invading Russian forces in the hot Hawaiian jungle or murdering Colombian gangsters in Miami’s concrete one, losing their wife and kids due to an obsession with work or simply losing their mind, nobody is winning… anything. On balance, each of the character’s actions either work against themselves or the others. It’s a zero-sum game because in the end everyone loses.

As intricate and mesmerising as it is with world-building and plot, thankfully Hotline Miami 2 plays just as well. Hell, it plays like a dream — a fever dream with nightmarish overtones — but a dream nonetheless. Not much has changed from the first game, but this is not in any way an issue; Hotline Miami was nigh perfect and the sequel nudges even closer. A refined lock-on system makes moving, shooting, throwing and killing more fluid and fast-paced than ever. Its biggest change is in its level design.

It may be due to the plot taking a more central role, but levels in Hotline Miami 2 are more holistic and singularly designed. In the first game levels often felt disconnected; they were well designed and perfectly suited to the gameplay, but floors and rooms within levels never seemed to flow all that well. That’s not so in HM2; each scene is a self-contained experience that fully relates to itself, but also to that which came before and comes after.

Hotline Miami 2 is an experience designed as a whole, whereas Hotline Miami feels like one part of a larger picture; it’s that which makes the sequel so successful. The first title in the series could have easily slotted in as part of the overall narrative of the sequel and, conversely, each story in HM2 could support a game of its own. Moreover, levels never hold your hand or direct you; each scene can be completed in multiple ways, multiple times. That’s Hotline Miami 2 in a nutshell. It’s addictive as hell and just one level has enough variety for hours and hours of replay. It’s like a combination of a racer, shooter, puzzle game and arcade sports sim. It’s quite easy to learn, but the mastering comes from experience. Learning the levels’ layouts, AI behaviour, how the weapons work and how to move.

Hotline Miami 2 ramps up its difficulty in parallel with the players’ experience so it never gets too hard. There are a handful of fairly insane difficulty spikes which can become frustrating, but they’re quickly forgotten when you move past them and back to obliterating rooms filled with goons. Understand though: Hotline Miami 2 is a very hard game. It’s not for the faint of heart or those looking for a relaxing game on a Sunday afternoon; it’s challenging, but fair. Not once did I find any deaths cheap or undeserved. Every death is a learning experience and, trust me, Hotline Miami 2 is going to teach you a lesson.

It’d be remiss of me not to mention Hotline Miami 2’s soundtrack. The first game’s OST was universally praised and, in what seems to be a trend for the sequel, the music in HM2 is even better. The thumping, grinding, electronic darkness permeates every level and every kill. It drives the narrative and the player. The music creates the all-important atmosphere from that taut, gut-wrenching fear you get when you start a level to the unclenching, relaxation that occurs when it abruptly stops upon completion. It’s just another in a long line of elements that push Hotline Miami 2 towards perfection.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is very near perfect. It’s the finest experience I’ve had in a very long time and it achieves this without pulling punches. Everything about it screams ‘vision’ and Dennaton’s has been well and truly achieved. It manages to pull-off the almost impossible feat of besting its predecessor while simultaneously introducing new elements that improve the overall experience. In fact, Hotline Miami is improved by virtue of its sequel’s existence. Even at this early stage of 2015, Hotline Miami 2 has the strong potential to be my GOTY. It’s an experience that you won’t soon forget and one that will have you coming back again and again…and again. And not just for the gameplay. Unraveling the intricate plot is going to take some time. Time well spent, in my book.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was reviewed on PS4 using a retail code purchased — not pirated — by the reviewer.