Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

It's the late 80's, everybody's killing each other. The premise of the game is that you are a man in the 80's who gets odd voicemails on his phone from people demanding him to kill people and maybe, every once and a while, save a girl.

Hotline Miami takes influence from the film, "Drive", staring Ryan Gosling. The film is excellent and all the influences can be seen in this game: the music, the violence, and the overall feel. Everything just feels like the movie.

It is obvious that Hotline Miami also takes influence from the GTA series, the top down view is very similar to the birds eye view of GTA 1,2, and 3. It definitely works here and I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

The game is an overall challenge. You'll often find yourself doing a lot of trail and error due to the fact that enemies can kill you on the dime and it's easy to alert others of your presence. You'll have to wait outside the building and plan your attack so you don't go in and go out on your back. The game works like Manhunt with it's violence and execution, but unlike Manhunt, it doesn't force an explanation for it's violence, Hotline Miami makes you deal with it.

The best thing about this game is easily the soundtrack and visuals. The soundtrack breathes life into the game and is extremely addicting. You may even find yourself looking up songs from the game just to listen to them, outside of it. The visuals play like a bad acid trip, which really makes you wonder if the game you are playing is really just a drug induced rage dream.

All I know is that Hotline Miami is one of the best games I have played on the PC in a while. The game is cheap and small so once you buy it, it's almost an immediate install.

Go strap yourself in and go play the coolest violent game since Grand Theft Auto.