Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Review, V2 · 2:31am Jun 10th, 2015
So, in my previous blog about Hotline Miami 2, I had just beaten the game and was seething with anger about how hard some parts of it were. After calming down (which took a lot longer than I had expected), I've come back to sort of re-review Hotline Miami 2, this time with a calmer head, which is what I should have waited for the first time around the block. TL;DR at the bottom.
Like the last review, I'll start with the really good parts of Hotline Miami 2, which are basically the same as the last time: the sound design and the characters, plus something new, which is how the game's improved gunplay mechanics, some good stuff with doors, and how the game doesn't punish you as much if you like guns.
Hotline Miami 2 is a fantastic-sounding game. One of my favorite things about it is how each level has its own song that plays, which really helps make each level stand out more than the previous game. Don't get me wrong, I love Hydrogen, but I swear to God that the levels that it plays on blur together in my head sometimes something fierce. The fact that each level has its own unique and distinct sound makes each level its own, and I really like that.
The new sound effects are great, too. After I beat Hotline Miami 2, I went back and played the first Hotline Miami, and while I think it's aged well(as well as something can 'age' when it's less then five years old), the sound effects just don't compare to the second game. The second game's guns boom louder, and enemies' skulls crack louder than the original's. It goes a long way, too, since they're sounds you'll be hearing a lot throughout the game. The new sound effects as well, like Alex's chainsaw, stand out from the crowd. They make it a much more visceral game, which I really like.
Like the last review, the game's characters are much better as well. Not much can be said about the Fans, since they don't have anywhere near as much dialogue as the other characters, but their character designs are spot-on (although Mark [the bear] and Tony [the tiger] could serve to dress more differently; both of them wear dark short-sleeve shirts and some sort of protective vest). The characters that have more dialogue and character, especially Detective Manny Pardo (who is my second-favorite character, behind Richard), are fun to play as and fun to talk. I'm surprised that the game was able to make me care about the Henchman as much as I did, considering that he shows up in only two levels, and is playable in only one of those levels (the character with the least amount of total playtime). My opinion of Richard as an actual character is the same as my previous review; he's my favorite character, and is on my list of top game characters ever. I love him to death, spooky as he may be.
Now, onto the stuff that I think is good that I didn't include in my last review.
I think that the gunplay is much improved from the second game. Bullets that you fire from guns are easier to see, which is a good thing considering how the second game doesn't punish you as much for using guns (which I'll talk about in a bit). It really makes guns a more feasible option, I think, because it helps your aim and makes it clearer where your bullets are actually going to go. The boom that goes along with firing any gun, along with the heavy amounts of blood that come out of your enemies when they die, make them very satisfying to use and a viable alternative to melee combat.
I also like some of the improved door mechanics. In the first game, it was common to burst through a door and swing at an enemy, only for your swing to miss because you had burst through the door and into your enemy too fast (especially when using masks that make Jacket move faster, like Brandon or Graham). In the second game, enemies have hitboxes that allow you to burst through the door and swing at an enemy with a higher chance of killing them, which makes ambushes more viable and successful. It's a small touch, but it helps, since Hotline Miami isn't a particularly complex game.
I also like how the game doesn't punish you as much for different playstyles. In the first game, using guns was frowned upon; you got less points for gun kills, and you usually weren't able to get a high score if you used them a lot. It basically made the gun-based masks like Aubrey, Rick, and Richter pointless for players trying to get high scores, which isn't great for players who prefer guns. Hotline Miami 2, on the other hand, doesn't punish the player as much if they prefer to use guns. To get a high score in Hotline Miami 2, the most important thing is combos, far and away. It doesn't matter how you get these combos; it is entirely possible to get an S rank on a level (S is the highest rank achievable) using nothing but guns. Hotline Miami 2 generally allows for a greater level of playstyle (this is not the case all the time, as I will talk about next), and I think that this is a good thing.
So, let's move onto the bad. Since 'gameplay freedom' is what's still on the brain, let's jump into that first.
While HM2 doesn't punish you for using guns like the first game did, that's not to say that it's exactly kind to all playstyles. While all the levels allow for any character to be used, my experience with the game tends to show that Tony, Jake's Dallas mask, and the Son's 'Dirty Hands' technique, which allow for punches that essentially function as melee weapons, aren't as conducive for combos as much as other characters when presented with a choice between playstyles. The reason for this is that Tony, Dallas, and the Dirty Hands technique prevent the player from picking up any weapons, which is a good thing; if you could pick up guns while wearing them, they would become unstoppable tanks of death and it would make the game much less challenging. They're effective characters for players who don't really like guns and would rather prefer to use melee weapons all the time, but they might not be the best for a player who is trying to get high combos.
The reason for this is connected to another problem with Hotline Miami 2, and that is the level design. The level design is much more open than the first game, and it presents a problem for these melee-only characters. They have no ranged options, and since many enemies guarding these open spaces are armed with guns, you don't really have any options except trying to bait them. Baiting can be pretty time-consuming, since it still takes enemies a while to travel to you if they're far away, and it's easy to lose a good combo while waiting for them to approach. I found that this actually isn't as much of a problem in Hard Mode, since there are more enemies that allow for greater combos, but if you're trying to get high scores in every Hard Mode level, chances are you're already insanely good at the game and these downsides aren't really a problem to you. For the average player that isn't really concerned with high scores on Hard Mode, a group of which I am a part, the melee-only characters might present a problem when trying for large combos.
Of course, this doesn't manifest in every level where you can play as them; the first Fans level, 'Down Under', is pretty friendly to every Fan. Levels like 'Into the Depths', however, which feature larger spaces with more gun-toting enemies, might present a larger problem, so tread with caution. Personally, my favorite Fan to play as was the sister-brother duo of Alex and Ash. Alex wields a chainsaw, and Ash follows right behind, starting with a fully-loaded pistol and, whenever that runs out, picking up whatever gun he can find. While they can't throw any weapons, they present a good balance between melee combat (which I found is great when dealing with large clumps of enemies) and ranged combat (which is better against enemies that are more isolated and far-away from others). Another great part about them is that Ash can still fire his gun while Alex is executing an enemy; Alex is invulnerable for the duration of her chainsaw execution animation, but Ash can cover her and make sure that no one gets to close to kill her while she's doing her thing.
Anyways, let's get back into the level design. I found that it tends to fluctuate from level to level; the second act's level design is pretty good, and the fifth act's level design is absolutely awful. The other acts (each act is made up of four levels) fluctuate depending on what level you're playing. The good levels provide ways for both melee lovers and gun nuts to do their thing, or for a player who is in-between to be more fluid with their strategy. The bad levels, on the other hand, provide little to no gameplay variation and essentially force you into a very specific path and style through the level; a path that relies a lot on RNG and luck to get you through. This is very apparent on the Soldier levels, some of which are among the worst of Hotline Miami 2's offerings (the flamethrower helps quite a bit, but it still can't help 'Casualties').
Richter's entire arc (which is the aforementioned fifth arc) is the worst offender in all of this, since every level is consistently like this. Very large, wide-open spaces that have a tendency to punish melee playstyles, especially on Hard Mode (which really, really wants you to use guns). It's a shame, too, since Richter is a great character, and it's a shame that his levels are pretty terrible to play through.
The second arc is the best in regards to its level design; the levels are mostly smaller spaces that reward both melee play and gun play (the only exception is the Writer's level, 'First Trial', seeing how the Writer is a character that gives you less points if you decide to start using guns). 'No Mercy' and 'Execution' are pretty good in this regard, and 'Moving Up' would also be really great if the final floor wasn't basically a giant room with a bunch of guns surrounded by three long hallways also filled with guns (especially on Hard Mode which, once again, really likes guns).
Like in my previous review, Hotline Miami 2 is also pretty glitchy, especially in regards to dogs. They like to phase in and out through walls, and I've found that it's impossible to tell when and where they'll actually detect you, since their detection mechanics are really screwed up. This is also a problem with other enemies, from regular grunts to thugs and everything in between.
However, the best part about Hotline Miami 2 hasn't even been released yet, and that is the level editor. The level editor will give the players the power to make their own levels from the ground-up, and they can make everything from single levels without intros or outros to entire campaigns with intros, outros, and cutscenes. I firmly believe that once the level editor comes out (which it was supposed to come out earlier this year, in the spring), the players of the game will be able to make levels that incorporate the best parts of the first and second games.
Before I get into that TL;DR I promised, there is one thing I'd like to mention, and that is that I read something on the Hotline Miami 2 subreddit that made me reconsider my first review and eventually led to me redoing it. It was a comment that basically said that the first and second games are, at their cores, different types of challenges, that that which game was harder and/or more rewarding would come down to player preference. I think that this is totally true; the first game's challenge comes from making a plan and executing it perfectly, which is why it's so satisfying when it works. The second game's challenge comes from how well you react to enemies coming your way; while it's important to have a general plan, it's far more important to be able to switch your plan at the drop of a hat to accommodate for enemies that noticed you because of some of that good old RNG. If you're going into Hotline Miami 2 expecting the same thing as the first game, like I first did, you're probably going to have a bad time. I've basically 'made my peace', so to speak, with the differences between the games, and I'm able to enjoy both of them when I get into the right mindset, but that's just me. You might have an easier or harder time adjusting.
So, as for that TL;DR: Hotline Miami 2 improves upon its predecessor with a better grasp on sound design and music choice, increased tolerance and viability of different and diverse playstyles, and more interesting characters. However, all of these upsides can go down the drain when presented with the banes of many a Hotline Miami 2 level: poor level design that can severely hurt some playstyles, and some pretty severe glitches. It's a game that rewards good reflexes and sticking to whatever you like to do at its best, and a game that severely limits what your available options are at its worst.
Anyways, that's my new review of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. I think I did a better job on this one, since that last one came basically right after I beat the first game with an expression of anger at why it was so hard. I was still under the impression that I was supposed to play the game like the first Hotline Miami, and after beating the game on Hard Mode and then getting A+ / S rank on all the Normal Mode chapters, I realized that maybe I was too rash in my judgement. So, I thought about it some more, and here this review is. I'm still not done playing the game; I'm trying to get all the achievements, and the only one I have left is GENOCIDE, which is to kill 50,000 enemies. It's mostly grinding, but I at least get to play the levels that I like to play until I hit 50k. Then I can say that I have conquered Hotline Miami 2 because getting A+ on all levels in Hard Mode isn't an achievement. Thank God.
TL;DR the TL;DR