Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (2015)

The second entry to the Hotline Miami franchise is a louder, harsher, and more ambitious follow-up to the original cult classic. Set before and after the events of the first game, it expands the story through multiple characters and interwoven timelines, painting a grim, chaotic portrait of obsession, violence, and consequence. The game’s pulsing synth soundtrack, composed by a variety of electronic artists, stands out as one of its greatest strengths. Each track heightens the adrenaline and intensity of every encounter. I can't praise the OST enough, it is simply one of the best in gaming history, and not just because I'm biased towards the Synthwave genre.

Combined with the vivid pixel art and neon-soaked visuals, the atmosphere feels hypnotic and unsettling, pushing you into a trance-like state as they fight, die, and repeat. Gameplay remains fast, punishing, and skill-based, demanding quick reflexes and memorization of enemy patterns. The addition of unique playable characters, each with their own abilities and restrictions, adds variety, but also limits the freedom that made the first Hotline Miami so satisfying. And this was a very welcome and needed change because, as much as the story is one of the best that I've ever experienced, the gameplay loop favors a lot from a more in-depth and varied play-styles.

Many levels are larger and more open, which often leads to frustrating deaths from enemies that attack from off-screen or through windows. This shift in design changes the pace of the game, sometimes making it feel slower and more methodical rather than fluid and instinctive. Narratively, this game is more ambitious but also more fragmented. Its story jumps between perspectives and eras, offering glimpses into the motivations behind the violence but rarely providing clear answers. This second entry escalated the story insanely high, with more characters and timelines to follow, it can sometimes feel confusing, but trust me, it pays off at the end.

While some people appreciate this complex, self-aware approach, others find it confusing and less impactful than the minimalist storytelling of the first game. Still, the game succeeds in creating an oppressive, nightmarish tone that lingers long after it ends. In the end, this videogame is both a celebration and a critique of its predecessor. It doubles down on everything that made the series famous style but also exposes the limits of that formula. It’s not as tightly designed or balanced as the original, yet it is one of the best indie games of all time.

I thought that it would've lost some of it's charm after I hadn't played it for a few years but its still just as incredible as I remember it being.

Hotline Miami will always hold a special place in my heart for being just pure unfiltered fun from start to end. The first game is an excellent little adventure with some fantastic game play and an incredible soundtrack, and Wrong Number is pretty much a straight improvement on its formula.

This time around, we also have a bigger and bolder story following a huge amount of characters around as we see them perpetuate the endless cycle of violence in Miami. All of them are excellent and appropriately fucked up when they need to be and the writing throughout is stellar. Richard's rants in particular are some of my favorite scenes in any video game and they never feel preachy or obnoxious. It plays a delicate balancing act between being too violent or too self-righteous but I think they nailed the pacing feel of the story perfectly here. It is perhaps a bit confusing your first time through due to the out-of-order style of storytelling, but after a second play through it's pretty easy to catch anything you might've missed your first time through. There's also plenty of little easter eggs hidden throughout the story, ranging from minor references to bonus levels.

Of course, ya bois are back at it again with the soundtrack this time as well. It has a noticeably darker tone than the first Hotline Miami, but it fits well with the story and (in my humble opinion) is far better than the first game. M|O|O|N, Scattle, and Perturbator return, but are also joined by legendary synthwave legends like Carpenter Brut and Mega Drive who bring an appropriately more intense feel and give the soundtrack far more depth. Even if the gameplay was complete ass, the soundtrack that this game has would almost be enough to carry you through it. It's just that good.

Masks are more varied, the soundtrack is more interesting, and it just feels better in general. We get some great variety from the new playable characters and I fucking love how crazy some of the mask abilities are. One of my favorite new playable characters is The Writer for his hilarious non-lethal play style that exists in a game full of blood and gore. It's not just a gimmick though; He can only effectively use blunt objects but picking up guns to unload them not only disarms enemies, but its a great way of keeping your combo going as well. The soldier levels are some of my favorite as well since they give you limited ammo and huge sandbox levels to explore.

DESPITE what others have claimed, Hotline Miami 2 does want you to experiment with its levels and find more efficient ways to get through them. It will push you outside your comfort zone if you truly want those big combos, and you are going to think outside the box sometimes to make it through some of the tougher levels. I will admit though, that the over abundance of windows in some of the later levels can feel cheap. It doesn't make sense architecturally and it feels cheap when an enemy can hit you from 5 rooms away while he wasn't even on your screen. To counter-act this, your character is a tiny bit more resilient than Jacket in Hotline Miami 1 (you can sometimes survive a bullet), but it's still not enough to make up for the annoying level design.

That's pretty much my only legit complaint with the game in an otherwise perfect piece of gaming bliss. Probably won't make you a fan if you didn't enjoy the first game, but if you wanted an already perfect formula to be even more enjoyable, this is an easy sell. An all time favorite game for me and I really hope we get more Dennaton games at some point.

Being a big fan of the first game I thought this would be amazing, new characters, new story, new weapons, everything new. Unfortunately what I got was new stuff, but not good new stuff.

The story has too many protagonists with disjointed story lines, settings, motives, etc. HM1 had a simple story that created some intrigue in the uncertainty of what was going on. It was not convoluted, only involved a couple characters, and was enjoyable in a trippy drug fueled psychotic haze kind of way. The near perfect soundtrack added to the feel.

However this is a review about HM2, not HM1.

The game play is enjoyable at times but overall very frustrating. The maps for each stage are so big that off screen kills feel unfair. There's the ability to look ahead but often you still can't see enemies with this feature. I didn't like that.

Getting back to the story line there are lots of interesting character you can play as but they have just as many limitations as cool abilities. Things felt gimmicky and although it's cool and bad ass to wield two Uzis, they ended up being hard to control and ran out of bullets fast.

The increased difficulty due to big maps, obstacles in rooms, off screen enemies, limitations in characters and weapons, and convoluted and confusing story led to a frustrating experience.

I sunk six hours into this game, gave it an honest try, and stuck it in the backlog to where it will remain until it gets uninstalled.

Disappointing entry into the HM franchise.

I played the first Hotline Miami and fully enjoyed the puzzle-shooter gameplay, but the story left a bad taste.

Fast forward to Hotline Miami 2 and I'm bashing in brains, cutting off heads, and sniping people from across the map with little concern for my actions. It may be that I knew what to expect or that I'm getting more accepting of hyper violence after all these years. Either way, I've blown through most of the levels in just a few evenings an am enjoying every additional gameplay element (Windows, weapons, exploding meth labs, etc.).

The learning curve feels just right, though I feel quite a bit more resilient to failures thanks to my play through of Celeste.

The one thing I'd like to see is saving state mid-level. I was surprised to have beaten an area (but not a whole level), shut down the game for the night, and then have to redo the area when I played the next day. Maybe mobile gaming has spoiled me, but just save my state—please!

Enjoying so far but have noticed my grades are a lot worse than in HM1. This is definitely due to the size of the rooms/maps which causes me to play more stealth instead of full on speed run reckless. Not sure if I want to go back and try to A+ each stage, doesn't seem worth it.

The story is pretty convoluted, I mean how many characters are they introducing? Confusing too, can't tell what is a dream, delusion, hallucination, or in game reality. There are so many characters that when they introduce a new one I just ask myself "should I care about this person?"

I'm liking it but it's not as good as HM1. The duo level is pretty cool but it would be better if you could independently control the chainsaw dude then 'tag out' the pistol dude.

Worth the $3.74 I spent but would never pay more than that for it. Ok, maybe $5, it is fun. I just had higher expectations.

I'm angry and I have a problem with Hotline Miami 2, let's see if I can put my thoughts semi-cohesively so I can explain what said problem is.

Let's start with the music, because I actually like it, is gr8 in fact, if you like this type of music that is, but I do think the first game had better tracks overall.

Another thing I like, the new Characters with new abilities, they aren't many, but for certain characters you need to change your playstyle dramatically, I like that. I was genuinely having fun controlling 2 characters at once, one wielding a chainsaw and the other a shotgun. But they're also very limited, for reason I will get in a bit.

After that, everything else is a mixed-bag, or worst.

The easiest thing to start with would be the graphics, because it looks the same, which it's not necessarily bad because HM1 looks good, but they also reuse several of the same character models.

HM1 has very small maps with delimited rooms filled with enemies, that way is easier and faster to restart every time you die and it keeps the flow consistent. HM2 has very big maps, were most enemies have guns and can spot you before you spot them, so now you are "forced" to play it safe, checking every corner twice, and moving slowly. And the levels are so big that every time an enemy ruins your perfect run you feel more and more frustrated.

For some reason the developers decide to put obstacles in several rooms of the game, the problem is that all of them are 2D, so you can't really distinguish between something you can't shoot through and something you can't walk over, until you get shot in the face while being stuck in said obstacles.

Talking about confusing 2D perspective, there are two new enemies that take advantage of this, both of them crouch and instantly become immune to bullets, pretty silly but not really bad.

I'm not going to talk a lot about the story to avoid spoilers, but basically HM1 story was ambiguous, since no one seemed quite right in the head you didn't know who or what to trust, and I really enjoyed that, it gave the game a surreal feeling. HM2 decides to streamline everything, throwing LOTS of information every chance it gets, but also leaving certain plot points hanging to leave something to the imagination.

The story is not bad because of what they tried to do, it's bad because of how they did it: Multiple Protagonists + Multiple Storylines + Non-linear story-telling. So you end up jumping between different times and places to fill in parts of the bigger picture. This is all absolutely unnecessary, why would you make it so convoluted? Why didn't they just picked one story and ran with it? Most of them are interesting on their own, but when they share screen time with the other stories, all of them become less important and the story losses focus because of it.

This also ends up affecting the gameplay since most of the protagonists have different abilities, so even if you are having the time of your life controlling one particular character, the game will force you to play another character, with different or without abilities, in order to advance the story. That's probably the thing I hate the most about this game, and why I will just keep playing the original whenever I get the need for ultra-violence

I think that's everything I had in my mind about this game. Oh yeah, they're also a good amount of glitches that contributed toward my disappointment, but none of them were to offensive.

So yeah, 2 stars. Maybe on a rainy day, when I'm weak, I will bump the score towards a 3/5 because that gameplay is still crazy fun, but for the meantime it stays like that. Thanks for the attention

Hotline Miami 2 is a 2D pixel top down action indie game - a very punishing and fast paced but entertaining.

If you played the first one - this one will not surprise you at all. It's essentially the same game with just a few mechanics added on top, a bit higher difficulty level, and a number of new levels. I think I preferred the original version as it felt fresh at the time. This one feels just like more of the same and while the game is well designed and plays well it lacks the novelty the previous title had.

Graphically - this is very rough looking, gory 2D pixel art. The camera is constantly bobbing left and right in the rhythm of the music. Blood explodes violently, everything is extremely graphic and brutal. Although the resolution does not let you see the details it's still pretty gruesome. Did not enjoy the graphic style much, but got used to it in the end and it serves it's purpose just fine.

The thing worth of note is definitely the soundtrack - it's just amazing to listen to even without playing the game. But fits very well - the game would not be half as good without it. It sets the tone and mood so well.

Mechanically it's a very fast 2D action shooter. One you will die a lot. The levels are sort of a puzzle, you need to learn what route to take, and where to expect enemies. You need to decide which gun to take, and in which order to eliminate your opponents as this will dictate which new guns you will get. The ammo is very limited and therefore each shot counts.

What Hotline Miami 2 introduces over the first installment is the need to play certain new characters. While mechanics in the first part were constant throughout the whole game - here you get a number of different playable characters, each that comes with a bit different qualities. For example you get to control a news reporter that throws away all guns until you kill two people with a bat or other blunt weapon or you get to control two brothers - one carrying chainsaw while the other one shoots. The new characters are interesting change to the game paste - but some of the levels seem unnecessarily difficult forcing you to play a certain way instead your own - especially the Vietnam ones, where you can't change weapon and it's really hard to get ammo.

The story tries to be a bit more deep than the first one but I never played Hotline Miami for the story. It's the game play that sells this game - and it's still unique and plays so smooth. It's definitely worth picking up and giving it a go. If you've never played the original one though I would recommend the first one over the second - as the game play does seem a bit more focused there.

The two things i noticed first in HLM2 WN is the same style of synthwave/noirdisco soundtrack and same style of slick visuals. However, both are heavily improved. We are graced with Some relaly nice fitting themes, and there are some fanastic new artists (if you like them) such as Carpenter Brut... And some of the tracks really mesh well with the in game events in which they play. In classic HLM, the visuals were that distinct gradient. That remains but added along with it is some amazing color cycling text that displays the name of the VHS episode (and more subtley, also background) effects that are very garish.I can't express just how well the visual elements in this game were done all across the board. Lots of little dirty detailed pixel art bits and rubbish in the levels too to give it that grungy feel. Everything about the original is present with more tender loving care it would seem. AT first glance the same frantic gameplay and adernaline rushing room clearing. IF not mistaken, the camera control is a bit different and it seem you can see a bit further off the edge of the screen when you press the look command. You can also configure keys for each mask (though i am unsure why you might wish to overcomplicate things) The main detraction first noticed is in how each mission is very episodic. You have lots of 'cut scenes' and then you switch to other characters in this strange story, rather than play a central character (jacket) you see many. The psychosis of these characters becomes really heavily emphaszied too, so there is a nice little background narrative unfolding as you play (one of the things that greatly interested me in the first game was this background story of what is going on and why things are happening)

Same style of music and visuals, and level design, all possibly better. There is actually quite a bit of music too in this one.

same gameplay and controls not tweaked too much, though there is some interesting usage of the controls and playstyle for certain parts of the game, and with certain 'masks'

some effort put into the story as game progress. More switching between characters and their expereicnes.

Map layout and missions get progressively harder, and this might be too much for some players. I like the way it was done and thought it was perfect.

pretty hard to cirticize, i dont wish to say it's better because its the same kind of thing with slight improvements but more importantly is in that it's unmolested and anyone who liked the first would like what is done here i would imagine. The story is a bit back and forth between times and characters (nothing new there) but it's a bit more disorienting due to many points of view. Rather than just focusing on Jacket and his temporal spacing out, by switching characters, going back to their 'old memories' this gives it a different feel.. rather than diving deeper and deeper into the unusual experience of jacket's character (or rather his psychosis) as it progresses, wondering what it is exactly he is experiencing, you are flipping between chracters for the sake of narrative. This is a tradeoff in that it has a bit less mystery that the first, and is more straight forward about what is happening by sacrifice a bit of that mystery for the sake of a narrative (that follows something that feels a bit like Tom Clancy's Without Remorse at times) In any case, thsi doesnt make the gameplay less satisfying. This is where some might feel a bit different in how the game plays.

The missions are longer. You have room by room 'checkpoints' (this was the case as the first) but it seems each mission is maybe twice as long to three times. The combat is more stragetic and calculating. There are different kinds of enemies. They patrol. It almost feels like a stealth/assasination game. You can however often just go in blazing as well (at least on certain areas in a 'room/checkpoint' So you can mix it up, can adapt. Etc. This is really just perfect. Each map seems to have enough spice to just let me explore every option. There are no right or wrong answers! Try everything.

In the first game i would simply get a melee weapon and take everyone out until it worked. In the second? I'm going through trial and error. Learning the patrols, learning what they are armed with, learning to time my shots so i cknow when i am out of that final shotgun shell where to grab the knife or next weapon and who is left that it will be used on...

That's tht biggest difference maybe between the two games. The difficulty is hard but it's managable and you get to explore different routes for finishing a level. I thought it was fine.

There are shootable objects other than windwos, such as phones, and computers. This is a nice bit of livelihood in the background scenery, which also as a rule seems much more crisp and detailed. There are some really cool masks in this one that are more interesting in my opinion than the first. Some interesting usage of the controls as well to play a bit differently with these characters. Tbhere are new weapons (or more variety) but they do not really stand out as a focus of the game

There are a few clever design ideas littered about here and there in the game (Such as the pause/menu) Some cool cut scenes. In the end it feels a lot like the first game, just as pure, but more extensively developed, part of me misses that mystery of Jacket's enigmatic character, but I am also quite happy to get a chance to learn more about this strange world. Therare a few secrets, a bonus level, a few hidden scenes, some achievements an unlockable hard mode... In the end i loved this game and can only hope that the series continues in some way or another.

In the indie games world, sequels are hard. really hard. No matter what you do, everything about your new game will always be compared against your first one. This is true of AAA games as well, but they're working on longer timelines and bigger scale, so there's more they can iterate on. The important thing is to recognize what made your first game popular, and find a way to capture that magic again, it's no small order.

The original Hotline: Miami was special for a few reasons. First, the music was absolutely INCREDIBLE! The music perfectly matched the look and feel of the game itself. It nicely complemented the frenetic gameplay and the drug-fueled hyper violent 80's theme oozing from every corner of the screen. That 80's theming also made Hotline Maimi special. It was like some sort of mix between Scarface and A Clockwork Orange, yet somehow worse, and darker. The gameplay was fast and rewarding, making you think and plan ahead, only to have those plans hit the wall along with shards of your skull.

You know the saying, "Best laid plans of psychopaths and killers"

Hotline Miami 2 does the best it can to build on the strengths of the first game. Unfortunately, it often builds in the wrong direction.

In many ways, Hotline Miami 2 feels like a direct continuation of the first game. The difficulty ramps up almost immediately to the point where it's all but assumed that players of this game are already well versed in the controls and mechanics. I was amazed how quickly things escalated the become pretty darn difficult. I'm talking like the 2nd level here. I feel for anyone wading into the second game as their intro to the series, you're in for a bit of an adjustment period. Now, extra difficulty can definitely be a good thing. Its the way in which the game is more difficult that bothers me.

Things are a lot harder in Hotline Miami 2 simply because everything is so much bigger than in the first game. Each level is about the size of three original game levels, meaning you need to string together a longer run of perfection to actually complete a stage, as a single shot from any enemy can still send you right back to the beginning. More than that though, the rooms themselves are also WAY bigger. They're so much bigger that getting shot by an off-screen character is a very real worry at pretty much all times. Even when using the extended look function, you are often not able to see far enough to comfortably move forward.

Haven't even walked in the door and already I'm apprehensive.

This change in environment size leads to a few changes in the way you need to approach each level, and they're all to the detriment of the experience. First, you're going to be using guns a lot more. In the first Hotline Miami I used guns as a last resort. I much preferred to burst into rooms with my knife flailing, taking out everyone before they even saw me coming. That's not going to work in this game, because there are often six guys in a single room, the room is too big to burst into to surprise everyone, and the enemies at the far end of the room have one-shot-kill shotguns that they're deadly accurate with.

The other change to my gameplay that I despised was passivity. When levels can easily contain 20+ enemies and each run takes several minutes, you're going to be MUCH more careful about not screwing up and dying part way through an attempt. Part of the fun of the first game was thinking up a crazy strategy, then bursting into a room and trying it out. When it worked it felt absolutely amazing, and when it didn't it was hilarious. When each attempt is hyper difficult and dying would mean having to start all over from 20 enemies ago, I'm just not going to take any crazy risks. This led to a lot of luring enemies around a corner and stabbing them in the neck. The basic body-pile strategy is very effective, but it also feels cheesy. I felt guilty when doing this in the first game. It felt essential in this game.

Can't argue with the result!

It might seem a little harsh. When it comes right down to it, the moment to moment combat still feels good. The aesthetic is still cool and unique. The storytelling is hypnotic and oddly intriguing, and that's not even to mention the music. The music is unquestionably the best part of Hotline Miami 2. I applaud them greatly for deviating quite a bit from the extremely well regarded music of the first game. Between the two games there's actually quite a bit of variety. Many of the tracks this time around are a bit more mellow and slow-paced than in the first, which actually mirrors the gameplay in some ways.

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed. I loved the first Hotline Miami and was really looking forward to this one. It was kind of a harsh epiphany this time around as I started to realize I wasn't enjoying myself as much. Usually beating a level wasn't cause for excitement, but rather exasperated relief that I was done with that particular ordeal. If beating a level in a game makes me think "Oh thank god! I'm so glad I don't have to do that again" there's probably something a little off.

it's great. Some levels are nice, but some are extremely frustrating, not in the way of the first Hotline Miami, where frustration was somehow a good thing, here I felt that some levels where just made difficult to BE difficult. Amazingly, I enjoyed the game in Hard mode much more (most of the times I began a level by thinking it's 'IMPOSSIBLE to beat it !' but I do, so it kept me going.) A worthy successor I would say.

The Soundtrack is as expected, excellent.

The good thing is the announced level creator, which will allow surely a lot of great fan-made levels in the future.