Hotline Miami is the best worst trip of your life. The nightmare begins in a dingy 1989 Miami apartment, as you listen to the first in a long line of mysterious messages left on your answering machine. For whatever reason, you feel compelled to do as you're told, a task that usually involves brutally murdering dozens of armed gunmen with hair triggers. Pressing on in a search for answers only further blurs the lines between reality and rampant psychosis, and you're left wondering which possibility is the least horrifying. Vigilante gone overboard? Contract killer? Maybe you're just a delivery driver losing himself in increasingly improbable power fantasies. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe you don't care.

The game presents an impressive array of weapons and animal masks, each augmenting your abilities or changing the gameplay in some way. It's more of a twitchy, reflex-based puzzler than a mindless rampage, and a single misstep will lead to a messy death at the hands of your adrenaline-fueled enemies. However, any feelings of frustration that might arise are quickly washed away in a tsunami of 16bit blood and gore, and the fast-paced, addictive gameplay will have you hitting the "retry" button out of pure reflex.

The soundtrack fits the game like a glass slipper, ghosts of acid-washed synthesizers and contemporary electronica comprising one of the best video game soundtracks you'll ever hear.

"I think our time is up... But we'll meet again.
Before you go, here's four questions to ponder.
Question number one:
Do you like hurting other people?
Question number two:
Who is leaving messages on your answering machine?
Question number three:
Where are you right now?
And the final question:
Why are we having this conversation?
That's all for now. See you soon..."