Though it has level design by Lucifer and more guns than a russian child's christmas list, Hotline Miami 2 is still an amazing game.

The story is great, using a Pulp Fiction-style narrative that connects different characters (all with their own hidden motives and secrets). It made me sympathise with (almost) everyone, while hating most of them at the same time. The Pulp Fiction aproach allows the game to show different motives and viewpoints, expanding your understanding of the good and the evil of the world. The problem that arrises is how the story is SO expansive that most ambigious themes are lost. The great thing about HM1's story is that you feel so small in a big plan you know nothing about. You felt very in the dark, whereas in HM2, you're in so much light it's like San Fransisco in 1986 (If you've played the game, you'll get me). When the first game fed you small bits of infomation through the environment, cryptic messages and newspaper clippings, HM2 DUMPS infomation on you and you must put the pieces together. It still has the whole "stitch the story together yourself" theme but I don't think it really went about it in the right way.

The gameplay is pretty damn amazing, it is the peak of stylized ultra-violence in my opinion, nothing really beats it. The problem however is the level design. The level design lets down the gameplay SO much, when the gameplay is all about horrific melee massacres, the design supports playing peek-aboo with an AK47. When HM1 was all about tight spaces and small roomed, complex houses, HM2 has FAR too many open spaces.

The soundtrack is AMAZING. It took the first games award-winning audio and expanded on it, which is all we could really ask for. It SCREAMS the high octane feeling of the game in a way that fits perfectly with the brutal gameplay. Different characters have different music styles that reflect them, which I think works really well in the whole "stitch the story together" theme. The music really says things without words, if you listen and think about the context (or I've played a little too much).

So, to sum up, I would reccomend Hotline Miami 2 to anyone who enjoyed the first game and wants more raw, bloodthirsty action, and some closure (and more questions) on certain parts of the story. Though it is not as good as the first game in my opinion, it is still an epic-ly brutal game on its own.

Though it has level design by Lucifer and more guns than a russian child's christmas list, Hotline Miami 2 is still an amazing game. The story is great, using a Pulp Fiction-style narrative that connects different characters (all with their own hidden motives and secrets). It made me sympathise with (almost) everyone, while hating most of them at the same time. The Pulp Fiction aproach allows the game to show different motives and viewpoints, expanding your understanding of the good and the evil of the world. The problem that arrises is how the story is SO expansive that most ambigious themes are lost. The great thing about HM1's story is that you feel so small in a big plan you know nothing about. You felt very in the dark, whereas in HM2, you're in so much light it's like San Fransisco in 1986 (If you've played the game, you'll get me). When the first game fed you small bits of infomation through the environment, cryptic messages and newspaper clippings, HM2 DUMPS infomation on you and you must put the pieces together. It still has the whole "stitch the story together yourself" theme but I don't think it really went about it in the right way. The gameplay is pretty damn amazing, it is the peak of stylized ultra-violence in my opinion, nothing really beats it. The problem however is the level design. The level design lets down the gameplay SO much, when the gameplay is all about horrific melee massacres, the design supports playing peek-aboo with an AK47. When HM1 was all about tight spaces and small roomed, complex houses, HM2 has FAR too many open spaces. The soundtrack is AMAZING. It took the first games award-winning audio and expanded on it, which is all we could really ask for. It SCREAMS the high octane feeling of the game in a way that fits perfectly with the brutal gameplay. Different characters have different music styles that reflect them, which I think works really well in the whole "stitch the story together" theme. The music really says things without words, if you listen and think about the context (or I've played a little too much). So, to sum up, I would reccomend Hotline Miami 2 to anyone who enjoyed the first game and wants more raw, bloodthirsty action, and some closure (and more questions) on certain parts of the story. Though it is not as good as the first game in my opinion, it is still an epic-ly brutal game on its own.