Apparently it's about a conspiracy to stop a russo-american coalition by killing off the russian mob? I don't know, i can't figure it all out. The game flirts with morality, insanity and pure cartoonish lunacy. If anyone can help me make sense of this it's you escapist forums.
Any discussion here will help me towards an essay on the game itself, which I currently am in the process of writing. Thanks!
Well, according to Errant Signal, Hotline Miami is more of a commentary on how story isn't as important as well-refined mechanics and gameplay within a video game:
Which, admittedly, I kinda have to agree with. It doesn't feel like a criticism of violence in video games since, unlike something like Spec Ops: the Line, the mechanics of the game are extremely fluid and made to make said violence fun. Plus, the game doesn't try to actively make you feel like you're doing something wrong and terrible, i.e. the previously mentioned Spec Ops. It's more of an argument against narrative and for the actual gameplay due to how the game basically taunts the kinds of players who look for "answers" to everything narrative-wise rather than just enjoying the game for how it plays and feels.
Honestly i prefer to think of the game as a psycho killer simulator and that you're imagining most of the late game plot reveals as flimsy reasons and self induced fantasies for you to go around killing people who in your mind are russian gangsters but are actually police officers trying to stop you, civilians and people that bullied you when you were at school (the end boss of jackets section is actually the high school jock who went on to be rich and famous and the ninja woman is the prom queen who socially destroyed you just cos it was fun to do so). Well maybe not quite that drastic, but point being i preferred it when i thought my guy was an insane killer totally disconnected from reality.
Yeh im not a fan of the russo gangster takeover of the usa storyline.
Well, according to Errant Signal, Hotline Miami is more of a commentary on how story isn't as important as well-refined mechanics and gameplay within a video game:
Which, admittedly, I kinda have to agree with. It doesn't feel like a criticism of violence in video games since, unlike something like Spec Ops: the Line, the mechanics of the game are extremely fluid and made to make said violence fun. Plus, the game doesn't try to actively make you feel like you're doing something wrong and terrible, i.e. the previously mentioned Spec Ops. It's more of an argument against narrative and for the actual gameplay due to how the game basically taunts the kinds of players who look for "answers" to everything narrative-wise rather than just enjoying the game for how it plays and feels.
Well, according to Errant Signal, Hotline Miami is more of a commentary on how story isn't as important as well-refined mechanics and gameplay within a video game:
Which, admittedly, I kinda have to agree with. It doesn't feel like a criticism of violence in video games since, unlike something like Spec Ops: the Line, the mechanics of the game are extremely fluid and made to make said violence fun. Plus, the game doesn't try to actively make you feel like you're doing something wrong and terrible, i.e. the previously mentioned Spec Ops. It's more of an argument against narrative and for the actual gameplay due to how the game basically taunts the kinds of players who look for "answers" to everything narrative-wise rather than just enjoying the game for how it plays and feels.
Even after watching that video i still couldn't get it.
If it's mocking narrative purpose, why include one? You can't pull something like this, not anymore, especially with Spec Ops out there. If you spend effort on putting together some driving force in the narrative, don't mock us for wanting to see where it goes. Besides, the narrative just seems, with a little bit of retro thinking, to be jsut a flimsy excuse to prevent this game from simply being about gleeful mass murder, which would rile a lot of people.
The narrative is clearly trying to reach for something, but it goes all over the place. And the big reveal of the russo-american coalition (I spent over an hour solving that word puzzle) is silly overall and negates that whole point.
Plus the game kind of controls like crap anyways, despite what everyone says, and there's a lot of bull in the random weapon drops, those big guys who can survive a whole clip of assault rifle fire and force you to play a level in one way just to kill them, and some huge AI problems. Basically, this game doesn't control well enough where I could forgive its narrative problems, sure it's still fun as hell, but it's not an all-out masterpiece of fun like SUper Mario Bros. or SSX.
In short, it's fun, but it's not great, and it's narrative and controls are to blame.
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