Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami is a 2012 top-down shooter game developed by Dennaton Games and published by Devolver Digital. Set in Miami in 1989, the game follows an unnamed silent protagonist—dubbed Jacket by fans—as he commits massacres against the local Russian mafia. In each level, the player must defeat every enemy through any means necessary, with wearable animal masks providing the player with unique abilities. The plot follows Jacket as he slowly loses his grip on reality and is interrogated for his actions. It advocates a pacifist message by making the player feel regret for their in-game actions.
The game was developed over the course of nine months as the first commercial release of Dennaton Games, a duo composed of developers Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin. Söderström programmed the game and wrote the narrative, while Wedin designed the graphics. Several artists contributed to the soundtrack, which combines many music genres like electronic, techno, vaporwave, and synthwave. ''Hotline Miami was released in October 2012 for Windows, followed by versions for OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita in 2013, and a PlayStation 4 port in 2014.
Hotline Miami has been frequently considered one of the greatest video games, as well as one of the most influential indie games. Initial reviews highlighted its gameplay, soundtrack, and atmosphere, though some criticized its controls. The themes and storytelling were also praised. It was nominated for several awards and sold 1.5 million copies by May 2015. The game inspired multiple developers and contributed to a rise in indie game releases throughout the 2010s; it also contributed to the success of its publisher and the popularity of the synthwave music genre. A sequel, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number'', was released in March 2015. The series went on to spawn a franchise, with two compilations of both games on platforms such as the Nintendo Switch, a comic book spinoff, and several fan games.
Gameplay
Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter game. It is set in Miami during the late 1980s, and is divided into nineteen "chapters". At the beginning of each chapter, the player character "Jacket" receives a message on his answering machine, instructing him to travel to a different part of Miami and kill all enemies at that location. The player is able to defeat their opponents through a variety of melee and ranged weapons, like crowbars and firearms. The player can also knock out enemies with a door, use them as a human shield, or kick them against the wall. If an enemy is not immediately killed in an attack, the player can perform a specialized attack to finish them off. Later stages have the player take control of a different character, known as the Biker, who can only use knives.The player and enemies can both be felled by a single attack each. To compensate, the player is able to quickly restart the current stage after death, allowing them to rethink their strategy. Different types of enemies appear, such as dogs and boss characters. The enemy AI is inconsistent, with reactions to attacks ranging from responding immediately to doing nothing. The player is awarded points for each enemy they kill, with bonus points awarded based on the method of execution or the number of enemies killed in quick succession. The player has the ability to lock onto an enemy and not have to aim. On the PlayStation Vita, the functions of the mouse, including aiming, are shifted over to the touch screen, with locking onto enemies requiring the player to touch them on-screen.
Before each chapter begins, the player can choose from a variety of animal masks to wear, which grant different abilities. These attributes include the player's finishing moves being sped up and allowing them to see further. At the end of each chapter, the player's total score is tallied and they are given a rating based on their performance. The player's score is further adjusted based on play style, which is given a classification like "coward" or "sadist". High scores unlock new masks and weapons for the player to use. Achievements are obtained by doing specific challenges such as killing two enemies in one brick throw.
Plot
In April 1989, Jacket receives a message on his answering machine and a package is delivered to his door containing a rooster mask. The package contains instructions advising Jacket to retrieve a briefcase from the Russian mafia at a metro station. After carrying out the mission, Jacket continues to receive messages instructing him to conduct more massacres. After each mission, he visits a store or a restaurant where a man known as Beard meets him and gives away free items such as pizza, films, and alcoholic beverages. During an assault on the estate of a film producer, Jacket rescues a girl and takes her to his apartment, nursing her back to good health and developing a romantic relationship with her. Afterwards, he is visited by three masked personas: Richard, Rasmus, and Don Juan, who question him for his actions. These encounters continue throughout the game. In another assault on a phone company, Jacket finds everybody dead except the Biker, who is trying to access a computer, and the two fight to the death.As Jacket's attacks continue, his perception of reality becomes increasingly more surreal. Talking corpses begin appearing at Beard's places of work until Beard himself abruptly dies, being replaced by a bald man named Richter that offers Jacket nothing. After coming home one night, Jacket discovers his girlfriend murdered by Richter, who shoots Jacket and places him into a coma. In one final encounter, Richard tells Jacket that he will "never see the full picture" and tells him that he was reliving the events of the past two months while comatose. After waking up, Jacket overhears that Richter has been arrested, and escapes the hospital in search of him. Jacket storms Miami police headquarters, killing almost everyone inside and confronts Richter, who he discovers had also been receiving messages. Jacket spares his life and steals the file on the police investigations of the killings before heading to a nightclub to where the calls were tracked, killing everyone there as well. He then goes to the Russian Mafia headquarters and confronts both leaders of the syndicate. After Jacket injures him and kills his personal bodyguard, one of the leaders "spares him the pleasure" and kills himself. When Jacket confronts the other, he contemplates the things he did and allows Jacket to kill him without resistance. Afterwards, Jacket walks out onto a balcony and lights a cigarette, and throws a photo off of the balcony.
After completing the levels centered around Jacket, the player unlocks an epilogue centered around the Biker. Similarly to Jacket, the Biker has been receiving messages on his answering machine, and is dedicated to finding their source. After the encounter with Jacket depicted earlier and various interrogations, he finds the source of the messages to be 50 Blessings, a group operated by two janitors that attempt to undermine an "anti-American" alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States by telling their operatives to massacre Russians. The full ending requires the player to find puzzle pieces scattered throughout the game to crack 50 Blessings' password. If the player cracks the password, the Biker uncovers their secrets and political agenda. Without the password, the Biker is mocked and fails to discover the truth. In both endings, the player has the option to either kill or spare the janitors. After this, the Biker departs from Miami.
Development
Hotline Miami was developed by Dennaton Games, a duo composed of Swedish designer and programmer Jonatan Söderström and artist Dennis Wedin. Söderström had previously developed numerous freeware indie games, such as the puzzle game Tuning, which won the Nuovo Award at the Independent Games Festival in 2010. Many of his earlier projects were never completed. Among these was a top-down shooter called Super Carnage, where the goal was to kill as many people as possible. He began work on it in 2004 at the age of 18, but later abandoned it after facing difficulties with developing the AI.Years later, Söderström met Wedin, a singer and keyboard player for synthpunk band Fucking Werewolf Asso. The two collaborated in making a promotional game for the band, titled Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf, as well as a separate project named Life/Death/Island. As the latter project became too much work for them to handle, it was abandoned. Following the project's failure, the two decided that their next project was going to be a commercial release. Wedin began searching through Söderström's unfinished works, and came across Super Carnage. Seeing potential in the concept after previously playing similar games like Gauntlet and Chaos Engine, the two began developing Hotline Miami. The game was originally titled Cocaine Cowboy, named after the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Throughout development, Söderström posted updates on his Twitter account and blog.
The first playable version was created within the first week of development after Söderström assembled the basics, including a temporary soundtrack. It was developed using the GameMaker engine over the course of nine months, with the developers working twelve hours a day, six days a week. The scope of the project expanded after development studio Vlambeer shared a demo with Devolver Digital, who offered to publish it. Uncertain of success and working with little to no budget, the team lost and regained motivation repeatedly. In an interview with Edge, Wedin described the development as "fucking hard". At one point, Wedin was hospitalized for two weeks during development due to depression caused by a breakup. Development difficulties were further fueled by the outdated version of GameMaker that the duo was using, causing compatibility issues with newer operating systems and several bizarre bugs that were reported by playtesters. Among these bugs was one that would cause a crash if certain printers were plugged into the player's computer.