Hotline Miami

Hotline Miami is dark and gruesome. You play the role of a mass serial killer, barging into buildings and murdering everything in sight through the most violent means available. Why you kill is unimportant; all you need to know is someone’s giving you contracts via telephone. It’s all business, so why ask questions? Just don the mask and get to work.

Hotline Miami is an action-puzzle game. Your goal is to kill everyone in sight in the highest scoring way possible while avoiding all harm that comes your way, for one hit is all it takes to meet death's grasp. It's a deceptively simple premise wrapped around hellishly challenging -- perhaps even addictive -- execution.

After arriving at your destination, you put on your animal mask of choice and start killing. You begin with no weapons equipped, having to rely on your fists to do anything. Punches stun foes so that you can finish them and then steal their weaponry to kill with more efficiency. Guns and blunt objects litter the scene. The former allows for ranged kills, but draws foes toward you due to their noisy nature; the latter, however, is quieter, but lack range.

At first you might try bum-rushing it, moving from target to target whacking and shooting anything you can. Hotline Miami, however, quickly ensures this is not a viable strategy. You're usually engaging at least two or more thugs at a time, thus you have to be both quick and methodical in dispatching them. One slip-up is all that stands between you and victory. Literally.

A single hit-point is all you have. One strike will kill you instantly. Thus, a lot of time is spent perfecting a run. In the several stages I played, I tried dashing through each room swiftly because I thought doing so would be the most efficient means. And it is -- when you're hunting for high scores, anyway. I had to slow down to actually finish most of them, since recklessness often ended in me being shot by some rifle-holding thug just out of sight. Frustrating. But not frustrating.

Each and every death is the result of you and you alone. It's like Super Meat Boy in that the mechanics are fair, just difficult. Very difficult. Trial and error are common factors here, though it's all the name of making you play better, score higher. Thus the addictive quality: performance.

You're graded at the end of every level, the curve being on overall points, I believe. The full game will have leaderboards, therefore you're encouraged to perform exceedingly well, at least if leaderboard chasing is your thing. Otherwise, the game incentives high scores by letting you unlock new masks. The full game promises that the masks will alter gameplay and challenge in some form.

Hotline Miami is set for release this coming Tuesday, October 23rd. We'll have a full review ready around that time, so stay tuned.

Disclaimer: Retailer Gog.com provided us with this preview build.

Callum Rakestraw, NoobFeed.