Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a top-down 2D action shooter game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. This new game is the long awaited sequel to the sleeper hit Hotline Miami which was a success with critics and players alike, while the original earned awards and nominations for its gritty yet nostalgic gameplay which Wrong Number attempts to further improve upon.

The story follows on from the events of the original Hotline Miami in the 1980s with consequences occurring from multiple factions in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the familiar setting of Miami, therefore providing a story from a variety of positions amongst the shady underworld of brutal criminality.

Each level is presented as a new scene with 27 chapters including the prologue and bonus scenes. The main story of the game consists of a prologue followed by 25 scenes spread over the course of 6 acts and a feature film with a bonus scene called The Abyss. Players can go back and revisit any scene they want too at any given time once those scenes have been completed without risking the possibility of overwriting progression through the story; which is a positive design choice as it allows players the freedom to search for any of the unlockables the game has to offer whenever they want to do so.

There is a rather large variety of enemies with two categories separating them into common enemies that will be regularly encountered and bosses that will be run into when players have brutalised all of their common enemies in order to get to them. There are seven types of common enemies including: thugs; mobsters; Colombians; Russian military; gangs; inspectors; and policemen, while there are four bosses including: The Fans; S.W.A.T. Chief; Prison Boss; and Gang Leader. As was the case in the first Hotline Miami; all of the common enemies and bosses have their own weapons that vary from enemy to enemy and boss to boss, so players should be aware of having to deal with different scenarios with enemies that can attack from afar and enemies that will attack in close quarters combat.

The environment design varies in comparison to the original Hotline Miami as the first game possessed rather tight and enclosed spaces whereas the sequel includes much greater wide open environments which really changes up the gameplay by making it harder to read where all of the enemies are hiding away or patrolling.

There is just as much variety in comparison to the first game in regards to the available weaponry as there are 3 categories of weapons including: melee weapons, firearms and thrown weapons, as well as the introduction of the ability to dual wield certain weapons. The melee weapons include: knives; baseball bats; lead pipes; chainsaws; and tasers; amongst many more totalling to 17 melee weapons, while the firearms include: shotguns; machine guns; double barrel shotguns; machine guns; sniper rifles; uzis; and magnums; amongst others totalling to 15 firearms and thrown weapons including a canister of liquid nitrogen. Players will need to use different types of weapons to combat different situations based upon the type of weaponry nearby enemies have at their disposal, such as targeting a distant enemy holding a firearm with a quick blast of the shotgun, machine gun or uzi, while an enemy holding a melee weapon that is in the player’s close proximity should be taken out quietly with a melee weapon such as a baseball bat or a baton to reduce the amount of noise, therefore removing the threat of alerting other nearby enemies that may be holding firearms. With 3 categories consisting of over 30 weapons which the cast of characters and the surrounding enemies can have at their disposal really adds an element of strategy on how to approach certain situations which is a positive design choice that definitely brings a new layer of gameplay that consistently keeps everything feeling fresh.

There are numerous masks which possess their own unique perks and skills including Corey who wears a zebra mask and allows the player to roll underneath bullets, while Tony has a tiger mask which provides deadly punches with no weapons, Mark wears a bear mask and dual wields machine guns, amongst many more including most interestingly Alex and Ash Davis who are a twin brother and sister pairing who both wear swan masks with Alex using a chainsaw and Ash using guns.

Players will receive a combination of level statistics and a chapter performance grade immediately after every completed chapter. The chapter performance grades are dependent upon the amount of points scored, which include such categories as the amount of enemies killed; combos for the length of combos and the amount of combos from two or more consecutive kills; flexibility for how quickly enemies are killed; mobility for how quickly the character moves between one enemy and the next; boldness for how the player attack enemies; a time bonus for how quickly a chapter is completed and a special bonus for generally excellent performance as well as a level score accumulating each area of the performance together before providing the time and grade for the completed level. There is a huge motivation to attempt to get the best high score and chapter performance grade that can be achieved; as players will be rewarded by unlocking a new weapon and a new mask with a unique ability if the player has performed to a high enough standard.

Whereas there were puzzle pieces to be collected in the first game; the sequel has the player collecting newspapers and reading them in full with a total of ten newspapers spread throughout the game which can most often be found during the intro to a level, although there are three newspapers which are situated in the outro of certain levels.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number supports cross-buy and cross-save between the PS4, PS3 and Vita. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that players will be purchasing the PS4, PS3 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase. The cross-save functionality allows players to sync the progression of the save file from the Vita to the PS3 or PS4 and vice versa. The cross-save feature is made possible by uploading the save file to the cloud on one console and downloading it from the other console.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with a variety of control schemes centring on the face buttons, touch pad and gyroscopic motion sensing functionality. The face buttons control scheme consists of pressing X to finish off an enemy when close to them, using them as a human shield when close to a fallen enemy, performing a special ability such as rolling around attacks, advancing dialogue during cutscenes or to restart when the character has been killed; pressing O to skip cutscenes; pressing L1 to interact with a story related object, picking up a weapon when close to the objects, dropping a weapon when armed or to throw a weapon such as throwing a gun when out of bullets in order to temporarily stun an enemy; pressing R1 to interact with a story related object, punching an enemy when unarmed, swinging a melee weapon such as a baseball bat or to shoot a weapon such as a machine gun or shotgun; pressing L2 to look further around the surroundings; pressing R2 to lock aim onto an enemy to shoot, melee or throw a weapon at; changing the direction of the left analogue stick or alternatively pressing up, down, left or right on the d-pad to move the character; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to aim a weapon; pressing the share button takes the player to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.

The touch pad implementation allows players to gently move their finger along the surface of the touch pad to scope out the positioning and movement patterns of enemies in the surrounding environment and tapping on the touch pad when the cursor is over the head of an enemy to lock onto them, so gunfire, punch or throw will be aimed at that particular enemy, while the gyroscopic motion sensing functionality has been implemented to allow the player to quickly tilt the DualShock 4 controller back and forth to finish off an enemy in violent fashion. The DualShock 4 controller will vibrate when attacking an enemy or when they have killed the character, while the light bar will change through various tones of light blue, pink and a variety of other colours in synchronicity of the change in colour from the environment backdrops.

Graphically, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number possesses an art style that is certainly reminiscent of retro games harking back to the days of 2D side scrolling games with a top-down twist and embracing the crackling of VHS video tape as part of its ‘80s and ‘90s visual charm. The environments are colourful with lots of different contrasts and tones that elevate the graphics up on a technical level beyond that of a top-down shooter which is even better than the first Hotline Miami.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface that is navigated by the face buttons with support for the left analogue stick and d-pad across various menus such as the main menu, online leaderboards, options and gameplay menus, although there is no support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. The background of the main menu screen features the logo title of the game in the foreground, while the main menu has an endless row of swaying palm trees in the wind passing by in the background with skyscrapers in the distant background, while the rest of the menu screens have skyscrapers in the foreground and background with a setting sun shining upon them positioned in the distant background during an ever changing range of vibrant colours which the light bar reflects by changing colour in harmony through various tones of light blue, pink and more besides.

The sound effects essentially cover the brutality of the game with gunshots, punches being thrown and blood splattering, alongside a variety of sound effects such as doors opening and closing, although there are no voice-overs with the character dialogue instead being available as text, while the psychedelic soundtrack sets the tone of the game. The audio has a further layer added to it in comparison to the Vita and PS3 versions as the DualShock 4 speaker implementation produces the sound of when an enemy is being finished off on the ground to provide an extra level of brutality to the game.

The trophy list includes 29 trophies with 14 bronze, 8 silver, 6 gold and 1 platinum trophy. The easiest trophy in the entire game has to be the Follow the Script bronze trophy as players only have to pay close attention to exactly what the director instructs the player to do so during the opening level, while the vast majority of the trophy list is hard to achieve such as the 1-800-Cleared gold trophy for finishing the game; the 1-800-Get Help gold trophy for finishing the game on hard mode; the 1-800-God Damn gold trophy for getting A+ on all levels on normal; and the Combo God gold trophy for performing a 20x combo. It is estimated that depending upon skill, timing, conservation of ammo, a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips and applying tactics appropriately that it would take between 20 to 30 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are two difficulty levels including normal and hard, although the hard difficulty level is not initially available and must actually be unlocked by completing the entire game on the normal difficulty level which results in harder to defeat enemies and the removal of some important abilities such as locking onto enemy targets. Whilst the addition of a hard mode will be welcomed as a challenge by the hardcore Hotline Miami players who perfected their playthroughs and scored highly in every level of the original game; everyone else who struggled to cope with the difficulty curve of the original will find the difficulty curve of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number even harder during the normal playthrough. Some players will even struggle to cope with the patrol of the two enemies in the opening room of the first level encountered after the tutorial and how some enemies rush at the character following any gunfire or anything that may alert them to the presence on the same floor they are positioned.

As was the case with the original Hotline Miami; a major element of the difficulty curve is presented from the fact that a single mistake will result in the character being fired upon or hit with a weapon from an enemy with the consequence being instant death and having to restart from the last checkpoint, although as the checkpoint only takes effect when the player has progressed onto the next floor of the building, therefore players will most likely find themselves having to restart from the beginning of the level on the majority of occasions.

There is no local or online multiplayer features which is surprising as co-operative multiplayer gameplay would have certainly worked well as would competitive multiplayer with one player going up against all of the villains as the other player controls the enemies with the capability of switching between the various enemies attempting to take out the other player. However, there are online leaderboards which focus on global scores, top scores and friend scores across all of the scenes with each leaderboard containing each player’s rank; name (PSN ID); score; and the mask used while achieving that score with the positioning of each player based upon the score that has been accumulated on that particular level.

The replayability of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is produced by the motivation of replaying levels to improve upon the high score in order to achieve a higher chapter performance grade resulting in unlocking weapons and new masks as well as a better position amongst the competitive online leaderboards, while finding all of the newspapers scattered throughout specific levels. However, it is the relentless difficulty which will see players naturally having to replay entire areas of chapters as one mistake will often be costly and fatal, although the unlockable hard difficulty level will make it even harder to survive.

Overall, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is an addictive action brawler that will have players returning for more mayhem quite regularly and is certainly worth the player’s time if they can overcome the difficulty curve of the normal playthrough which may be too daunting for all but the most hardcore of Hotline Miami players. If you are a fan of action or brawling games, then look no further than Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, especially considering the cross-buy price of just £10.99* for the PS4, PS3 and Vita versions.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
• Developer: Abstraction Games/Dennaton Games
• Publisher: Devolver Digital
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita)
• Cross-Play: Yes (Cross-Save)
• Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 434MB
• * Correct at time of being published