tbruh

Hotline Miami's a game focusing centrally on the concept of violence, both in games and in real life. This is delivered in a neon 80s package with some good tunes and a tasteful bit of gore, if by tasteful you mean a full 5 course meal. The gameplay is the big selling point of the game. Hotline Miami is a weird mix of a top down shooter, stealth, strategy and (vaguely) puzzle game. Dying in game is less of a failure and more of just a necessary part of winning. The game encourages trying over and over until you find a perfect route or perfect mask that allows you to proceed to the next stage. The gameplay loop is scout out, die, scout out further, die, kill the guy who killed you the first 2 times, scout out, die, kill the guy and his mate your now aware of, clear stage, onto the next. It's a repetitive loop, sure, and definitely gets frustrating on later levels, but it is pretty fun regardless. The unfairness is definitely intentional. Being shot at from beyond the screen is simply a lesson to be careful in open sightlines. Learning the enemy A.I, knowing when to shoot a gun or throw it for a silent takedown, clearing a room now or leaving it for later, it all serves to gamify violence down to a science - perfectly encapsulating the games main theme. I won't spoil the story for Hotline Miami, but surreal doesn't begin to cut it. It's the kind of story that leaves you thinking "Wait what? That's it?", then "Really, that's all it was?" when you complete the epilogue, and then a resounding "Ohhh..." once your watch a youtube long form video about it or a 13 year old reddit post. Ironically, having this messy, left-in-the-dark story telling serves the narrative too. Does it matter why you're doing it? It's fun right? Why stop and think now? In the story centred missions, I found myself wondering when I would go back to the action - unknowingly playing right into the games hands. The main things that hold me back from scoring this game higher are repetitive/luck based gameplay and the general buggy-ness. In the end, the best strategy was to hide around corners and shoot with the mask that silences your weapon. And though the enemy A.I is not meant to be the most sophisticated, the way that they interact with doors (especially the dogs) has gotten me unfairly killed many times. Plus, the story, though good on later ponderings, isn't super enthralling by itself and takes supplementary material to be fully appreciated. If your considering playing this game, ask yourself this first. Do you like to hurt people? Including yourself? If the answers yes, then go play it.

Carrion's a game that thrusts you into a position that few games allow. Taking the form of the monster, the game allows you to be as methodical, ruthless, or violent as you want to be. As someone who enjoys the general throttling of other human beings, Carrion gives you a set of tools and human canvases to carve your own gory masterpiece. The beautiful pixel graphics, along with the brilliant design of the amorphous blob you control, really serve to immerse you into the world and the lore tidbits that you are sparingly thrown only make the situation more gripping. Although the story isn't hugely deep or emotionally heartfelt, it does help define the setting and helps in getting you more involved from a different (?) perspective. Aside from the violence, the other main part of the game is solving puzzles with your set of abilities that change depending on what form your character takes. These were pretty alright, classics of the metroidvania genre, but they definitely aren't the draw for the game. The map isn't very easy to remember either as some other point out, but generally if you slither and swing for long enough, you'll find your way back to where you need to go and maybe find a group of humans that somehow escaped your noticed before. Overall, this game is a great fun time. The novelty of charging into a room to rip the inhabitants to shreds, or crawling through vents to snatch gun men from above one by one brings me back to playing every few months. I feel like there is more potential in this reverse horror world, perhaps with a richer story, or abilities that offer even more options in combat or traversal. Regardless, this is an experience I totally recommend.