The Gaming Den

Just finished both games and found them awesome. But they got me a bunch of doubts.

Am I right to imply that those three masked dudes that talk to Jacket in a dream are in fact his own conscience? The Horse is himself in a good mood, the Owl in a bad mood, and the Cock hum in a more balanced mood ?

Also, am I right to assume they are speaking to the player directly, in a purposefully meta-gamey / 4th wall breaking move from the developers ?

Is the friendly guy Jacket sees at stores and bars really Beard, his old friend from the war as seen in Wrong Number ? While it looks exactly like him, I don't think its him, because he seems to die at the first nuke scene. This would indicate Jacket has a mental condition since the beginning, as he keeps projecting his friend face on strange people all the time.

Are these assumptions correct ?

Yes, Beard in the first game is the hallucination of the Beard from the second game. The soldier Beard saves at the end of his story is Jacket. The photograph Jacket throws away at the end of Hotline Miami is Jacket and Beard, from the first war level in Wrong Number.

The answer to the other questions is "Maybe". Plot of Hotline Miami exists purely to fuck with the player, especially in the second (third?) game.

I frankly found the 2nd game lacking. At least in the first one, I had the desire to get A+ on all of the stages (And I almost did too, outside of that one fucking stage when the cops come up through an elevator and it's all so frustrating)

Really I just wish they did something different, and not even bothered to make a sequel to it. I was hype for the 2nd game, and I enjoyed the experience, but Wrong Number truly was the wrong number.

I think it's simply due to the 2nd game being less "psychedelic" than the other game, and the fact that the difficulty is utterly bullshit. Where as the 1st one was very, very fair IMO.

AcidBlades wrote:I frankly found the 2nd game lacking. At least in the first one, I had the desire to get A+ on all of the stages (And I almost did too, outside of that one fucking stage when the cops come up through an elevator and it's all so frustrating)

Really I just wish they did something different, and not even bothered to make a sequel to it. I was hype for the 2nd game, and I enjoyed the experience, but Wrong Number truly was the wrong number.

I think it's simply due to the 2nd game being less "psychedelic" than the other game, and the fact that the difficulty is utterly bullshit. Where as the 1st one was very, very fair IMO.

I'm about 90% sure that Wrong Number is an elaborate trolling. Fans wanted more senseless gratuitous violence? Here! Have at you! More dead goons, more dead PCs, everyone dies at the end! You wanted answers? Here are your answers, and if you don't like them then you can fuck off.

I like both games. Like the high psychedely of the first, and the "crossed-lives" narrative from the second. The fact they present different styles and differences is a feat for me.

AcidBlades wrote:I frankly found the 2nd game lacking. At least in the first one, I had the desire to get A+ on all of the stages (And I almost did too, outside of that one fucking stage when the cops come up through an elevator and it's all so frustrating)

I managed to get an A+ on all of them, and that was the last one for me to do it. It takes as much luck as anything else. My twitch reflexes aren't good enough to do that on their own.

I agree that I don't have it in me to get an A+ on all of the second game's levels. I started trying, and gave up less than half way through. On a side note, the sheer absurdity of some of those levels is awesome in it's own right. I watched a video of a guy clearing that level where the detective storms that ship (Dead Ahead), getting a 90x combo. It actually breaks the game's formula for determining his final grade. I could try that a hundred times and never manage to get that combo.

AcidBlades wrote:Really I just wish they did something different, and not even bothered to make a sequel to it. I was hype for the 2nd game, and I enjoyed the experience, but Wrong Number truly was the wrong number.

I think it's simply due to the 2nd game being less "psychedelic" than the other game, and the fact that the difficulty is utterly bullshit. Where as the 1st one was very, very fair IMO.

Yeah, they really are different games. I like them both for different reasons. I used to love the versatility of the number of masks available in the first game, but once I started going for A+s, all I ever used was the frog (Zach - longer combo window).

Longes wrote: I'm about 90% sure that Wrong Number is an elaborate trolling. Fans wanted more senseless gratuitous violence? Here! Have at you! More dead goons, more dead PCs, everyone dies at the end! You wanted answers? Here are your answers, and if you don't like them then you can fuck off.

I have heard others say this exact thing, as well. The idea was that the game wasn't supposed to be glorifying the violence, but that's what everyone wanted. The five fans are supposed to be stand-ins for the fans of the first game (which is why they all wear masks with powers).

silva wrote:I like both games. Like the high psychedely of the first, and the "crossed-lives" narrative from the second. The fact they present different styles and differences is a feat for me.

Exactly. Although, I like the limited "crossed-lives" you get between Jacket and Biker in the first game; specifically, the contradictory endings of the two versions of their encounter.

I like all of the easter eggs hidden in the second.

The level editor's been in open beta since December, apparently. Turns out the secret character is designed to look like an internet musician I had never previously heard of who knew the developers - though is in all other ways meant to be a blank slate for level designers.

I only managed one "entire actual game level" combo in Hotline Miami 2 and that was on the first Richter level, which IIRC seemed to be easier than the ones immediately before and after as a pacing choice. I almost regret bringing myself to complete the whole game on hard mode; going for the A+ was... less painful than that.

Omegonthesane wrote:The level editor's been in open beta since December, apparently. Turns out the secret character is designed to look like an internet musician I had never previously heard of who knew the developers - though is in all other ways meant to be a blank slate for level designers.

Are you talking about Perturbator? I've heard that he is in each game as a DJ (that cannot be killed).

What do you mean by "blank slate"? That he has no abilities?

Omegonthesane wrote:I only managed one "entire actual game level" combo in Hotline Miami 2 and that was on the first Richter level, which IIRC seemed to be easier than the ones immediately before and after as a pacing choice. I almost regret bringing myself to complete the whole game on hard mode; going for the A+ was... less painful than that.

Yeah, full-level combos are something I've only done a few times. I've only even attempted a few of the levels on hard mode; that shit's crazy!

RobbyPants wrote:

Omegonthesane wrote:The level editor's been in open beta since December, apparently. Turns out the secret character is designed to look like an internet musician I had never previously heard of who knew the developers - though is in all other ways meant to be a blank slate for level designers.

Are you talking about Perturbator? I've heard that he is in each game as a DJ (that cannot be killed).

Nah, I mean H.M. Hammarin. Who apparently was always in the Bar of Broken Heroes next to the jukebox.

RobbyPants wrote:What do you mean by "blank slate"? That he has no abilities?

That he has no backstory. Manny Pardo will always be the detective who is secretly a serial killer; The Hammer is whatever the designer of a level pack wants him to be.

RobbyPants wrote:

Omegonthesane wrote:I only managed one "entire actual game level" combo in Hotline Miami 2 and that was on the first Richter level, which IIRC seemed to be easier than the ones immediately before and after as a pacing choice. I almost regret bringing myself to complete the whole game on hard mode; going for the A+ was... less painful than that.

Yeah, full-level combos are something I've only done a few times. I've only even attempted a few of the levels on hard mode; that shit's crazy!

It really is. The deck level was definitely the most bullshit in that regard, but I am still pissed that you cannot do a no-kills run as Evan Wright in the Hard Mode subway due to them adding an enemy immune to stunning for literally only that level.

Omegonthesane wrote:but I am still pissed that you cannot do a no-kills run as Evan Wright in the Hard Mode subway due to them adding an enemy immune to stunning for literally only that level.

Once I learned that you can extend a combo by unloading a weapon, I had a lot of fun replaying Evan's levels, bouncing back and forth between a few guys, disarming them methodically. There's something really satisfying about watching him unload the guns.

Now, why the mobsters can't just go and put the clip/shells back in the gun is beyond me, but rule of cool, I guess.