Quarantine Gaming – Hotline Miami Collection Impressions

The world (and everyone on it) is in a really weird place right now. We can’t go to the movies and catch the newest movies, TV programming has pretty much either stopped anything new or is filled with bad quality webcam video of people working from their home. Kids can’t go to school or play with their friends…and video games are being delayed indefinitely. So what is a troubled gamer to do? Tackle that backlog and play some indie games, and that’s exactly what I am doing.

First up is the Hotline Miami Collection, currently available on …. well everything. As the name would imply this includes the original Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. If you aren’t familiar with these games, you probably should be. Easily one of the most ground breaking and influential indie games in the last decade.

Hotline Miami is a top-down shooter video game by Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin, collectively known as Dennaton Games. The game was published by Devolver Digital and released on 23 October 2012 for Microsoft Windows, eventually making it on to all consoles as well.

Set in 1989 Miami, the game revolves primarily around an unnamed silent protagonist—dubbed “Jacket” by fans—who has been receiving messages on his answering machine instructing him to commit massacres against the local Russian mafia. The game blends top-down perspective with stealth, extreme violence and surreal storytelling, along with a soundtrack and visuals inspired by 1980s culture.

I remember playing this originally and it was one of the first indie games I really found myself enjoying, had a very interesting storyline, lots of action and was easy to jump in and out of. If you die, you are dropped right back into the action within seconds, no super long load times, no delays. Everything is straightforward and just done right. Plus the soundtrack is awesome as well. As long as you don’t mind language and gratuitous pixelated violence, this is an easy recommendation.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number takes place before and after the events of its predecessor, Hotline Miami, as it focuses on the backstory and aftermath of the previous protagonist, Jacket, slaying parts of the Russian mafia at the behest of anonymous voices leaving mysterious messages on his answering machine. So following literally the same formula but with a bigger, and better story than the first one.

Both games offer a ton of replay-ability which is great for quick hits, just don’t play this one around the kids….unless you want to scar them more than they already are due to COVID-19. Like I had mentioned earlier if you haven’t played them before, you definitely should, they helped carve the way for many other games you have probably played since then as they have served as inspiration for many other developers. If you like this style of game, or simply haven’t revisited it in a long time, now is a good a time as any.