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POSTED
12/7/13
HOTLINE MIAMI
Devolver Digital
      
Bang!
You’re dead.
Bang! You’re dead.
Bang! You’re dead.
Bang! You’re dead.
Bang! You’re dead.
Bang! You’re
dead.
Bang! You’re dead.
Bang! You’re dead.
Oops, sorry. Forgot to delete our play notes...
Imagine
Quentin Tarantino sitting down at his Commodore 64 and punching out
a videogame. Due to a complete space time continuum meltdown, he’s
got Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive playing in the background
(on VHS, messing with that time thing even more) while his thoughts
turn to Gauntlet and Elevator Action – erm, the
latter if it was top-down and had stairs instead of lifts.
That’s kinda Hotline Miami, with oodles of gore, extra
dollops of really fucked-up and more pixelated chiptuney
faberoonieness than you could poke a SID chip-sporting Amstrad at.
You’re the ovine in-game equivalent of Ryan Gosling. Listen to
answering machine, absorb increasingly full-on messages equating to
one goal: jump into funky ’80s sports car, motor stylishly to venue
and eradicate all life. The splattier the better.
At your
disposal is an increasingly murdertational array of weaponry, from
bludgeontastic baseball bats and pool cues through to an
NRA-member’s wet dream boomstick cavalcade. Or hell, just use your
fists or knock out opposing peeps with doors. This is where strategy
comes in. Or stragety if you’re Bugs Bunny.
Run silent, run
deep and you won’t attract much attention. Assail targets with all
guns blazing and you’ll attract more attention than a naked Heather
Locklear impersonating Madonna at a Top Gun screening
during a Duran Duran concert. These targetesque types are amazingly
adept at being accurate, so one slip and you’re dead. Uh-huh – cue
complete level restart. Advantage-doling masks help a bit. The
operative word being “a bit”. Which is two words. Or a letter and a
word. Like, you know, whatever!
This wonderfully ultraviolent
throwback to videogames’ days of relative innocence is ace –
providing you possess a modicum of patience. If you’re more Riggs
than Murtaugh then your brain will quickly pop.
  
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CLICK
THIS!
CLICK
THIS!
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