Finished this. Lots to like, still Hotline Miami, but falls slightly short of my high expectations for a sequel.
+ Music is great, more varied, but as of now less memorable.
Chalking this up to the much larger soundtrack, so less reuse of songs and less commitment to memory.
+ Graphics and presentation; love the VHS UI and general
a e s t h e t i c s.
+ Not restricting weapons as unlocks (for the most part). Looks like I missed out on the flamethrower.
+/- A convoluted story I don't exactly follow that makes for an interesting wiki read afterwards.
+/- Mask selection is more restrictive, though masks are probably more useful as result.
Kind of miss the progression of unlocking new masks to try, and while that's here somewhat, it's limited by the fact that you never stick with a particular character long enough.
At most a character is given 2-3 usable masks or none at all.
+/- Liked the variety of characters and esp the specialty weapons tied to them, though it's difficult to get invested in a particular character when there's an excess of them presented within a schizo narrative.
Everyone feels dispensable but that seems fitting to the theme of the the game. This many characters feels like a concession to gameplay at the detriment of a more cohesive story.
+/- Game feels more experimental at the cost of not feeling as tight or refined.
- More offscreen deaths and general jankiness, a bit unfair at times, getting stuck on geometry occasionally (hard mode = entering cars).
I liked it but it needed a little more polish. They overshot the scope a bit, or maybe it just needed more development time to better execute its ideas.
It's not the refinement of the first game I was hoping for. It's overly ambitious and in some ways better than the first, some ways worse.
This is an 8 whereas HM is a 9/10.
This shit's crazy. What a weird concept. Addictive. Taps into that quick death -> restart, live-die-repeat loop, always feeling like you'll beat a stage given enough persistence.
