this page refers to the games Hotline Miami, released in 2012 by Dennaton games, and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, released in 2015 once again by Dennaton.

Hotline Miami 1

hotline miami 1 (or just hotline 1 as ill be referring to it for short) is, in terms of gameplay, the better of the two. The story is rather lackluster, however. Despite this, the fun and satisfying gameplay loop allows you to push through until the end, and the biker levels are a fun little romp for the true ending. One thing i like here more than 2 is the puzzle pieces. in hotline 2, due to a... major plot event at the end, there is no point even trying to cram a special ending there. hotline 1's ending however, places Jacket into a position where many things can flare out because of it. simply from a storyline standpoint, the puzzle pieces make sense to be there and there only.

featuring great gameplay pieces like:

• door jank
• rather uninspired boss fights
• an extensive mask system giving you limitless masks to ignore in favour of tony
• banger songs that you get sick of because they have to reuse them over and over for levels
• the real best songs only appear for like 3 moments and are usually skipped past quickly before they get any good (lookin at you, silver lights)

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

hotline 2 extended upon the story hotline 1 had set up, in unexpected and great ways. unfortunately, this was a tradeoff with much harsher gameplay mechanics.

• weapons no longer land randomly, ending up with stacks of empty guns that you have to sift through for half an hour to grab a fresh one
• doors are less jank, which means less funny moments (literally unplayable)
• melee weapons are basically unusable unless you hate fun (sorry tony)
• speaking of, tony got nerfed to shit so now hes actually balanced. what the hell dennaton
• you dont get to kill the creators at the end of the game (since technically you already did back in hotline 1)
• the 24th scene exists

however, it does include many upsides

• songs go way harder, and each level gets its own song
• different characters mean more variety in gameplay (evan, tony, beard)
• a very engaging story that expands on what was setup in hotline 1
• this includes the past and the future relative to hotline 1
• richard is way cooler this time around
• the 25th scene exists