LET'S PLAY HOTLINE MIAMI 1 & 2 - America is a tune, it must be sung together.

HM1 CHAPTER 14 - VENGEANCE

JUNE 23RD 1989
THE WRONG TARGETS
FanboyMaster - StushCinta - Phat - Nodal - Patito - Smiler
SOUNDTRACK
Scattle - Inner Animal

In which Jacket uses the information he stole from the Police Station to track the phone calls that he, and the others had been getting to their original location: A club owned by the Russian mob!

...

Wait, what?

QUICK NOTES

• WEIRD GLITCH IN THE FIRST ROOM. Hotline Miami is far from free of weird bugs and glitches, such as the one near 0:50, where an enemy slowly phases through his desk to come kill me.
• NOT SURE WHAT KINDA CLUB HAS GIANT MONSTER TRUCKS ON DISPLAY. I'm not gonna worry about it though.
• I ASSUMED SKYPE CREW WAS TALKING ABOUT BUYING WIGS UNTIL THEY MENTIONED IT WAS "HUMAN VIRGIN HAIR". Really, can you blame me? Why on earth are we even talking about spell components? My friends are terrible.
• ORANGE CLUB OWNER IS MY NEW FAVORITE CHARACTER. Yeah his total disregard for the lives of his employees is kinda eh, as is his open cowardice. And there's also that whole mobster thing. But that aside, MAN! How do you even GET that orange? Spray tan Messiah. Right there.
• YOU CANNOT JUST SHOOT THE CLUB OWNER. I try and it doesn't work. The only way to finish this level is to savagely beat the man to death. Guess letting Richter live was a one-time thing.

IN GREATER DETAIL

So did something seem kind of off about our target this mission? It should, because...

HM1 CHAPTER 15 - SHOWDOWN

JUNE 23RD 1989
UPPER MANAGEMENT
FanboyMaster - StushCinta - Phat - Nodal - Patito - Smiler
SOUNDTRACK
El Huervo - Turf
El Huervo - Crush
Perturbator - Electric Dreams

In which Jacket takes the fight to the very top, walking in through the front door like he owns the place and ready to throw down. This is it! The Final Showdown!

QUICK NOTES

• I DIE A WHOLE BUNCH IN THE GANGSTER'S OFFICE. I love this game, but that doesn't mean I'm good at it.
• THAT SAID ONCE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, IT'S NOT THAT BAD. Grab the trophy and use it to beat the panthers to death. Then throw it at the ninja girls' face and execute her once she's down. Finally use the statues to hide from the mob boss's gunfire and toss the ninja's knives into him while he's reloading. After he takes three of them, he realizes that he's doomed and shoots himself in the head.
• I HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE OLD MAN. So much so that I went back and edited this entry to put it into the "in greater detail section. Read it after you're done watching the video, why dontcha.
• JACKET THEN WALKS OUT TO THE BALCONY AND LOOKS AT A PHOTO FOR A FEW SECONDS BEFORE LETTING IT GO IN THE WIND. My, what an odd thing to do! I wonder who that photo was of? Guess we'll never know.
• WATCH THEM CREDITS SCROLL WHILE WE ARGUE ABOUT BITCOINS AND PYRAMIDS! I guess that's it, huh? Wow, talk about a downer ending. Thanks for watching!

IN GREATER DETAIL

"GODDAMN PHONES! I FUCKING HATE THESE THINGS!" I've danced around it in my (non-spoilerpop) writeups so far, but this is the point where it's it's fine for me to just tell you outright. The calls that Jacket, Richter and god only knows how many others are receiving are not coming from the mob. The police files Jacket stole were incomplete at best, and the head of the organization barely knows how to use the thing they've been getting their assignments from. As such the last man jacket kills isn't the person who took his girlfriend from him. He's just another target that the people ordering Jacket Around would have wanted him to kill anyways.

THAT SAID, I'VE ALWAYS FOUND THE LAST SCENE HERE TO BE SURPRISINGLY POIGNANT. Standard video game last level procedure is as follows: Enter evil lair, fight second-in-command (pretty hard!), fight the main man himself (way hard)! So we grab a handgun, go up the stairs to find that the terrifying head of the whole organization is... an old man in a wheelchair. He doesn't try to argue with you, or even find out why you're here. He admits that he's done horrible things and accepts his death as an inevitable end result of his actions. He's the last man Jacket kills.

EPILOGUE BONUS POST!
IS THE VIOLENCE IN THIS GAME INHERENTLY HYPOCRITICAL?
It's a question I've seen quite a few articles and the occasional YT person try to tackle: How is it okay for this game to make you feel bad about the horrible things Jacket does, while at the same time giving you giant point combos and grades for doing it? Isn't that trying to have your cake and eat it too? I've given this question quite a bit of thought, and I've come to the conclusion tha

HM1 CHAPTER 16 - SAFEHOUSE

MAY 13TH 1989
TOO MANY COOKS
FanboyMaster - Nodal - Patito - Smiler
SOUNDTRACK
Scattle - To The Top

In which it's... suddenly two months ago? And we're that guy we killed way back in Chapter 7?

Something strange is happening here.

QUICK NOTES

• YOU TOLD ME IT WOULD BE EXCITING, DIDN'T YOU? The level starts off with Biker shaking down a dude in a pig mask for information because he wants out of the "phonecalls demanding you mass murder" game. The pig mask fellow eventually breaks down and gives Biker a lead: talk to some guy at a crappy Chinese restaurant.
• WELL I'M FUCKING BORED! I'M DONE MAN, I'VE HAD IT! That line right there speaks volumes. Biker is crazy, but he's a very different sort of crazy than Jacket. More on that later.
• BIKER PLAYS SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENTLY THAN JACKET. He gets no custom mask powers, and cannot pick up weapons scattered about the stage. Instead he has a meat cleaver for melee attacks and three throwing knives for long-range killing. You can pick up knives, you've thrown, but only if they didn't actually kill anyone, so you're limited to 3 Long-range kills per level. Better make em count!
• I BURN THROUGH THIS LEVEL PRETTY QUICKLY. Wow, I must be pretty good at the biker levels! I'll bet the next one goes pretty fast too! Hahaha! Haha. Heh. Sob.
• THE GUY HIDING OUT AT THE BLUE DRAGON TALKS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. He claims that he only helped the phone call guys clean up their trail at PhoneHom, then bailed immediately because those guys were fucking scary.
• BIKER LETS BOTH THE GUYS WHO SURRENDERED TO HIM LIVE. That's... pretty unusual in a game like this one! Huh! Weird!

HM1 CHAPTER 17 - FUN & GAMES

MAY 16TH 1989
PLAYERS
FanboyMaster - Nodal - Patito - Smiler
SOUNDTRACK
Elliott Berlin - Musikk Per Automatikk

In which Biker's apartment is kind of hilariously hideous.

QUICK NOTES

• CHECK THE PINK PAPERS ON BIKER'S KITCHEN TABLE. "America is a tune, it must be sung together." Hey, just like Jacket's apartment way back in the first video in this series! How about that.
• BIKER IS ACTUALLY FOLLOWING ORDERS ON THIS MISSION. Last mission was him wrecking people in the name of not following orders, so it's kind of weird that this time he just picks up the phone and does what they told him to do anyways.
• I'M NOTABLY TERRIBLE ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THIS LEVEL. Like stuck in the same place for 10 minutes terrible. If I were in the mood to make excuses, I would claim that it's really hard to play as biker because his moveset limits him to just 3 ranged attacks, while jacket can pick up all the guns he wants. I'm not in that mood though, so let's just say I suck and be done with it.
• SO BECAUSE I'M SO TERRIBLE WE JUST TALK ABOUT STAR WARS A LOT. You nerds like Star Wars, right? No? Fuck you guys.
• THE MUSIC ON THIS LEVEL IS SO GOOD YOU GUYS. All of the Hotline Miami music is super good, but this one is one of my all time favorites.
• THIS LEVEL CONTAINS MY FIRST ACTUAL EDIT. Just to skip over us fixing some audio issues, though I'm sure some of the later levels will force me to make cuts for length because things only get harder from here.
• SHOUT OUTS TO MORNINGSONG IN THE HITBOX CHAT! Sorry you had to suffer through that! Hope we're still pals!

Haha, Star Wars EU conversations, eh?

I blame you entirely.

HM1 CHAPTER 18 - PRANK CALL

MAY 23RD 1989
PLAYERS
FanboyMaster - Nodal - Patito - Smiler
SOUNDTRACK
Scattle - Knock Knock

In which things go completely off the rails, and I can no longer tell you what's happening with 100% certainty. Proceed with caution.

QUICK NOTES

• IT WOULD APPEAR BIKER LIKES TO PARTY. Or at the very least he's not completely antisocial like Jacket was, as evidenced by the people crashing in on his apartment couch.
• BIKER TOTALLY IGNORES THE ADDRESS GIVEN ON THE MESSAGE, AND GOES STRAIGHT TO THE PHONE COMPANY. If you've been following this let's play, so far, you'll recognize it from Chapter 7 - Neighbors.
• YOU CAN KILL ALL THE NPCS MILLING ABOUT, BUT I DON'T. I don't know if the dead bodies everywhere Chapter 7 means that Biker actually really did slaughter the entire building, or if it's just another case of Jacket getting shit wrong. My personal interpretation is that it was Jacket getting shit wrong, as biker strikes me as the kind of guy who likes to have a reason to kill people
• WE KILL THE CEO, AND FINISH UP "HACKING" WHEN JACKET STROLLS IN ALL UNANNOUNCED. Whelp, we all saw what happened in Chapter 7. Might as well just sit back and wait for biker's inevitable death.
• BIKER TOSSES A KNIFE INTO JACKET AND GOES ON OUR MERRY WAY. Wait what? That's not how it happened.
• WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? I guess we'll find out... next time!

I try to update every weekday but Close at work was brutal today and the second I get home I'm going into a coma so... yeah.

TOMORROW.

HM1 CHAPTER 19 - RESOLUTION

MAY 24TH 1989
CLEANUP CREW
FanboyMaster - Nodal - Patito - Smiler
SOUNDTRACK
Scattle - Inner Animal
Erik Suhrke - A New Morning

In which Biker manages to actually get some answers! I'd be nice if he shared them with us, but what are you gonna do, right?

QUICK NOTES

• THIS "LEVEL" IS BASICALLY JUST HOTLINE MIAMI'S VERSION OF AN ENDING CINEMATIC. There are no floors to clear our or enemies to kill. I guess that makes our run-in with Jacket in the previous level a "Final Boss" of sorts.
• I WAS BORN IN THE USA. In each of the jacket levels you can find a secret letter. Find all of them and put them in order in the Password option in the pause menu and Biker will be able to use that password to access the computer that's sitting in the hallway, thus getting the secret ending. Because that's how logic works, dammit.
• IN THE SEWERS UNDER THE BUILDING, BIKER FINDS THE JANITORS FROM CHAPTER 6. They try to act all cool at first, and if I hadn't gotten the secret ending, they would've never stopped acting that way. Incidentally their portraits are based on the faces of the two main developers, and if this wasn't the secret ending, everything they said would be a thinly-veiled reference to game design.
• THEIR TONE CHANGES WHEN BIKER REVEALS THAT HE'S SEEN THEIR FILES. This is the point where I can officially reveal in non-spoiler'd text that the Janitors are working on behalf of the nationalist group 50 Blessings, and that they're the ones ones leaving the phone calls on people's answering machines. They claim to be only the tip of the Iceburg, and that other groups like them are set up all over the states. Finally they also reveal that the threats they use to coerce people into murdering for them are completely empty. It's likely the two of them have never even actually killed anyone themselves.
• THE CANON VERSION OF EVENTS IS THAT BIKER SPARED THE TWO JANITORS. But I'm like... nah... Kill em. If you kill one of them the surviving one won't try to run away or anything, he'll just stand there and flip you off.
• SCROLL CREDITS. I discuss the intricacies of Biker's sociopathy with the skype crew while Biker rides into the darkness and the game actually ends for real.

IN GREATER DETAIL

I KEEP SAYING THAT BIKER AND JACKET ARE BOTH INSANE, BUT DIFFERENT KINDS OF INSANE. Jacket is a highly suggestible sort of person who's life is almost completely devoid of meaningful relationships. He never speaks, and doesn't seem to fully understand what he's doing. This combined with his underlying incredibly violent tendencies that lead him to some of his more gruesome executions makes him more or less the perfect recruit for 50 blessings work. I sorta went into greater detail in the Chapter 4 Spoilerpop, which at this point in the story is now completely safe to read.

Biker, on the other hand knows exactly what he's doing and is in perfect control of his actions. He fights and kills not because someone is threatening him into it, but because he enjoys it. From the very beginning his goal of making the phonecalls stop isn't motivated by a desire to stop going on assassination missions, but rather that he's grown bored of following their orders. That said he's at least in control enough to spare people who have surrendered to him, and at least has some reason to kill every one of his victims. As such he's much less confused, freaked-out and suggestible like Jacket, and much more just an incredibly violent man that's totally unworried about the dividing lines between right and wrong.

WE'RE SORRY. THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS NOT IN SERVICE.
PLEASE HANG UP AND TRY AGAIN.

WE'RE SORRY. THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS NOT IN SERVICE.
PLEASE HANG UP AND TRY AGAIN.

WE'RE SORRY. THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS NOT IN SERVICE.
YOU HAVE REACHED THE WRONG NUMBER.

I'd just like to mention that now would be a really good time to read the free comic series put up for these games, found for free on the HM2 store page on Steam.

HM2 SCENE 00 - MIDNIGHT ANIMAL

DATE MISSING
EXTRAS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Prey Growl - Destruction

What does it say about us as a society that we tend to turn history's worst monsters into superstars?

QUICK NOTES

• BECAUSE THIS IS A NEW GAME + RUN, WE OPEN WITH A SECRET CUTSCENE. In it Richard, the chicken mask man from Jacket's coma dream has an enigmatic conversation with a room full of people. Some of them you might already recognize, but we'll be pretty well acquainted with all of them by the end of the game. If you can't wait that long, well good news, that's what in greater detail is for!
• THE TUTORIAL LEVEL TAKES THE FORM OF A SCENE FROM THE FILM "MIDNIGHT ANIMAL". Basically Jacket's murderous rampage, subsequent arrest and ongoing media circus of a trial has captured the imagination of the American public. So much so that a movie starring famed actor Martin Brown is currently in production! It's one of those "based on a true story things" but since the "true story" here is "Florida Man beat half the Russian population to death" they kind of have their work cut out for them.
• WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THIS SCENE CAUSED A LOT OF CONTROVERSY. Rape, it turns out, is a pretty touchy subject!
• THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN IT'S OVER AND EVERYTHING'S FINE. Director yells "cut" and shooting is over for the day. Nobody actually got killed or raped. Everybody is alive and fine... right?

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET MARTIN BROWN. The player character in this chapter is a famous actor, who's trying out a much darker role than he usually plays: A fictionalized version of Jacket, known as "The Pig Butcher". He's a nice enough guy in everyday life but the stress of trying to get into such a grim character is starting to wear on him.

What about all those other guys in the intro? Well...

HM2 SCENE 01 - DOWN UNDER

OCTOBER 31ST 1991
PARTYGOERS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Light Club - Blizzard
Jasper Byrne - Voyager

This Halloween party sucks. Let's do something really scary.

QUICK NOTES

• EVERYBODY IN THE FAN'S HANGOUT IS A MUSICIAN CAMEO. No really, check out this massive image.
• EACH OF THE FAN'S LEVELS ALLOWS YOU TO PICK FROM 4 PLAYABLE CHARACTERS. In your first playthrough you unlock a new character on each of their levels, but since this is my second time through, they're all unlocked from the get-go.
• I START THIS LEVEL USING CORY, THEN PROCEED TO DIE WAY TOO MANY TIMES. In a first playthrough she'd be the only fan unlocked at the start of this level. That said I don't really like the way she plays that much, so fuck the authentic experience.
• I DIE A WHOLE BUNCH, THEN SWITCH TO MARK. Mark's the last guy you unlock and one of my favorites to actually play. Using him I breeze through the level like I actually know what I'm doing or something. For more info on these jerks, check out in greater detail.
• THE FANS STOP FOR PIZZA AFTER THE LEVEL ENDS. It's mostly just a callback to Hotline 1's after-mission pit stops. Don't get used to it though, because it never happens again.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET THE FANS. So called because they're all huge fans of Jacket and his now highly publicized series of killings. They think of him as a hero beyond reproach, and dream of following in his footsteps. There are five in total, but they represent only four playable characters, because this game is weird as hell.

Cory wears the Zebra Mask, and is the one I started this level playing this level with. Of the people in the group she has the least to say, and comes off as the most awkward and shy. In gameplay she has a dodge roll that I totally hate, and as such I rarely use her. Her gender is never made obvious in the game, and gamers, being gamers, all sort of just assumed she was a guy until a cosplayer shared a pair of e-mails they'd received from the dev.

Tony wears the tiger mask. He's basically a total meathead asshole who barely tolerates the rest of the fans and outright hates everyone else on the planet. In gameplay he can't pick up any weapons at all, but is able to kill every enemy in the game with nothing but punches. It's my personal headcannon, that his mask is actually the original Tony mask owned by Jacket, and that he stole from Jacket's apartment after the place was designated as a crime scene.

Alex & Ash are a pair of fraternal twins who wear a pair of numbered swan masks, with Alex as #1 and Ash as #2. Alex tends to be the more level-headed of the two, as she suggests missions for them to go on and usually seems to have a pretty good idea of what's happening, like a cool smart older sister. Ash is more excitable and more likely to run with bad ideas like an idiot little brother. In gameplay you primarily control Alex as she runs around with a goddamn chainsaw, hacking enemies apart. Ash follows closely behind her with a variety of firearms, acting as your ranged attack option.

And finally there's Mark, who wears the Bear mask. he's actually pretty nice, as at least as far as amoral psychopaths go. He never really puts down any of his friends, and he even occasionally tries to make cool surprises for them. In gameplay he starts each level dual-wielding a pair of automatic rifles and has a special move where he can spread out his arms for a full 180 degrees of murder. When he runs out of bullets he can pick up any weapon off the ground, but his starting weapons are SO GOOD I usually try to make them last for as long as possible.

The devs have stated that the fans represent the real-world fans of Hotline Miami that kept bugging them for a sequel. As such they're a bunch of complete idiots that totally misunderstand why their "hero" did the things he did, worship him for all the wrong reasons. and try to follow in his footsteps in the worst way imaginable. Violent morons that crave carnage for carnage's sake

HM2 SCENE 02 - HOMICIDE

OCTOBER 25TH 1991
SUSPECTS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Pertubator - Technoir

There's something in the world today. Don't know what it is, but it sure smells rotten.

QUICK NOTES

• YOU DID NOT READ THE DATES WRONG. This level takes place a good 11 days before the last one. Hotline 2 takes the rewind idea from from it's predecessor and absolutely runs with it, so very few of it's levels are actually in chronological order.
• YOU CAN FIND NEWSPAPERS THAT HINT AT UNSEEN PLOT STUFF IN THE NON-MURDER BITS. There's an Achievement for getting all of them, which I personally have not unlocked. In the intro to this level, I find one that's talking about Jacket's trial.
• MANNY CAN START THIS LEVEL ARMED WITH A SHOTGUN TAKEN FROM BACK OF HIS CAR. He sometimes holds it with one hand, because he wants to look cool.
• HE'S ALSO THE ONLY CHARACTER THAT WILL DO EXECUTION MOVES WITH A GUN. Which is kind of awful, because the noise alerts other characters and it wastes precious ammo.
• THE POLICE ARE WAITING FOR YOU AT THE END OF THE LEVEL. But they don't drag you off to jail, because as it turns out Manny's a detective for the Miami Police Department.
• THE POST-LEVEL SEQUENCE IS MANNY VISITING ONE OF THE CRIME SCENES OF "THE MIAMI MUTILATOR". The dude goes straight from shooting up some sort of operation in a store to investigating the crime scene of a much more one-on-one kind of murder. So what the fuck is his deal? Well that's what the in greater detail parts are for!

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET DETECTIVE MANNY PARDO. Manny is a police officer, a civil servant sworn to uphold the law and bring the city's worst criminal elements to justice. He openly complains about how disgusting the criminal element has gotten in Miami, and is generally upset about just how jaded he's gotten trying to work on the side of the law in a city that's seen the likes of criminals like Jacket. He's also kind of a cowboy cop, taking on dangerous assignments and attacking criminal operations like the one seen in this level without calling for backup. So it would seem like he's a good cop in a bad city, right?

Well...

Oh hey, Manny can actually take a bullet before dying, like those masks that were supposed to work in HM1 but didn't.

He's got THICK SKIN

he also has a bunch of unique executes

In my experience most of the characters in Hotline 2 can walk off one bullet.

Doesn't help much because all the enemies have machine guns and shotguns BUT STILL.

HM2 SCENE 03 - HARD NEWS

APRIL 25TH 1989
SUSPECTS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Magna - Divide

Man all this 1991 stuff is really weird! Let's jump back to good old 1989. Back when life made sense and we murdered entire buildings full of people because our phones thought it was a good idea.

QUICK NOTES

• THAT "WAR OF NORTHERN AGRESSION" THING ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Florida's actually not that bad when it comes to stuff that's stereotypically "the South" which makes randomly running into it like I did there even weirder.
• JAKE FREAKING OUT AT THE 50 BLESSINGS COMMANDS IS JUST CLASSIC. I just love the idea of the shadowy phone guy getting totally flustered when his "kill these people" message gets interrupted by an angry redneck flipping out.
• JAKE'S LETHAL THROWS ARE SO MUCH FUN. Fuck bullets, I shoot the guns themselves!
• I DO NOTABLY BAD IN THE LAST SEGMENT OF THE LEVEL. I'm not even sorry.
• YOU TOTALLY CAN KILL THE DUDE BEHIND DESK WITH A GUN. It's even in the game's trailer, specifically at 54 seconds.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET JAKE. I would argue (quite passionately!) that most of the playable characters in this series are complicated, nuanced individuals. I say most because Jake's extremely simple, one dimensional character is the exception to that rule. He's every slovenly stupid redneck stereotype that ever existed, made flesh in the form of a singular jackass.Seriously, this guy is just an enormous tool.

The fact that he's so simple makes him a ideal tool for the ultra-nationalist group such as 50 Blessings. While it's true that he got mad at the guy on the phone, the digital prequel comic makes it quite clear that he's way madder at all these Russians that have been showing up in Miami lately, so much so that he sees murdering a bunch of them as cause for outright celebration.

To call someone a "Snake" is to call them repulsive, and Jake's character design isn't exactly subtle on that point. Not only are all three of his masks serpents of some variety, but his wide cheeks recall the Vauge shape of a cobra's hood, and his eyes are stylized as having slits for pupils, like a reptile.

HM2 SCENE 04 - FINAL CUT

DATE MISSING
FILM CREW
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Jasper Bryne - Decade Dance

You guys remember that movie being shot way back in chapter 00? Man, you dudes are not gonna believe the twist ending.

QUICK NOTES

• WE START OFF BY MARTIN BROWN HAVING A VERY UNCOMFORTABLE TV INTERVIEW. Like you'd think a superstar of his standing would be able to keep it nice and easygoing for what has to be his millionth prime time appearance.
• THEN THINGS GET WEIRDER. Richard shows up, and does that thing where he asks a bunch of cryptic questions that Martin doesn't really have any answers for.
• THE PIG BUTCHER'S APARTMENT IS A RE-CREATION OF JACKET'S APARTMENT FROM HOTLINE 1. A blonde woman sneaks out while martin, as The Pig butcher sleeps. Then the cops show up and throw him in a holding cell. The pig butcher, being the fucking pig butcher promptly breaks out and slaughters everyone in the precinct, because it's a hotline Miami level.
• I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING GIRLFRIEND! Apparently the actual version of events where Hooker lived with Jacket on her own accord for a few months before becoming "collateral damage" wasn't dramatic enough.
• CUT! NO NEED FOR A RETAKE, THAT WAS PERFECT! You heard him, Martin! Time to get up! ...Martin?

IN GREATER DETAIL

I DON'T HONESTLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WITH HOLLYWOOD SUPERSTAR MARTIN BROWN. Of all the story arcs in the game, what exactly happened to him is by far the most ambiguous. I've seen a lot of theories floating around on the internet saying that what's going on here is that he slowly lost his mind and could no longer distinguish between himself and the pig butcher. Some people say he actually started living in Jacket's old apartment and started hallucinating the messages from the pink phone that seems to follow him everywhere he goes.

I don't really buy that though, because every time we see Martin do anything terrible and violent, it's always revealed that it's a scene from his film. Even if he was getting a little too into character there's never anything I would think of as definitive proof that he actually crossed the line and killed anyone in real life. If that's true then his story is just that of a deeply disturbed man who was killed in a tragic on-set accident. But then why does he receive so much attention in-game?

Martin's story takes place almost completely outside of everyone else's. he never runs into any of the other characters or interacts with them in any meaningful way. he's so removed from the plot at large, that neither of his segments are even given dates, preventing us figuring out where he fits into the timeline. and if you wanna get really crazy...

HM2 SCENE 05 - FIRST TRIAL

NOVEMBER 5TH 1991
THE ACCUSED
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Vestron Vulture - New Wave Hookers
Modulogeek - Around

As a general rule, the Hotline Miami series does its very best to keep the actual facts of it's story as ambiguous as possible, what with the constant use of unreliable narrators and storylines that flat out contradict one another. Wonder what it would be like to be a journalist in that universe, trying to make sense of what's really going on?

Simple.

It would suck.

QUICK NOTES

• WE OPEN WITH EVAN SITTING IN THE AUDIENCE FOR JACKET'S TRIAL. Note that this level takes place in November 1991, and Jacket was arrested back in June 1989. The courts are way backed up.
• JACKET STILL THINKS THE RUSSIAN MOB WERE BEHIND THE PHONE CALLS. It's the basis of his court defense. Two years later he still has no idea.
• EVAN LEAVES THE COURTHOUSE TO CALL DETECTIVE MANNY PARDO. You might remember Detective Pardo as the guy we played as back in Scene 2. Manny isn't exactly happy to hear from Evan, but he relents after some prodding, and eventually gives him a lead on where he can talk to some real-live Russian Mobsters.
• RIP DOOR GUY. Smacked down for daring to step to an out-of-shape writer dad.
• THE 2ND FLOOR OF THIS LEVEL IS THE ONLY MAP IN THE ENTIRE SERIES THAT YOU CAN FINISH WITH HOSTILES STILL ACTIVE. That one level in Hotline 1 ends when the police show up, and Biker's trip to Phonehom can be completed by just murdering the boss, but this is the only time in either game where you can finish a level while it's still full of guys trying to kill you.
• WHEN YOU INTERRUPT THE MOB BOSS IN THE SAUNA IS IMPRESSED BY YOUR GUTS. He answers two questions, then tells you to GTFO. I assume the mass of armed thugs right outside his door just sort of make awkward conversation amongst themselves while the two talk.
• YOU GET A SHIT SCORE FOR STEALTHING THE SECOND FLOOR. You didn't even beat the shit out of anyone! are you even trying?!
• THE POST MISSION SCENE IS EVAN AND MANNY GETTING DRINKS AND TALKING ABOUT THEIR TERRIBLE DAYS. Just bros being bros.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET EVAN WRIGHT. He's a Professional journalist, a husband, a father, and a generally decent human being. Evan sticks out in this series by just how normal he is compared to the the legion of psychopaths and headcases that make up the rest of the cast. All he wants to do is find out the truth about the series of killings that took place back in 1989. While he's willing to risk life and limb to get that information, he doesn't think of killing people as an option.

His desire to not kill is reflected in his gameplay, as Evan can't pick up any obviously lethal weapons such as guns or knives. He's limited to his fists, and to blunt objects that, while still painful, the average person could probably survive a nasty hit from. As such his levels rely heavily on luring enemies to choke points, and he gets bonuses for picking up guns, only to immediately unload them and throw the ammo away. The only way he can kill an enemy instead of just knock them out or leave them writhing in agony is by knocking them down with your bare hands, going into his knockout animation where he punches them in the face once or twice to keep them down and just refusing to stop punching until they're a bloody mess. Do it once and he'll freak out and try to administer CPR. Do it twice and he'll go berserk and suddenly have no reservations about using all the guns and knives that are just lying around. I personally try to avoid doing that at all costs though, because it just feels wrong to turn Evan into a murderer.

In spite of all that, I wouldn't call Evan completely healthy. The dude's focus on the killings of 89 borders on obsession, evidenced by the fact that, instead of trying to talk his way past the bodyguard or sneak in through the back he just immediately went full Batman. I'm also hesitant to call anyone that voluntarily hangs out with Manny Pardo a good judge of character. And speaking of Manny...

Kind of odd that Martin's story is already over with when other characters haven't even been shown yet.

The more I think about it the more I think Martin's story is some kind of weird meta-commentary on celebrities in general.

His entire contribution to the Series is to be in a movie that's loosely based off what someone else did, and die without making any sort of tangible impact on anything else. He's absolutely not important, but the game treats him as though he is.

Likewise you could argue that most famous people in our culture don't really do much of great importance, but are treated as though they are. We feel like we know our favorite stars even though we've never met them and never have anything to do with them.

But really, I'm probably just reading way, WAY too much into it, and Martin's just another weird thing in a very weird pair of games.

HM2 SCENE 06 - MOVING UP

DECEMBER 2ND 1991
THE ACCUSED
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Magic Sword - In the Face of Evil

Time to play hero!

QUICK NOTES

• THE FANS ARE DEEPLY CONFLICTED PEOPLE. Their little excursion tonight is kicked off by Ash's suggestion that the group "Save" a girl that's been hanging out with a bad crowd... by murdering the entire crowd. Tony objects to the plan because he thinks it's too moral. These fuckin guys.
• IN YOUR FIRST PLAYTHROUGH, THIS IS THE LEVEL TONY BECOMES PLAYABLE. In the spirit of doing a proper let's play I pick him as my character. That doesn't really work out.
• THE TONY MASK IS EXPLAINED IN THE COMIC. I need to re-read those. They're cool, but also confusing as all hell.
• THIS LEVEL IS INSANELY HARD TO PLAY WITH TONY. Tony has no attacks that aren't crazy-hard punches. And while the first two floors are great with him, the last filled with dudes who like to shoot you from way offscreen with their shotguns and machine guns.
• EVENTUALLY I JUST GIVE UP AND PLAY WITH MARK. With him I clear the area that was giving me trouble with Tony in a single try. Mark's just great.
• WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN WHEN YOU WERE DONE MARK? Did you seriously think she would be like "oh wow thanks for murdering everybody I know yeah sure I'll totally get in your van with you and your four friends wearing animal masks"? Did you think this through?
• VERY INCONSPICUOUS VAN SCENE. Their giant neon van just sorta breaks down in the middle of their drive home. Also Tony doesn't have a job. What a scrub.

HM2 SCENE 07 - NO MERCY

NOVEMBER 21ST 1991
CHOP SHOP MECHANICS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Scattle - Remorse

So what's it like being one of the hundreds of bodyguards and mob underlings that Jacket bulldozed through in Hotline 1?

QUICK NOTES

• ONE LAST JOB BEFORE RETIREMENT. If you've ever seen any movie ever, you already know where this is headed.
• THIS LEVEL CONTAINS THE ONLY SKATEBOARD WEAPON IN THE ENTIRE GAME. You use it to chop people's heads off. Holding out hope for Hotline Miami Pro Skater.
• THE CHOP SHOP WE'RE CLEARING OUT MIGHT BE THE ONE THE FANS MENTIONED LAST LEVEL. It's never really made clear, and the stuff happening here takes place 11 days prior to the events of scene 6, so it doesn't really matter.
• NOTHING LIKE GETTING TO DETERMINE YOUR OWN BONUSES. Why hello there giant bag of cash that no longer has an owner! Why yes, I would be happy to take you out of this nasty old auto shop! I'm having such a good day I don't even feel like murdering that punk!
• THING ABOUT GOOD DAYS IS HOW QUICKLY THEY THE TURN BAD. The entire epilogue to this chapter is such a punch in the gut.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET THE BODYGUARD. One of the many loyal employees of the Mob that jacket bulldozed through back in the day. He's considering early retirement, as mob enforcement and professional murder are really kind of a young man's game. His boss is actually pretty understanding, as far as criminal overlords go. Just asks that he finishes his current project and then you can go! Clean slate! You want some free drugs? These are pretty good drugs!

As luck would have it the mission is a complete success and he's able to go home to his girlfriend with a ton of cash and the rest of his life to look forward to. He's out! He's free!

And then everything goes to hell.

I'm sorry did you think this was some other game? Maybe one that's not called Hotline Fucking Miami? The last day of his old life as a professional assassin he goes to sleep and experiences vivid dreams of talking to the one and only Richard. The First day of his new life as a free man reveals that his girlfriend, the person he got out of the business for, has left him in the night, taking all of his money and his car, and leaving only a note that acts as both an insincere apology and a straight up insult, claiming he would have done the same.

November 22nd 1991 started out pretty bad for this poor guy.

And it's about to get worse.

HM2 SCENE 08 - EXECUTION

NOVEMBER 22ND 1991
PARTY PEOPLE
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
Perturbator - Sexualizer

Have you ever had a really, really bad day?

QUICK NOTES

• TITLE DROP. You have reached the Wrong Number. Please hang up and try again.
• BODYGUARD TOOK HIS GIRLFRIEND LEAVING RATHER POORLY. He's dealing with it by getting high out of his mind in the locked VIP room in a club owned by his former "company", doing ALL THE DRUGS that were so generously given to him by his former boss. Not a good place to be even under the best of circumstances, but hey, at least he's surrounded by people that can keep him safe, right?
• THEN THE FANS ROLL UP ALL UNANNOUNCED. Oh. That's not good.
• ALEX AND ASH PLAY REALLY WEIRD. You directly control Alex and her chainsaw, while Ash follows a little ways behind you with whatever gun he can get his hands on. The two of them together are phenomenally powerful, but the second one of them bites it, the other surrenders.
• ASH'S AI IS NOT THE BRIGHTEST. You're always in control of the direction he's aiming, but the way he follows his sister is up to the computer, and he gets stuck on things an AWFUL LOT. He starts with a handgun, will only drop it once it's completely empty, then will pick up whatever gun he walks over next. so you can't just switch to a machine gun or shotgun on the spot. That said the enemies seem to only actually think to target Alex, so much so that I don't think I've ever actually seen Ash die.
• AS BUGGY AS THEY ARE I STILL TOTALLY LOVE THEM. It is just so much fun to just tear through wave after wave of enemies with the twins. They aren't quite as OP as Mark, but they're pretty close.
• THE UPSTAIRS FLOOR IS APPARENTLY SOME SORT OF DRUG WORKSHOP. Judging by all the UV lamps and greenery.
• THE ENDING THOUGH. Holy shit.

IN GREATER DETAIL

THE ENDING TO THIS LEVEL IS JUST TERRIFYING. After you clear out the level, you go back downstairs to find that the rest of the fans have managed to get into the bodyguard's VIP room. It actually starts out pretty funny! The bodyguard is high as a kite and yelling nonsense about seeing things and wanting to go "To the jungle".

And then the fans drag him onto the table and beat him to death.

The first time I saw it, I just sat there staring in shock. I mean I realize we're playing as a bunch of murders, but this guy is completely defenseless, doesn't represent a threat to anyone in the state he's in. He has no idea what's happening or why it's happening to him, he just wants to go home. Now some fucked up monsters in animal masks are killing him for no reason at all, and no matter what he says to them, they never even respond.

The bodyguard's character arc is, for all intents and purposes, the arc of every enemy you kill in the entire series. They do a job they hate because it's their only choice, only to die at the hands of a psychopath in a silly outfit. The only difference between him and everyone else you've murdered is that this time the game treats him like a human for a few minutes before having a freak in an animal mask kill him. A brutally effective way of underscoring just how horrible the things you're doing actually are.

That's pretty heavy shit for a game that represents everyone with heavily-stylized 16 bit sprites.

HM2 SCENE 09 - AMBUSH

MARCH 17TH 1985
SHUT UP ABOUT HAMLET YOU DORKS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Nodal
SOUNDTRACK
M|O|O|N - Delay

Let's go back to where all this mess began! Back with our old friends, Jacket and Beard, suffering the sweltering heat and uneasy madness we started with! That's right! Talking about Honolulu 1985!

Wait shouldn't that be Miami, 1989?

Huh.

QUICK NOTES

• RIGHT OFF THE BAT, WE GET YOUNG BEARD, YOUNG JACKET AND YOUNG EVAN. Beard and Jacket are soldiers of some variety, enjoying their time off in the cafeteria. Evan is a war Journalist, asking for photos an insider scoops. This is all years and years before anybody was killing anybody while wearing animal masks.
• WE'RE STILL KILLING RUSSIANS THOUGH! This is the first direct confirmation we've received that the Cold War has gone completely off the rails, and escalated to actual fighting between Russian and American Forces. The majority of the combat is between ground troops on the Hawaiian islands.
• BEARD'S GAMEPLAY IS BASED AROUND HAVING ONLY TWO WEAPONS. The dude is limited to a combat knife and one firearm that he chooses at the beginning of the mission. This makes some of his later missions almost impossibly difficult, but this first one isn't so bad.
• THE FLAMETHROWER IS OP AF. It's the last weapon you unlock for beard, so technically I'm cheating by using it here. It's also absolutely inhumane, just as it is in real life.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET BEARD... AGAIN. Turns out that guy who was in all of Jacket's dreams was a real live person after all! 4 Years before Jacket started bulldozing through Mobsters in Florida, Beard was a member of a special ops team in the war against the Russians. The guy comes across as as a young soldier, doing his best to keep a brave face amid the horrors of war.

And that's... really all I can say about him, right now! He's obviously becoming desensitized to the violence around him, which is kind of necessary if your purpose is to fight and kill for your country. We still have no idea how he went from young Rambo to a shop clerk, but there's still plenty of game left. Give it time.

HM2 SCENE 10 - INTO THE PIT

DECEMBER 9TH 1991
SEWER RATS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Nodal
SOUNDTRACK
Light Club - Blizzard
Jasper Byrne - Voyager
Life Companions - We're Sorry

Sewer levels are an important video games tradition. One that must be upheld at all costs.

QUICK NOTES

• ASH IS A FUCKING IDIOT. When he finds out that he made the news for committing a whole bunch of homicides, his first inclination is to call the news channel and ask for a tape. that's some grade-A thinking there, Ash. You must be the smart one.
• THE MISSION STARTS OFF SIMPLE ENOUGH. The fans have a guy that sold them weed. They figure they might as well kill him because why not. So they head to his place and murder everybody. Piece of cake. Level clear!
• THEN THINGS GET WEIRD. Like weird for hotline Miami Weird. the fans venture into the sewers and find a much larger criminal operation doing... something. What exactly it is is never really made clear.
• THERE ARE A LOT OF ANNOYING HEAVY ENEMIES IN THIS LEVEL. If I was playing as Cory or Mark I would have to shoot these guys instead of meleeing them, but Alex's chainsaw can kill them where they stand. Probably on account of the fact that it's a frickin chainsaw.

IN GREATER DETAIL

WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING IN THIS LEVEL? I have no idea and honestly the whole thing kinda freaks me out.

Like, okay the first portion is just a shitty building that random criminal organization has set up shop in. The fans supposedly bought weed from these guys but there's really nothing here to suggest a marijuana growing operation. Then we find that they have a path to the sewers hidden INSIDE the building, weird but okay whatever.

The second area is just bog standard sewers. Hallways and grates covering flowing goo. Surprise you're in a video game.

But the third.

There's an entire living area set up down here with couches and generators and stuff. So the people who are a part of whatever organization this is aren't living upstairs in the sunlight they're living underground with their work. And what is their "work" play tell?

Well it's dissolving bodies, in giant bathtubs full of acid. And they don't even separate their corpse disposal operation from their living room with anything more than a curtain. And this isn't some lone serial killer's lair or anything like that, they've got tool chests and workbenches and all sorts of amenities designed to make their lives as comfortable as possible.

While they dispose of corpses in the sewers.

Oh yeah, and the music that plays in the level doesn't exactly do a lot to calm the nerves either.

Going back to Jake for a second: I think the snake symbolism is less "he's just a vile jackass" and more a callback to colonial-era patriotism, in the vein of "Don't Tread On Me" and the like.

He's still totally a vile jackass though.