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

Huh! That never even occurred to me, but yeah it kinda totally fits! Stars and bars aside, at least.

HM2 SCENE 11 - DEAD AHEAD

DECEMBER 10TH 1991
THE YACHT CLUB
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Nodal
SOUNDTRACK
Chromacle - Interlude
Scattle - Bloodline

I'm on a boat motherfucker look at me.

QUICK NOTES

• THERE'S A LOT GOING ON IN THE INTRO & OUTRO SEQUENCES. Read the In Greater Detail section for the full breakdown.
• THIS LEVEL IS REALLY COOL IN CONCEPT. Running around on a ship owned by a Colombian Cartel on a stormy day is an awesome idea. It's a nice change of pace from all the building interiors, and every segment is designed as though it were a part of a real ship.
• THAT SAID I DON'T LIKE THIS LEVEL VERY MUCH. It looks cool and everything, but it just goes on forever. There are five segments, each one filled with windows machine guns and dogs. It's one of the longest in the game and it feels longer due to how many portions of are almost impossible to get past unless you've figured out the trick to it. On my first time through, I think it took me a full hour and a half.
• I ESPECIALLY HATE THE 4TH ROOM. Just, fuck that room forever.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MANNY PARDO IS THE MIAMI MUTILATOR. The game hasn't exactly come right out and said it yet, but the intro and outtro to this level spell it out for us in no uncertain terms. You probably already figured it out just reading my earlier writeups because I'm not exactly subtle. Still if you were playing this game for the first time and have a keen eye for detail, this is the first point where you would be able to say beyond the shadow of a doubt that yeah, it's him.

In the intro we see Manny pay a surprise police visit to the house of a girl who just happens to be Alex of the Fans. He barges in unannounced while she's changing, inquires about her brother, then hits on her like a creepy old man. It's a conga line of blatant police misconduct, but since the "victim" of his actions is, you know, a chainsaw murderer, so it's kind of hard for me to get that worked up over it. Much less obvious than all that is the wallet that's appears on Alex's kitchen floor between Manny knocking on her door, and her returning from her bedroom. Manny's planting evidence.

Much more blatant, but is the contents of Manny's Trunk. Every time you approach the back of his car while playing as him, the trunk will pop open. In some levels, that means free shotgun. If you do it while outside of Ash's house, you'll see a man in there, bound and gagged, and struggling furiously. Manny must have left him somewhere on the drive to the docks, because if you check it again before getting on the boat it's empty.

Finally the after-mission bit has Manny investigating yet another Miami mutilator killing. This time the victim's body was brutally mutilated, and the guy left a note saying "Please don't make me do it again", which the CSI guy considers "mundane as ever." Oh also the victim is dressed exactly like the guy we saw in the trunk of Manny's car, and he's missing his wallet. HOORAY WE CRACKED THE CASE OFFICER ARREST THAT MAN! Or just stand there as he gets back into his car, swearing that he'll find the real killer. That's good too I guess. Whatever.

This isn't some Edward Norton/Brad Pitt "oh no I am Tyler Durden" thing where Manny's trying to catch a killer without knowing that it was HIMSELF ALL ALONG or some shit. Manny knows exactly what he's doing. He wants to be a famous bigshot, and the best way he could think of doing that was by creating a high-profile serial killer, and then "catching" the criminal, thus making the streets safe and getting movie deals, TV interviews and the keys to the city as the best police officer ever! He might have figured out that Alex is secretly one of the fans thus chose her as his patsy because she's already killed so many people that nobody would look too hard at a few more, but it's also possible that he just picked her and Ash at random and got lucky.

This also casts his conversations with Evan Wright in new light. Quite a few times Manny hounded him to stop investigating those boring old 1989 killings and focus on the exciting new killings that Manny himself was committing. He was trying to use Evan as free publicity: get everybody more worked up about the horrifying killer that only he can stop.

The irony of it all is despite his best efforts, nobody actually seems to care. Everyone's so desensitized and jaded to this shit that Manny's cold-blooded murders don't even register in the public consciousness. He's not making the evening news, or even on the front page of the papers. Hell, even the CSI dude investigating the victims calls his deliberate clues "mundane". Manny responding by claiming that maybe the Miami Mutilator is upset that the papers aren't making a bigger deal of him is thinly-veiled whining about the total lack of attention he's receiving.

HM2 SCENE 12 - DEATH WISH

DECEMBER 20TH 1991
PARTY CRASHERS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Nodal
SOUNDTRACK
Mitch Murder - Hollywood Heights
Carpenter Brut - Roller Mobster
Endless - Keep Calm

You got a death wish or something?

QUICK NOTES

• GIFT GIVING GONE WRONG. Mark tries to surprise the rest of the fans with a nice gift: A bunch of brand new masks modeled after the one worn by their Idol. Then suddenly he's treated to a vision of 3 Richards, having a conversation with each other that makes no sense in context. I'm sure that's not a sign that something bad is going to happen or anything.
• ASH STOLE THE BODYGUARD'S CELL PHONE AFTER THEY KILLED HIM. He didn't really have any plans for it beyond "cool, free phone". As luck would have it, he gets a call from the Bodyguard's old employer telling him that his position is still open if he wants it back and also we're throwing a massive party you should totally come. The fans are all too happy to accept.
• UNLIKE THE OTHER LEVELS FOR THE FANS, THIS ONE IS SPLIT INTO ONE SEGMENT FOR EACH FAN. No character select this time around. It's every member's time to shine!
• PARTS OF THIS LEVEL ARE KIND OF TOTALLY BULLSHIT. Looking at you, Cory. I take absolutely forever on her segment and it's totally lame. I don't do much better on Tony's segment, but that's mostly because of my stupid desire to get a big huge combo overriding my survival instinct. That said I somehow manage to clear Alex & Ash's portion on the first try, right after claiming that it's the one I have the most trouble with, so maybe I'm just dumb.
• THAT SAID, LOVE THIS LEVEL EVEN WHEN IT SUCKS. Every segment has bits that are just openly bullshit but I can't help but love it because it's just so cool. Also the song for this level is just fucking fantastic. Go buy it right now. I'll wait for you to get back.
• THE FANS TALKING ON THE RADIO IN BETWEEN SEGMENTS ARE REPEATING WHAT MARK SAW RICHARD SAY. So it turns out that he was having a prophetic vision. How very non-foreboding.
• ALEX AND ASH FINALLY MAKE IT TO THE ROOF WHERE THEY WERE ALL SUPPOSED TO MEET. But the place is deserted and nobody's answering their radios. The two are considering going back down to check on the others when suddenly...
• A MAN WITH LONG BLACK HAIR ROLLS IN ALL UNANNOUNCED. He makes his presence known by shooting Ash in the head, killing him immediately. Alex, shocked at the loss of her brother screams at the man to kill her too. He obliges. The screen fades to black as he slowly walks away from the entrance.
• CUT TO MANNY PARDO SHOWING UP AT A POLICE STANDOFF. Gonna need a little more space to talk about this one.

IN GREATER DETAIL

TONY DOESN'T WANT TO PLAY ANYMORE. When Manny arrives at the scene, the other police have the place completely locked down, and yell at him to get out of here. Manny however is drunk on the idea of being a renegade cop that doesn't play by the rules tells them that he's taking over and walks into to the room that the police have surrounded, Inside he finds Tony, and the bodies of Mark and Cory.

Tony, and all the fans for that matter, always treated what they were doing as though it was a game. It was never a "real" thing they were doing, just a fun activity to pass the time. The fact that they could fail or get killed, and by extension the fact that they were actually murdering other people, never really set in for them. But that was before Mark got shot in the head. Cory's death is even worse, as the blood trail leading up to the door and the wound in her stomach suggests she bled out. The fact that her shirt's been opened up (in addition to being the only in-game cue that she's a girl) suggests that Tony was trying to to stop her bleeding, so I think it's safe to assume the reality of his situation has fully sank in by now. Alone, outgunned, and likely in need of medical attention himself, he immediately surrenders to Manny.

MANNY DOESN'T ACCEPT HIS HIS SURRENDER. Ranting about "15 minutes of fame" he shoots Tony point-blank in the head, then walks back out into the hallway claiming that Tony "rushed him". His anger at the fans isn't based on the fact that they're absolute monsters, he's just pissed that they got all the attention that he thinks he deserves. Executing Tony is him trying to ensure that the story of the fans ends right there in that building, instead of another media circus of a trial like the one Jacket's getting. Another "obstacle" that would keep the world at large from focusing on the Miami Mutilator, which is really just the name he's given his insane delusions of grandure.

I interpret the bearded head of the SWAT team as not buying Manny's bullshit, but choosing to hold his tongue for now, given the circumstances. Manny walks out of a building filled with police officers completely unopposed, despite just murdering suspect that had already surrendered in cold blood. Not a single person even tries to stop him as he enters his car and drives away.

Hey wait, what's under that white sheet outside the building?

HM2 SCENE 13 - SUBWAY

NOVEMBER 11TH 1991
IRRITATED COMMUTERS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Nodal
SOUNDTRACK
IAMTHEKIDYOUKNOWWHATIMEAN - Run

On a normal commute to visit a possible source, Evan Wright has to fight off a bunch of armed thugs in a subway for... uh...

Absolutely no fucking reason at all.

QUICK NOTES

• THIS LEVEL OFFICIALLY REVEALS THAT EVAN HAS A WIFE AND CHILD. I've mentioned that he's a husband and father in earlier writeups, but it hasn't really come up in the game until now. The note on his table in the intro is from his wife, telling him that she's driving their son to school this morning.
• THIS LEVEL HAS TWO POSSIBLE ENDINGS. Which one you get is determined by what you do during the intro in Evan's house. SKYPE CREW opts for the (vaguely) canon end, which is obtained by just walking out of the place normally. I'll do a little bonus video of the other end when I feel like it.
• THERE ARE NO SUBWAYS IN FLORIDA. The water table is so high that any hole you dig immediately becomes a lake. We can't even have basements, so a complex underground monorail system is just blatantly impossible. And yeah, that bugged me way back in Chapter 0 of Hotline 1 too.
• EVAN RECEIVES HIS VERY OWN VISION OF RICHARD. On the subway a random beggar suddenly becomes old chickenface. Richard then takes on the face of Evan's wife, complaining that his writing career is coming at the expense of his family, and threatens to leave with the kids.
• EVAN DOESN'T DIE AT THE END OF THIS LEVEL. That makes him something of an anomaly, as Martin Brown, the Bodyguard and the Fans all died pretty pretty quickly after getting their visions of the birdman.
• THERE'S A BOSS! SORT OF. The last room of the stage has a weird punk rocker dude Who will summon the wandering enemies to your location by banging on the floor with a pipe whenever he sees you. Apparently he's got a chainsaw in hard mode but fuck hard mode this game is hard enough as is.
• EVAN FINALLY ARRIVES AT HIS DESTINATION, THE HOUSE OF SOME OLD LADY. He talks to her about her son, who apparently got mixed up in all sorts of trouble a few years back, and hasn't been around much lately. She agrees to give her son Evan's number the next time she hears from him, then lets him root around her son's old room, where Evan grabs a tape recorder and a handful of cassettes.

IN GREATER DETAIL

IT KINDA BUGS ME THAT THERE'S NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS LEVEL. In all the other levels you're fighting off people for a reason, even if that reason is just "you are a fucking sociopath". This time you're just commuting across town and suddenly a million guys want to kill you for... just commuting across town, I guess. there's no reason for any of these dudes to suddenly want to beat the shit out of an out-of-shape writer dad, and no reason for an out of shape writer dad to have to knock them all out instead of just, you know, running the hell away. Compared to the rest of the levels, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Or at least it did until Patito suggested that it's all just a craaaazy dream Evan had when he dozed off on the bus ride to this lady's place. I mean subways? In Florida? yeah that's dream logic if I ever saw it.

So who is that old lady anyways?

Yeah I've noticed the title card gets a bloody backdrop when it's a scene someone's gonna die in.

Actually the bloody backdrop signifies for the final scene of each act! The game is split into 6 acts, and so far I've posted up to the start of Act 4.

That said, yeah, the acts tend to end on the deaths of one or more main characters. That said they don't all die as big end of act spectacles, as the next few videos will demonstrate.

HM2 SCENE 13 - SUBWAY ALTERNATE ENDING

NOVEMBER 11TH 1991
ALONE
SOUNDTRACK
IAMTHEKIDYOUKNOWWHATIMEAN - Run

Just a short bonus video showing how Evan's little commute could have played out under slightly different circumstances.

QUICK NOTES

• TO GET THIS VERSION OF EVENTS, CHECK EVAN'S ANSWERING MACHINE BEFORE LEAVING THE HOUSE.On it, you'll find a message left by an unidentified caller responding to an Ad Evan put in the papers. The guy claims to know about the killings of 89, and asks Evan to meet him at some random bar.
• EVERYONE IN THE BAR IS A SERIES CHARACTER. The only ones I miss pointing out in the video are Manny, who's in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror, and Beard, who's tending the bar.
• SO WHO ARE WE HERE TO SEE ANYWAYS? Wait what?! aren't you dead?!

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET BIKER... AGAIN. Yeah, he's is still alive... maybe. Nothing about this place really makes any sense, so for the moment let's just roll with it.

When we last saw this guy he, was riding off into the desert having basically blown the lid off the entire conspiracy all by himself. the Last two years have changed him significantly from a cruel man who lived to fight into a freaked-out, alcoholic mess. He still knows that he got the calls because he signed up for 50 blessings, but the exact details of why it all happened have blurred together, and as such nothing he says to Evan is of any use.

As a renowned scholar of BAD POLITICS , I absolutely adore how he gets offended when Evan refers to what happened as a "conspiracy". Biker may be nuts, but at least he doesn't believe in chemtrails!

He also speaks of meeting a man in the desert that struck actual fear into his heart. The general consensus is that he had his very own vision of Richard, and that something about meeting him shook him so badly that he just sort of... broke. As a result his ability to piece together the things he uncovered is completely gone, nothing he tells Evan is of any use, and Evan leaves thinking the whole meeting was just a waste of time.

SOME MIGHT ARGUE THAT THE PRESENCE OF PEOPLE WHO SHOULDN'T BE HERE IS PROOF THIS SCENE IS "NON-CANON". I'm not totally down with that idea though! The Hotline series constantly plays fast and loose with the idea of canon, to the point where the exact details of what happened is often impossible to tell.

If you're going to discount this scene based on the fact that beard shouldn't be in it, you had better also write off the first Hawaii mission, where the unmasked fans can be seen hanging out in the back of the bar, despite having absolutely no reason to exist there. Better take out jacket's trial scene too, since the Biker can be seen amongst the courtroom audience.

The story of these games is less about nailing down exact details, and more about what "probably" happened "more or less". That doesn't mean that people like me are gonna stop obsessively going over everything it it though! Just that we're gonna have to be a little flexible.

Yeah isn't that dude rooting in the dumpster also pretty familiar?

Oh man I totally missed Hobo!

Also I added more words to my last post because apparently I'm addicted to words.

HM2 SCENE 14 - STRONGHOLD

OCTOBER 25TH 1985
WISH YOU WERE HERE
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - MorningSong
SOUNDTRACK
Benny Smiles - Theme of Hotline Miami

Meanwhile, Beard continues to fight for his country in the Hawaiian Campaign! And by meanwhile, I mean 7 years ago.

QUICK NOTES

• THE TIME BETWEEN RECORDING THIS VIDEO, AND RECORDING THE LAST ONE IS LIKE 2 MONTHS. I absolutely burned through recording the first half of the game, then didn't touch it for an eternity while I posted all the videos. On the upside, we have a special guest commentator, Morningsong! Hi Morningsong! Great to have you!
• I KIND OF SKIP THROUGH THE OPENING CUTSCENE WITHOUT PAYING MUCH ATTENTION TO IT. My bad guys. Basically all that happens in it is the ghost wolves talk about what they'd like to do after getting home from the war. Beard mentions that he'd like to maybe own a bar or a convenience store or anything where he can just be friendly from behind a counter. No way who would have guessed.
• OUR COLONEL IS BEING PROMOTED TO GENERAL. I skip through his text so fast it's basically unreadable. Short version is he's far too drunk and pissed off at everything his men are going through for a doomed effort to be happy about it. On the upside he claims the Ghost wolves will get sent home soon after this mission! A mission where only four men storm a heavily fortified enemy camp. He's less than thrilled at the prospects.
• THE HAWAII MISSIONS ARE SUPER HARD. The restrictions on what weapons you can use and how you can reload them, as well as the sheer size of the maps make for a very, VERY difficult experience. That combined with my tendency to never think ahead means I die a whole shit-ton.
• I START THIS MISSION USING THE HEAVY MACHINE GUN, THEN SWITCH TO THE SHOTGUN. One reason and one reason only. The shotgun immediately kills the heavy enemies, while the machine gun just ensures that they'll bleed out eventually. That's not a risk I'm willing to take.
• CHUCK TINGLE IS A MODERN LEGEND. "Pounded in The Ass by the Story 'Pounded in the ass by my Flying Gay Ass'" recognized by the library of congress as one of the greatest books of our generation.
• SMILER'S AIRHORN IS OP PLEASE NERF. BWA-BWA-BWA-BWAAAAAAAAAAA
• SHOUT OUTS TO ATURTLEDOESBITE! After I wrapped up Love at First Sight (which you should totally watch right now), he really did threaten to send me a visual novel pack that contained (among others) "Obscene Married Nurse". We'll just call that the nuclear option.
• I ASK SMILER IF THERE IS MORE AMMO ON A SCREEN, AS I WALK RIGHT PAST THE AMMO. Then I leave the area without reloading. I am a smart good let's player.
• IN SPITE OF THAT IDIOCY, THE LAST SCREEN GOES REMARKABLY SMOOTHLY. I manage to clear out the final area without any major setbacks!
• THE POST-MISSION CUTSCENE IS JUST THE GANG GETTING DEBRIEFED, THEN TALKING ABOUT HOW THEY'LL GET SENT HOME SOON. Yeah, I'm sure they'll all get to go home now. That'll happen.

HM2 SCENE 15 -WITHDRAWAL

JUNE 3RD 1989
POLITICAL VOLUNTEERS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - MorningSong
SOUNDTRACK
Mitch Murder - Fanatic Aerobics
M|O|O|N - Quixotic
Light Club - She Meditates

So what's that Jake guy been up to recently? And by recently, I of course mean 5 years after what we just saw.

QUICK NOTES

• JAKE IS SUPER PUMPED ABOUT MURDERING PEOPLE. Instead of waiting for the call to go to his answering machine, Jake picks it up on the first ring and starts excitedly telling whoever's leaving the coded message "HEY NO PROBLEM CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO MURDERIN". The shadowy murder commander is less than impressed.
• JAKE MAKES A PIT STOP AT A 50 BLESSINGS ORGANIZATION BUILDING, TO TELL THEM ALL ABOUT THIS GREAT IDEA HE HAS. What if we used secret phone calls to make people kill the Russians! He excitedly goes on and on about it as the spokesman tries so very hard to get across that that's exactly what we've been doing oh my god shut up shut up shut up. Eventually Jake finally puts it together, and starts hollering about how overjoyed he is to be a part of the RIGHT murder gang while the spokesman just shakes his head and sighs. The whole thing is just priceless.
• THE DALLAS MASK IS ALSO PRETTY HILARIOUS. It honestly wish that this game had more levels where you could pick whatever silly mask loadout you wanted We do not have enough "idiot runs around with nunchucks" in our lives. Get to let out our secret Michelangelo, you know?
• THE EXPLODING METHLABS ARE A PAIN IN THE ASS. Especially if you're using the no-weapons options like I am, and therefore can't set them off from a safe distance. I managed eventually, though.
• DYING ON THE LAST FLOOR IMMEDIATELY ENDS THE LEVEL. You can die as much as you want on the first two floors, but taking a single hit on the last one will result a badly injured Jake falling to the ground, then getting dragged off to a very familiar room for interrogation.
• IN SPITE OF THREATS AND TORTURE, JAKE NEVER TALKS. Eventually the very familiar looking enforcer and boss decide to cut their losses and just shoot him in the head. Thus ends the Snake's career as 50 Blessing's most over-enthusiastic operative.
• CUT TO EVAN WRIGHT GOING THROUGH JAKE'S STUFF IN EVIDENCE, 2 YEARS LATER. He doesn't find anything of use. Manny's there and he acts like a dick just like always. It seems the whole trip down to evidence was just a waste of time.

...

Oh, you thought I'd have more to say about Jake's untimely death?

Patience, young grasshopper, we're not quite done with him yet.

HM2 SCENE 15 - WITHDRAWAL ALTERNATE ENDING

JUNE 3RD 1989
ALONE
SOUNDTRACK
M|O|O|N - Quixotic
Chromacle - Interlude
Odd Future Fox Gang - Guided Meditation

Real Shame Jake got K.O.'d and dragged off to get murdered by the guys Evan met back in Scene 5.

...Or did he?

QUICK NOTES

• TO GET THIS VERSION OF EVENTS, YOU HAVE TO DO A DEATHLESS RUN OF SCENE 15'S FINAL ROOM. Doing a no-death run of any level in goddamn hotline Miami is pretty tough! But as we discussed in the last video, Smiler somehow managed to get it on the first try by being just that good, so it's far from impossible.
• THE LETHAL THROWS MASK IS SUPER USEFUL IF YOU'RE GOING FOR THIS ENDING. It's way easier to pick off enemies when you can kill them by just tossing any random weapon at their stupid faces.
• ONCE THE LEVEL IS CLEAR, THE SPOKESMAN FROM THE INTRO SHOWS UP, CLAIMING THAT HE'S HERE TO TAKE JAKE TO A SECURE LOCATION. Those of you with an eye for detail might notice that the van he's driving looks a lot like the one The Fans got around in, with a slightly less garish paint job. No idea how they got it.
• ONCE THEY ARRIVE AT THE "SAFE HOUSE"… WELL… I'm gonna need a little room to babble about this one.
• DOING EVERYTHING I DO IN THIS VIDEO UNLOCKS THE GAME'S BONUS LEVEL. It's called "Abyss", and it is a fucking nightmare. So of course I'm gonna show it off as a bonus video.

IN GREATER DETAIL

JAKE JUST WANTS SEMPAI TO NOTICE HIM. One of my favorite silly details in this whole game is Jake's puppy-dog like admiration of the Ultra-Nationalist organization. The dude loves killing Russians, and he LOVE being a part of 50 Blessings, so finding out that his two most favorite things ever were one in the same is like Christmas and his Birthday at the same time. He's so excited, he barely even notices how obviously pissed off the Spokesman is when he finally puts two and two together. And when the spokesman shows up after his mission, well that's just PROOF that everything is wonderful and will be wonderful for all eternity. Best day of his life by far!

50 BLESSINGS ON THE OTHER HAND, HAS TRUST ISSUES. Turns out an organization that targets operatives based on how likely they'll kill people for their answering machines is somewhat lacking when it comes to faith in humanity. The spokesman gets Jake set up all nice and cozy, leaves for "coffee", then comes back with a handgun and unceremoniously shoots Jake in the head. His statement about how it's "Just a precaution" suggests he did it out of fear that Jake might reveal their big secret and blow their whole conspiracy wide open. Dick move, 50 Blessings. He was your biggest fan!

IRONICALLY, 50 BLESSINGS KILLING JAKE PUTS THEM AT FAR GREATER RISK OF BEING EXPOSED. We already saw exactly what would happen if someone tried to pry the truth out of Jake in the last video. His loyalty to the cause is so great that the Russians eventually deem him unbreakable and cut their losses. He was the only operative we knew of that actually knew exactly what was happening, and when captured alive, he took it all to to his grave. That's actually kind of badass, as far as idiotic, racist, ultra-nationalists go.

However in this version of events, while the Spokesman is off getting "coffee" you can make Jake grab a floppy disk off the desk, and stick it into his pocket. 2 years later when when Evan's going through Jake's belongings in evidence, he can pick up said disk. And that's how 1.44 megabytes of top-secret 50 Blessings data got into the hands of the one guy who's working hardest to get to the bottom of this whole mess. Even if the information on the disk is completely useless, the fact that Jake had it at all still creates a clear connection between the organization and the masked killers. So great job Spokesman. Way to tie up all those loose ends.

BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS BECAUSE IT'S NOT CANON, RIGHT? You could argue that Jacket happening across Jake's body and mask in Chapter 10 of Hotline 1 indicates that "killed by Russians" is the way things really went down. That said, the hazy coma dreams of of the most openly insane member of the entire cast is not exactly what I would call outstanding evidence.

Really though, to get all caught up on the "EXACT" sequence of events in these games is kind of missing the point. Like I said before, this series treats things like continuity or canon like vague suggestions instead of holy laws of storytelling. This is the sort of story where both things totally could have happened, and both add to the story in their own ways. In a weird, dreamlike narrative like this one, claiming one thing as real and the other as lies can only make the story that much less interesting.

So for some reason I lost my mind and posted 3 of the 4 videos I have stocked up today.

Tomorrow's the end of Act 4, then there might be a few days of nothing doing until I get another chance to sit down with THE GANG and record the next few levels. I'm sure you'll all miss me.

NO HEART

NO MIND

Yesterday I got distracted with writhing BLASPHEMOUS INFLAMMATORY posts about Eff Eff 7, The Last Clifford, Metroid-Not-Metroid, and StarPox so I Didn't bother to do an LP update.

*BEAT IS A JACKASS*

But yeah today we're back on the wagon. This one's gonna be a doozy.

HM2 SCENE 16 - CASUALTIES

OCTOBER 30TH 1985
SURVIVORS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - MorningSong
SOUNDTRACK
Magic Sword - The Way Home

QUICK NOTES

• WE OPEN WITH THE GHOST WOLVES PREPARING FOR ANOTHER MISSION. Looks like all that talk in Scene 14 about getting to go home was just empty words. Their conversation indicates that their next task is basically a suicide mission, but at this point they're used to it.
• THE COLONEL ROLLS IN ALL UNANNOUNCED. He interrupts their conversation by storming in from the jungle wearing a crude mask made out of a panther's face. The fact that he's apparently able to kill and skin a fucking apex predator while shithammered is not commented on.
• THE COLONEL HAS SOME PRETTY STRONG OPINIONS TO SHARE. He screams that they have been reduced to mindless animals, so they may as well look the part. A moment later, Beard asks if he's okay, and he seems to snap out of it, blaming his outburst on the booze.
• IN THE MORNING THE COLONEL BASICALLY SAYS HIS GOODBYES. He makes it clear that he knows that the mission is suicide, and tells all the men how proud he is of them. The Ghost Wolves set out in the morning light towards an uncertain fate.
• THIS MISSION IS JUST INSANELY HARD. Loads of wide open spaces and heavily armed enemies constantly patrolling means I die a lot. Every single screen relies on a combination figuring out your windows of opportunity, luring enemies into choke points, knowing when to use your precious, precious bullets, and just getting lucky. There's a reason this video is over 20 minutes long.
• I'M ON THE THE FIRST SECTION FOR-FUCKIN-EVER. I start by trying to stealth it, but around the 8 minute mark I just go "fuck it" and change strategies to just running into the first room and going nuts with the knife. It actually eventually works! Video games should be exciting!
• SMILER'S AIRHORN IS A LIE. It's just a fucking .wav file! Such bulllshit.
• I HATE THE THIRD SECTION SO, SO MUCH. The entrance is just such a horrible death zone. The only "safe" way to kick it off is by spending precious ammo killing heavy through both a doorway and a window, but you'll still most likely get owned by one of the randos in the left room anyways. I'm not sure if it's the WORST room in the entire game, thanks to one or two that are coming up, but it's a strong contender. I eventually manage to basically blunder my way in after a botched entrance and clear it out in reverse.
• "WOW I ACTUALLY PULLED IT OFF HOLY SHIT!" "That's a miracle! an actual miracle!"
• THE RUSSIAN COMMANDER REFUSES TO BE TAKEN ALIVE. Apparently he shot all of his aids, and then kills himself. Apparently he also rigged the whole place to blow, because it's still a video game.
• BOOBY-TRAPPED ELEVATOR DOES TERRIBLE THINGS. Half of Barns's body is obliterated, while Jacket is badly injured. Beard grabs Jacket and starts dragging him out of the building. Daniels stays with the dying Barns. We never see him again.
• THE ESCAPE SEQUENCE ACTUALLY HAS A LOT OF DEAD ENDS. None of them get shown off because I've played this game before and I know my shit.
• WE FINALLY FIND OUT WHERE JACKET GOT THAT PHOTO HE THREW AWAY AT THE END OF HOTLINE 1. "Maybe you should take this, so you don't forget who saved your ass".
• FAST FORWARD TO 18:27 APRIL 3RD 1986, SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA. 6 Months after their final mission, we find Beard, working at a very familiar convenience store, talking to his old war buddy Jacket over the phone. Apparently Jacket has been meaning to send Beard a copy of that photo, but it keeps slipping his mind. Beard wraps up the call, saying that there seems to be some commotion outside, and goes out to see... oh no.
• "I JUST HAVE THIS REALLY BAD FEELING. Like... Like something terrible has happened tonight. I haven't felt this way since San Francisco."

IN GREATER DETAIL

THIS IS THE POINT WHERE I CAN FINALLY ELABORATE ON THE BACKSTORY WITHOUT SPOILERPOPS. Leave it to a series like Hotline Miami to not definitively reveal the premise of the plot until 2/3rds of the way through the second game. In most stories, not letting the audience know about a world-changing event that's common knowledge to the characters until so late in the game would be as a pretty big flaw! But Hotline isn't most stories, and I honestly think the choice they made to keep what happened hidden was a wise one. Madness and uncertainty are key themes here, and keeping the players guessing about an event as big as this one serves to reinforce those themes within the actual structure of the plot, similar to how Kurt Vonnegut's Slaugterhouse 5 uses a fractured timeline to reinforce the confusion and madness of war.

Yeah I just compared killmurder video game to classical literature, WATCHUGONDO?! Yeah, that's what I thought!

OKAY SO WHAT IS THE BACKSTORY EXACTLY? In the Hotline Miami Universe, the Cold War escalated way past what we experienced in the real world, eventually leading to Russian Forces invading the Hawaiian Islands, an unprecedented attack on sovereign American soil. The actual fighting took place with ground troops shipped in from both nation's respective mainlands, engaging each other via Guerrilla warfare tactics in island's jungles. While the Russians had plenty of manpower to throw at the campaign, the Americans had a home-field advantage, and the Russians consistently experienced heavy losses. The whole thing devolved into a brutal war of attrition with neither side willing to throw in the towel.

Then the Russians realized that they didn't have to win a bunch of skirmishes on a tiny island to declare themselves the winner. They just had to make the USA not want to fight anymore. They decided to play hardball, and take just one small, calculated step over the line nobody wanted to cross.

SO THEY NUKED SAN FRANCISCO OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Lemme just say, the game's portrayal of an atomic attack got me pretty damn bad the first time I saw it. Beard just walks outside to see what all the hubbub is about, but just stops dead when the realization sinks in. He and everyone else just stand there helpless in the instant where the light and fire of the atomic blastwave surround them before being violently reduced to ash and dust.

The Russians didn't fire all their missiles all at once and kill the entire world, like everybody feared they might. They just wiped out one major American city to drive home that they were completely willing to make that whole "global thermonuclear war" thing a reality. Give them what they wanted or they would actually fucking do it. Their way of looking the US in the eye and demanding to know if we were really, really willing to end the world.

The popular assumption about The Cold War today is that if anybody used the nuclear option, then everybody would immediately do the same, and Mutually Assured Destruction would spell the end of Earth. Hotline Miami argues otherwise. The US Government was faced with the choice between rolling over for the Russians or responding with it's own nuclear arsenal, and it chose to back down. It makes sense. The Russian government, despite being the ones to have pushed the button, still viewed Nuclear attacks as sort of an abstract concept, just another tool to be used when doing that whole "war" thing. The US government, having just been become the subject of such an attack, knew that a launching their arsenal would prompt Russia to launch theirs, immediately dooming every American Citizen to the same fate as the victims of San Francisco. It was now horribly clear that "victory" wasn't worth it. So the US stood down, and the USSR won the cold war.

THE UNITED STATES BECAME SUBJECT TO THE RUSSO-AMERICAN COALITION. The games never spell out exactly how the coalition works, but the general assumption is that while the USA appears to operate as it always has, Russia was now really in charge, and everything that happened in the states became subject to Russian scrutiny and approval. There was also an influx of Russian citizens moving to the United States, mostly those who had some sort of position of power within Russian society. With them came the Russian Mafia, which took advantage of the new political climate to give themselves a foothold in the US, likely made easier for them thanks to preferential treatment they received from the coalition as Russian Citizens. As for the American public, most of them tried their best to act like everything was the same as it had always been.

Most of them, anyways. Some people can't help but fight.

ENTER 50 BLESSINGS. Go back to the video and watch the very first few seconds again. In the first few moments as the camera pans down towards the ghost wolves talking amongst each other in their tent, you can see the the inside of the Colonel's quarters. Inside is the panther he killed, and an American flag, which he's drawn a circle of blood on top of. Later, when he shows up wearing the panther's face, you can see that he's drawn the same circle & stripes design on it's forehead. So in case I haven't made it obvious enough yet, the Colonel himself is the original founder of 50 Blessings.

After spending so much time in the Hawaii Campaign, only for all his efforts to suddenly become meaningless by the destruction of San Francisco, the Colonel directs his considerable rage and hatred towards two targets: The Russians that killed his men and destroyed his country, and the American cowardice that let those sons of bitches win. On the surface 50 Blessing's goal is simply to encourage the American Public to resist Russian Control. Beneath the surface, they take the most "useful" members (people who are predisposed to violence or mental illness, people with exploitable weaknesses, or people or who just really really fucking hate Russians) and coerce them into attacking the Russian Mob. They exclusively target criminal organizations because it sends the message to the Russo-American coalition "we can take on your biggest and baddest. It also prevents the coalition from doing too much in response, as they have to keep up appearances, and all the Russian Citizens getting killed are also obviously dangerous criminals. Finally, they keep the people actually doing the hits completely in the dark, so anyone who fails in their mission can't talk too much.

THUS THE STAGE IS SET FOR JACKET TO RE-ENTER THE PICTURE. The pages upon pages of text I just wrote puts everything in palace for his first non-military mission at the beginning of Hotline 1. if you've read the relevant spoilerpops, you might remember I claimed that someone knew from the start that Jacket would make an ideal operative. I was referring the Colonel himself, who during his stint as Jacket's commanding officer, saw firsthand his affinity for violence, his hatred for the Russians (both for his own injuries and for the loss of his best friend), and his willingness to follow orders simply because they're orders. Jacket being the best killer 50 Blessings ever had was no accident, he would have been the Colonel's first choice for people to use as tools for his new objective.

But Jacket was far from the only person 50 Blessings put to work, and someone as obviously dangerous and unhinged as him would inevitably become more of a liability as an asset. Someone would eventually have to take care of him.

But who?

that is a really long six months

TYPOOOOOSSSSSSS

Fixd.

HM2 SCENE 17 - FIRST BLOOD

APRIL 2ND 1989
UNWELL RELATIVES
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Kalir
SOUNDTRACK
Dubmood - Richard
Endless - Disturbance

The rat returns.

QUICK NOTES

• "INTERMISSION" IS A VERY APPROPRIATE ACT NAME. In every other stage the game is jumping around between times and places keeping things nice and insane. This one takes a break from all that and and focuses completely on a single phone conversation between Evan Wright and one of his sources.
• RICHTER'S FIRST MISSION HAPPENS ON THE DAY BEFORE JACKET'S FIRST MISSION. 50 Blessings really went all-in during April 1989, huh?
• I REALLY LIKE THE TAVERN LEVEL BECAUSE COMBOS. It's really short and I do SUPER BADLY but I don't even care because you can do SO MUCH COMBO. like bust in the door and rack up 12 kills almost immediately! So great you guys.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET RICHTER... AGAIN. Yeah that's right, it's the guy that made Jacket's dream somewhat unpleasant back in Hotline 1! Turns out he's the son of that old lady Evan met up with.

Richter has been in and out of jail all his life for various crimes, has very few friends, and has difficulty finding work due to his criminal record. In spite of all that, he comes off as very sympathetic when compared to the other people 50 Blessings got to do their dirty work for one very important reason: He doesn't actually like violence. Given the choice, Richter wouldn't kill anyone. He spends his days in peace, taking care of his elderly mother and trying to find work with whoever's willing to hire a guy with a criminal record.

Unfortunately his love for his mother is also his one exploitable weakness. When the calls from 50 Blessings started coming, Richter's response was to just blow them off as they empty threats they were. They finally got his attention by torching his car (which can be see in the level intro), but the thing that actually prompted him to go out and start killing for them was when they began threatening his mother by name. It's the person he's willing to die for, and thus willing to kill for.

HM2 SCENE 18 - DEMOLITION

APRIL 10TH 1989
YIPPIE-KAI-AY MOTHER FUCKERS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Kalir
SOUNDTRACK
Mega Drive- NARC

In which Richter fucks up what's either a partially constructed building, or a partially torn down one.

Hard to say really.

QUICK NOTES

• RICHTER'S LEVEL INTROS ARE ALL QUIETLY HEARTBREAKING. It's a matter of public record that I can be a huge sap, but there's something about Richter having to stand there and lie to his mother about what he's really up while she encourages him to do his best at job interviews.
• THE FIRST SEGMENT OF THIS LEVEL TOOK ME FOREVER TO NAIL DOWN. Basically you have to melee kill the first two guys that will rush you the second you enter, then wait just barely out of sight for the dude with the machine gun to walk down from the north hallway, kill him quick, grab his gun and kill the heavy before he manages to stomp you. That's seriously the only way to actually clear the room, which is a pretty big departure from the freeform, multiple-approach design the rest of both games are built around. Once you know the trick it's a breeze, but first time players are going to be totally stumped.
• THE SECOND SCREEN IS WAY MORE OPEN ENDED BUT IT TAKES ME FOREVER. Forever being a highly relative term for reasons that will become apparent soon enough.
• MY HITBOX PAGE STILL SHOWS ME AS PLAYING "DO YOU LIKE HORNY BUNNIES 2". Because reasons
• RETURN OF LADYSPIN! I missed you ladyspin. I'm so glad you're back. Nobody destroys dramatic moments quite like you.

Kalir: I'm kind of baffled that it got a sequel in the first place.
BEAT: Well like, I mean, do you like Horny Bunnies left NOWHERE for the story to go.

They killed Beard?! You god-damn commie bastards!

Or in this specific case - little old ladyspin.

HM2 SCENE 19 - HOUSE CALL

APRIL 23RD 1989
CRASHING AT YOUR PAD
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Kalir
SOUNDTRACK
CiniMod - The Rumble

Even if you hate your job, it's only a matter of time before you start getting good at it.

QUICK NOTES

• RICHTER'S MOM ISN'T STUPID. What she says in the intro cutscene does a pretty good job illustrating that she's fully aware that Richter isn't being totally honest with her. That said she doesn't press the issue, and when Richter lies to her again she acts as though she believes it. Sometimes the truth can only hurt.
• THESE MOBSTERS AND THEIR FUCKING MANSIONS. This guy has a fucking fully stocked gym on the second floor! With like treadmills and shit, and indoor windows looking into the gym so you can appreciate his treadmills. That's just gaudy, man.
• THIS LEVEL ACTUALLY GOES PRETTY SMOOTHLY! Man! I must be pretty good at this game! I bet the next level will go exactly as smoothly!
• AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAahahahahahahah hehehehehe. Hehhh. "Exactly as smoothly." Oh man BEAT, you're such a kidder.
• CUT BACK TO EVAN WRITING ALL THIS SHIT DOWN. I assume he told Evan about plenty of other similar missions, about being sent to kill Jacket & Hooker, and about his eventual arrest, but the game didn't feel the need to show all that, hence Evan writing enough to run out of paper. When you get back with the notepad, Richter continues his story from the point where he's in prison awaiting trial.

HM2 SCENE 20 - RELEASE

JULY 20TH 1990
CHAIN GANG
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster - Kalir
SOUNDTRACK
Carpenter Brut - Le Perv

I hate this fucking level. I can't even.
Just.
Fuck this level.

QUICK NOTES

• THE JANITORS PAY RICHTER A VISIT IN JAIL. Richter has no idea who they are, of course. They act like they've got a secret they're just DYING to share, then just walk away, leaving him sitting there confused. So yeah. They're total dicks.
• IT QUICKLY BECOMES APPARENT THAT THEY'VE ARRANGED FOR RICHTER TO BE KILLED IN PRISON. The guards send Ricter out to the yard, where a giant monster convict is waiting to kill him. And yes, The Big guy has a 50 tattooed under his eye and a certain familiar logo on the back of his neck. 50 Blessings has people everywhere.
• IT TAKES ME FOREVER TO TAKE DOWN THE BIG GUY. It's not super hard, just avoid him until someone throws a pipe into the ring, then cave his head in, but for some reason my game was just really off when we recorded. Sets the tone for the rest of the video.
• IN THEORY, THIS LEVEL IS AWESOME. Use a prison riot as a distraction in order to steal a guard's uniform and escape? Wow that's a really cool idea!
• IN PRACTICE, THIS LEVEL IS JUST HORRIBLE. After the "Boss" you have to make your way through a segment that's just packed with guards with shotguns. You have very, very little room for failure in here and pretty much any momentary mistake will send you right back to the beginning. Around the 10 minute mark I finally manage to clear it out and get the guard's clothes. So from this point forward it should be smooth sailing, right?
• THEN IT GETS WORSE. You thought getting the guard uniform would be the end? Nope! After you get it, there's still two more segments to go, only now you're facing off against rioting convicts instead of guards. There are loads of guys with firearms and bunt objects just dying to kill you, but the thing that truly sets this area apart in terms of raw difficulty is a brand new enemy type! Presenting...
• THE BERSERKERS. They look like slightly beefier versions of the normal enemies. The second they hear one of your gunshots, or catch a glimpse of you through a window or across the stage they fucking sprint to where you are so they can savagely strangle you to death. Also they're bulletproof, Shooting them just knocks them down for a second before they hop back on their feet and resume rushing. The only way to kill them is by smashing them with a melee weapon in the split second before their hands reach your neck.If you're carrying a gun when one of them gets pissed off you're basically fucked. I die to them an absolutely insane amount of times, but I finally manage to clear the area around 17 minutes in.
• THEN IN SPITE OF ALL LOGIC, IT SOMEHOW GETS MORE WORSE. The final segment doesn't introduce any new enemies, it's just an absolute bastard in terms of placing them. It also has the incredible cruelty to mix in the big guys that you can only kill with firearms, and put them right next to the Berserker that guns are totally useless against. The result is a final room that is an absolute grueling slog to fight through. It's my personal pick for the worst floor in the entire series, but I finally manage to pull through around 21 minutes.
• ONCE YOU'RE FINALLY DONE, RICHTER ESCAPES PRISON WHEN THE SWAT TEAM CALLED IN TO TAKE CARE OF THE RIOT ARE FOOLED BY HIS UNIFORM. The path you take to reach said SWAT team actually takes you back through the room where you stole the uniform! So it's kind of like Richter didn't even need to fight all those convicts! Ha Ha! Fuck this level.
• THE OUTTRO HAS SOME PRETTY SIGNIFICANT STUFF GOING ON IN IT. But that's the sort of stuff we have In Greater Detail for.

IN GREATER DETAIL

I FIND RICHTER'S GENERAL ATTITUDE TO BE PRETTY INTERESTING. It's usually a fools errand to try and determine the personal philosophies of things like video game characters, given that 90 percent of the time they do only what you tell them to do, but Richter's sort of a weird exception. His words and actions paint him as a sort of fatalist. He believes he is essentially powerless to resist the greater forces at work, and simply goes with the flow. He's not averse to taking advantage of opportunities when they arise (such as using the prison riot to escape), he does not actively look for these opportunities, or ever try to create them himself.

Richter stoically accepts that his existence is at the mercy of any force he considers greater than himself. When the phone calls made it clear they were serious, he followed them without ever trying to discover their origins or rebel against them. When Jacket confronted him in the police station, Richter gave him as much help as he could, and made no attempt to defend himself, giving Jacket the opportunity to take his revenge as he saw fit. He awaited trial as a model prisoner, fully accepting that there was no escaping from his crimes. It's a stark contrast to the attitude of protagonists like the Biker, who fought tooth and nail against any power that attempted to control him.

WHAT EVAN DOES AFTER THE CALL WITH RICHTER ENDS DECIDES HIS FUTURE. after the call with Richter, Evan walks over to the table to find a note his Wife left him. Apparently his nightmare on the subway really came true and she really did leave with the kids. However she still wants to make things work with him, if he can just learn to put his family over his work.

After reading the note, you can end the scene in two different ways. Going to the typewriter means diving right back into his work, at the cost of his family. Going to the phone means he'll call his wife, meaning he'll finally loosen up on his obsession with the killings of 89. Both of them get indicated onscreen by those little blue arrows, and which one you pick affects the details of the ending you get.

I personally go with the phone for the same reason I always avoid sending Evan into rage mode in his levels. I just don't LIKE the idea of Evan being anything less than a basically good person. That means not being a murderer, and not abandoning his family. Yeah, he's closer to the truth about the killings of 89 than anyone else, and this means his book is probably not getting done anytime soon, but come on man. It's his kids.

MY YOUTUBE VIDEO MANAGER RIGHT NOW!
THIS IS IT PEOPLE!

THE GRAND FINALE!

it seems like Carpenter Brut shows up every time Something Important happens

as an interesting note, if you throw a weapon at said berserkers, they will pick it up; upon being knocked down again they turn into normal goons. Either way, you can effectively neuter them with an empty gun.

That never even occured to me and I'm FURIOUS about it!

I think that's less of an "intentional theme" thing and more of a "HOLY SHIT THIS SONG IS AWESOME LET'S USE IT TO MAKE THIS BIG IMPORTANT PART MORE AWESOME!" thing.

Carpenter Brut is fucking awesome.

HM2 SCENE 21 - SEIZURE

NOVEMBER 18TH 1991
STRIP CLUB PATRONS
Smiler - Patito - FanboyMaster
SOUNDTRACK
El Tigr3 - She Swallowed Burning Coals

Let's kick off the final act by uh... playing as a completely new character?

What, this late in the game? Really?

QUICK NOTES

• THE SON HAS 3 SELECTABLE PLAY STYLES. Each one plays exactly like one of the fans, with the exception of Alex & Ash since the son is only one person. That said I only ever pick the dual machine guns one, because dual machine guns.
• THIS LEVEL IS WAY WAY DARK. As in low lighting, making it difficult to see enemies against the background. It's appropriate for the location, strip clubs are always dimly lit dens of depravity! That doesn't mean it's not fucking annoying to get killed by enemies you didn't notice because you couldn't actually see em.
• MY PLAYTHROUGH OF THIS LEVEL ACTUALLY WENT PRETTY SMOOTHLY, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. At this point in the game every single level is doing its damnedest to kick your ass in any way it can. Five minutes is seriously not that bad.
• THE OUTTRO SCENE BRINGS BACK THE BODYGUARD. Yeah he hasn't quit bit it yet at this point. I kind of totally love their conversation. The Son basically trashes the Bodyguard in every way he can think of before suddenly easing up and sending him on his merry way with a giant pile of cash. As far as criminals/mass murderers go, he's still a pretty nice guy to work for.

IN GREATER DETAIL

MEET THE SON. Remember the bodyguard's employer? Well it's his turn in the spotlight! The Son is the… uh… Son of the Mob Boss that Jacket faced off with way back in Scene 15 of Hotline 1. He probably always figured he would ease into running a highly successful & well-ran syndicate after years of being groomed for the position by his father. Instead he found himself suddenly thrust into leadership of a severely crippled organization, with most of it's operations hobbled or outright destroyed by seemingly endless waves of masked killers. To make matters worse, the Colombian Cartels took advantage of the mob's weakened state, and established their own foothold in the city.

After two years of struggling to recover, the Mob is still a far cry from what it was, and the Cartel has become the other key player in the Miami underworld. The Colombians, possibly as a precursor to trying to make an arrangement with the Russians (or maybe just to rub salt in the wound) invite the Son to a big opening party at their new strip club. The Son decides that he's done tiptoeing around, and decides to use the occasion to make the war between the two organizations official.

THE SON'S 3 PLAY STYLES ARE ACTUALLY WEIRD REFERENCES EARLIER EVENTS. In gameplay they basically let the son play like 3 out of 4 of the fans. But they also act as little references to the son's background and history. No really, check this out.

"Bodyguard" lets you play like Cory the Zebra. The name refers to the Ninja Lady that was protecting the old head of the organization back in Hotline 1, and is represented by her broken sunglasses. In addition to letting you use the dodge roll, it also gives the katana she used as a starting weapon.

"Dirty Hands" lets you play like Tony the Tiger. It's represented by a Brass knuckle shaped like cat's paw, and while you could argue that's just to further connect it to Tony, it could also be a reference to the panthers his father kept as pets/attack animals. It's name references the monolog his grandfather gave right before Jacket shot him.

"Bloodline" lets you play like Mark the Bear. It's represented by a necklace made from a rifle bullet with "23-7-89" engraved on the side. The numbers are actually the date July 23rd 1989, the day his father died and Jacket's rampage finally ended. The name "Bloodline" refers to his heritage and his status as the next in line for the throne. Finally the starting guns this option gives you are a pair of MP5's, the same guns his father used to try and take down Jacket after his panthers and bodyguards failed him.

ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE INDICATORS TO HOW THE SON'S MIND WORKS. You might notice that all that stuff I just wrote is much less about Son himself and much more about his dead father. That's not an accident. Much like the the space monkey in that other thing I wrote, the Son is completely defined not by his own choices thoughts or actions, but by his father's accomplishments. He has no identity of his own beyond "the offspring of the last boss", and he's internalized this to the point that when he makes choices, what he thinks his dead father would have wanted gets priority over his own needs and desires. He is completely trapped in the shadow of his predecessors.

Further reinforcing that theme of toxic Legacy is is his character's portrait. His face is almost an exact copy of his father's, but with added scarring. And if that's not enough for you, how about the fact that instead of calling him "the Boss" or the "the Kingpin" the only name the Devs ever gave us for him is "The Son". Doesn't get much more on the nose than that.

but is he prodigal

this is important

Don't look at me, man.