Since the release of “Hotline Miami” indie games have taken on a new formula for game design. This design tends to have fast-paced, top-down ultra-violence led by a silent protagonist. This unique form of game-play can be traced back to a small development team who changed how Indie games are made forever.
Back on Oct 23. 2012 Swedish game developers Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin released “Hotline Miami”, a game that is considered by many who have played it to be a true masterpiece in gaming. Breaking down the game it’s clear to see why it was so popular among its fan base. The game is centered around an unknown protagonist who is simply known as “Jacket” for his distinct Letterman jacket. Throughout the game Jacket receives encrypted messages from a series of unknown callers each asking Jacket to perform all sorts of seemingly innocent tasks from taking care of a pest infestation or showing VIPs at a hotel a good time; each of these tasks takes a turn for the worst as they always end with Jacket donning a rubber animal mask and carrying out brutal assaults against Russian mobsters and their accomplices.
The player is just as fragile as the mobsters they fight: one wrong step and the whole level has to be restarted. The catch is the game rewards speed, brutality of kills, and daringness. All of this is reinforced by the game’s heart-pulsing music that seems to put the player in a trance.
At first glance the game seems like your typical beat ’em up style of game, but as the violence becomes more brutal the player is increasingly transported into the conscious of Jacket’s mind and this is where the story begins to reveal itself. These bizarre events include people clad in on of Jacket’s many animal masks and representing the different extremes of his mind. To badly wounded, half-dead mobsters taunting him as he goes about his daily life. To top it all off, the game indirectly asks the player a simple question, “Do you like hurting other people?” This question sticks with the player as they trudge their way through the piles of mutilated bodies they leave in their wake.
Towards the end more and more questions are raised, from secret nationalist groups bent on removing all Russians from America. To other assassins that seem to hunt down Jacket at every turn. “Hotline Miami” presented a simple game that asks more than it tells, and shows what happens when extremes take control of people.
But after the release of the second game in 2015 it seemed as thought “Hotline Miami” was ready to retire. The effect it had on the industry can still be seen. After the release of “Hotline Miami Two: Wrong Number” more and more game began to emerge with strikingly similar ideas and game play as the original “Hotline Miami”. Games like “Ape out”, “Ruiner”, and even a fan made attempt to make a third game called “Midnight Animal”, have all been released of announced to be released.
While it’s clear that the games bring their own flare to their work it’s clear to see what inspired them. It’s possible that “Hotline Miami” might be to top-down super violence as “Doom” was to the first person shooter genre. So in the end, while it might be left to rest, there’s plenty of games to continue its legacy.
Mitchell Miller // Staff Writer
