izigame.me

A part of me kinda feels that reviewing through comparison - in a way - does a disservice to the thing being compared. It's that anxiety that instead of judging something on its own merits, I "taint" my review of it by leaving a reference point in the reader's head...
...but what should I do when the game does not shy away from its influences at all?
Indeed, if you've scrolled down to the review section, you probably will have seen that OTXO's store page mentions positive opinions comparing it to Hotline Miami. Hell, knowing the impact that HM had on the gaming industry, you probably didn't even need anyone to tell you that this is a similar game. But simply drawing the comparison doesn't really describe what makes OTXO stand out from its inspiration. And oh boy, there is a lot of stuff to go over – and unfortunately I myself will have to fall for that trap and talk for a bit about the other game as I discuss this one.
Suffice to say, we are never getting another Hotline Miami game from its creators. Though Dennaton have struck gold with the gameplay formula of being a glass cannon and having your reflexes tested alongside your ability to strategize on the fly, the plot of the games never glorified that violence. Instead, the developers had made a point of portraying most of the main cast as pathetic creatures unleashing death and misery on the world for various selfish reasons, with violence itself leading only to a pitiful end for those who choose to take part in it.
And even though the core message chastised the bloodshed, the series took the gaming world by storm because its rendition of violence in gameplay and presentation was intoxicating. Divorced from the plot and the setting, Hotline Miami offered a very solid experience and a great challenge, with just about the only downside being its linear structure.
And so it didn't take long for OTXO to figure out what the good parts were and how to iterate upon them.
On a mechanical level, we're talking about another fast-paced top-down shooter which requires good reflexes from the player. However, the first immediate difference is the toolset available to the player.
One of the major elements in OTXO's gameplay are the drinks. Every few floors you will run into a bar, whose bartender will sell you liquors which carry different effects. What sets them apart from HM's masks is the fact that you can (and likely will) take various different drinks during a run in order to stack their benefits. A liquor which makes killing enemies with SMGs yield more coins? Neat, let's mix that with a drink which makes you dual-wield one-handed guns – which, conveniently, includes SMGs. Add a few more just for variety and you'll build up a truly formidable otxo.
Some of those drinks even interact with your Focus – another major mechanic. Much like Max Payne, you get the ability to slow down time. This allows you to correct positioning mistakes, react faster than your enemies, or even just get the buzz from seeing bullets cut through the air.
Another tool is the dodge-roll, which was also present in Hotline Miami for some characters, but OTXO escalates it to a regular gameplay mechanic. Rather predictably, this lets you reposition and dodge some of the projectiles flying your way, but also vault over furniture such as tables and chairs, unlike HM's static props cutting off movement but letting damage through.
All of this may sound like it's easy to become really powerful in this game. Make no mistake though, OTXO is no cakewalk. These tools are given to you because the enemies really do not forgive. As you proceed further through the Mansion, its guardian demons will have their own attributes augmented, perhaps most notoriously through shortening their already quick reaction times. Though the game gives you a health meter, letting yourself get caught off-guard and not checking your surroundings will probably cause the meter to deplete completely from an SMG-wielding enemy unloading an entire magazine into your back.
And once you die – because you highly likely will, even with prior experience with the genre – you will wake up back at the Beach in front of the Mansion again, with a reminder that the only way to get out and break the cycle is to destroy the Heart of the building. On your way you'll be able to talk to the Nun, who will let you select which weapons will appear during the run as part of the enemy arsenal, or the Girl inside the bar, who handles liquor imports and expands the inventory of drinks that the Bartender may offer.
In recent times I've discovered that I'm really fond of roguelite games – and here I found something that managed to scratch that exact itch that's been missing for all those years. Hotline Miami was already an excellent game, but OTXO looked at what worked, and decided to try to do it in its own style. The end result is a remarkable experience, lined by a distinct "red-accented monochrome" artstyle and a truly vicious soundtrack (composed by the one-man studio behind the game! Yes, all of this was made by one person!).
HM made me aware of many different artists and introduced me to some really energetic tracks that I still enjoy and listen to even outside of the game – but the soundtrack to OTXO, by the virtue of having one composer for all of its soundtrack instead of licensing different tracks not originally made for the game, feels a lot more cohesive, collected, and concise. And really damn good. ("Devil's Meat Grinder" is easily the most violent and vicious track I've heard in years, perfectly fitting the high octane bloodbath – and it's not even a boss theme or anything, it's a normal floor track!)
Despite all of these comparisons to Hotline Miami and the amount of times it's been mentioned in this review, I feel like out of respect for both of these IPs I cannot say that one is flat out better than the other. What I will say, though, is that OTXO – despite being iterative upon concepts we've already seen – manages to stand for itself and carve out its own identity. My very first session in the game, despite me having gotten my butt handed back to me multiple times, had me feeling like I, too, was becoming a prisoner of the Mansion. There was that urge to go for one more run, be the star of another action movie shootout sequence, push onward and conquer the Mansion.
And if a game manages to make me crave more hours from just the first few minutes, I feel like it more than deserves a positive review from me.