izigame.me

It takes a game like Hong Kong Massacre to really make you appreciate the amount of work that went into the Hotline Miami series. As simple as the games look and play, Hong Kong Massacre really made me appreciate the amount of work Dennaton put into designing the levels and mechanics of Hotline Miami, because this game, despite coming out way later, seems to have devolved from the genre. The bullets feel weird and slow, causing moments where you can spot and shoot a guy first but they have juuust enough time to shoot bullets back at you (note that they do this WHILE your bullets are traveling at a snail's pace towards them) and hit you. The game has a gimmicky slow-mo mechanic that feels OP but you're "encouraged" (more on this later) to not use it. The roll mechanic seems cool, fun, and an improvement to the Hotline Miami version, but is ultimately held back by an iffy i-frame window that betrays the animation. The boss fights are god-awful copypastes of the same already mediocre boss fight. The enemies are mindlessly scattered around poorly designed maps that don't really complement the gameplay. The story highlights how Hotline Miami could not have worked as well without its writing (because this game's story is as bland as can be, on top of already bland gameplay). The "rewards" and "upgrade" systems feel half-assed and straight out of a mobile game. The soundtrack is ok I guess, but definitely not as iconic as Hotline Miami's. On top of not having features like being able to look ahead, (reminder that this game is 2.5D, good luck.) combat getting boring after an hour due to the lack of variety (no melee, weapon variety). The AI is pretty boring and stupid with not reacting correctly to gunfire, and if they do, they just kind of roam around the room they're in while looking in your direction, not really trying to flank you or push you. The enemy variety is a boring "oh this one has a pistol, this one has a shotgun, a rifle, an smg" that all take one bullet to kill, have the same behavior, and same weapons that all shoot the same, the whole game. It sounds like I'm just begging for this game to be a straight-up copy of the Hotline Miami series, but when you're making a game based on an older game and do the exact opposite of making a better version, you're kind of asking for people to compare the two because it literally just plays like a demo with nothing of note (at least a positive one) to set it apart. And I get most of you are probably reading this review because of John Wick, but let me remind you that it's only the visuals of this game that inspired it. It is NOT a good game. DO NOT pay for the game's full price if you HAVE to get it, wait for a sale (though there is an alternative that I am not at liberty to mention), OR, better yet, just get the Hotline Miami series! Once you're done, play the custom levels made by that game's community, this game doesn't have a level editor/creator (and if it did, the levels would definitely wash the crap maps the devs made). "Hurr durr johm wimck!" I guarantee you will probably regret getting this game, set a timer when you do so you can refund it.