Hotline Miami - PS Vita Review

Hotline Miami is an ultra-violent top-down shooter whose incredible style and play mechanics make it one of the must unique games ever made.

 

In Hotline Miami you play an unnamed protagonist who receives messages from a shadowy organization of masked men telling him to infiltrate buildings, killing everyone within. The game constantly has you questioning your characters motivation and sanity as the lines between fantasy and reality are always being blurred. Are the masked men real? Why do you always meet the same store clerk after every mission who gives your superfluous items such as free pizza or video rentals? Many of these questions are never fully answered and are left to the player for interpretation.

The story is presented with dialogue boxes from various characters whose cryptic messages drive the main character on. Character progression can be gleaned from visual cues such as the state of the protagonists apartment changing over the course of the game. The main character will usually start each mission with a phone call in his apartment telling him to pay certain people "visits" which results him going on a murderous rampage in several different, multi-leveled locations.

The game is played from a top-down perspective and involves the player going from room to room in a gang infested building killing everyone in sight before being allowed to progress to the next floor. The game is presented with a 2D pixel art style that while retro in feel, can display insane amounts of violence. Your character will stomp on heads, gouge out eyes and slash throats that will results in streams of pixilated blood and viscera. The entire game is heavily influenced by the 2011 film "Drive" (so much so that the developers thank director Nicolas Winding Refn in the credits). This influence can not only be seen in the violence and presentation but also the amazing 80s themed, dark sythn soundtrack, whose thumping baseline and high-pitched whines will get your thumbs moving and your eyes twitching.

 

The player is given a limited view of his surroundings and is able to see an overhead room layout of the immediate area around him. Guards patrol in an ordered fashion and it's up to you to decide the best course of action to take on a room. Death will come swiftly to both the player and enemies as most attacks result in one hit kills. A large arsenal of firearms such as shotguns and assault rifles are at your disposal although you will have to pick these items off of fallen enemies as you usually start the level unarmed.

Smart planning is important to survival and Hotline Miami lets you take on the carnage in whatever way you deem fit. Should you go into a room, grab the nearest guard as a human shield, throw a knife at an attack dog, kill the shield, grab his weapon and quickly blast the two other baddies in the next room before they have time to react? Or should you wait until an enemie's patrol route passes by a door, kick down said door stunning the guard, pick up a baseball bat and smash open the head of the next guard as to not alert anyone else with the sound of gunfire? The choice is up to you.

 

This flexibility is what makes Hotline Miami such a joy to play. The visceral impact of bullets and streaks of blood keep you pushing forward toward the next kill. While this feeling is very empowering, you will die, over and over again. Sometimes hundreds of times during a level. An enemy out of your view will shoot you unexpectedly or a dog will charge down a hallway and rip out your throat before you have time to react. Luckily pressing "X" immediately after dying will instantly restart you at the beginning of a level to try a new method of attack.

One of the biggest problems with the Vita port of the game has to be the controls. Hotline Miami was originally made for the PC with a keyboard and mouse setup for extreme precision. But on the Vita, the twin-stick/lock-on mechanic is just not fast enough to deal with multiple enemies coming at you when a single hit means your death. The way I would have to take on rooms was to rotate my character in the direction I wanted to be facing, then run in with guns blazing hoping the spotty auti-aim mechanic would take out the enemies in a general direction.

While this lead to many more deaths than on the PC version, the fact that it never got frustrating is a testament to the games addictive, fast-paced gameplay.

BOTTOM LINE:

Hotline Miami is a truly unique action game whose variety of killing mechanics along with an incredible sense of style make for one of the most intense action games on the console.

8/10

Gone Home - PC Review

While Gone Home's mechanics and story telling are nothing new, it is a fine example of how gameplay and plot can be melded together.

Gone Home is a first person adventure game where you play the role of Kaitlin, the eldest of two daughters, who is returning home from a yearlong trip abroad. You enter a new, unfamiliar house your family has moved into during your absence, and you slowly discover what has happened during the time you were gone.

The game is set in the mid-nineties and the house is full of items befitting the time such as VHS tapes with episodes of the "X-Files" on them, cassette tape decks, and Super Nintendo cartridges. You enter into the empty house during a thundertstorm and the unlit rooms set the tone perfectly.

Collecting and examining objects to progress is the entirety of the gameplay in Gone Home. Several doors will be initially locked, but finding maps and notes left around the house yields new passages to different rooms. You are able to pick up and manipulate items and several key items will produce a voiced diary entry from your younger sister Sam.

And this is the best part of Gone Home, the story. Without any previous knowledge of the people who live in this house, you are put right in the shoes of the main character. You discover an interesting story of your sister's first love which is both unaccepted by your parents and society. You find your fathers struggles to return to writing and your mother's attempts to keep the marriage together despite some possible infidelity.

 

Apart from the diary entries from Sam, this entire storyline is derived from objects found around the house. You mother's schedule with couple's activities crossed out and your fathers boxes of unsold books are all you need to build up these characters you will never see.

The story of Gone Home could never be told in any medium but a videogame. The feeling of being alone in a strangers home while riffling though their personal belongings brings on a uncomfortableness along with giddy voyeurism. The items are laid out perfectly for you to find in an order that serves the narrative.

 

The biggest knock against the game would have to be the length for the price. The entire game can be completed in 1-2 hours. I actually went back to play it again before writing this review and was able to finish it in 20 minutes. While there is nothing necessarily wrong about a short game, Gone Home's initial asking price of $20 is insane. While it can be found for sale on various sites, there is no way I could recommend this game for anything over $5.

 

BOTTOM LINE:

The developers at The Fullbright Company have created a great story in Gone Home that is sad and bittersweet dealing with themes of teenage rebellion and a collapsing family. It is a game that should be experienced by anyone interested in how story and gameplay can compliment each, but it's incredibly short length doesn't make it worth the reccomened price. Wait for a sale and then definetly get it.

7/10

Guacamelee! - PS Vita Review

Guacamelee! is an excellent 2D action platformer whose unique visual style and combat system make it an incredibly fun entry into the "Metroid-vania" catalog of games.

In Guacamelee! you play the role of Juan Aguacate, a simple farmer set with the task of rescuing El Presidente's daughter from the evil skeleton Carlos Calaca. To acomplish this task you become a luchador and gain the powers of Mexican Wresting.

The world of Guacamelee! is inspired by traditional Mexican art, folklore, and music. The environments and characters pop with bright neon colors and the Mariachi guitar music is lively and pushes your forward on your quest. While the characters models are relatively simply in design, they are fluidly animated and expressive in their performances.

The humor also shines in the game. Dialogue is funny and self referential with seveal nods to older games like Mario and Zelda. The characters are also quite memorable from a crotchety old shape-shifting goat man who explains your new powers as you collect them (one time giving you the "Congratulations! You've earned NOTHING!" line) to a fire breathing, tequila drinking gunslinger who would fight you if it were not for him wasting all his ammo shooting his pistols up into the air. The jokes and sight gags really are refreshing for a game in this genre which is usually filled with Gothic castles or abandoned space stations.

The base of Guacamelee!'s gameplay is combat brawling and dungeon exploration. Your character moves around in an open world consisting of several different environment types (desert, ice, castle) and then trekking into dungeons which are broken up into small, closed off arena battles, puzzle platforming rooms, and boss fights.

Like the world itself, the fighting in Guacamelee! takes it's cues from Mexican Wrestling. You have your basic punch/kick combos along with throws and suplexes. You are often faced with multiple enemies at a time which makes tossing foes into each other to stun them imperative toward survival.

Combat has a nice flow to it, allowing you to rack up large combos by mixing up different strikes and special moves. These special moves, which come in the form of attacks such as shoulder dashes and rising uppercuts, are gained by smashing orb holding Chozo Statues, which is a direct reference to the Metroid series.

 

Certain enemies will be shielded different colors indicating the special move needed to defeat them. This has you using all of the moves in your arsenal and gets to even more complicated levels in boss battles. The special moves also come into play when solving the game's many puzzles rooms. These rooms are a real treat to play and have you wishing there were more of them. You are often faced with what seems like a completely impassible set of platforms and walls between you and a chest but after several attempts and a clever use of the directional boosting abilities of your special moves, you'll end up feeling like a genus.

The character building aspect of Guacamelee! comes from item and gold collection. Collecting sets of hearts or skulls expand your maximum health and stamina respectivly. Defeating enemies will net you gold which increases with the execution of longer combo stings. This gold can then be traded for more item sets or stronger strikes and throws. The progress comes quickly and has you searching every part of a level for that next item.

While there is some backtracking in Guacamelee!, it is no where near the level of a game like Super Metroid. Usually after gaining a new ability in a dungeon a simple detour will allow you to collect everything in an area. This makes for very quick passage though the game without having to worry about traveling all the way back to a spot now that you have a special move that allows you to pass through a colored door. While there is a fast travel system in place using giant Olmec heads, I found myself not using them at all throughout my playtime (I used them once after completing the game to get an achievement).

BOTTOM LINE:

Guacamelee! is an amazing ride for any fans of Metroid-vania type games. While the playtime is short (5-8 hours) the game is constantly pushing you forward with it's fast and deep combat and awesome, hilarious presentation. A perfect fit for the Vita platform.


8/10