Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Dennaton Games - 2015 - PC/PS3/PS4/Vita

I was waiting until after I finished this game to review it - which I had intended to be a few weeks or so after its release, but that obviously didn't happen. So I've been playing this game on and off trying to get past the part I'm stuck on and you know what? This game is really freaking hard and I don't think I can finish it. At least not right now. So disclaimer: I'm reviewing a game I didn't complete

I could probably be super lazy with this review and just say "It's more Hotline Miami" and in most ways, that's very true. But I'm going to try to be just a bit more insightful and try to highlight some of the differences between this game and its predecessor. First off, the gameplay. It plays largely very similarly to the first game, but you'll notice some differences in level design. Some of Hotline Miami 2's levels are a lot more wide open, which was something that was not really present in the first game. Because of this, I found it much more important to use the camera to look around to see if an enemy is lurking off screen. This becomes kind of annoying, especially when off-screen enemies start shooting you from unseen locations. Nearly every level in Hotline Miami 2 features a different playable character with slightly different abilities, similar to the mask system in the first game. But the player can't change out and experiment with abilities and playstyles when they want to, like in the first game. Levels in Hotline Miami 2 are also generally much longer than the first game. This makes an already hard game that much harder and that much more frustrating when you're killed near the end of the level and forced to start again. It wasn't that big of a deal in the first game, as it was more about the thrill of memorizing relatively short levels and then executing them perfectly. The longer levels in the second game greatly slow it down and make it feel like more of a chore.

(Mild spoilers in this paragraph) The narrative in the first Hotline Miami game was definitely a little open to interpretation. The first half of Hotline Miami saw the player character, "Jacket" slaughtering buildings full of people because a voice on his telephone told him to. The second half of the game (if you follow Jacket's storyline) saw Jacket killing with a purpose instead, tracking down and killing off the people who killed his girlfriend. Many people viewed the story as a commentary on violence in video games, and discussed how killing for no reason vs. the player character killing with a purpose felt the same/different. I admired how Hotline Miami's story could be viewed through many lenses and how the vagueness of the story left it open for the players' imaginations to fill in the gaps. Hotline Miami 2's story has a similar vagueness, but it's compounded by each level being played by a different character and then each level also being told chronologically out of order. I just couldn't even follow what was supposed to be happening. The story seemed like some crazy blur of violence, neon lights, pounding music and confusion. Maybe that's what the developers were going for?

The soundtrack in Hotline Miami 2 is still very much on point. It's still a collaboration of many different artists, even more than the first game, that have somehow banded together to make a unified sound. Most of the first game's musical authors have returned to contribute fresh tracks, but I loved contributions from new artists as well. A few of my favorites are "Divide" by Magna, "Blizzard" by Light Club, and "The Way Home" by Magic Sword. The entire soundtrack is solid from top to bottom and is worth a listen if you like this sort of electronic/techno music.

Summary
I didn't care for the minor changes in gameplay and story but despite all of my above griping, Hotline Miami 2 is still a solid game. Fans of the first game should still enjoy its sequel, but if you haven't played Hotline Miami before, start with the first one. It's the superior game

DOTA 2

Valve - 2013 - PC

This is a bit of a strange review as I'm not sure who my target audience is. I feel like most people who have heard of DOTA 2 are quite aware of what it is and already know whether or not they like it. Similarly, I feel like the gamers who have somehow managed to not have heard of the massively popular DOTA 2 are also probably the people who either won't like or won't care about this game. So let me preface this review with a few disclaimers: First of all, I'm not being critical of DOTA 2 due to some MOBA bias. I realize both DOTA 2 and League of Legends are currently both massively popular and players of each game tend to have strong opinions about which is better. I don't care. I'm completely apathetic towards both games. Secondly, it should probably be known that I'm not very good at DOTA 2. Like at all. I've probably played maybe 4 or 5 games of DOTA 2 total, but it's enough to know that this is not a game for me.

So for those who aren't aware, the basic rules of a multiplayer online battle arena or MOBA are that two competing teams of players are pushing towards some sort of team goal which is usually the capture or destruction of the enemy team's base. There are also usually strong RPG elements to the game where players will have to level up to improve and strengthen their character. This can be done both by killing players on the enemy team which is risky, but rewarding or also by killing weaker non playable characters known in the MOBA communities as "creep". Character choice plays an important role in MOBAs as most characters have vastly varying strengths, weaknesses, statistics, abilities and playstyles. Ideally, teams will consist of complimentary characters and playstyles to create a strong and versatile team. Some MOBAs have further in-match customization of characters through equippable items, weapons, or armor

I love competitive games with a lot of depth, strategy and skill, so several of my friends have recommended this game to me many times. I don't deny that DOTA 2 has a ton of depth, demands a lot of high level thinking and strategy and also requires a fair amount of actual technical skill to be good. These are the aspects of DOTA 2 that appeal to me and make me want to play the game. But it comes in a wrapper that includes so many other aspects that I don't care for. The biggest and most off-putting aspect of DOTA 2 is the community. The DOTA 2 community is notoriously hostile and unwelcoming towards new players, which I am one of. I mean, I kind of understand the problem. It's a team game and people want to win. No one wants to play with a team member who doesn't know what they're doing. The other problem is match length. A typical game of DOTA can last upwards of 45 minutes. Finding 45 consecutive uninterrupted minutes is a lot to ask of my free time. That's not even counting the time spend waiting for other players to join and queue up the game. I like the freedom of starting and stopping my games on my own time.

The final and maybe most fixable problem is the immense barrier of entry to this game. There's a ton of game mechanics, item functions and matchup knowledge to learn before you can start to really compete in this game. Any good game has a learning curve, but I found DOTA's tutorial to be buggy and uninformative. During one part of the tutorial, my character got stuck on a bridge and was unable to move. Then a later section of the tutorial was uncompletable for me because the game wouldn't detect when I bought the correct items from the shop, then I ran out of gold. The character specific player guides didn't seem that helpful unless you were already comfortable with the basic mechanics and terminology of the game. DOTA 2 has an assumed set of knowledge from its users that brand new players don't and won't have. Even the UI seems clunky and unintuitive to me. It took me 5 minutes just to figure out how to leave a game. I'm sure if I was really driven to learn this game by myself, I could look past some of these flaws, but I just don't want to put in the time to learn a game I don't think I'll have fun with

Summary
I know I'm being harsh on a popular and well-liked game, but it's not for me. A hostile community, long play sessions and a nightmarishly large learning curve will likely bar me from playing this game indefinitely. On the bright side though, it's free to play. So try it yourself and make up your own mind as to whether DOTA 2 is worth your time investment