Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Reviews
Hotline Miami 2 boasts a much larger scope than its predecessor but to its detriment the game insists on channelling players through an optimal path. A competent follow-up.
Not as good as the original, Hotline Miami 2 delivers a flawed dose of the high speed ultra violence that's fun but not essential.
For fans of the series, there's a lot more Hotline Miami to play here and it still has its moments. For newcomers or people that didn't get into the first game, it may be a difficult one to get on board with.
Reloaded.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number lives up to original in a number of ways, even outpacing it in terms of stylistic violence. With a story that's all over the map, and constraints often placed on the player, Hotline Miami 2 takes away some of the fun from the original game -- just not all of it.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is an entertaining game, at least for the majority of its play time. It takes what made Hotline Miami great and made it greater, these being the weapons and level design. It is a much longer experience too, though personal playthrough times will be dependant on your skill. However, Wrong Number also tries to do too much too quickly, and its multiple character paths don't work as well as hoped. Add in the fact there are fewer masks and it feels like a major part of the game has been stripped out. Overall it doesn't quite reach the same heights as its streamlined, bizarre predecessor.
Hotline Miami 2 is ultimately a lesser game than its predecessor, one that has just as many failings as it does strengths. Yet some of its ideas are so outstanding that it's absolutely worth playing if you can summon the appropriate amount of patience. It's an audacious game that takes risks and embraces experimentation. When so many franchises seem content on retreading the same ground, Hotline Miami 2 feels like an important, if often frustrating asset.
Adding good new ideas to the formula, but unable to implement them without diluting the overall experience, Hotline Miami 2 isn't a disaster, but certainly lacks the original's fiery vitality.
Hotline Miami 2 was in a very difficult spot. Had it solely done more of the same as the first, it would have endured criticism for not evolving. Instead, Dennaton has taken some of the formula that made the first game brilliant, and literally expanded pretty much everything in the game. Sometimes to its credit, but often to its detriment, Hotline Miami 2 hasn't quite managed to live up to the hype of the first game, and will often leave you feeling unfairly treated as a single bullet will come from literally out of nowhere. It's gone from a tightly paced action puzzle game, to a slightly flabbier paced action puzzler that relies much more heavily on the firepower that the first one encouraged you to shun so much. It's worth playing, if not for the soundtrack alone, but this is really the only area that it surpasses the original title. All in all, a shaky sequel that is built on extremely solid foundations.
Hotline Miami 2 force-feeds you sleaze
A decent sequel that pushes Hotline Miami to the limit. However, held back from greatness by a few niggling issues.
There are some new elements of course, but where I expected a build on the previous game's mechanics into a brand new experience instead became the same basic feel in a different scenario.
Wrong Number is the right call for anyone looking for just more of the same, but some problematic focus on the wrong things keep it from feeling as fresh and exciting as the original. You should still buy the soundtrack, though.
The number you have dialed has been disconnected
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number didn't make giant leaps in gameplay improvements, but the essence that made the first game great is intact and alive. Sometimes that is all that matters, especially in a game like this.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is the type of game that will get your heart racing and test your reflexes at each and every turn. It’s late-80s-early 90s-infused world proves that arcade-style gameplay isn’t dead — it just moved.
Music is superb throughout Hotline Miami 2. The synthy, high tempo soundtrack is almost worth the price of admission alone and will keep you tapping your feet as you murder, die, restart and murder again
Despite some minor issues, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is exactly what the fans of the original want and an excellent jump-on for people curious to get into the series.
So is it worth playing? Definitely. Will it shock and awe players? Only those who are coming to this series for the first time. It's more of the same, but that's no bad thing, and if you're a returning player to this franchise, prepare to be frustrated, enraged and enthralled all over again.
Even though Hotline Miami 2 asks much of what the original title asked of players, specifically if they "liked hurting people," the tough questions and even harsher consequences made me want to keep looking, even if it was unbearable and uncomfortable to do so at times.