Game Blog 6: Hotline Miami

Game Blog Week 6

Game: Hotline Miami

Question: Of the key narrative elements discussed so far in the course (interactivity, level design/linearity, moral choice/nonlinearity, character), which do you think is the most prominent, important or interesting in your chosen game?

Hotline Miami is a unique indie game that puts the player right into the action after blatantly explaining the controls in a small tutorial section. Though this game is basic, it’s tight but fair controls mixed with its brilliant sound design, soundtrack and 8-bit visual aesthetic with its bright neon colours make it a joy to play even though you are mindlessly murdering enemies in a methodical, premeditated fashion.

Like I said this game is basic, you can move through the level with WASD, attack/shoot with left click and pick up/throw weapons with right click mix this with different animal masks you can wear that give your character ‘Jacket’ different abilities and that is the entire game. Despite this the game is addicting to play even though you are doing nearly the same thing in all 15 levels and I believe this is actually a point the game is trying to make. It seems to me that the Developers of Hotline Miami are trying to make a statement that level design and interactivity are the most important parts of any game and they do this in an interesting way.

Hotline Miami throws you into the game after only a quick tutorial and a very vague cutscene in which 4 questions are asked; “Do you like killing people?”, “Who are you?”, “Where are we?” And “Why are we having this conversation?”. Of these four questions I believe the later three are there to make a point because for the next 11 or so levels these questions remain unanswered and it's as if the opening cutscene didn't happen at all. But if the game is presenting questions like these and then disregarding them why do we keep playing? Why are we caring about this game? We keep playing because it is fun, it's challenging, it controls well and above all it offers an adrenaline filled experience that is satisfying to play. This is the developers showing us that maximum agency mixed with a good visual and audial experience is all you need. This message is then reinforced by one of the later levels in the game, the player is in hospital and is attempting to escape, the colours of the environment are muted, character movement speed is decreased and you are stripped of all your weapons. This level stands out like a sore thumb because it isn't very good at all, it's slow, boring and drab but by including a level like this, one that contrasts with the rest of the game so heavily it makes the rest of the game seem that much more appealing by showing that when you take away great mechanics and level design and leave the player with a bland level with minimal agency that it makes for a lesser experience.

The game then hammers this point home when another playable character is introduced, ‘Helmet’. Helmet is the opposite of Jacket, Jacket went around just killing blindly without needing motivation or really questioning what is actually going on whereas Helmet is trying to get answers out of people and trying to make sense of the events taking place. These two different character types basically represent two different types of gamers. Some prefer gripping narratives to drive there adventures forward whilst some some people are just content with just playing the game to enjoy it at face value and aren't too concerned with discovering the underlying meaning of the game. The only thing is that when you start playing as Helmet.. Nothing changes, the game is not necessarily more fun nor is it less fun it's just the same. What Hotline Miami is trying to show here is that narrative is irrelevant, it doesn't matter if you have in depth character motivations, moral choices or amazing plot twists, games with good fundamental controls and design elements will play the same regardless of these factors.

I agree with this point of view to an extent. Like with many things in a medium subjected to personal critic and evaluation I don't believe there is a single, clear cut answer to a given scenario, genre or game type and so when making claims such as Hotline Miami does I personally find it hard to agree wholeheartedly. I agree with the message I believe Hotline Miami is trying to convey… in the context of Hotline Miami, I enjoyed this game just as much when I had no idea as to what was going on vs when more of the narrative had been revealed. In saying this there are many other games that still control well but I feel are driven by their story and world events and are that much more enjoyable when you have context to what you're doing and characters with backstory. For me the Halo games fall into this category as well as a recent game called Sunset Overdrive both of which have very tight controls (at time of release) and the story and/or general dialogue and character interaction only enhanced my experience with these titles.

So yes, in terms of Hotline Miami as an individual title player agency, tight refined controls, great presentation and level design are in my opinion more important aspects of this game than any sort of narrative or character driven story; however I don't think this single view should be taken and applied to all games as it is implied here.