Late to the Murder Party! Hotline Miami

If there is one thing I seriously regret, it's that I didn't pick this game up when it was first released, oh my god is it good.

Hotline Miami is a cool little Indie game that was released on Steam some time last year.  The story follows an unnamed protagonist as he gets messages on his answer machine to go murder a load of dudes.  There is more plot about this group of strange people in masks talking to you in riddles and some other stuff, but generally speaking the plot takes a back seat to the game play.

While the plot is sort of bare bones, the game play on the other hand is one of the most fun things I've had the joy of playing.  It's extremely basic yet there is a lot of strategy involved that'll keep you coming back to the same stages again and again.  You control your guy from a top down view, you use the right mouse to pick weapons up and left mouse to use them.  You then have to wander through each stage murdering all the guys in a given area before progressing to the next one.

It sounds easy but your character is just as fragile as the enemies so one bullet or one baseball bat to the head will have you restarting the level, but the levels are short and sweet so it's not too rage inducing.  The strategy comes from planning your route and executing it without anything going wrong, which isn't likely.  There is also a pretty in depth scoring system so if you're the kind of person who enjoys replaying stages for rank (like me) then you'll find that there is plenty of replay value to be had as you try lots of different thing to get that A+.

The other cool thing about this game is the masks that your character wears.  At the start your mask does nothing, but very quickly you get masks that have all sorts of strange effects like deadly door openings or longer combo windows.  It all adds to the overall strategy, so if you find yourself stuck, just wear a different mask and try something new.

Basically, Hotline Miami is a great game and if you've not played it already then you are missing out, hard.  Go on steam, pick it up and whittle away the hours killing lots of guys in white suits, assassination has never been so much fun.