Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is familiar.
The sequel to Dennaton Games' top-down, retro-styled, graphically and narratively brutal action game felt and looked just like its 2012 predecessor. This is a familiar, dire universe.
I exited a car, grabbed some weapons from its trunk and entered a building filled with people looking for an excuse to murder me. To be fair, it's a Hotline Miami game, so I had an excuse to murder them, too.
I first played Hotline Miami on PC. Truth? I was terrible. I have no reason to believe that it was the game. I've been a controller guy almost all of my life, and I just don't have the mouse and keyboard skills that it requires. It wasn't until I played the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions that I was able to live up to the game's demands.
I spent some time at PAX East 2014 with Hotline Miami 2 on PC. I was predictably terrible. No matter. I could see the seeds of the game I enjoyed on PlayStation Vita. I donned a new mask that let me put my arms akimbo and would have, at least in theory, allowed me to lay waste to enemies on either side of me. I didn't quite pull that off.
Check out the video above to see my misadventures in Hotline Miami 2 and learn what's in store for the game from Nigel Lowrie at Devolver Digital, who describes himself as the publisher's chief axe murderer.
