No guts, no gory

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hotline Miami has been one of the best indie titles available on the PC for nearly a year, and now it has made its way to the PlayStation Network, playable on both the PS3 and Vita. Both of these platforms offer a solid way to play the game, but the Vita version provides definitive, if subtle, improvements. So pick up the phone, we’ve got a job for you!

Whether you’re playing on the PS3 or Vita, using the dual analog sticks to move and aim is a vast improvement over keyboard and mouse. As a top-down game where the player aims in any direction away from him or herself, it just makes more sense to use an analog stick. Not only does this make aiming easier, it makes navigation in general a much smoother affair. The Vita gains the advantage, however, when you take touch controls into consideration.

The PSN-exclusive ‘Russell’ mask turns everything black and white, except the blood of course.

The Vita touch screen can be used two ways in Hotline Miami: you can drag the screen around to see farther in any direction, and you can touch enemies to lock on to them. Looking around this way just makes sense, and is a huge improvement towards streamlining gameplay. As for locking on, it’s a bit hit-and-miss. Since Hotline Miami is a fast-paced game, locking on to enemies on the fly just isn’t an option. When you’re being rushed by a room full of Russian mobsters, your attention will be squarely on the shoulder buttons and analog sticks. When you have time to breathe, however, locking on to enemies in the next room is a great way to execute an ambush, and touching the enemy to do this is intuitive.

Collecting masks is as addictive as ever.

Hotline Miami is a brutally addictive gore-fest, and the PSN treatment has only done it good. When I played it on my Vita, I wondered if the game hadn’t been originally designed with the platform in mind, as it works exceptionally well on the handheld. If you liked it before, you’ll love it now. If you’ve never played it, now’s your chance to get the best version yet. The only drawback may be the thin plot, but you’ll be too busy painting the town red to care. Hotline Miami is calling, and you better dress to kill.

• Release Date: June 25, 2013 (NA), June 26, 2013 (EU)
• Genre: Indie, Action
• Platform: PS3, Vita, PC
• Developer: Dennaton Games
• Publisher: Devolver Digital
• ESRB: Mature
• MSRP: $9.99

4.5/5

Review Statement: The impressions in this article are based on a downloadable PSN copy provided by Devolver Digital for the sake of this review.

The post Review: Hotline Miami appeared first on Video Game Writers.