UltraGunner
Banned
Just beat this game. I feel like I was on drugs just by experiencing this game. Already got a spot for it on my GOTY list.
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Hotline Miami 2 |OT| Right Number
- Thread starter The Incredible Muffin
- Start date
narcosis219
Member
Finished it just yesterday. I didn't mind the larger stages after hating them for the first half or so.
Not really a spoiler, but I'll tag anyway, HM1 & HM2 level design related:
Not really a spoiler, but I'll tag anyway, HM1 & HM2 level design related:
I think I got PTSD from that scene in HM1 where you're returning to your car only to have a fucking jeep or something come crashing in and it becomes a boss fight. I was so paranoid in each and every single level since then. Once each level was "over" and the calm but tense music started playing I would start freaking out. Made sure I had a fully loaded gun before I left the general vicinity. I was so relieved once the credits hit that there were no jump scares like that to be had in HM2.
Ha. I did the same exact thing. Once a level was completed I'd grab another gun just in case.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Wow. The Death Wish glitch is real. Game just crashed as Alex and Ash on Death Wish, when I did an execution. Fucking garbage.
SPACECADET
Member
act 5, the real dark souls starts here.
i'm around scene 21 now. i wanna beat it tonight so bad.
i'm around scene 21 now. i wanna beat it tonight so bad.
after the first impressions here, i almost didnt buy the game, despite loving the first one.
bigger levels, more frustration/unfairness, more restrictions and so on...
caved in and bought it anyway on friday. and i am so happy that i did. yes, there are some super annoying levels but overall i like the new gameplay direction. the slow, tactical "lure enemies out one by one" approach is not an issue to me. since sucked at hm1, i already played the first game like this, which really helps me here.
and the music, that fucking music. holy shit.
bigger levels, more frustration/unfairness, more restrictions and so on...
caved in and bought it anyway on friday. and i am so happy that i did. yes, there are some super annoying levels but overall i like the new gameplay direction. the slow, tactical "lure enemies out one by one" approach is not an issue to me. since sucked at hm1, i already played the first game like this, which really helps me here.
and the music, that fucking music. holy shit.
Noisepurge
Member
same here just yesterday, was executing one of the big guys through a wall with the chainsaw and it just froze the game, on the Vita.
That was one of the longest missions too so i think i will just put the game on hold until we get some patches. Sucks to restart it from all the way at the beginning.
Had some fun glitches in the boat too, often at the start you can just walk around the boat in the "water" and aggro the enemies out
SPACECADET
Member
btw, there are two magic sword songs in miami 2. but not this one. if it were it would easily be the best song in the game if i don't say so myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44IGTa_X5Jw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44IGTa_X5Jw
Act five now and I'm getting reallllly tired of playing. I understand they wanted to cram in some good story, but problem is the story is shit and the gameplay is just not what I liked from the original. No real fast-paced, run into a room and murder everyone, rather bait people around corners and take them out one by one.
It is a good game, don't get me wrong, but these levels take a lot of time, and repeating them because of an off-screen death is just rubbing me wrong.
It is a good game, don't get me wrong, but these levels take a lot of time, and repeating them because of an off-screen death is just rubbing me wrong.
Im seeing this right after after clearing the scene for the first time and im just sittin here like
Net_Wrecker
Member
Haunted
Member
Well said. The longer I play, the more appreciation I gain for HM2.I use the gun to lure enemies to my chainsaw o' death. I really like the swans.
I thought themade the solider levels the easiest in hard mode... Fun as fuck weapon too! My favorite maybe.flamethrower
You know, I've gained new/more appreciation for HM2 after playing it in hard mode and re-playing HM1...and reading an explanation for the story lol. I think I had a kneejerk reaction to the "continued" difficulty curve of the game... I declared hard mode unplayable due to the lack of lock-on at first, but now I go back to normal mode and lock-on seems almost a cheat now.I'm totally used to 100% manual aiming. It says something about a game where I replay the same level for hours despite being beaten into submission nonstop. I'm not even going for A+ rankings. I'd try that if it wasn't for random starting positions(as slight as they are) and walking patterns. In hard mode that shit actually makes a huge difference.
Then again, I haven't tried to beat hard Release yet, so that may make me hate the game again.
Even being attentive with the story and characters, the amount of thought that went into the presentation of the story and how it is presented is pretty insane. Reading the wiki, I realised how much of the little bits here and there that allowed people to connect the dots I missed, and it gave me a new appreciation for the details. Sometimes it's just characters standing around in a certain place, or a throwaway line, or a sprite I thought was just flavour which actually turn out to have meaning and shed new light on a character or plot thread.
Similar to Dark Souls, I respect it more after being able to connect many of the dots.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Played through Act 1 on Hard. It feels like it's definitely doable. Just going to take a lot of time and retries. Only miss Hard Mode, All A+ and Genocide to become a real achievement whore now.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
I think so too. Have gotten As without even trying, and I'm playing pretty safe just to get through
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Ok, I am now sure this Execution crash with Alex and Ash can happen outside of Death Wish, it's just something about that level that makes it crash far more often. I was on level eight on my first playthrough and it crashed a few times playing as them so I switched to Tony. Didn't think much of it. Now on a hard mode playthrough, I got the crash again.
I really hope this is patched.
Cheat Code
Member
Not quite that insane. If you have a combo going into a floor, it restarts every time you die. Still fairly impressive because that level is a pain in the arse, but not a flawless run.
I guess most of you knew that from the cuts anyway.
darkwing-buck
Member
So many good tracks in HM2 but if I had to choose one it would be https://soundcloud.com/jasper-byrne/decade-dance
Oh WOW. My mind is blown. So basically get 10x and then get to the next scene quickly to get the last 10 for Combo God.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Has anything been figured out if anything else extra is unlocked/shown by beating the game on hard mode and unlocking all the newspapers?
So (Act 5 spoilers)
When you go to Richter's apartment you can pick up a tape recorder on his desk that contains the words "March 10th" and "March 16th". They don't hold any information beyond that but they seem to be some kind of clues. I don't know if they're referring to in-game dates (I haven't properly noted every date in the game's timeline) but March 10th was the day the game came out, and March 16th is... today.
I wonder if something's going to happen today in the game.
I wonder if something's going to happen today in the game.
Cheat Code
Member
Pretty much, and you essentially get infinite goes. I wish I knew this instead of refusing to finish Release until I perfected my 20x plan.
Alex and Ash(who I love) are prone to crash on any level they are in. Swinging that chainsaw and throwing bullets like a madman seem to crash it pretty regularly. I had 5 hard crashes in the sewer level, one in Deathwish. The game seems to just get overloaded with crazy shit.
flaxknuckles
Member
Quote from the dude who made the video:
Not really impressed anymore. That was one of the easier levels anyway.
Protip for Release in hard mode: the broken shard is the best weapon, try to pick it up near the beginning. Still took me 30 minutes to beat it though, mostly the first floor.
The disco level though is completely awful. I spent forever dying there because I couldn't freaking see! Had to turn up the brightness all the way up on my TV, but I'm not sure if it really helped. I died more on the boat, but this one just feels really bad idea.
The disco level though is completely awful. I spent forever dying there because I couldn't freaking see! Had to turn up the brightness all the way up on my TV, but I'm not sure if it really helped. I died more on the boat, but this one just feels really bad idea.
Going into Seizure with akimbo SMGs is probably your best bet. The biggest obstacle in that scene is the first room because there's a dead zone at the staircase going to the upper half of the section where its impossible to bait due to the counter being an obstacle that you're able to shoot through. Enemies will see you if you try to approach. I wanted to get through that level with fists but it was borderline impossible.
Take Over on the other hand; thats a level that pulls out all the stops. That infamous entry way will have three gunners on entry to bait out with the buff guy/katana/machete guy seeing you when stepping out. Plus, a dog running towards you.
nephilimdj
Member
I really liked the game, finished it yesterday on PC, would give it a 8.5/10
Look forward to buying it again for Vita during a sale
Look forward to buying it again for Vita during a sale
I don't think I'm alone in my experience with HM2.
During the first half of the game, the larger areas and longer levels with numerous windows and gun-toting enemies everywhere frustrated me and made me feel like this was an inferior sequel to the more tightly designed HM1. Like many of you, I wasn't able to "flow" through the levels like I could in HM1, and it just felt impossible to play with the same kind of improvisation and reckless abandon that I did in the first game.
After finishing the game and piecing all of the story together, however, I have to say that this really is an incredible game both on its own and how it ties in with the original storywise. Some of the deviations from what made the first game great didn't pan out as well as others (e.g. levels are too long and make deaths feel more punishing than they should), but on the whole this is a very brave, confident sequel. The way all of the details come together to form the larger, cohesive storyline. How even minor bits of dialog or character appearances in HM1 now have greater meaning because of light shed on them in the sequel. The fact that by the end of HM2 my skills had risen to a level where HM1 now feels just plain easy to me. And of course, nobody is disputing the all-time-great status of the soundtrack.
All of these things kind of melded together in my mind by the time I finished the game and brushed up on some of the story's finer details. A lot of us who were good at HM1 expected to be able to come right into the sequel and play with the same level of ease and skill, but we weren't able to do so because the game essentially assumes that the player will be coming into it with those skills already built up to a certain level. So what we end up having thrown at us is a series of levels that take the mechanics of the first game and crank them up to 11. I'm not trying to defend all of the levels here. Some of them truly are a grind and don't lend themselves well to multiple playthroughs. The overall level of consistency and quality in the level design of HM1 is superior, IMO. But in my mind HM1 and 2 are a package deal, especially given how intertwined their fantastic stories are.
I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, but I was wondering who else felt the same way. You can search the thread for my posts when I was first playing through the game, and I was very negative. But after having experienced the bigger picture, I absolutely love it. I'm even replaying levels for higher scores now, which I thought I'd never be tempted to do. By the end of the game, my skills had naturally progressed to where previous levels that gave me trouble are no longer nearly as daunting.
During the first half of the game, the larger areas and longer levels with numerous windows and gun-toting enemies everywhere frustrated me and made me feel like this was an inferior sequel to the more tightly designed HM1. Like many of you, I wasn't able to "flow" through the levels like I could in HM1, and it just felt impossible to play with the same kind of improvisation and reckless abandon that I did in the first game.
After finishing the game and piecing all of the story together, however, I have to say that this really is an incredible game both on its own and how it ties in with the original storywise. Some of the deviations from what made the first game great didn't pan out as well as others (e.g. levels are too long and make deaths feel more punishing than they should), but on the whole this is a very brave, confident sequel. The way all of the details come together to form the larger, cohesive storyline. How even minor bits of dialog or character appearances in HM1 now have greater meaning because of light shed on them in the sequel. The fact that by the end of HM2 my skills had risen to a level where HM1 now feels just plain easy to me. And of course, nobody is disputing the all-time-great status of the soundtrack.
All of these things kind of melded together in my mind by the time I finished the game and brushed up on some of the story's finer details. A lot of us who were good at HM1 expected to be able to come right into the sequel and play with the same level of ease and skill, but we weren't able to do so because the game essentially assumes that the player will be coming into it with those skills already built up to a certain level. So what we end up having thrown at us is a series of levels that take the mechanics of the first game and crank them up to 11. I'm not trying to defend all of the levels here. Some of them truly are a grind and don't lend themselves well to multiple playthroughs. The overall level of consistency and quality in the level design of HM1 is superior, IMO. But in my mind HM1 and 2 are a package deal, especially given how intertwined their fantastic stories are.
I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, but I was wondering who else felt the same way. You can search the thread for my posts when I was first playing through the game, and I was very negative. But after having experienced the bigger picture, I absolutely love it. I'm even replaying levels for higher scores now, which I thought I'd never be tempted to do. By the end of the game, my skills had naturally progressed to where previous levels that gave me trouble are no longer nearly as daunting.
Yes, I felt the same. The more I played, the more I liked it, appreciated it and eventually became accustomed to its difficulty. HM2 makes HM1 feel like a cakewalk. And HM2's hard mode does the same for a normal run.
Well said. Very analytic and diplomatic.
But I'll be boldly, rashly dismissive and pretentious and say that about perhaps more than half of the flack the game's taken thus far is totally invalid and is due to misunderstanding and/or misinterpretation, and about half is due to some of the outrageous glitches and narrative delivery flaws. But as far as the design goes, I think it's excellent and enjoying it just requires patience. It's an acquired taste, one people may gain at different paces or not at all. Some people miss the point, and miss out on a great thing. There's nothing wrong with that or them. It's just not a game that's designed for everyone. It's not made with every want in mind. Simple as that. And yet, me saying this is totally invalid by bias because I'm probably totally blinded by love for Hotline Miami. No one's right, man!
On another note, I'm curious as to what's been everyone's first playthrough time so far. We oughta work out like a tentative GAF average or something. A lot of the reviews say it took 'em about 11 hours I think, but I finished it in about 7-8-ish but that's not fair because I practiced HM 1 like everyday for months leading up to release. Gimme some relative times, guys.
Jeez! Half that video is him racking up points after the run. If only I was half that good...
D
Deleted member 57681
Unconfirmed Member
I played through it in two sessions, one shorter with two hours, the other maybe four. So six hours. But probably longer.
And I loved it from day one ¯\_(ツ
_/¯DiddysKongQuest
Member
Finished it yesterday and absolutely loved it. Second playthrough will tell if I like it even more than HM1.
I will start the hard mode as soon they iron out the bugs. The amount of times I died because of bugs was just way too high. Was HM1 this buggy on release day?
I will start the hard mode as soon they iron out the bugs. The amount of times I died because of bugs was just way too high. Was HM1 this buggy on release day?
Haunted
Member
4 hours first time through. Played through it in one sitting.
Then 4 more hours to play some of the levels again, getting better grades and higher scores, most of the achievements and starting a hard mode run.
I'm expecting I'll need a lot more time to actually complete the hard mode run.
Took me about 7.5 hours, but like you I am a seasoned HM1 player as well. Not exactly speedrun-caliber, but I can "flow" through most of the levels in the first game.
Believe it or not, it was buggier. Game Maker and two-man development team working out of their house.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
You don't get ammo refill in the military levels on Hard?!
D
Deleted member 57681
Unconfirmed Member
Even worse.
I remember it crashing all the time, on top of all the small bugs and glitches HM2 has, but way more common. I actually stopped playing because of that.
Yes you do.
[Edit:] Well damn. That's a bummer. I didn't have nearly as much trouble, although, honestly I didn't play it until like a week after the day of release, I'm guessing they got the main big-bad patch out within that time frame.
D
Deleted member 102362
Unconfirmed Member
I've spent over 14 hours in the game. Some of that is picking up a few achievements I missed the first time, but most of it's from the game.
Demoskinos
Member
I believe so. A lot of stuff was broken including all of the Steamworks stuff on launch.
mickcenary
Member
I just finished watching Inherit Vice and in terms of plots I have no fucking clue about, it's a damn close battle.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Hmm, not for me. Playing with flame thrower, and I have been empty through two parts now. And now fatsos. :/
graffix13
Member
Yeah, I agree. The more I play it the more I'm sure I'll get better at it and appreciate it more. But I know that in the end I will just enjoy the more 'melee-centric' gameplay of the first one better.
On another note, I haven't finished the game yet but the story doesn't make sense. It really didn't in the first one either, but IMO that's kind of the point. The story is suppose to be this garbled, convoluted mess of different viewpoints/directions. It just fits in with the overall theme of the game: insanity. It just wouldn't seem....right...to have a game such as this (complete disregard for human life, gratuitous violence, etc.) with a nice flowing story that made sense. The gameplay is chaotic and hectic and the story matches that in its own way.