14 DAY TRIAL // Among the different games that were presented at Gamescom 2013 in the business area was Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, from Devolver Digital and Dennaton Games, the sequel to the very impressive Hotline Miami.
The original impressed through its fast-paced, extremely hectic, and very bloody gameplay, and the second one doesn't want to change what isn't broken.
Instead, it promises to deliver a new story and continue the series of ultra-violent, pixelated adventures.
Hotline Miami 2 kicks off straight with an action sequence in which players need to once again break through a building and kill everyone inside. The game retains the simple yet violent gameplay from its predecessor, allowing players to use their fists, as well as blunt weapons like bats, but also firearms like shotguns.
Once the player reaches the final room, however, a movie director comes in and yells, "Cut!" Apparently, players are now helping create a movie based on the adventures of the protagonist from the first game, and no one actually dies.
What follows, however, is another mission in which fans of the original game's hero want to become just like him.
You're then taken to a new location and tasked with choosing from different masks, just like in the original game, although there are new ones, like the bloody tiger, which can't use weapons but has deadly melee attacks. There's also the zebra, which is more agile and faster, so veterans can find masks that augment their play style.
The game is still as hard as the original and players will find themselves restarting quite a few times before managing to eliminate all the enemies before the enemies eliminate them.
What's more, if players get a special A+ rating for a level, they can then go through a "Hard" version of the scene that will really test their mettle.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is set to appear next year for PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, and PS Vita.