The bar of broken heroes

Playstyle[]

The Pig Butcher plays nearly identically to Jacket, but the difference is that Martin Brown is slower, and swings melee weapons slower, which applies to every character in Hotline Miami 2. His aim and his punches are slightly slower than average, but compensates it with his quicker default execution, which is 0.75 seconds long in comparison to the average stomp time of 1 second. His punches also have less range to them. He pumps shotguns in the air rather than with his hand, and grabs downed, leaning-on-wall enemies and bashes their heads against the wall.

In the Beta however, the Pig Butcher also had the ability to do a standing execution, where he would headbutt the enemy.

Overall, Martin Brown is quite a straight-forward character to play as for his brief appearances in the game.

Playstyle[]

Roll Dodge

Overall, she has average aim speed and has a headbash default execution. She is extremely agile and has the ability to Roll Dodge. This allows her to roll and dive, similar to The Son’s technique Bodyguard, becoming temporally invulnerable while rolling under gunfire, avoiding melee attacks and knocking enemies back when entering a room. Unlike The Son, however, she doesn’t start with a katana at the beginning of each level she is playable in.

While rolling, she cannot attack, but can do so immediately out of the roll. There is a short delay after the roll has finished in which she cannot roll again, meaning that she cannot constantly repeat this move to achieve a continuous state of invulnerability. The roll can be extended by holding down the execution button, where instead of doing one roll, she does a total of 3, or two if you let go of the button before the second one finishes. She will, however, stop on right before her next roll if her path is blocked by a wall or otherwise, regardless if you hold down the button or not. If you roll while not moving, she will default to rolling directly to the right.

Combat dodge aside, her playstyle is similar to that of Jacket’s default playstyle (when he is wearing the Richard mask). «Fast and Flexible,» Corey’s the only one of the Fans who can freely change weapons at any point in a level.

Her dodge roll was originally coupled with the ability to pick multiple entrances to levels and enter rooms through windows. This feature was scrapped for the final game for not being fun enough. This ability is vaguely referenced during the Son’s hallucinations in Apocalypse where she uses it to attack the Son from various directions.

Tactics

Roll Dodge can be deployed in any direction and — barring the completion of the RD animation — it will last as long as the player holds the action button for it. Ground executions are mapped to the same key as RD, so «starfished» knocked-down enemies should be ignored unless they’re about to pick up a firearm — if they are about to pick up a fire arm, picking it up first and roll dodging away is preferable to the gamble of immobility. RD will roll under Thugs, but not through Thugs immediately on the other side of a door (don’t RD through «blocked» doors). RD cannot roll under Dogs. RD will not roll under shotgun blasts fired dead-on (i.e., you’re rolling directly towards the gunman), but will roll under blasts at angles. A successful RD near an alerted enemy with a Double Barrel will always render the weapon completely empty.

Enemies using automatic weapons such as Uzis, AKs, and M16s are prime targets for RD, and will afford the player a large amount of ammo if the gunman/men are knocked down or killed immediately out of RD. On Corey’s Death Wish floor, particularly Hard Mode, it’s required to do this and use the automatic fire to deal with both the mob accrued during RD and the enemies along the outer ring of the floor.

RD can be quickly deployed in the *opposite* direction as well. The first floor of Hard Mode’s Moving Up highlights a Tony-like attribute of RD where it can be employed in spooking and luring over much longer distances in cases where an advancing RD like the ones in Death Wish would be suicidal due to placement of Thugs and gunmen.

Личность Джекета

Теперь же перейдём к самому сюжету и его главному герою, непосредственному в первой части и являющимся тесно связанным с сюжетами второй части. Вообще у него нет имени, как и у многих персонажей игры, но в сообществе он известен под именем “Джекет” из-за его студенческой кофты, в которой он и ходит почти всю игру.

По лору игр, Джекет – ветеран советско-американской войны, был частью специального подразделения, которое выполняло особо важные задания на территории врага. Его командир, известный как “Борода” стал для Джекета лучшим другом, во многом потому что именно Борода спас будущего мстителя в маске от смерти, и даже на гражданке Джекет и Борода остались хорошими товарищами.

“Коронная фраза” Бороды, которая отпечаталась в памяти Джекета.

Всё это можно узнать из одного из сюжетов второй части, а вот в первой части мы смотрим на мир уже глазами самого Джекета, и вот тут начинается самое интересное. Его архетип типичен – бравый вояка, ушедший в отставку и оставшийся на обочине жизни, вот только есть у него одного существенное отличие – он сумасшедший в самом буквальном смысле этого слова. Война и ранение оставило на психике бедняги неизгладимый след, а сам смысл его существования он видел отныне лишь в войне. А как мы знаем, воевал Джекет с русскими.

Именно такой человек и нужен был “Пятидесяти Благословениям”

Scene[]

Intro

The scene begins with The Son attempting to invite The Henchman over while Russian Mobsters hang out and play arcade games. When nobody responds, he throws the phone away, and takes some of the Mafia’s new drugs. After taking two handfuls, Blue Lips advises him not to take too much. After taking another two handfuls, he starts to experience time slips and hallucinations. The Mobsters have disappeared.

The Son goes to turn on a nearby sink, only for it to overflow in what seems like an instant. A Mobster appears in the room and starts gesticulating nervously, likely trying to explain the situation. Another flash gives the Son a nearly-emptied shotgun, the media equipment in the room being wrecked and the Mobster being replaced by a blood trail out of the room. The Son follows the trail to find another Mobster leaning over the bleeding one, apparently either giving him CPR or eating him. The mobster then points at the Son as his head becomes engulfed with flames.

Gameplay

After killing several Flame-headed Mobsters and a Tri-headed dog, The Son enters a room with a Bear in it. The Bear roars and charges, and the Son quickly grabs a golf club and delivers a fatal blow to the creature’s head. The Son then leaves the room, and is approached by one of his men giving him a Shotgun. This results in the Mobster getting shot and slithering away into a small room with Mobsters and bags of money in it, reenacting the opening to Blood Money. As the group drinks vodka shots, the scene cuts to them all dead, with the ammo counter for the shotgun down by a corresponding number of rounds. The Son shouts «Gotta get a grip!» before his facial sprite consumes the money and him.

The Son is then transported to a small glass room with a Magnum in it. A whinny shatters the windows, and a Zebra rushes into the room to trample the Son. He shoots the Zebra, which explodes into blood and a Miami Dolphins jacket. The black void around the room is then filled with the office space, the room itself containing several dead Mobsters and a Zebra mask.

The Son exits the area to a jungle-overtaken office space with an enlarged weapons case on one counter and a shotgun on the floor. He kills several gelatinous cloud creatures and tri-headed dogs before the shotgun evaporates in his hands. In a long hallway he stumbles upon another shotgun on a pile of dead Mobsters and picks it up. Continuing he encounters several skeletons near a cloud of darkness. A giant Tiger with an eye in its mouth peaks out, roaring. The Son backs away, causing it to charge. As he fires the Tiger disappears in a shower of colorful sparks.

The Son continues over the ripped-apart and writhing corpses of several Mobsters. He proceeds the roof with a fire axe in his hands. He sees two angelic statues glide over him and fuse into a huge two-headed swan monster over the helicopter pad. One head charges him attempting to bite him in half, while the other strafes while shooting fire from its mouth. He axes in both heads, causing the necks and body of the monster to explode into blood and iridescent colors.

Aftermath

After killing the swan monster, the Son walks to the edge of the roof. White birds surround a golden gate bookended by the angelic statues, a rainbow bridge extending infinitely behind. As he approaches, the gates open for him. He steps through and onto the bridge, disappearing into the rainbow void as it engulfs the screen and the credits roll.

Outro

After the first round of credits, the scene cuts to December 28, 1991. It shows Richter and his mother in Hawaii watching a TV interview (featuring either Martin or Evan, depending on the choice made earlier) which is interrupted by an emergency broadcast stating that the presidents of the United States and Russia have been killed by a group of armed men led by a U.S. Army General, experts expecting this to be seen as an act of war.

Richard appears and he and Richter agree that good times never last. Richter briefly wonders if anyone’s onto him, but slowly realizes that the situation’s much worse than that. He wonders how much time he has, to which Richard replies that no one in general ever has much time. Richter realizes there’s no reason to fight, that leaving the world isn’t as scary as it sounds, and is obliterated by a nuclear detonation.

As the nukes fall, the final moments of Manny Pardo (barricaded alone in his apartment, drunk and pointing his revolver at his front door), Evan (either typing alone or eating reunited with his whole family), Midnight Animal actress Rachael Ward (drinking alone in her apartment), and Jacket (playing with a green stress ball in a sparse jail cell) are depicted, each carrying out their lives as normal, oblivious as they’re wiped away.

Events of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number[]

1985

Mark is shown in the military bar on March 17th. He’s sitting facing away from the bar and using the counter as an arm rest. He appears to be either hiccuping or laughing. He’s holding a large red bottle and is seated between a seated, pizza-eating Corey and a standing beer-drinking Tony. Mark and Corey are the only ones in the group wearing sunglasses.

Late October and November 1991

At the Halloween party, Mark is again seated drinking out of a large red bottle and using the back of a couch as an armrest. After Tony and Ash verbally express their hatred of the party, and Corey awkwardly pauses, Mark asks what they think about tonight. Both Ash and Tony agree to go out, and Mark asks if the weapons are in the car, but Corey expresses reservations and awkwardly pauses, leading Mark to also awkwardly pause. After the job, Mark retrieves and pays for several pizzas and brings them into the van.

On November 11th, Mark can be seen in Hank’s bar again with his large red bottle, in a chair backed away from the table, seemingly for lack of leg room.

On November 22nd or shortly after, Mark helps execute the Russian Henchman by stomping on and crushing his right hand.

December 1991

On December 2nd, Mark is inspecting an Uzi (of which there are now several on the Fans’ 50 Blessing logo table, implying Mark brought in a new shipment of them) and sitting on a couch with Ash. Ash advertises a location his friend Jack gave him as being full of junkies and lowlives, to which Mark replies «Kinda like this place, huh? …,» eliciting a Fuck-you-Mark from Ash.

On December 9th, Mark is player-controlled and starts in the garage with Ash, who is tuning up the van. Mark goes inside and reads movie news on Galaxy Film’s upcoming controversial picture. He joins the Fans in looking at floor plans of buildings on their table. He asks them if they caught Channel 6 last night and says «looks like we’re famous now. …» Alex missed the story, and asks Mark to call in to get a copy because she’d pay big bucks to see it. Tony sarcastically asks Mark to also call the police and turn himself in, to which Mark replies that wouldn’t be very smart. Mark says the Fans will get another story eventually, but Tony disagrees, saying they’d need to kill more people first. After they settle on a location, Mark says he «wouldn’t mind going for a ride» and that «we can always grab pizza later if we don’t find anything.» He goes to the van and Ash starts it from inside. Notably, Mark is unlocked on Into the Pit and the VHS art depicts him in the sewer. The mission has an uneasy atmosphere to parallel Mark’s reservations and Level Clear fake out apparently to highlight Marks finite ammo supply.

On December 20th, Mark has a hallucination of himself happily delivering Richard masks to the Fans from the trunk of his grey blue sedan. The table is covered with both guns and empty pizza boxes. Corey, Tony, and Alex don the masks in the order of their floors and give their walkie talkie messages about meeting on the roof. Mark is confused, and the world flashes back to reveal the delivery wasn’t real.

After the Swans enter the tower, Corey reminds Tony and Mark to keep in touch with walkie talkies and enters. Mark is given an unprecedented double ellipses to express his reservations about the roof plan, commenting that the gap between buildings looks too far to jump across. Tony comments that it isn’t that far, but that «you might have some difficulties with it though, big guy,» prompting the nervous Mark to say «fuck you too, man. …»

Mark spends all of his ammo clearing his floor and radios that he’s heading upstairs. Mark is then attacked and killed with a golf club by The Son. While Mark’s death is only seen through the eyes of The Son while he is hallucinating, his corpse is found later by Detective Pardo with a wound to his head.

Разработка

За несколько дней до выпуска Hotline Miami разработчики открыли в Майами телефонную линию, на которую любой желающий мог оставить собственное голосовое послание. Некоторые из этих посланий были использованы в официальном трейлере игры, созданном через несколько дней после её выхода.

В ноябре 2012 года для игры вышло дополнение, добавляющее возможность играть при помощи геймпада, а также исправляющее ошибки игры, совершенствующее графику и добавляющее дополнительную главу — ‘Highball’.

В середине декабря 2012 года Devolver Digital сообщили о продаже более 130 000 копий игры за семь недель со времени выпуска. В своём интервью для сайта Eurogamer менеджер компании Грэм Стразерс сообщил, что его «распирает от гордости» за создателей игры, Джонатана Сёдерстрёма и Денниса Уэдина, добавив, что «ему попались довольно талантливые ребята».

Depiction in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number[]

Richard returns in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, seen by most of the -based protagonists (aside from Manny Pardo). Beard recognizes Richard in the Table Sequence, as he vaguely saw 1991’s events coming from his Hawaiian experiences of the drunken brutality his comrades inflicted, the Colonel’s speech, and the apocalyptic method of his own demise. Manny Pardo doesn’t see Richard, instead having a nightmare featuring a depiction an internal voice representing how he feels controlled and all his neighbors in surrounding apartments receiving mask packages.

Specific Appearances

• His first appearance is in Martin Brown’s dream sequence, who sees him in the audience wearing Jacket’s clothes, as he fears he’s turning his audience into Jacket by so closely imitating him. He insists that his work is «just a film,» but Richard insists it’s more real than he’s letting on (which is true, as his dreamed interview and subsequent beheading of Ellen indicates a genuine desire to hurt people). Richard alludes to a twist ending to Midnight Animal, hinting both that Martin’s slightly aware that Rouven Blankenfeld has given him a faked script to throw him off, and also that the violence of films has potential to become uncomfortably real. It also foreshadows his accidental death.
• The Henchman is the next one shown to dream of Richard, who is now wearing the Son’s clothes as the Son’s newly started drug war threatens to bring back the obliteration of the Russian mob done by Jacket. Similar to the Son, Richard is sitting relaxed in a spacious seat (Henchman’s money bag having blown away), questioning Henchman’s newfound direction in life (or lack thereof). This new image also paints Henchman as the Son’s personal driver instead of an independent man. Playing up his fear of societal decay (shown by him earlier reading a newspaper on anti-Russian arsonists setting Russian families on fire), the road is ruined and littered with old car husks like from the entrance to the chop shop. An empty passenger seat emphasizes that Henchman doesn’t value Mary as much as his freedom, as well as a suspicion that he’s lost her already.
• Before Death Wish, Mark gets a feeling his innocuous favors to the group are going to end in disaster, and he hallucinates happily delivering a batch of new chicken masks to the group, which Corey, Tony, and Alex put on (in the same order of their Death Wish floors). They give dialogue radioing in success and alluding to a roof meeting, which Mark later worries about as he’s probably too obese to make the jump. The sprites related to this meeting are called «FanDream» implying this feeling of unease is experienced by other Fans as well.
• Evan Wright gets a vision of Richard playing up several of his insecurities brought out by his researching Jacket. Richard cycles through a hobo’s outfit and his wife’s dress. Evan realizes his societal and good-natured sentiments are completely unappreciated («Do I look like I want your filthy money?») and that he should re-evaluate his priorities and stop taking time for granted. A hallucination of his wife tells him she’ll take the kids and leave if he doesn’t get a real job, and this genuine fear of Evan’s also comes true.
• The Son, upon seeing one of his partners’ bullet-riddled corpse in a dark safe full of riches, hallucinates and sees his family (or possible romantic interest in the case of The Bodyguard) that were killed by Jacket in Showdown. The hallucination of his Father tells him he’s merely a hallucination and asks why he’s trying to make his Father proud if he’s already dead. The Son’s hallucination of his hyper-fatalist, perpetually throne-bound GrandFather is overtaken by Richard and says lines very characteristic of the GrandFather, insisting that it’s all the same in the end and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
• Finally, Richter sees Richard in his own mother as they watch the news of incoming nuclear strikes (foreshadowed in her island dream). Richter’s own fatalist attitudes are blended with the comforting tones of his mother («Leaving this world isn’t as scary as it sounds»), and it’s unclear how much is his hallucinated internal realizations and how much is genuine conversation between them. Regardless, it’s clear he finds the capacity in himself to calmly accept death with open eyes.

Альтернативная история

Интересно, как много вопросов вы задали, пока читали пункты выше? Если вы хорошо знаете глобальный сюжет этой дилогии, и вы всё поняли, то поздравляю, а для остальных сейчас всё разложим по полочкам.

Сюжет Hotline Miami представляет собой, по сути своей, альтернативную историю нашего мира, на манер Wolfenstein. Как правило, такие сюжеты призваны показать некий социальный комментарий, мол, что было бы, если бы люди оказались чуточку хуже или лучше, чем в реальности. HM предлагает комментарий на тему русско-американского конфликта и холодной войны.

Все персонажи Hotline Miami за одним столом. Справа от всех сидит тот, кто предположительно во всём виноват. О нём мы уже скоро поговорим.

Так, в городе появляются Фанаты, также бывшие бойцы армии США в войне, которые видят в Джекете героя и стараются подражать ему, и по иронии судьбы были убиты Сыном босса русской мафии, который под кайфом убивает их всех. Писатель Эван пишет книгу про похождения мстителя в маске, и он готов на всё чтобы достать больше материала для своей рукописи… даже на убийство. А Мартин Браун играет главную роль в фильме «Полуночное животное», и умирает прямо на сьёмках от несчастного случая – его застрелили из реального оружия, которая странным образом попало на сьёмки.

Trivia[]

• The Tiger’s mouth eye is likely a reference to the Evil eye in many early religions. It’s also a hallucinatory conflation by The Son with Tony’s real eye where his mask’s eye-hole is ruined.
• This is the only level that, in Hard Mode, is not inverted. However, in the same mode, the movement keys (WASD) are inverted.
• The Son’s line «Gotta Get a Grip» and the unhinged-jaw stretched-mouth facial sprite for him quickly became a meme.
• Although in Death Wish the Son is shown killing the Twins with a Magnum, he uses a fire axe to kill them in this mission.
• Official Artwork in one of Hotline Miami 2‘s special editions features a gigantic tiger with an eye in its mouth screaming at a small, white suited man with long black hair. It’s clear that this is a glorified version of The Son’s fight with Tony in his manic state, from this level.
• When selecting the level from the Level Select menu, the words «Don’t Do It!» appear at the top of the screen and the words «Please» and «Stop» replace the usual Skip Intro? «Yes» and «No».
• The outro strongly parallels the endings to both Doctor Strangelove and The Seventh Seal.
• The Heavens’ Gate sprite is bookended with the same style of angelic statues that bookended the entrance to the Colombian Boss’ main office, as well as the hallucinated forms of the Swans before they fuse into one creature.
• Though the Son doesn’t take revenge on Jacket, his last two kills are on masked blonde people, and his fireaxe likely indicates he’s reveling in their deaths.
• Despite not being a scored level, the player still get point for killing hallucinatory demons.
• It’s ambiguous exactly how much the Son understands he’s killing his own men and committing suicide.
• The Demon Dog is a possible reference to Cerberus, a monster of Greek mythology that resembled a dog with three heads, same as the Demon Dog.
• The song’s name of this level, «Fahkeet», is a play on well-known phrase «fuck it».
• The use of the Rainbow «bridge» is a reference to the Nordic Bifrost, a burning (fitting due to the firey eyes of the demons and the son’s hallucinations) rainbow that was a bridge between Asgard (Nordic Heaven exclusive to gods) and Midgard (our realm) and is guarded by Heimdallr.
  • The Son going on the bridge to «Asgard» is most likely a joke on how the Son is now «Drug god of Miami»
  • The use of the bridge and the Son’s Russian background maybe a reference to the Varangians, who were Norse (or Vikings) people who settled in the lands of Rus (modern day Belarus, Ukraine and south western Russia)
  • The use of the bridge is also a reference to Dennis Wedin and Jonatan Soderstrom’s Swedish enthicity (Most caucasian modern Swedes are the descendants of the Norse).

Сюжет

Сюжет в Hotline Miami подан в виде «субъективного повествования», а отображение реальности меняется в зависимости от самого персонажа игры. В целом сюжет достаточно неоднозначен, а всё написанное ниже лишь попытка наиболее объективно скомпоновать его. Некоторые главы игры поданы вне хронологического порядка. Основной протагонист игры — неизвестный человек, который именуется фанатами как «Джекет» (за студенческую куртку, которую он носит на протяжении игры), либо «Ричард» (по названию первой маски), но ни один из персонажей не называет его по имени. В начале игры ему снится сон, в котором он видит трёх одетых в звериные маски незнакомцев, обсуждающих поступки Джекета и его самого. Джекет просыпается в собственной квартире 3 апреля 1989 года под звук автоответчика. На автоответчике записано сообщение, в котором его просят принять доставленную ему коробку с печеньем и «внимательно прочитать их состав». В коробке он находит звериную маску (называемую в игре как «Ричард»), а также заказ на добычу таинственного чемодана в определённом здании и убийство всех в нём присутствующих. После выполнения заказа Джекет продолжает получать сообщения и следовать даваемым указаниям. В промежутки между окончанием миссии и приездом домой он посещает гастрономы и видеосалоны — в каждом из них он находит одного и того же бородатого продавца, который дружелюбно отдаёт Джекету покупку «за счёт заведения», а также комментирует совершённые главным героем убийства, не подозревая о поступках Джекета. С каждым разом эти визиты обретают всё больше и больше странностей.