is there a deeper meaning to the hotline miami games?
the message of the first seemed to be that violence in a game is harmless fun the second one seems to show that a life of violence will always meet a gruesome end
Is there a deeper meaning to the hotline miami games?
Christian Green
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Ethan Watson
does it need one?
Caleb Long
The message that the first game gives you depends on whether or not you complete the puzzle. If you don't and you meet the Janitors as Biker the game assumes that you just played the game to shoot people and you never looked for what was exactly going on, if you actually look for clues then the game spits out the plot to you
The second game is that violence only leads to more violence, eventually culminating in the nuke that kills everyone. It's funny, i like to think the only one that survives at the end is Biker because he is like the only one who tries to find out what's going on
Jacob Jones
>is there a deeper meaning
No there isn't.
In fact, the entire story is basically "if you're looking for a story in a video game you're a dumbass lol"
Most characters represent a specific type of player.
Jacket is a silent guy who asks no questions and just goes through with what the phonecalls say. He's a player that doesn't care about the story and is all about the action.
Biker is the player who wants to know the reason behind everything very hard - hence he goes after the janitors and beats people up for information and aggressively tries to solve the puzzle. Janitors are of course the devs, who bullshit him unless a puzzle is complete, otherwise they lay out the entire story immediately as a "reward".
For the sequel, the Fans represent, well, fans, who also don't know what's going on. They have no idea why Jacket did what he did, but they revere him and thus, also go on murdering people wearing animal masks.
Jake is a player who tries to learn the story, but fails and instead makes up his own conclusions (he just assumed things about 50 Blessings even though the operator didn't tell him anything specific)
And etc
So in a way, yes it does have a deeper meaning, but the meaning is that there isn't a deeper meaning
Easton Scott
I remember a lot of people dogging on the HLM2 ending. Honestly, I thought it was the perfect way to end it. A nuke to wipe out all the violent psychos.
Luis Lee
If you are on Yas Forums you will eventually see people shitting on quite literally just about absolutely anything. Even if that anything is 100% flawless.
Cooper Williams
the only bad thing about hm2 is the level design
Elijah Adams
Kind of makes up for that by including the level editor though. I mean if you look at the game as a whole, that is.
Josiah Gonzalez
In the end everything was pointless
All the people you killed would've died anyway because of events outside of your control that culminated in the nuclear holocaust.
>leaving this world is not as scary as it sounds
Ryder Taylor
playing for the first time right now and what the FUCK were they thinking with this final boss?
Joseph Martinez
Just grab the cup.
>TFW you realize the ninja girl became a common enemy type in HLM2.
Nathaniel Carter
Do you think they had the Story for two written down when 1 Was Released?
Evan Moore
My guess is that the running theme is about grappling with pretense and what makes you happy.
Jacket works for 50 Blessings because even though he knows they directly had nothing to do with Beard getting nuked, it's enough to convince himself that he did something for his friend. Jake falls into the same rut to satisfy himself by using circular logic to justify his hatred of Russians. Manny Pardo flits between wanting to be the greatest cop and the greatest serial killer because he believes it'll give him societal adoration, even though his obsession with his magnum points to cowardice that prevents him from actually being either. The Fans put Jacket on the highest pedestal and believe they're successors to his legend, but they barely know anything about him and his motives, they basically make up their own enemies, and they're painted as being way more incompetent. The Writer is probably the best example, since in any other scenario his idea of getting great fame from his book and solving the mystery for justice actually would've been justified, but the fact that's it's a flawed pretense is completely outside of his ability to grasp and the only way he would get an emotional payoff is by ditching the book and choosing the dinner-with-family ending.
Basically the cast generally makes up their own reality out of their respective situations to give themselves meaning, while others like The Colonel go the extreme opposite and reject all pretense by becoming a buncha animalistic autists. Basically a general veneer of "shit don't actually matter" and how the characters react to that idea. Then of course there's the argument this extends to the player as well for trying to make a big story out of something that's ultimately just "shoot people then a nuke kills errybuddy"
Mason Nelson
>the entire story is basically "if you're looking for a story in a video game you're a dumbass lol"
That's the first game. Second one is where they got all pretentious and meta at the expense of their fans.
Carter Martin
You can interpret it in many different ways
has already covered Hotline Miami being a metaphor for games and story. It makes sense. Any other game with a similar story would have the player characters stopping the nukes and saving the world instead of them all being largely irrelevant in the grander world. But Hotline Miami seemingly spits in the face of players expecting a typical video game story.
Under this interpretation the words of the Janitors and Richard are more direct to the player.
>There's a pretty big twist at the end. I doubt you'll like it. In fact, I dont think anyone will.
Just look at this conversation with Richter in the 2nd game
>Tying up some loose ends. Just a little precaution. Seems like it wasn't really necessary.
>I'm afraid I don't understand.
>Oh, we didn't expect you to. While we're here, we might as well say our goodbyes.
>Goodbyes?
>Yes, after all you served us well. But it looks like your time's up now.
Its fucking dripping with meta-commentary about making a sequel.
Similarly you have the Pig Butcher. A gory slasher movie based off the in-universe masked killings which completely miss the point of the actual killings. Which is very striking considering how Hotline Miami and other violent media is treated. Personally I find it fucking hilarious that the fake-out rape scene from the Pig Butcher movie in Hotline Miami 2 led to it being banned in Australia.
Dennaton wrote a scene about how the media misinterprets shocking violence which is then misinterpreted by the IRL media!
However there are other interpretations.
Jonathan Robinson
Hotline Miami 2 is something else.
Adrian Russell
its just a game for pyschos. it tests your ability to kill, then laughs in your face for being so obedient to the system its thrown you in.
Andrew Collins
If you take Hotline Miami not as meta-commentary on video games and media but just as a story it still has deep themes and messages. Still about violence. But more-so on how violence is a destructive expanding cycle.
The actions all characters undertake in 1991 in the 2nd game are a direct reaction to Jacket's 1989 rampages which the 2nd game, in its nature as both a sequel and prequel, shows is the direct result of Beard's death during the San Francisco nuking that ended a Russian-American war for which we never even learn how or why it began.
An innocent writer like Evan Wright can possibly end up brutally murdering dozens of gang-members because of the death of a single soldier who he likely didnt even remember meeting when he took his photo in Hawaii.
Violence in Hotline Miami is an ever-expanding cyclone. Sucking in everything around it and thrashing it about.
The violence of Hotline Miami was a focus point for many and it very much ends up showing how that violence goes wrong.
There is no escape from it.
In the 1st game Jacket's Girlfriend dies and he painfully learns he is unable to separate a happy normal guy from the monster he becomes when he puts on a mask.
The Henchman in his drugged stupor insists to the Fans that he has quit and got out of the jungle. Yet they nevertheless brutally murder him.
In turn the Fans end up killed by the Son except for Tony who pleads to Pardo that he is done fighting and surrenders. Pardo shoots him in the head.
More importantly even if they survive they never accomplish anything . Jacket never learns anything. Biker does and fucks off to the desert. Pardo is a paranoid mess. Evan can either learn the truth too late at the expense of his family or re-connect with his family and die with at least one more happy moment. The cool badass Son fucking jumps off his own skyscraper after spiritually avenging his father and fulfilling his dreams.
1/2
John Rogers
All of these endings are re-visited in the table sequence when you start hard mode and Richard (who himself can be interpreted as voice of the devs or a cognitive representation of the affect jacket has had on people or the grim reaper or whatever) berates the characters for never being content and repeating the cycle of violence.
youtube.com
The Colonel and 50 blessings are arguably the most important part of this even though they are rarely seen. The invisible driving force behind the series dream of a free America, a purified America that liberates itself from its Russian oppressors in a bloody revolution just like the Founding Fathers. They work so hard towards this and it results in America being totally annihilated.
Destruction is not a means to an end. This is a reflection of the real world. Of the same ideologies so many radical groups across the political spectrum hold. Genocide and mass-murder will not lead to a more purified world. It will not establish some new order as so many dream of. It just begets more destruction.
There's no happy ending for any of these characters except for Richter, the only one who finally realizes that fighting is pointless, accepts he can't change anything and goes without fear.
David Baker
> i like to think the only one that survives at the end is Biker because he is like the only one who tries to find out what's going on
Plus he went off to live in the desert after the events of hlm 1, he only returned to miami to witness Jacket's trial and have that little interview with Evan, after that he fucked off back to the desert
Michael Bailey
if something like 50 blessing was real and started calling my house i answer anyways. regardless of the repercussions or the "endless" cycle. these boys wanted a free america, or to smash some heads. or both. sounds like a way to go.
Dominic Baker
youre that faggot thats been lurking around here talking about how every other game "spits in the face of convention" or "smashes preconceived notions" all the time. you're a hack piece of shit.
Parker Wilson
Kind of want to make a fan campaign with Biker becoming King of Post-Apocalyptic Miami.
Brandon Cruz
I have no idea what you are talking about. I just really like Hotline Miami and think about a lot.
Hunter Fisher
>Fat Autist thinking he can kill mobsters let alone even one
Kek, you’d die the second one sees you
Hudson Smith
yeah no
Jace Allen
sorry wrong guy
Isaiah Stewart
Wow, bad ass over here everyone! Be careful, he’d murder over 50 people in a single day because a bunch of autists prank call him telling him to
Grayson Taylor
its ok, i know you want to bump the thread. ill oblige.
John Roberts
Seething autist
Justin Sullivan
>some sort of deep message form an indie overhead shooter with ugly graphics about killing people
Yeah ok, kid.
Austin Johnson
another funpost to bump this thread up
Bentley Carter
hey we arent on page 1 wheres my reply
Carson Carter
the fat autist indeed mowed down over a 100 gangsters with his two uzis
Camden Jones
damn now the weeb wants to slack on the bait
Gabriel Bell
And that is why world peace is a fantasy. Even knowing the consequences we feel compelled to fight. Either for some cause or simply for violence's own sake. We've all felt it. And violence is necessary at times due to this fact. Many are forced into violence from the actions of others. It is self-propagating
But tell me this. Would you really be able to stomach the fact people you care about get hurt? Or even people you do not know as a result of your actions? Innocent people. Do you not have sympathy for your fellow man? I believe it is one's ability to control their violent, destructive desires in favor of more civilized, constructive pursuits that is important in life. Ending something is far easier than creating something.
John Jones
>the message of the first seemed to be that violence in a game is harmless fun
there was a message? if anything, why wasn't it about how too much patriotism is a bad thing because the two "janitors" formed a terrorist group?
I think the hm2 ending sucks, but only because I didn't care to replay it and look for clues in those awful levels. I didn't expect them all to live, but I didn't get a sense of accomplishment or any takeaway. haha bomb go boom, haha scary chicken demon, the end. I wanted to know what the fuck was up with richard, even the bonus level confused me.