Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is series finale, plot and combat explained
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is the second and final game in Dennaton Game's self-proclaimed 'f**k-em-up' series. The team has showcased the sequel running, and discussed the game's plot, combat and motivations in a new interview.
Speaking with Polygon at E3, creator Dennis Wedin said that Wrong Number development was progressing far alongside creation of the first game. Dennaton Games then moved on to another franchise but decided to return one last time to its world of '80s neon and brutal murder.
On the game's premise, Wedin said, "This is the end, this is the grand finale for Hotline Miami. Everything will end with this game. We also tried to give that tone to the game as well. This is the theme for the whole game. It has that sadness. All good things end."
This time, the game has several playable characters spread across various factions, the first of which is a bunch of movie fans making a slasher flick based on the events of the first Hotline Miami. As such, levels are now referred to as 'scenes', and during the tutorial the movie's director will intervene and scold the actors.
Wedin explained this shift in perspective, "It's a way of portraying the story for the first game in somebody else's eyes. Some people saw the first game as a horror movie — [Jacket] was mentally ill, he was a psychopath. We wanted to, in a way, let someone else do his own version of it. The director gives enough twists to it and made it into this slasher B movie that some people saw it as."
The second faction are known as 'The Fans', and they are thugs who wanted to be a part of Jacket's bloody wave of violence in the first game, but who missed out. They now roam the streets beating people up just to garner attention from the media and ruffle as many feathers as possible. They're also the characters wearing animal masks this time.
Worried about the more-visible plot? Don't be, Wedin said, "People who just want to play a fun game don't have to take part in the story if they don't want to, but people who love stories and details can find a lot of that just by watching. Since it's a sequel, we added more gore, more graphics and weapons and stuff like that. We're really trying to give each stage a personality and more backstory instead of just random apartments."
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is out in 2013 for PC, Mac, and Linux.
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