Violence is everywhere. We see it in the news, movies, television shows, social media, listening to music, and playing them in a video game. Violence in video games is especially nothing new because we are used to it. Yet back in the 90s when “Mortal Kombat” was released, the parents and government tried to get the game banned for being violent when performing the “Fatality” because it was the first time it was shown in a video game format and introduced the ESRB rating system. Soon, we receive many violent games franchise nowadays such as “Manhunt”, “Grand Theft Auto”, “No More Heroes”, “Call Of Duty”, and shockingly “Mortal Kombat” as it is still a popular fighting game franchise being released and the new entry came out last month which is even more violent. You may be wondering why am I talking about violence in video games. Am I against it? No of course not, but I find it to be a very interesting topic when discussing video games. But, there is a game I want to talk about that I love to play and focus on our violent tendencies and the consequence, and that is “Hotline Miami”. Side note, there is a second game, but I like to focus on the first game alone as it was the introduction to the topic about ourselves, and quite frankly my favourite indie game.
The story of Hotline Miami:
First thing first, What is “Hotline Miami” about? The game takes place in Miami, in 1989. You play a silent protagonist named “Jacket”, he was a veteran who fought against soviet Russia from invading Hawaii with his best friend, “Beard” in the 80s. In the game, you are tasked to take down the Russian mobster that roams around Miami by a mysterious caller. The caller will give a vague description about the location of the whereabouts as if they are ordering a pizza, and Jacket would have to follow along the plan as if he doesn’t, he will be killed. As he goes to the locations, he will don the Chicken mask named “Richard”, who represents his ego since Jacket is a mentally disturbed person who has the urge to kill after the war.
The game has five parts with 4 chapters in each part. As you play the game, you go to the locations you are tasked with and kill the mobsters but each time you finish the job, you keep encountering “Beard” as the store clerk everywhere. But at the start of each part, you run into 3 individuals who are wearing the mask but represent Jacket’s egos. The most important ego and character that plays a big role in the franchise is “Richard”, Jacket’s persona.
Richard represents the sociopathic behaviour of Jacket and the player, but I wanna bring up the conversation you have with him at the start of chapter 2. Richard asks Jacket four questions, but the biggest question is the first one asking the protagonist and the players “Do you like hurting other people?”
As you continue, you find out you were in a coma the whole time near the end of the game, and “Beard” was dead the whole time before the game, as he was killed by a nuke launched in San Francisco by Soviet Russia when he opened up his dream store after coming home from the war. The coma showcased what Jacket did, but also misremembers details about who he killed, what he saw and what led to him being in a coma where his girlfriend whom he rescued in the previous mission, died. As he wakes up, he sneaks out of the hospital that the police are guarding to prevent Jacket from escaping. Jacket awake and on the path of revenge, storms the police station to find a man named “Richter” for putting him in a coma and killing his girlfriend. After finding him, you get the option to kill him or not. Killing him doesn’t matter as it is revealed that Jacket spared Richter since he returns in the second game and is one of the main characters. After encountering Richter, Jacket continues his task of taking down the Russian mobsters and successfully takes down everyone who runs Miami, killing the leader of the mobsters. As Jacket takes off his mask, he lights up a cigarette as he is finally at peace for a moment.
At the end of it all, you don’t feel accomplished. You questioned if it was all worth it in the end knowing what you have done. I understand this topic was a bit dark, but we don’t often talk about violence being presented in video games, and I think Hotline Miami perfectly represents it. You are left questioning yourself, and it comes back to the question that Richard asked, “Do you like hurting other people?”.
The Music:
Before wrapping up, I like to give a quick shoutout to the soundtrack as usual. The soundtrack features a lot of music created by other artists that represent “vaporwave” as the game aesthetics is a vaporwave mix with Ryan Gosling’s movie, “Drive”. I recommend checking out the soundtrack as the playlist is available on Spotify to stream. But if you like to get a taste of what the music is, check out this track as it’s also my favourite from the game!
Conclusion and links to the game:
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog as I share the story and implement the use of violence to enhance the story without glorifying it, and briefly going over the awesome “vaporwave” theme soundtracks. It means a lot that you stuck around reading my post and I placed the link below if you are interested in playing the game, be sure to comment down below about your favourite game or thought about “Hotline Miami”!
PC | PlayStation 3/4/5 | Xbox One/Series X/S | Nintendo Switch