I swear, the only reason why I have problems with finishing this game is because it's too brutal. And that psychedelic story... Does anybody else feels the same way? After finishing the chapter and watching the cut-scene I have no strength to play it further. I understand this was some message behind the whole game, but damn...It's like "Clockwork Orange" on LSD.

And you have Lobo avatar? :D

Oh, the irony...:D

It's not just about the graphic violence. Lobo comic books made violence look funny. But Hotline Miami makes it look sick, disturbing by the cut - scenes. The unanswered questions are feel like a drill in to the skull. One wants answeres, but they can't have them. So the the possibles answers are the subjective ones. "Do you like hurting people?" My own answer is "Yes" and it sickens me. Oddly, because I only hurt people in games, I don't find think I'd truly hurt anyone. Hell, I couldn't hurt a spider! So, why do I feel sick?

You were immersed in the game a lot more than me, and had a pretty interesting experience too.

Why not? When the game was being released here, there was a lot of discussion in GOG forums about the glorification of violence & Hotline Miami. You are a living example that it doesn't do that. Violence is ugly and dirty and sick. The game creators believe it's worth to remember that even when you're killing only in virtual worlds.

If you want to continue this train of thought, I would suggest playing Spec Ops: The Line. It's written around the same themes of violence and gaming.

Wow, thank you for the reply! Never paid attention to that title, but I will once I can. And if it will be on GOG or Steam:).

The story made me feel a bit uncomfortable, however I'm a bit desensitized to graphic violence in movies and games, except when they are successful in depicting violence and it's impact on people in very realistic ways.

Still if you skip the story scenes, Hotline Miami becomes another gore filled high score hunting thrill ride. When you actually look at the violence in levels, it's just so over the top. It's like a cheesy samurai film or a Troma production.

Indeed. But that's the oddest thing about games. Without the story, a player doesn't think about idea that inspired to make that game.

Yes, but I can't help but think that's the intention.

The story (I've not completed more than 3 chapters) made sense until now and it is really engaging to see how it develops, but the flickering image and the bright LSD-kind Pictures on my Monitor really make me sick.

The violence is over the top, but it's because the graphics are so wonderfully old school that the violence is not quite as disturbing as say a game in full 3D and realistic graphics. Nonetheless, I have to give credit to Cactusquid and others for succeeding in programming all those complex violent animations into a retro-pixelated game. i wouldn't necessarily say that this game glorifies violence: it's more like the game's intention is to explore the aspect of intense, freeform carnage in the world of video gaming. At the same time, the explores the intensity and stress of being a hitman who has to do this every day, that it's merely a game of survival and sanity for him. Hotline Miami is like A Clockwork Orange meets Miami Vice, a cluster of R-Rated 80s crime films set in Miami or elsewhere, and gory samurai films. Even if the main character is a sicko wearing an animal mask, he never kills civilians, the people he fights are way worse than he is, and it's hinted in the interactive levels that he's exhausted by his one-man slaughterings of the Russian mob. The fact that he is the plaything of creepy underground janitors/nerds who programmed their whole experience, and that it was the motorcycle guy who was the real hero makes the protagonist's journey all the more tragic and disillusioning.

To think that this game was made by the same guy behind Shotgun Ninja, Mondo Medicals, Mondo Agency, God Came to the Cave, Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf, Psychosomnium, and Stench Mechanics. If you think this game is crazy, just play these other titles at Cactusquid.com

What about Assault?