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Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Haba

Harbinger of Decline
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Codex 2012 MCA Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
The best part of the game is the butthurt the ending has caused.
 
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Im kinda torn on Hotline Miami 2. Music and Artwork are even better than in the first one and they added a good amount of new stuff, which is always good.
The plot is more important than in HM1 and you get more characters and their viewpoints. The story is however really hard to follow and the ending is...a joke? Likewise, Beards story arc doesnt make much sense to me.
After my first run, I have to say that I think HM2 is as good as the first one, if more difficult and much more constrained in the way you have to play most stages. In my opinion, the real difference between 1 and 2 is the replayability. In 1 (except for Helmets story, but at least that one was short) you could play any level in pretty much any way you'd like. Easy (Silent guns or Fists of Fury) or Hard (Drill, Reversed Controls or Black/Red). Apart from a few stages (and those mostly for the music), I dont think I will play HM2 anytime soon again.
Still I am happy with my purchase and would say its a good game after all.

On a sidenote: Was there really anyone in the whole world who was disturbed by that "Rape" scene in the prologue? Holy crap, its a movie in a game! People cant be agitated by a virtual scene of fake rape!
 

Shadowfang

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Road to Arnika
Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech
Finally got my hands on it.
Its good but its worse than the first.
The only added difficulty comes from dealing with off-screen shots other than that this game is actually easier.
Doors knock down people much more frequently, you have a longer combo window and enemies are much slower to react. The last one is very noticeable in melee.
To me the ost is also inferior to the 1st one. There have been only a couple that i really enjoyed.

Edit: Also stages are longer, which may add to the difficulty.
 

skacky

3D Realms
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Mar 5, 2013
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Finally S'd Dead Ahead on Normal. I can't even get past the first area on Hard though. :lol:
 

sexbad?

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sexbad
Codex USB, 2014
Weird that people hated the prison level. That was probably the best one in the game, not that it had much competition. I really, really liked it.
 

34scell

Augur
Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Messages
384
The docks level is pure bullshit on hard. On the second floor you unavoidably die half the time right at the start.
 

CyberWhale

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
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Weird that people hated the prison level. That was probably the best one in the game, not that it had much competition. I really, really liked it.

The basketball court scene was shit but it didn't detract from the general awesomeness of the level.
Disposable glass shards and bullet-dodging maniacs were pure incline in game's overall design.
 

Grimwulf

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Fuck it. I can't do it anymore. I've finished both Hotlines several times, and I'm not touching it again. But I STILL can't get the full picture, and it fucking pisses me off. So help me out, Codex.

Warning: spoilers inside!

1. Why did 50 Blessings order Richter to assassinate Jacket in Hotline 1? It makes no sence. The chapter itself (Deadline) is strange too. That phonecall is very different from all others, with that "Ahem" and "click click click click" - it seems like the caller was very nervous, and unable to hang up. It's like he was calling for the first time. My best guess (although streched out) is that it was mafia's trap. They call Jacket, pretending to be 50 Blessings, and send him away on a mission. Meanwhile, they do the same with Richter (who also thinks he does 50 Blessing task). Two proofs for this: Jakes story in Hotline 2 (I'll get to it in a bit) and court trial in Hotline 2, when police chief states that "the tape was removed from answering machine", but "the calls were traced to russian night club", although there is not a single reason why they would come from there. But once again, this kinda seems streched out.

There was no point in assassinating Jacket. Why they wanted Helmet out I can get (he's still alive, tho), but Jacket? He was suffering hallucinations from the very beginning (saw Beard everywhere he went, although Beard was long dead by the time Hotline 1 events were taking place). Maybe he was demented since the war - who knows. It's not like illusions made his combat perfomance worse. And he wasn't insane at all - he actually explained his actions to the lawyer during court trial in Hotline 2. In fact, I believe he followed 50 Blessings orders with no questions asked because he had his own motives to kill russians. He was on his quest for vengeance for his (only?) friend Beard. That's why he didn't stop even when there were no more phone calls. That's why he kept his polaroid photo with him, and dropped it at the end of Hotline 1. He aknowledged his illusions, he knew that he saw dead people, and that Beard was one of them too. He wasn't following orders, he was merely using intel provided by 50 Blessings.

I know that in Martin's movie Jacket is shown as "fucked up in the head", but it's not like the movie was anywhere near real Hotline 1 events.

2. Jake's storyline I don't get. He was receiving calls from different operators than Jacket, and he was supposed to die during a failed mission - we can clearly see his corpse in chapter 10 of Hotline 1. But in Hotline 2 he is killed by an operator for no real reason. I mean - ok, so he asked questions and had an AWESOME PLAN OLOL - obviously, Jake was dumb as wood. His dumbness, much like Jacket's broken mind, is not reason enough to kill him. He does the job, and he does it good. Unless those operators were not really 50 Blessings, but just imposters. Judging by Petrov's confession in Hotline 2, russians were able to catch and interrogate several masked vigilantes during Hotline 1 events, so they could possibly try to imitate 50 Blessings themselves. To fight the competition, maybe? Like the Colombians? Is that the reason they killed Jake - because he wanted to kill "russians only"?

3. Final chapter of Hotline 2, The Apocalypse. During a drug trip russian boss goes KILLING SPREE, and we can clearly see how he kills Mark, then Cory, THEN TONY WITH A FUCKING SHOTGUN, then Ash&Alex. Then yolo-jumps from the roof gloriously (best chapter of the game). But Tony was ALIVE, and even more so - UNHARMED - when Pardo found him in the building. And for some forsaken reason, corpses of Mark and Corey were laying in the same fucking room. It's not like the SWAT moved them - they were too afraid to enter the damn room before Pardo arrived. What the actual fuck? Some random russian mobster found the masked corpses, dragged them in one room, took Tony's mask, put it on, and... wait, what?

Seriously, how did Tony survived and why were the corpses together? They were all:
a) clearing different floors on their way to the roof, separately;
b) killed by rus boss in different places of the building.

4. What exactly is Pardo's problem? He randomly kills mobsters because... why? I figured out that it's related to FAME somehow, but his actions don't make too much sence. The only theory that seems to fit is he does all the mass-murders, so the other murders would fade on the overall picture. So all the maniacs, serial killers, Jacket fans, and other fame-craving criminals will give up hope, and the press will lose interest to small-time massacres. It kinda worked with The Fans (they only got a few minutes on TV after all the killing they did), but it's STILL a REALLY stupid way to achive this goal. Besides, he reccomends Evan to write about Miami Mutilator at some point, whch contradicts this motive a bit. The game gives a few hints that Pardo IS actually the Mutilator, but I don't really think so. Mutilator kills civilians, while Pardo aims only for criminals.

5. One more crazy question about Pardo. The punching bag in his apartment, the face features, the eyes... Is he some relative to russian boss? A brother? A son? Is this the reason he hates the mob, but still has strong connections with russians? Then why isn't there more clues to it in the game?

6. Awright, so WHO THE FUCK is Richard? "I am the opposite of why you are writing your book". Maybe I missed something in Evan's story, or maybe I'm just stupid. Why is Evan writing his book? Except for the money and almost unnatural interest in Hotline 1 events, I don't know. What's the opposite to it - I don't know either. Ok, so Richard was obviously a part of Jacket's broken mind during Hotline 1 events, but in Hotline 2 he is much more. Not some kind of group hallucination, and not a simple narrator either. During Hotline 1 he asked four questions, the last two of them remained unanswed for me (inb4: hallucinations). During Hotline 2 there are several moments where the game stresses out of importance of Richard's personality. Who is this damn rooster?

Edit: also, some parts of Hotline 2 Hard diffuculty were pure bullshit. I had to exploit bugs to complete several levels, that were otherwise unbeatable. Like invulnerability while standing off-screen, and that kind of stuff.

But to be fair, most of the levels offered honest challenge. Thumbs up.
 
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Haba

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6. Awright, so WHO THE FUCK is Richard? "I am the opposite of why you are writing your book". Maybe I missed something in Evan's story, or maybe I'm just stupid. Why is Evan writing his book? Except for the money and almost unnatural interest in Hotline 1 events, I don't know. What's the opposite to it - I don't know either. Ok, so Richard was obviously a part of Jacket's broken mind during Hotline 1 events, but in Hotline 2 he is much more. Not some kind of group hallucination, and not a simple narrator either. During Hotline 1 he asked four questions, the last two of them remained unanswed for me (inb4: hallucinations). During Hotline 2 there are several moments where the game stresses out of importance of Richard's personality. Who is this damn rooster?

Death, or a harbinger of death. He always appears when someone is about to die.
 

ColCol

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Jul 12, 2012
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Sequel Idea

After the bombs drop, Many years later, a young Vault Dweller Step outside his vault for the first time.
 

Jick Magger

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bubbles In Memoria
For 1.

A majority of the first game, up to when he wakes up in the hospital, is in fact Jacket's coma dream of the actual events that took place. This explains why all of the after-mission dialogues seem to occur non-linearly (In Beard's first dialogue he offers Jacket condolences over losing his 'girlfriend', despite the fact that she doesn't actually die until much later in the game, it's because it's the most recent memory he has), and that would explain the discrepancies with his memories as well (i.e. Him killing The Biker during their confrontation. This game seems to confirm that he didn't actually do that, but might've wished that he actually did). That might also explain why the hallucinations seem to get more severe as the game progresses, it's actually him slowly beginning to realize that none of what he's seeing is actually real. Everything he sees after that is just from the resulting trauma of getting shot in the head recently, and him seeing Richard, Don Juan and Rasmus is excusable since all the protagonists are able to see them in the next game, even the ones who're arguably completely sane (Richter and Evan). He's not actually as crazy as the game seems to imply.

I also think The Son at the very least killed Ash and Alex, since when you exit the level as Manny you can see a tarp-covered body on the street, and The Son's level ends with him walking off the roof onto a 'rainbow' after killing the twins.
 
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Grimwulf

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Thanks, bros. The game still doesn't make much more sence, but at least now I know I'm not the on;y one confused. Although,

Why would anyaone doubt that The Son killed The Fans? He appears on the rooftop in last mission of The Fans (Death Wish), shoots Ash&Alex and walks off the roof - we can see his body as Pardo.

And during his lsd-trip he clearly kills a bear, a zebra, a tiger and a double-headed-swan-monster.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
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Feb 3, 2009
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16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I AM HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GOOD MUSIC FROM THIS GAME


hit me up with youtube links for the good ones
 

Gulnar

Scholar
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Messages
133
If the wiki is right, then yes, he is the mutilator.

Probably Tony dragged the bodies. I think that in the final Son level he actually dodged the shotgun gunshot, and then fled from the Son. Got the bodies of his friends and then got killed by Pardo.
 

Grimwulf

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I think that in the final Son level he actually dodged the shotgun gunshot

Now that I think of it, when The Son shot Mark, Cory and the twins - all of them left corpses after death. Only Tony didn't leave the corpse - he just kinda vanished. Guess you are right.
 

Nryn

Cipher
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Divinity: Original Sin 2
In a twisted way, I'm coming to appreciate the game's design changes for the added challenge now that I'm replaying levels for the S rank.

During my first run where I was more concerned about where the overall narrative was heading, the major changes to how the game's combat flowed, compared to the first one, really rankled. Over-emphasis on ranged combat, off-screen deaths, over-abundance of windows and the massive levels effectively made me far more cautious in my approach compared to the first. More often than not, the overall design was borderline frustrating, and constantly crossed over into the obnoxious territory.

On trying to achieve S ranks, all these combined design changes do not end up being any less bullshitty despite my knowledge of the levels. Instead, knowing that the design can be deliberately obnoxious, yet managing to S rank the levels regardless has proved to be immensely satisfying.

Achieving my first S-rank on the level that had given me a lot of trouble during my first run, Death Wish (scene 12), is what made me start seeing the game in a different light.

It also helps that the level in question has the following music to frame all the dual-weilding (and more) carnage that goes on:

 

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