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Hotline Miami |OT| - All your LSD are belong to us. You are already dead
- Thread starter hitoshi
- Start date
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
Can someone explain the ending to me? Hell, the whole story, even?
fadetoblack
Member
Dog mask is irrelevant when you start with a knife which is the best weapon in the game. My problem is often the first infiltration, so that sometimes I just need a weapon to start out with to get a foothold and then I can deal.
I found that I used the start with a knife, quiet bullets, and doors are lethal the most. Some of them I just didn't find useful at all like walk faster.
I found that I used the start with a knife, quiet bullets, and doors are lethal the most. Some of them I just didn't find useful at all like walk faster.
The tiger mask lets you punch dogs which is also pretty useful.
Haunted
Member
Everything made perfect sense to me until
you kill the protagonist playing as the biker guy.
Until then, Parts 1-4 told a solid story of contract killings (although in the tradition of the silent protagonist, the initial motivation to take up these contracts is not made clear - whether it's out of ideological alignment with 50 Blessings (the mysterious phonecallers) or boredom or a split personality or whatever else is up to the player to interpret), then betrayal and finally revenge for the murder of his girlfriend - although the protagonists takes "revenge" on the wrong people, ironically. In Part 5, the biker guy completes what the protagonist couldn't, tracking down the real masterminds behind the phone calls, two US ultranationalists calling themselves 50 Blessings who are employing the masked people to strike hits against the Russian mob in Miami.
So that's the facts. But there's some unanswered questions here.
- Who are the three masked people you encounter at points in the story? (parts of your conscience maybe?)
- What's going on with the hallucinogenic nature of much of the protagonist's adventure, escalating up to seeing dead people roaming around? (symbolic spiralling out of control of the violence taking his toll and the protagonist losing his grasp on reality?)
- How can the protagonist kill biker guy, yet biker guy also kill the protagonist?
The third one is the one that's puzzling me the most. I've read speculation ranging from alternate timelines and what-if scenarios (both not being consistent with the biker guy cracking 50 Blessing's final password with the letters the protagonist found, implying they take place in the same timeline), to the biker guy putting the protagonist into a coma during the fight (which doesn't really gel with the protagonist's self-contained storyline or the biker guy's dialogue when you play as him - "You've had your chance").
And then you add the meta-commentary in the regular ending with the two janitors standing in for the developers themselves, asking you if you think it's all a game, enjoying the violence etc etc.
- Who are the three masked people you encounter at points in the story? (parts of your conscience maybe?)
- What's going on with the hallucinogenic nature of much of the protagonist's adventure, escalating up to seeing dead people roaming around? (symbolic spiralling out of control of the violence taking his toll and the protagonist losing his grasp on reality?)
- How can the protagonist kill biker guy, yet biker guy also kill the protagonist?
The third one is the one that's puzzling me the most. I've read speculation ranging from alternate timelines and what-if scenarios (both not being consistent with the biker guy cracking 50 Blessing's final password with the letters the protagonist found, implying they take place in the same timeline), to the biker guy putting the protagonist into a coma during the fight (which doesn't really gel with the protagonist's self-contained storyline or the biker guy's dialogue when you play as him - "You've had your chance").
And then you add the meta-commentary in the regular ending with the two janitors standing in for the developers themselves, asking you if you think it's all a game, enjoying the violence etc etc.
To be honest, lots of stuff is still a mystery to me and I'm not really sure there's a coherent vision to this. I'm starting to think it's an amalgamation of ideas working on several layers, not necessarily all compatible with each other. Which, you know, would be kind of appropriate for a game that in large parts feels like a cocaine/LSD-binge gone wrong.
Haunted
Member
If you go for points, try Carl and going for executions. Drilling gives points like mad. Zack makes you a combo machine if you move even moderately quick through levels. Lots of useful masks.
I was puzzled on how to do the chapter 5 barehanded achievement until I realised that.
Makes the Tony mask one of the best in the game, imo.
Wendel Clark
Member
The biker part is an alternate timeline. You go back in time and start playing as him. The protagonist was sent to kill the biker so that the janitors could live (the biker ends up killing them). When I played that part as the biker I didn't kill any of the people in the building until after I killed the protagonist and realized what it was.
Not sure who the guy that kills your GF is. Maybe another guy sent to take you out/stop you from figuring out the truth (just like the protagonist was sent to kill the biker). He speaks about being controlled by the same thing in jail before you strangle him.
The papers on the tables in your apartment speak of their being many masked people, which at first I thought was just the main protagonist with different masks, but there is a dead masked man (snake mask) in one of the levels and the guy that tries to kill you.
The three masked men are hallucinations (part of your consciousness) from the drugs imo, making you question what is going on which would eventually lead the protagonist to the devs. The free food being laced seems plausible to me as a way to control people.
I haven't found any of the secrets, but that's how I've tried to make sense of the story.
Not sure who the guy that kills your GF is. Maybe another guy sent to take you out/stop you from figuring out the truth (just like the protagonist was sent to kill the biker). He speaks about being controlled by the same thing in jail before you strangle him.
The papers on the tables in your apartment speak of their being many masked people, which at first I thought was just the main protagonist with different masks, but there is a dead masked man (snake mask) in one of the levels and the guy that tries to kill you.
The three masked men are hallucinations (part of your consciousness) from the drugs imo, making you question what is going on which would eventually lead the protagonist to the devs. The free food being laced seems plausible to me as a way to control people.
I haven't found any of the secrets, but that's how I've tried to make sense of the story.
Yeah, I think the story just doesn't follow your usual rules of time and both stories are true while at the same time they're contradicting each other.
I'm starting to think that maybe the biker and all the mask guys are meant to just be the same person, the "gamer" and they're all the different paths gamers can take in following the high command or rebelling against it, killing the devs, finding the secrets and essentially breaking the game.
That's pretty much exactly what I think about the two timelines as well. They definitely cannot coexist within the same "canon."
Takes like half a minute for me. It's longer than it should, but more tahn tolerable.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
So the controller patch came out,
and?
How does it play now with a controller?
Better than playing with a keyboard?
and?
How does it play now with a controller?
Better than playing with a keyboard?
Yes. Until the last boss it works beautifully. In that fight the lock on and pick weapon button seem to be a bit unreliable. I need to try it with kb/mouse to see if it gets better with those.
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
I thought it played much better with a controller.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
As expected, it plays infinitely better with a mouse and keyboard, it just works so damn well.
I doubt many have the dexterity to pull off the highest combos and scores with a controller.
With a mouse almost anyone, even if not great at action games, can do really well.
As long as they're accustomed to that control scheme, not on their first try.
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
I found orientating where I'm shooting with the mouse to be really finicky and unnatural. I like the dual-stick character-relative aiming.
Same here, first it only crashed on Hot & Heavy, after the patch I managed to get past that level only to have it crash on the next. Yesterday I tried Windows 7 compatibility mode and managed to get through that level but it's again crashing at the next :/
microtubule
Member
It looks like Get Games finally sent out the pre-order bonus EXPOsed level via e-mail.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
WASD to move around, mouse to aim all over, left mouse button to attack/shoot, middle mouse button to lock on, right mouse button to loot/throw a weapon, shift to extend view further, space to execute downed enemies. Keys are remappable to whatever. It's simple & sweet. If you're at home with FPS controls you'll be at home with this even if it isn't one. Replace WASD with left stick, mouse with right stick, and the other functions with the triggers and shoulder buttons for the gamepad. It works. It's not really hard to get, any "dual analog" type shooter (not sure why they're called that as they existed before such pads) works similarly on PC, this just alters the gameplay pacing with melee and stealth etc.
Haunted
Member
As someone who asked for (working) controller support from day 1... I went back to kb/m. Controller works fine, but I simply feel more at ease with kb/m, definitely gives me an edge in precision and speed compared to playing with the controller.
Both are valid, ymmv.
That's exactly what he is - one of the other masked killers employed/manipulated(?) by 50 Blessings. The Richter mask he wears is found on the upper floor of the police level.
There are four or five masks of other killers you can find throughout the game. Extremely well done little details when you find them in various positions in the levels - some simply killed on the spot in a heavily guarded room (like Carl in chapter 8, Jake in chapter 12), another bound to a chair and obviously tortured before dying (Earl in chapter 2), another retreated into the sewers before dying there (Jones). It's implied they're failed hits and you're the replacement sent in, basically.
Good stuff.
Dog Problems
Banned
Controller support was meant to be there from the beginning but was taken out shortly after release because it wasn't working properly. The controls for keyboard/mouse are fine and so is using a controller. Just try out both and see what you like the most. I personally prefer using a controller as it feels more natural for this kind of game.
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
There are two sticks that are essential to how the game is played. Dual analogue control.
Amazing game. Waited for pad support to play it, finished it in two sittings.
Funny thing is I didn't realize that it was made by Cactus (Jonathan Söderström) before buying it. It's definitely awesome to see a talented indie dev like him being able to produce polished games like this. He has a lot of talent, has made a ton of games but Hotline is probably his most "complete" game yet. And there's not a lot of games where you can almost be in a state of trance while playing and then reflect on what you just did long after you stopped the PC.
If anyone is interested, I'd advise to try Cactus' other games. They're maybe not as easy to get into as Hotline but many are free and they're often just as crazy as far as atmosphere goes.
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonatan_Söderström
>>> http://cactusquid.com/games.htm
Funny thing is I didn't realize that it was made by Cactus (Jonathan Söderström) before buying it. It's definitely awesome to see a talented indie dev like him being able to produce polished games like this. He has a lot of talent, has made a ton of games but Hotline is probably his most "complete" game yet. And there's not a lot of games where you can almost be in a state of trance while playing and then reflect on what you just did long after you stopped the PC.
If anyone is interested, I'd advise to try Cactus' other games. They're maybe not as easy to get into as Hotline but many are free and they're often just as crazy as far as atmosphere goes.
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonatan_Söderström
>>> http://cactusquid.com/games.htm
Raptomex
Member
I assume you have Steam enabled? If you got the others then yeah you would. I guess it's just a somewhat serious glitch.
Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
I thought you were referencing the control method rather than the genre. Which makes much more sense.
microtubule
Member
HadesGigas
Member
I'm having issues, this pops up every time I open the game
With ABORT/IGNORE options. Ignore just makes it create more errors. Sometimes I can get to the actual game, but there is no music (sound works).
With ABORT/IGNORE options. Ignore just makes it create more errors. Sometimes I can get to the actual game, but there is no music (sound works).
Had the same error, solved it by following the dev's suggestion of reinstalling the VC redist (it's in the game's folder - at least for the Steam version) and rebooting the computer. After doing that the error went away and the music worked.
HadesGigas
Member
That did fix it. But now that I can get to the game... is there any way to make it actually fill my TV screen? I tried lowering my resolution through windows but even at 1280x768 there is black space on all four sides of the screen.
I don't think there's a fix for this I just tried to ignore it in the end.
Raptomex
Member
So I got all the puzzle pieces and
.
. I still need to get all the masks. Does the red X in the level selection menu mean you don't have the mask or there isn't a mask? I'm assuming it means I just didn't unlock it yet.
used the PC in the final level
The alternate ending was okay, not bad
HadesGigas
Member
This worked for me:
But it went back to that way again the next day, so it's not a permanent fix.
But it went back to that way again the next day, so it's not a permanent fix.