The deeper meaning of Hotline Miami (SPOILERS)

[Adepta Sororita]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AixOBp15KdI
This Video seriously blew my mind.

[Xizor]

This is sweet. Thanks!

[only losers play cs]

I was hoping someone would do a video like this, will check it out. Thanks

[Urthdigger]

It's an interesting take on it, but I can't help but think he's reading far more into it than the developers did. It MIGHT be a message on gameplay mechanics being ultimately what matters instead of narrative. Or it could just be them focusing primarily on the gameplay and deciding the game didn't need much in the way of narrative, without actually setting forth to give a message about it.

Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe.

[Adepta Sororita]

That is true Urthdigger, but sometimes a Piece of work achives more then the creator intended.
It can develop a deeper meaning that they intended or had in mind while making it, alony through the decisions they made regarding whow the game should be.

[Spiff]

I like this interpretation more. I read the "My take on the story, after having unlocked everything and played through 3 times" thread and just laugh that people are trying to make sense of the story. Its confusing just for the sake of being confusing. They even break the 4th wall and say that it was all a game. But people are attached to the "russian-american relations" story even though it sounds like it came straight out of an 90's shoot-'em-up game.

In an odd way. This sorta shows how important stories and narrative are to people. Despite how convoluted and wacky a story is people will still try to make sense of it.

[FINAL BOSS]

Spiff님이 먼저 게시:

I like this interpretation more. I read the "My take on the story, after having unlocked everything and played through 3 times" thread and just laugh that people are trying to make sense of the story. Its confusing just for the sake of being confusing. They even break the 4th wall and say that it was all a game. But people are attached to the "russian-american relations" story even though it sounds like it came straight out of an 90's shoot-'em-up game.

In an odd way. This sorta shows how important stories and narrative are to people. Despite how convoluted and wacky a story is people will still try to make sense of it.

Is our nature, as humans, we try to find sense in everything

[only losers play cs]

Finally watched it and I've got to say while this theory sure is interesting I don't think it was intended by the devs at all.

[Pichi]

Ha, it reminds me the last Lynch's films. A game inside a game. Well, many themes of the game come from Lynch's films, such as the dark room with the masks, the premonitions and the phone calls The resemblance with Drive is quite obvious, but I think the points in common with Lynch are far more important. I thought the same that the video says. It's kinda the Inland Empire of videogames, or as in Mulholland Drive, 'this is all recorded'. Once you woke up in the hospital, you've overcome what the masks told you already happened, it's the point of no return, Jacket is Jacket and seeks personal revenge instead of being a comatose's distorsioned memory, even a whole delusion. And then Helmet comes and kill you, all you did never happened. It's great.
As for the 'true' ending, once you resolve the puzzle, I wouldn't say it's meaningless, Hotline Miami 2 has been announced and I guess the plot will continue that way. Or maybe not, maybe we'll be just another guy impelled to kill. Whatever the excuse is, it'll be friggin' awesome.

[daicon]

hey, let's overanalyze some average indie game to ridiculous heights...

[FINAL BOSS]

daicon님이 먼저 게시:

hey, let's overanalyze some average indie game to ridiculous heights...

Lets have fun doing so :D

[Zwick The Editor]

This is mind blowing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5__oVQOPy1g

[Wolf]

robbievampire님이 먼저 게시:

People who thinks he is over-analyzing are just dumb. There're just so many clues of what they mean. Also, if you talk to the devs in person, you'd know they want to send some sort of deep message.

Yeah, but, with all their interviews for Wrong Number, it seems like they're not looking at the story farther than two layers deep and are pretty much scratching at emotions and atmosphere rather than anything of Stanely Parable and Yume Nikki levels. But honestly, the Helmet fight and Trauma are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it's kind of hard to tell if they are going that deep or they're indulging in Triple A vidya gaem tropes, because they seem like pretty young dudes and I wouldn't be surprised if a few semi-recent titles inspired something here. I honestly think the guy behind Errant Signal is giving it too much credit, but I'm not ruling out his interpertation.

[Barking Sands]

This discussion reminds me of my original experience playing DOOM. The plot was so minimal, I felt that the lack of story-driven immersion actually enhanced the playing experience. This game sends the same basic message: the players care more about gameplay and aesthetics and less about well-written plotlines.

But I don't agree that it's really true. I love playing Papers, Please not because I'm fascinated by spellchecking names on passports or because the gameplay is intense and satisfying, but because the story is immersive and I feel like I'm a big part of that story. Many other games send the message that a good story arc trumps intense gameplay and they're equally convincing.

I believe that Hotline Miami is only right that gameplay and aesthetics are more important than the story because that's what the game is telling the players. If the game was telling players that puzzle-solving was the best part of a game while including challenging puzzles, the players would receive that message and consider the puzzles the most rewarding part of their gaming experience.

It's almost as if a game creator could intentionally diminish certain aspects of their game in order to draw more attention to what the game does well. For example, intentionally making a game look or sound cheap or retro adds to the game's "charm" (Minecraft) and accentuates the more central elements (role-playing and exploration).

[Badger]

I thought Jacket was supposed to be crazy as the clerk (and Richard?) tells him that none of what is happening is real and the 3 guys in the masks are supposed to be his split personality as ones nice, ones neutral and the other is hostile and hes imagining all of it. But as the clerk is the same guy and hes nice to him, gives him free stuff but as he goes more insane everything becomes more hostile.
When you play Helmet though that might not work but thats what i thought was happening whilst playing through Jacket's story.

[Plagued]

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