Play Hotline Miami 2 without beating the first?

[Lemons]

Hello. I've played Hotline Miami a few times on my Vita, but never beating it for one reason or another and I don't feel like restarting it yet another time, so I'm just wondering if there are any downsides to skipping the first?

[Smufius]

You'll be missing out on a great game that just keeps getting better all the time. Meanwhile HM2 is a rollercoaster of good and downright disgusting level design. Plotwise I don't think you'll be missing out on much. All you need to know is that there was a dude wearing animal masks and he killed a lot of russians.

[Lemons]

Originally posted by UGUU:

You'll be missing out on a great game that just keeps getting better all the time. Meanwhile HM2 is a rollercoaster of good and downright disgusting level design. Plotwise I don't think you'll be missing out on much. All you need to know is that there was a dude wearing animal masks and he killed a lot of russians.

Well I guess I'll playthrough entirely the first before starting the second then, considering you think it's quite a bit better than the 2nd.

Thanks for your reply. c:

[Witchesfall]

Originally posted by Sam:

Originally posted by UGUU:

You'll be missing out on a great game that just keeps getting better all the time. Meanwhile HM2 is a rollercoaster of good and downright disgusting level design. Plotwise I don't think you'll be missing out on much. All you need to know is that there was a dude wearing animal masks and he killed a lot of russians.

Well I guess I'll playthrough entirely the first before starting the second then, considering you think it's quite a bit better than the 2nd.

Thanks for your reply. c:

It really is great, it's fairly short anyway so you won't have to spend much time beating it.

I like the level design in two

[KronQ]

Originally posted by UGUU:

Plotwise I don't think you'll be missing out on much.

Yeah, except for the whole story. Who needs it anyway.

[CarThief]

Most people would certainly recommend playing the first one first, mainly because of the fact the sequel practically doubles, sometimes even TRIPLES the difficulty of the levels, and its nice to know what happened in the first game so more things make sense in the second one (as much sense as one can make from HM1's story...), though that's hardly required.

A drawback would be the level designs in a handful of levels, though... Some of them are rediculous and filled with spots where a guy randomly snipes you past regular vision point, really gotta learn the levels, enemies, patrols and safe spots, whereas HM1 had tight, somewhat easier level design and rarely would you get killed by something off-screen, or otherwise unpredictable stuff.
The shift button will be your best friend in HM2... (Except in long upwards/downwards hallways, enemies WILL see you before the bottom/top of the screen shows them.)
It helps to think that the enemies have the same vision range as you do when you're holding Shift, because they almost fully do.

[angstlicht]

story is slightly harder to follow but not really

gameplay much harder

tbh if you just look up like a quick LP of HM1 you can just jump into HM2

[Corestrike]

Without playing the first, the story loses some of it's value, especially when it drops references to characters from the first (Beard, Biker and Jacket). There's also a few rather well-placed things in Hotline Miami 1 that really click when you play the second and pay attention to it (this is especially true with Beard, and to a much lesser extent, with characters like Jake).

It's very possible to play the second and fully understand the story though, and honestly both games are out of order so playing it backwards would make just as much sense.