Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a 2015 top-down shooter video game developed by Dennaton Games and published by Devolver Digital. The game takes place before, during, and after the events of Hotline Miami (2012), focusing on the background and aftermath of the massacres committed against the Russian mafia in Miami by Jacket, the protagonist of the previous game. The player takes on the role of several characters, witnessing the events from different perspectives across the United States. In each level, the player is tasked with defeating every enemy through any means possible. In the version of the game released on Steam, the player has access to a level editor, allowing them to create and share custom levels with other players.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was conceived as downloadable content for its predecessor, but became a standalone sequel after its length surpassed it. The game was announced in December 2012 via designer Jonatan Söderström's Twitter. Developed as the final installment in the series, Dennaton incorporated all unused concepts from the first game's development. The game's console versions were developed by Abstraction Games. Announced at E3 2013, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was delayed several times. It was released worldwide on 10 March 2015 for Linux, OS X, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Windows.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the soundtrack, but had diverse opinions on the gameplay, level design and ending. A scene depicting sexual assault triggered a mostly negative response from media outlets and caused the game to be refused classification in Australia. A localised version was released in Japan on 25 June 2015 as part of Hotline Miami: Collected Edition. The game was ported onto Nintendo Switch alongside the first game in the Hotline Miami Collection in 2019, which was later ported onto the Xbox One and Stadia in 2020 and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.
Gameplay
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a top-down shooter video game that is divided into numerous segments presented as "acts" and "scenes". In each chapter, the player is tasked with defeating every enemy with melee and ranged attacks. Additional methods available to the player include knocking out enemies with a door and finishing moves. Each stage has a varied design, composed of large, open rooms with many ways for enemies to approach the player. Most chapters have the player take control of a different character. Each character behaves differently, possessing unique abilities like dodging or defeating opponents non-lethally. Some characters can choose from a selection of weapons or masks, the latter of which modifies their abilities depending on the mask chosen.
Both the player and enemies can be felled by a single attack. To compensate, the player can quickly restart the current stage after death, allowing the player to rethink their strategy. As the game progresses, different types of enemies will appear, including guard dogs immune to unarmed attacks and thugs that are immune to everything except bullets. Additionally, the enemy behavior is inconsistent, with reactions towards player action ranging from immediate reaction to ignorance. An example of this is the enemy not reacting to a death occurring in front of them. Upon completion of the game, "Hard Mode" is unlocked for levels in which the player achieved a rank of C+ or higher. In Hard Mode, enemies are more difficult to take down and abilities such as locking on enemies are removed.
The Steam version of Hotline Miami 2 includes a level editor, allowing players to create their own levels. Additional tools allow for the creation of cutscenes and dialogue, making it possible to make custom campaigns. These creations can be shared onto the Steam Workshop service, where other players can download and play them.
Synopsis
Characters and setting The events of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number are presented out of chronological order: before, during, and after the events of Hotline Miami (2012), focusing on events in 1985, 1989, and 1991 respectively. After the events of the original game, the player character, Jacket, is arrested, having been manipulated by 50 Blessings—a neo-nationalist terror cell posing as a peaceful activist group—into assassinating the Russian mafia's leadership, which leads to his nationwide infamy.
The game follows several playable characters through a series of intersecting plotlines that explore the background and aftermath of Jacket's rampage. Beard, the shopkeeper from Jacket's hallucinations in the first game, serves with him in a commando squad deployed in Hawaii in 1985. Operating simultaneously with Jacket in 1989 are Jake, a nativist member of 50 Blessings, and Richter, a reluctant operative of the same group, both committing their own massacres. In 1991, a group of copycat killers known as The Fans try to emulate Jacket for attention. Meanwhile, the Son of the Russian Mafia boss from the first game aims to restore the Russians' power against the Colombian Cartel, assisted by The Henchman, who seeks retirement. Martin Brown, a sadistic actor, uses his role in the in-universe film Midnight Animal to fulfill his violent fantasies, while detective Manny Pardo employs extreme violence to deal with criminals. Evan Wright, a writer, seeks to document the massacres in a book.
Richard, a mysterious figure in a rooster mask that appeared to Jacket in the original game, appears at different points to most of the game's playable characters. He is a representation of their fears, taunting and criticising them for their actions.
Plot In 1985, the United States and the Soviet Union are at war and Soviet forces have invaded and occupied Hawaii. To repel the invasion, Beard and his squad conduct a series of special operations against the Soviets. Their psychologically troubled Colonel begins losing his grip on reality, volunteering them for increasingly desperate and dangerous missions while ruminating on their impending deaths and the loss of the war. For their last assignment, they besiege a heavily guarded Soviet-occupied power plant. The Soviet Colonel–having apparently gone insane–murders the plant's technicians and causes a reactor meltdown before committing suicide. As the unit escapes, a booby trap explodes and severely injures two of its members, including Jacket, but Beard manages to save his life. After the event, the two are sent home as the war continues. One year later, the Soviets fire a nuclear missile at San Francisco, winning the war and killing Beard.
In 1989, Jake and Richter are sent on missions parallel to Jacket's. Jake realises the officially peaceful 50 Blessings organisation has been the one ordering him to commit massacres when he meets with one of their representatives, who denies this. Jake is sent on a suicide mission but is captured and killed by the Russian Mafia. Richter is reluctant to work with 50 Blessings until they threaten his ailing mother. He is captured and imprisoned, but escapes during a prison riot orchestrated by the organisation to kill him, as they wanted to prevent him from corroborating Jacket's testimony.
In 1991, Jacket undergoes trial for the mass murders he perpetrated. The trials are widely publicised, and journalist Evan Wright wants to learn more about the events to write a book, placing strain on his finances and marriage. Evan is given leads by his friend Manny Pardo, a police detective who uses his position to conduct killing sprees during stakeout operations, justifying them as self-defence. Richter shares his story with Evan in exchange for plane tickets for his mother to come to Hawaii. The trials also result in a film depicting Jacket as "The Pig Butcher". The film's star, Martin Brown, dies when he is accidentally shot by an actress with live ammunition on set of the film's final scene. Inspired by Jacket's killings, the Fans carry out a string of murders against petty crooks and drug dealers, unaware of the larger context of Jacket's campaign of violence. They kill a former henchman of the Russian mafia; when his boss (the Son) attempts to reconnect with him, the Fans track down the call's origins and assault the mafia's headquarters. The Fans are all killed in the attack by the Son except for Tony, who Pardo kills afterwards. Pardo has a nightmare where he is outed as the "Miami Mutilator", a serial killer he has seemingly been investigating, and barricades himself in his home.
The Son tries to reclaim his father's empire from Colombian gangsters who filled the power vacuum left by his father's death. After the Colombians are defeated, he invites his old henchman to visit their new hideout, inadvertently giving away his location to the Fans and triggering the attack depicted earlier. Under the influence of his designer drugs, the Son goes on a rampage, killing his men and the otherworldly monsters he interprets the Fans as before walking off the roof on a rainbow bridge to his death. After the attacks, Richter and his mother in Hawaii hear news of the assassination of the American and Soviet presidents in an attempted coup d'état. The Soviets declare war on the United States, launching nuclear attacks that obliterate Miami and Hawaii. In their final moments, Pardo points a gun at his barricaded door while drunk, Evan either works on his book or eats with his family depending on the player's actions, the actress from Midnight Animal drinks in her bedroom, and Jacket sits alone in a prison cell. Starting a new game adds a new introductory cutscene wherein Richard berates the playable characters for starting a story that ends in their deaths.
Development
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was developed by Dennaton Games, a duo composed of designer and programmer Jonatan Söderström and artist Dennis Wedin. Following the success of Hotline Miami, Dennaton soon began developing downloadable content to expand on the game, planning for it to both rival the base game in scale and introduce new playable characters alongside a level editor. As development progressed, Dennaton realized the scope was greater than that of Hotline Miami and decided to transform it into a full sequel. Söderström announced the sequel on 26 November 2012, via his Twitter account. As with the first game, Hotline Miami 2 was made in Game Maker 7. When porting the game to consoles, Abstraction Games used their own SilverWare engine as well as the conversion program GameBaker.
The game was designed to be the last in the series, with Dennaton focusing on including ideas they were unable to use in the first game and developing a more fleshed-out universe. In a 2022 interview, Wedin stated that they originally planned on creating two more games in the series, including an interquel, but chose to combine them and complete the story in one game. Dennaton prioritised developing the game specifically for the fans of the original, comparing their development strategy to that of the Mega Man series and being unconcerned with trying to attract a larger audience; the game's "Hard Mode" originated from complaints about the original game's difficulty. A primary focus was to expand the universe of Hotline Miami, designing new characters that were each given a unique personality. Söderström described this as a necessity, or else they would have turned out to be "bland".
Music