Hotline Miami: Carpenter BrutALITY

2025-03-16 22:17

I'm not a gamer. The last PC game I bought was Spec Ops II in 2001, 24 years ago. I think it was too difficult or something, and I kind of just stopped playing games from then on.

Until recently. With more terminal time lately I came across rougelike games, and thought I'd get a kick out of them, but the learning curve was too much and I got over them pretty quick. They're not for me.

Just yesterday though, completely by accident, slipping down an internet rabbit hole as I do, I came across a game. I was looking up the Carpenter Brut discography, keen to listen through on a full length synthwave album. I loved the Turbo Killer song/film/pure artistry but hadn't heard anything else of theirs. Reading through the bio they mention Carpenter Brut features on the soundtrack of the game Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, and after a quick read up on that, I was intrigued. A few searches later I found the free online Hotline Miami Vice game which gave me a taster for the game. Loved it. Another couple searches later and I see that Steam has some ridiculous sale on, and the original Hotline Miami costs a measly $2.95 and Wrong Number costs $3.29. I also discover I can install Steam relatively quickly on Linux and actually run these games.

Click, click, and boom.

Ok now this is the game for me! I knew with a link to Carpenter Brut, glimpses of screenshots and descriptions of brutality, I'd be in for something special, but wow, this is something special. I love the developer's style.

Think the atmosphere of Escape from New York and Blade Runner meets the brutality of Brawl in Cell Block 99 and The Raid 2 with retro dark pixel type cinematic art with awesome backing music. The atmosphere is killer.

It is violent and dark, and has a gameplay simplicity to it that is what I was after all these years. The levels are short, and when you die you can just quickly restart from the outside of the building you just entered. It's perfect for some mindless comfort entertainment. I'm enjoying it immensely.

Because I downloaded it off Steam, the full soundtrack for the original is available in the files folder in .ogg format. Sweet. It's now in my Jellyfin media folder. Have a listen on YouTube. Is that not the best game soundtrack ever?