Once in the apartment, Jacket finds an informational pamphlet for a patriotic organization called вЂњ50 BlessingsвЂќ and then gets a phone call and picks up. The scene ends and we are transitioned to that very same date in JacketвЂ™s apartment. The man in the rooster mask then tells Jacket that it all started on April 3rd, 1989. The interaction plays out with the woman saying very generalized and unrevealing information to Jacket, while the man in the owl mask only greets him with hostility.

A woman on his left wearing a horse mask, a man on his right wearing an owl mask, and a man in front of him, dressed the same way as Jacket, wearing a rooster mask. The game starts with Jacket entering a room with three masked individuals. So what is Hotline Miami, and where does the controversy come from? The first game is seen through the eyes of an unreliable narrator, nick named Jacket, and his journey into madness. It has a huge cult following, sure, but to the average person they have no clue about what it is. A lot of media outlets called the game вЂњdisgusting,вЂќ even going as far as to say that itвЂ™s the most offensive game of all time, which is strange because itвЂ™s not even that wide spread of a game. ItвЂ™s an incredible game, and it really is a work of art, but unfortunately a lot of people within the media seemed to miss the point of the game. In my opinion, itвЂ™s one of the strongest examples of a video game focusing more on artistic integrity rather than appealing to the public or a certain group. Three years later it was followed by a sequel named Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. Hotline Miami was released in late 2012 as a top-down, low resolution video game that introduced us to brutal violence and an amazing and complex (and confusing) universe and story.

SPOILER ALERT: This article includes spoilers from the Hotline Miami & Hotline Miami 2 Video Games

Hotline miami concept art