By Adam Smith on July 3rd, 2012 at 7:00 pm.
If Drive, the ultra-stylish Ryan Gosling biopic, had been set in Vice City and starred a psychopath, it might well have looked like Hotline Miami. Cactus, creator of many weird and wonderful things, is working on the game with graphic artist Dennis Wedin and it looks brilliantly deranged. Devolver Digital clearly think so as well as they’re publishing the top-down carnage simulator.
Hotline Miami is a gritty homage to the 80s, with a storyline as bizarre as it is emotional.
The debut trailer is gritty, 80s and bizarre. Perhaps curiosity and mild discomfort are emotions? Let’s see.
I tend to enjoy Cactus’ work and this could be a properly ambitiously surreal murder simulator of the sort I always hoped he had in him. I reckon that trailer is exactly how Grand Theft Auto the first looked to the Daily Mail when it was released.
Since I’ve mentioned Drive, this is obligatory.
I chose this particular Youtube clip because I didn’t want to inflict out of sequence clips on people who might not have seen the film. If everyone makes it clear that they’ve seen it already, maybe next time you won’t have to look at Gustave Eiffel’s erection.
03/07/2012 at 19:11 Cooper says:
Yay. Cactus.
03/07/2012 at 19:12 El Stevo says:
I’ve been listening to the Drive soundtrack pretty much on loop for the last week, since watching the film.
03/07/2012 at 19:12 drlemon says:
There’s not much i have to say about this, so…
WARFACE!
03/07/2012 at 20:31 Sisco says:
DRIVEFACE
04/07/2012 at 03:56 ShineyBlueShoes says:
I sincerely hope that becomes this games unofficial moniker across the internet.
03/07/2012 at 19:12 Ultra Superior says:
8O
04/07/2012 at 04:06 The Random One says:
No, 80′s.
03/07/2012 at 19:25 RobF says:
This is so good too.
03/07/2012 at 20:00 wiper says:
Ah, Drive. A wonderful soundtrack, currently available for cheaps on Amazon! If you’re American, that is. If not, even with the fakiest of American addresses, it won’t allow you to buy it, as I found to my sadness.
(for USians who’re curious, it’s available here for $2.99)
03/07/2012 at 20:14 Chaz says:
Reminds me a bit of Dreamweb on the Amiga.
03/07/2012 at 20:29 noom says:
Hmm. Glad I’m not the only one that made that connection. Though I didn’t know Dreamweb was released on the Amiga. I played it on PC. Loved that game. Put your shades on at the start and never take them off, despite there being approximately zero sunlight at any point.
03/07/2012 at 21:52 Andy_Panthro says:
I had fond memories of the demo for Dreamweb, and assumed it had been a great game.
Then I watched Yatzee’s LP of it!
http://fullyramblomatic-yahtzee.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/dream-little-dream-web.html
Yeah, the best bits were all in the demo.
03/07/2012 at 20:37 Hoaxfish says:
I watched the trailer while naked, it seems the appropriate thing to do when Cactus is involved.
Kavinsky – Nightcall is the other favourite from Drive.
04/07/2012 at 01:22 malkav11 says:
A Real Hero is certainly a fine song and plays more in the movie than Nightcall, but Nightcall is immediately what I think of when I think of Drive. It’s so, so good.
03/07/2012 at 21:38 Shazbut says:
“If Drive, the ultra-stylish Ryan Gosling biopic, had been set in Vice City and starred a psychopath…”
He was a psychopath. Also it wasn’t a biopic, unless I’m missing something, which I certainly seem to be when it comes to that film.
04/07/2012 at 00:01 Marijn says:
I know, right? This Reverse Shot article probably says it best: http://www.reverseshot.com/article/drive.
04/07/2012 at 06:30 nzmccorm says:
That was a terrible article and he misuses terms like “allegorical” pretty much constantly.
03/07/2012 at 22:23 freduardo says:
Mmm, Drive. This game looks interesting, though I hope they also get the story stuff right. The only reason the ol’ ultraviolence in Drive worked so well is because it stood out in stark contrast to the childish humanity of the protagonist. Making the main character a full-on psychopath might be missing the point, though it all depends on how they do it. Still intrigued.
03/07/2012 at 23:58 Marijn says:
Uh, you DO know that this game isn’t actually related to Drive in any way, shape or form, right? That’s just one of Adam’s weird tangents.
03/07/2012 at 23:05 Junon says:
Going just off of the trailer, I’m interested for the soundtrack alone. Synths are meant to glow.
04/07/2012 at 08:27 Gabbo says:
This, oh so much this. The game looks like it could be interesting but that soundtrack is aural ambrosia.
03/07/2012 at 23:57 Stevostin says:
I am not in that kind of game but somehow I want that one.
04/07/2012 at 00:43 Lewie Procter says:
“If Drive…starred a psychopath”
Pretty sure it did.
Edit: Oh, someone already said that.
04/07/2012 at 01:29 TariqOne says:
Not to nitpick, but I think under the most common use of the language, in order for Drive to “star” a psychopath, Gosling the actor would need to be a antisocial maniac. Seems like a nice enough kid.
I’d also take issue with the notion that Drive’s protagonist was a psychopath, but then we’re just arguing interpretations of art and who’s got time to be that pretentious?
04/07/2012 at 04:12 Demiath says:
Count me in as a proponent of the view that the Drive protagonist is, like, totally a psychopath. Life is way too short not to be pretentious about things.
04/07/2012 at 01:26 kud13 says:
This looks A LOT like GTA 2.
that is a good thing.
04/07/2012 at 10:31 RaveTurned says:
In the setting of Vice City.
04/07/2012 at 01:27 Kresh says:
So, can anyone explain why there is an HD version of the “trailer?” It certainly wasn’t for the graphics. Maybe the music?
04/07/2012 at 15:27 Dances to Podcasts says:
Apparently the sound gets better as well if you increase the image quality, so that’s very well possible.
04/07/2012 at 04:10 The Random One says:
Looks like what Shadows of the Damned and Spec Ops: The Line tried to do, only a million times cheaper, smarter by the same amount, and yet somehow even less subtle.
04/07/2012 at 15:28 Dances to Podcasts says:
Because of the fonts I kept reading the score popup as ‘boopte’. Boopte!