Is Hotline Miami Worth It in 2026?

Overview

About Hotline Miami

A top-down slasher/shooter with unlockable gameplay-altering masks and weapons, featuring a neon-flavoured electronic aesthetic, in which a hitman receives anonymous calls ordering him to travel to certain residences and crime dens and massacre those within, as he stumbles through unreal visions and inconsistencies without any answers to how, why or who.

Story setup

Set in an alternative 1989 Miami, you will assume the role of a mysterious antihero on a murderous rampage against the shady underworld at the behest of voices on your answering machine. Soon you'll find yourself struggling to get a grip of what is going on and why you are prone to these acts of violence.

Reference

At a glance

Released: October 23, 2012
Platforms: Android, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Linux, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, macOS, PC
Genres: Shooter, Indie, Arcade, Action
Play modes: Single Player
Age rating: ESRB M
Time to beat: ~6 hours

Media

Screenshots

Click any screenshot to view it full size.

Playtime

How long to beat

Player-reported completion times for Hotline Miami.

Rushed: 3hoursMain story only
Typical: 6hoursStory plus some extras
Completionist: 12hoursEvery side objective too

Estimated from 18 player reports — a small sample, so treat these as approximate.

Playing together

Multiplayer & game modes

Hotline Miami offers various play modes for different gaming experiences.

Play Modes

Single Player

Content

Age ratings

How rating boards around the world have classified Hotline Miami. Open a board for its content descriptors.

ACBMA 15+

Strong violence

CEROD

Violence
Crime

CLASS_IND16

ESRBM

Blood and Gore
Crude Humor
Drug Reference
Intense Violence
Strong Language

GRAC19+

Crime, Anti-Social
Language
Violence

the masked protagonist is ordered to go to the designated location and perform the duties of the action game excessive violent expression direct criminal expression excessive vulgar language, profanity and profanity expression in accordance with article 21 of the act on the promotion of the game industry and article 9 paragraph 4 of the classification deliberation regulations, it is determined to be "youth not available."

PEGI16

Drugs
Violence
Bad Language

2D violence with blood and injuries. All characters are quite basic and blocky but deaths can be quite graphic. The game also contains use of the word 'fuck'.

USK16

Game data and imagery provided by IGDB.com