For YMMV tropes regarding the first game, go here.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: For Martin Brown, oddly enough. Is Midnight Animal a real movie? Does anything that happens to him in there have any truth? Is he even the actor Martin Brown, but instead a maniac who believes he is him; especially considering that his appearance in the comics differs from his in-game model?
- Awesome Bosses: The Interface Screw sequence from "Apocalypse". Playing the Son in the throes of an overdose, you wake up during the rampage of The Fans played earlier in "Death Wish", and have to kill them in accordance with the story canon. Problem is, the four characters appear as trippy, monstrous forms of their animal masks, and everything has a habit of exploding in technicolor ways when defeated.
- Best Level Ever:
- "Death Wish", the The Fans' last level. You get to play as each fan in one floor tailor-made for each of them, while "Roller Mobster", one of the most intense songs on the soundtrack, blares in the background.
- "First Blood", Richter's first level. One of the best ways to (re)introduce a previous character from the first game by way of a shorter and sweeter level akin to that game, all the while establishing him as a tragic figure in his own right? Throw in Dubmood's "Richard", one of the more (comparatively) heroic and somber themes, as a cherry on top and you have quite a great Breather Level through and through.
- Bragging Rights Option: Getting an S rank on every level is already hard enough as it is (and mind you, only an A+ rank on every level is already enough for the achievement). Doing the whole thing again on Hard Mode?? You're gonna need some really thick skin and a lot of patience for that.
- Breather Level: Being sandwiched right between "Casualties" and "Demolition", two of the most difficult levels in the game, is "First Blood". Which, while not at all easy, by Hotline Miami standards, isn't terribly difficult, either. In fact, it's one of the most popular levels to nab the "COMBO GOD"note achievement in, due to the level's short length and small size, the density of the mobsters making combos easier, and the lack of Demonic Spiders like Thugs or Dogs (at least on Normal difficulty, that is).
- Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
- Due to the game's introduction of sprawling areas filled with windows and doorless corridors to the series, as well as some mooks being able to spot you from outside your maximum sight, lots of players have reported getting stuck, which gives way to the tactic of edging around a corner or in front of a window until you're spotted, then jumping back and smashing the mook(s) that charge around the corner after you; it means a lower grade and poorer combos on the whole, but it's preferable to being shot by an unseen mook and restarting the floor.
- Another popular tactic is to attract mooks with gunfire, and then mow them down from a safe spot (especially if you have a melee weapon nearby), which lets you easily chain combos and clear a sizeable chunk of the level at a time.
- Contested Sequel: There have been debates over whether Wrong Number is as good as the first game or a step in the wrong direction. Is the plot too sane and easy to follow, or a welcome explanation for the madness of the first game? Did the game explain the weird events from the first game too much? Most prominent, however, is the debate on the issue of difficulty and level design, with many detractors claiming that the more wide-open design of the levels invokes Fake Difficulty, with enemies that can't be seen and tons of windows for gun-wielding enemies to shoot you through as opposed to the corridor-like stages of the first game. Fans of the game, however, appreciate the more-in-depth playstyles that several of the playable characters provide, with more Difficult, but Awesome options than the original game, and consider that the setpieces each level takes place in feel more varied than the constant Russian mobster killfests that the first game consisted of for two thirds of its runtime.
- Demonic Spiders:
- Any of the Thugs. Although they haven't changed significantly since the first game, the way the levels are designed here makes them much harder to deal with this time around.
- Runners and Dogs, because they love to run to the player from offscreen, and seem to be the most glitchy ones. Both can occasionally kill you from just outside your melee range (apparently they can short-range teleport), dogs occasionally suffer from Hit Box Dissonance, and the faster reaction times can result in a runner killing you the instant you walk past a corner they wait behind (notably in "Release").
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Evan Wright, for acting as a sort of Difficult, but Awesome Batman character. Assuming you want the best score possible, you have to get by with "non-lethally" bludgeoning mooks into submission, as picking up guns prompts him to empty and discard them like a badass. Thankfully, emptying a gun counts as a "kill" for your score and combos. It also helps that he's one of the nicer characters in the game.
- The Son is beloved for being a ridiculously manly badass that's extremely fun to play as, and has some of the coolest, most challenging levels in the game. It also helps that he's a Benevolent Boss, letting the Henchman quit like he asked after one last job, and even calling him to let him know his job is still available, inviting him to check out their newly-acquired estate.
- Alex and Ash, the swan Fans, dominate fanart for the game.
- The reveal of Corey's appearance through the level editor, which many consider to be attractive even considering the game's art style, has generated her a fair share of fanart as well.
- Pardo is such an unapologetic scumbag that he almost wraps around to being charming in a weird way. Snippets of his over-the-top macho dialogue have had considerable mileage in the meme market.
- Game-Breaker:
- The "Jake the Snake" mask makes any thrown weapon lethal as long as it carries momentum. What this means is that while wearing the mask, any weapon you grab can be used as an impromptu one-shot gun with an extremely wide scope that is completely silent and can mow down an entire crowd of mooks.
- Arguably Alex and Ash, the Swans from The Fans. Yes, they qualify as Difficult, but Awesome if played properly, but there's nothing stopping you from hiding inside a doorway, firing once as Ash, and then using Alex's chainsaw to carve up any mook dumb enough to investigate.
- The flamethrower from the Soldier scenes. One-hit kill against every enemy, and spawns with 100 rounds. Even if the fire rate is high, using it on short bursts helps preserving ammo. You only get it after clearing the final Soldier scene, which makes it perfect for beating his levels again on Hard Mode (which are even more punishing the second time around).
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- Minor instances exist, with enemies commonly getting jammed in doorways and dogs pathing off their perimeter patrols, both of which lead to the enemy spinning in small circles really fast. Either can commonly lead to getting closer in order for your shots or melee to register and kill them, only to suffer an insta-kill when they finally unstick and immediately re-target you.
- Taken slightly higher, again with dogs acting strangely. Again, reports have been made of dogs clipping on their patrols, prompting them to patrol outside the map or player area (e.g. at the top of staircases behind the invisible wall); assuming it's the last enemy and there's no guns available (or you're using a melee only character), your options are to either reset the entire level, or quit and lose the checkpoint anyway.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Some of the elements in both games comes off as iffy in 2017 events in America. The Russo-American coalition and the Russophobic feelings against it becomes this with accusations of Russians interfering in the US election and rising anti-Russian sentiments as a result. Additionally, the title screen depicting Miami in a heavy storm (at least at first glance) became this when Miami and much of Florida got hit by Hurricane Irma.
- This game was hit hard with this trope after Alec Baldwin's accident while filming his upcoming movie Rust in 2021. To summarize, Baldwin had a defective prop gun that was fired and killed the cinematographer and critically injured the director. This is the way Martin Brown dies in "Final Cut" when he's shot multiple times with a defective gun by Rachael Ward during the recording.
- Memetic Mutation:
- Referring to the game as Hotline Miami 3: Wrong Number
- Pardoposting Explanation
- GOTTA GET A GRIP.
◊Spoilers/Explanation - *chk* *chk* *chk* Explanation
- I WAS BORN WITH THICK SKIN. Explanation
- The Son? You mean Tommy Wiseau, right?
- "OH HAI SWANS."
- "OH HAI
- "Man, this X stinks. I fucking hate these people." Explanation
- "Isn't it lunch time?" Spoilers/Explanation
- "SHOW SOME GODDAMN RESPECT!" Spoilers/Explanation
- The same line from the Russian localization of the game ("ЧТО, БЛЯ, ЗА НЕУВАЖЕНИЕ") became quite popular on Russian imageboards even outside /vg/, partly due to sounding less like an usual threat and more like something from gopnik slang.
- The same line from the Russian localization of the game ("ЧТО, БЛЯ, ЗА НЕУВАЖЕНИЕ") became quite popular on Russian imageboards even outside /vg/, partly due to sounding less like an usual threat and more like something from gopnik
- "DAWWWW!" Explanation
- Memetic Psychopath: the "Pardoposting" phenomenon probably places Manny Pardo firmly in this category, given that the meme's predicated entirely on Manny being an Attention Whore Rabid Cop.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- Seriously, Pardo? Shooting Tony dead when he was surrendering, and then tell a nearby SWAT officer that he was jumping at you even though he was standing still, hands in the air? Given the reveal that Pardo is the Miami Mutilator and that he only became a police officer to kill anyone who followed in Jacket's footsteps so that his murders would get more attention, it makes some sense.
- The Fans also cross this when they brutally beat The Henchman to his death, even as he's overdosed and desperately imploring them to let him call his girlfriend Mary and go home. Granted, Mary had proven disloyal to the Henchman by taking his money and driving off in his car, but he was likely too high to remember.
- Narm:
- Picking up anything will produce the sound of a gun cocking, including things that aren't guns or even weapons. It gets a little silly.
- And it's hard not to giggle at the doofy faces sported by the top down character sprites.
- Dallas, one of the unlockable masks for Jake's levels, gives you a generous opportunity to play as a fat nunchuck-waving Confederate martial artist. Trying to take the plot seriously after that can be quite challenging, to say the least, though the mask only unlocks once you complete Jake's storyline.
- Nausea Fuel: Manages to surpass its predecessor, somehow. One early example comes from knocking down and finishing the SWAT boss as Martin in "Final Cut": doing so prompts him to slowly tear his head from his neck while he's still alive.
- Salvaged Story: The first game received some criticism for its portrayal of women, with the only three female characters appearing onscreen being a dream character who doesn't play much of a major role in the narration sequences, a Damsel in Distress, and a Faux Action Girl with very little screentime. Wrong Number, on the other hand, features female playable characters with Corey and Alex, and acknowledges the aforementioned cricitism with the in-universe movie adaptation of the first game's events tweaking the ending and turning the Girlfriend into a Damsel out of Distress.
- Scrappy Mechanic:
- On paper, Dogs needing a longer kill animation if they spot you sounds solid. However, due to the enemy reaction times, this means that the animation will trigger often. This makes Dogs a nightmare to melee-only characters, since the animation can trigger even if you punch them the second they pass a corner, which leaves you vulnerable to every other enemy nearby. It's especially bad if there are several other Dogs on the same area.
- Some execution animations (such as Martin's unarmed execution) are excruciatingly long and tend to ruin combos, which forces players trying to go for high scores to avoid knocking down enemies.
- The Soldier's levels have him carry weapons with limited (albeit extensive) ammo, alongside the inability to pick up fallen weapons. Although supply boxes are available, these are very few and far between.
- Sequel Difficulty Spike: Very much so. The first Hotline Miami wasn't easy by any means, but it pales in comparison to this game, which has wider levels with more areas to be ambushed from by enemies (which now have larger cones of vision and reaction), a larger emphasis on firearms and special enemy types such as Thugs and the newly-introduced Dodgers, and several levels with unique twists like "Withdrawal", which features meth labs that go off if so much as a single bullet enters their rooms.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: YouTube commenters have noted that "Dubmood's Richard" (which plays in "First Blood") resembles the music that plays when The Terminator escapes the police station with Sarah Connor. Hilariously, commenters in said song's comments helpfully point out where the similarities begin.
- That One Achievement: "Genocide", which requires you to kill 50,000 enemies. It's not hard, but incredibly tedious. It's entirely possible to finish the other achievements - including getting an A+ on all normal levels and beating Hard Mode - long before meeting the conditions.
- That One Level: The series' general page also includes examples from this game.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: One of the big complaints about this game is how many of its levels are much larger and wide-open than the ones from the first game, which tend to be decently small with compact series of rooms. The upshot of this is that it's harder to funnel enemies around, and when you combine bigger open areas with enemies carrying guns, you often get frustrating scenarios, since in the smaller areas you can kite around doors and walls to avoid getting shot, something that isn't so feasible in wide-open areas.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Even though the Hotline Miami 3 Sequel Hook was a joke that such a game would be impossible to happen, considering Miami was destroyed by a nuclear bomb in the ending of this game, some fans still express interest in another sequel, namely exploring how the world looks post-nuclear war, what happened to the Biker and what the surviving 50 Blessings members plan to do in the ruins of the United States.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: This game is even more bleak than its predecessor. You play as psychotic mass murderers and ruthless mobsters, and the series ends with the nuclear holocaust of the United States, where all the characters left, including the few sympathetic ones, die. If that's not enough, the game takes every opportunity to insult you for playing it, to a level even Spec Ops: The Line would consider excessive. Sounds fun?
- The Woobie: Richter is an average guy who just wants to take care of his ill mom, and is dragged into the masked killings against his will.
