History VideoGame / HotlineMiami

* OfficeGolf: The head of the telephone company has a golf bag in his office. Jacket has to pick up a golf club to fight against the Biker.

* ArtificialStupidity: Enemies sometimes '''don't react at all''' when someone gets killed right next to them. They also won't react to corpses on the floor. Finally, they will gladly rush into a situation that is getting their comrades killed en-mass. Lampshaded in one of the loading screens: ''"Enemies are Predictable"''

* LudicrousGibs: The people you kill are torn apart with blades, blown to pieces with gunfire, or bashed into paste with blunt weapons.
** The "Jones" Alligator mask intentionally makes this ''worse'' with enormous sprays of blood and entrails flying whenever guns or blades are used for the kill.

* PaintTheTownRed: Equipping the Jones mask makes blood puddles triple in size and adds some guts in them too. This seems to be the default setting in the [[VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber sequel]].

* PantheraAwesome: The mob boss certainly thinks so. He has a pair of black leopards guarding his penthouse office.

* EvilCripple: The [[spoiler:head of the local Mafiya]] is wheelchair bound.

Following its release, the game received widespread acclaim, and was widely considered one of the best indie games of its time. It gained a substantial amount of attention from development company Overkill Software, makers of ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/{{PAYDAY 2}}'', whose love for ''Hotline'' has resulted in numerous {{Shout Out}}s to it into the latter game. This culminated in a series of collaborations between Dennaton and Overkill, including a {{crossover}} heist featuring the Miami [[TheMafiya Mafiya]] and the appearance of [[FanNickname Jacket]] as a GuestFighter.

** Every mission [[spoiler: until waking up in the hospital]] begins with Jacket getting a message on his answering machine describing his next job, in coded language. He walks downstairs, gets in his car, and heads off.
** After each mission, Jacket stops by one of the establishments run by Beard. Beard makes one-sided small talk with Jacket, then offers him something "on the house." Jacket silently takes it and leaves. [[spoiler: Then he starts getting replaced.]]

* ThePatientHasLeftTheBuilding: In the level "Trauma", your character (who has just awoken from a coma) must sneak out of the hospital. It's the game's only StealthBasedMission, and your character will freeze up every so often as a wave of dizziness takes over him.

* DisposableWoman: The [[spoiler:Jacket's girlfriend]] barely gets any characterization, and in fact, cannot even be talked to after she is first rescued, before dying.

** The Biker can only use a meat cleaver and a trio of throwing knives.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The masked men and [[spoiler:the janitors]] talk as much to the player character as to the player himself.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Jacket ends up blowing up another animal mask killer who was captured and interrogated by the Mob. Later in the game, the forces behind the animal mask killers [[spoiler:send someone to Jacket's apartment to kill him and his girlfriend... not for anything that he did, but simply because they no longer need him. While it's not shown until later, it turns out you were sent to Phonehom to kill the Biker, who had decided to find out who was behind the conspiracy.]]

* ZeroEffortBoss: At the end of several levels, both Jacket and Biker confront a character who could easily be a tough and intimidating final opponent, but dies after being shot or beaten in one or two hits, without fighting back. This pattern continues with several other characters' levels in ''Hotline Miami 2''.

* WhamEpisode: The fifth act, titled "Answers." [[spoiler: The game unexpectedly rewinds by a couple of months and has you play as the biker that Jacket killed at Phonehom.]]
* YouALLLookFamiliar: After each job, Jacket heads over to a bar, eatery, or video store to unwind. Beard is working the counter at each establishment (though thinly-disguised behind [[PaperThinDisguise hats)]], and always offers his wares "on the house." After Jacket escapes from the police, [[spoiler:he's found dead in every store he worked in, replaced by Richter, who gives you nothing and wants you to leave]].

** Subtly done with the ''gameplay and atmosphere'' themselves. The game plays deliberately like an adrenalin-fueled haze until you kill everyone - then, the music stops, leaving the player to ponder his carnage.
** Outright thrown into the [[spoiler:Biker's face at the end of his play through by the janitors]], if you haven't found the puzzles. They mock his blind need for violent fun. Given that his primary reason for hunting down the conspirators was because he was bored and sick of his job...

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Jacket's killing sprees won't spare any security dogs. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as the dogs wouldn't have spared him anyways. [[spoiler:Some of his hallucinations]] suggest that he even feels remorse for doing so.

* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted. Some melee kills result in a beaten, bloody mobdster with a urine stain in his pants.

* NoticeThis: Using [[TheOwlKnowingOne Rasmus]] adds a twinkling effect to hidden items.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Jacket's killing sprees won't spare any security dogs. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as the dogs wouldn't have spared him anyways. [[spoiler:Some of his hallucinations suggest that he even feels remorse for doing so]].

* MadeOfIron: The bosses are able to take quite a bit of damage before Jacket can finish them off. Even the third boss, who surrenders without getting into a straight-up fight, takes a ''very long'' beating. Justified for the first boss, at least, since he wears a bulletproof vest.

* MadeOfIron: The bosses, who are able to take quite a bit of damage before Jacket can finish them off. [[spoiler: Even the FlunkyBoss, who surrenders without getting into a straight-up fight, takes a ''very long'' beating.]] Justified for the first boss, at least, as he's wearing a bulletproof vest.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: There ARE many masked hitmen on the loose, as evidence by the masks you find in levels being next to dead bodies. [[spoiler: Then you have Richter sent to kill Jacket via phone message. Both Biker and Jacket have newsletters for 50 Blessings, if the Golden Ending is canon then everyone who signed up for that newsletter agreed to "die for their country" and anyone who thought about about backing out were given--empty--threats. Even without the canon ending, the janitors still imply there being many more operatives that the handful we saw during the course of the game not to mention the box of masks in their sewer lair.]]

* DirtyCoward: The first boss spends the entirety of "Decadence" hiding behind a door and watching Jacket behind a screen. When he does come out of hiding to fight, he surrenders and [[VillainsWantMercy begs for mercy]] upon defeat.

* GangstaStyle: Everyone holds [=SMGs=] and pistols this way.

* GolfClubbing: Complete with a finishing move where Jacket tees-off a boss's head.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: Always an option, especially if you can get the drop on a lone enemy. Tony the Tiger makes your unarmed attacks lethal, even allowing you to take on [[DemonicSpiders dogs]] bare-handed.

* KnifeNut: Jacket can be this if you play with the BoringButPractical knife. The biker can only use a meat cleaver and a trio of throwing knives. Dennis the Wolf lets you start each level already armed with a knife.

* {{Kevlard}}: Thugs are type of mobsters who are notably fatter than normal ones. They're immune to melee weapon strikes and [[TimeDelayedDeath take a while to die from gunfire]].

* {{Determinator}}: Jacket, [[spoiler:to the point that even after he wakes up from a coma, he still manages to sneak out of the hospital ''while barely conscious'' and go all the way back home. He jumps straight into his old clothes and gets right back to killing.]]

* DegradedBoss: "Decadence" features the game's first boss, a ScaryBlackMan who can only be attacked with a shotgun. A few levels later, mobsters who look and behave almost identically to said boss, named Thugs, start appearing as regular enemies. They, too, can only be killed by gunfire, though this isn't limited to shotgun blasts, as any gun will affect them. They also can be finished off with a single shot if they're left alive bleeding for a while.

** The third boss, who's defeated after killing all of the mobsters he sends.