Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number’s action is so loud and intense that upon hitting the pause button, reality feels like it’s playing at half speed. It’s the type of experience that invites you to sit closer to the screen and crank up the volume higher than usual. One of the lingering memories of the first game was its heart-pounding techno soundtrack, so allow me to get this out of the way: The music in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is absolutely outstanding. But to revel in the game’s slick style too much would be a disservice to its ferociously entertaining and challenging top-down action. This is a confident follow-up which improves upon the original in almost every way. Hotline Miami 2 is more varied, paced better, fairer, and more challenging. This is a tremendously stylish game which entertains throughout, and delights in forcing you out of your comfort zone.

Hotline Miami 2 is a top-down twitch shooter in which you play as one of many available psychopaths who, for an asso…