In 2015, The indie game Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number once released, has achieved great success with its refreshing and hearty pixel aestheticization of violence, and obscure yet profound plot. Even now, it is still favored and praised by many players. Regrettably, the developer never made a sequel for it. Many enthusiasts from the community have spontaneously tried to make standalone mods for it, one of the most anticipated and famous of those is Midnight Animal. However, because the developer tried to incorporate many inappropriate Persona 5 elements during the later development process, Midnight Animal was finally canceled under excessive criticism from the community. Since then, there has never been any spiritual sequel as topical as it until the release of OTXO. At first glance, the game's top-down perspective, familiar gameplay, and presentation make it hard to not be reminiscent of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, but rather than being a spiritual sequel, OTXO is more like a reference and tribute to it in terms of gameplay and mechanics, its core gameplay is completely different.

OTXO uses red, black, and white pixel graphics, its biggest difference from Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is the shift from linear level progression to incorporating core Roguelike elements. OTXO itself also incorporated many mechanisms and designs, like dodging, health bars, bullet time, killstreak counts, etc. That makes it much more easier for players to get started, but the difficulty of it will continue to increase as you face more responsive, powerful, and diverse enemies. The unique drinks system can be said to be the core of OTXO, could bring change and reshape the gameplay in a variety of interesting and crazy ways, like infinite kunai throwing, grenade clearance, ammunition endurance, increased firing rate, and counter-attack bullet. With these interesting options, coupled with dynamic and exciting in-game music and thrilling boss battle experience, there is no doubt that OTXO is neither lacking in joy nor challenge.

As mentioned above, the core of OTXO is Roguelike gameplay, which is fundamentally different from the Hotline Miami series, so much so that in the minds of some fans, OTXO is not worthy of the title of a spiritual sequel. Additionally, Roguelike games usually require players to accumulate experience through continuous failures, but OTXO's level design is quite homogenous, with no other changes except for the map order and enemy positions. That means as the game proceeded, increasing familiarity with enemies and maps would make the game boring, with the highly random drinking system being the only way to maintain the player's interest. Furthermore, since enemies in late levels would react faster and more tanker, and once dead the player must start over, the use of bullet time will become very frequent and vital, which greatly diminishes the game's exhilaration. In addition, the game's plot is extremely straightforward and lacks substance, coupled with the low scene recognition, the fixed and rigid pathfinding logic of AI enemies, etc., these issues have greatly damaged the player's gaming experience.

In essence, OTXO is more like a big mix of many games, with Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number being the largest component. The core of OTXO's gameplay is mainly Roguelike, which may disappoint some players who come here for it due to it expecting similarities to the Hotline Miami series. However, OTXO is still qualified as an Indie game, also it can be considered the most outstanding Hotline-Miami-like game in recent years, it is worth a try for players who are interested in such theme and gameplay, and also relatively tolerant. Unfortunately, the playthrough of OTXO may only be enjoyable in the first few hours, as players go deeper, the lackluster gameplay becomes more apparent. The difficulty in retaining players for a long time is the game's biggest and most fatal shortcoming.

If you finished Hotline Miami 1 & 2 but still want more then this game is what you've been dreaming of.

cool game i died alot 10/10