Hotline Miami remains one of the best PC games of all time. Vivid, violent, surreal, and stylish, its combination of neon gore and pounding dance music creates a dizzying aesthetic unlike any other top-down game ever made. Hotline Miami 2 was a capable sequel, but with the retro ‘90s renaissance and the rise of indie FPS hits like Dusk, Turbo Overkill, and Cultic, the shooter genre has become defined by variations on Doom, Quake, and Half-Life. Hotline Miami 3 may never happen, but a new independent 2D indie game comes pretty close. Available to play as of today, this is Kusan City of Wolves, and it feels basically like a new Hotline Miami game.
Fast-paced, bloody, and incredibly slick, you only have to glance at Kusan City of Wolves to see its resemblance to Dennaton’s 2012 smash hit indie game. This is Hotline Miami with a playful, almost anime-style twist. As a sunglasses-wearing, cigarette-smoking, anthropomorphised Doberman dog, your job is to protect a young woman who has the power to destroy the eponymous Kusan. Set in a fictionalized, near-future vision of Korea, you need to move fast, aim true, and spill barrels of blood to keep your charge alive.
Of course there are guns – lots of guns – but your arsenal also includes swords, knives, and your robotic arm, all of which can be upgraded as you progress. Created by independent developer CIRCLEfromDOT, the second playtest for Kusan City of Wolves opens today, Friday January 12, and runs until Friday January 26.
It allows you to play the entire first chapter, comprising five different stages. If you miss Hotline Miami and want some more stylish, vicious, top-down action, but with a cyberpunk twist, you can check out Kusan right here.
Alternatively, you can try some of the other best cyberpunk games, or maybe the best FPS games if you want a bit more of that classic boomer shooter fun.
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