izigame.me

I feel it's my duty as a gamer, fan of action, and member of the human race to illustrate, in as much detail as possible, how utterly terrible "The Hong Kong Massacre" is.
Some background first. I bought this game as part of an official bundle with the game RUINER, a cyberpunk twin-stick shooter. Unlike this game, RUINER is absolutely fantastic, with a huge variety of weapons, compelling story, phenomenal art direction and design, and is generally a much better offering than this trash. I should also note that Studio VRESKI is a two-man studio based out of Malmo, and therefore should, in theory, not be held to the same standards as other games. However, this premise is wrong and stupid, as Hotline Miami (which this game blatantly emulates) was also developed by two people. I cannot think of any excuse for this game being as painfully mediocre as it is. Additionally, I will also come out and say that I did not finish this game. In fact, I was unable to finish the first section of levels, as I got so annoyed with the sheer mediocrity of what I was playing that I simply could not continue. Maybe the game gets really interesting *later*, but personally I don't think its acceptable for any game to not put its best foot forward, or at least put, like, a pretty good foot forward so I don't get bored.
Let's get into the details. The gameplay is trash, pure and simple. There are a grand total of 4 (yes you heard right) weapons in this entire game, and they all suck to use. The shotgun is potentially the worst video game shotgun I've ever used being hilariously slow until upgraded. Speaking of slow, YOU are! The main character in this shit, who I will refer to from now on as 'John Kong Massacre', is really damn slow, which clashes with both the level design and the gameplay. Due to a life of eating nothing but Cart Noodles, John Kong Massacre dies in one hit along with his enemies, taking another cue from Hotline Miami. However, in Hotline Miami, while you die in one hit, two important elements make the quick deaths less of a chore; levels are physically smaller and the player character is physically very fast, meaning you can get back to where you were in a matter of seconds. John Kong Massacre on the other hand plods around each level, which are surprisingly large and very boring to trudge through. There is no sprint option, and even your terrible dodge doesn't speed you up that much.
The aforementioned dodge, along with a slow-motion meter, are essentially the game's only two additions to the Hotline Miami formula, and neither work well at all. The dodge is inconsistent in how it manifests, fluctuating from a slide to the Max Payne style jump that it's clearly trying to emulate with the feature. The slow motion meter is fine, but clashes with the really shit weapons which, before upgrades, all fire quite slowly. It takes seconds for the shotgun to rack another shell after firing, and this is NOT a good thing, especially when combined with the slow-motion.
Story? What's a story? This game barely even GESTURES at a story. John Kong Massacre's motivations are near-unexplained, with little more than a oddly slick CG cut-scene at the start showing... some girl getting shot? I think? John Kong looks a bit pissed about it, so that's probably why he's shooting the... Triads? I assume it's triads. I understand that a game like this doesn't necessarily need a well-thought out *story* but it needs SOMETHING to avoid literally just being a sandbox. Hotline Miami's story was abstract, somewhat confusing, and implemented kinda poorly at parts, but was leagues better than John Kong Massacre's non-existent motivation. Jacket, even though he was similarly mute like John Kong, actually had a semblance of character outside of killing bad guys for lolz.
The art direction is just. so. boring. It barely even warrants mention. Hong Kong in the 90's, along with in the movies this game wants to replicate, was literally the basis for ALL Cyberpunk dystopia; neon lights juxtaposed with squalor and urban poverty. None of this comes through in the game's art direction. Levels are visually flat and boring to look at outside of the ridiculous amounts of muzzle flash that accompanies every single shot fired. The 3D graphics are partly to blame here; there's a reason why most Hotline emulators stick with 2D, because you can actually do visually interesting things with a top-down perspective with 2D. There is absolutely no reason why this game was in 3D, aside from a vain attempt to distinguish itself from Hotline Miami in some way, or to emulate Max Payne. But if they wanted to emulate Max Payne, why wouldn't they use a low-poly style compared to the Unity asset flip 3D they use here? It doesn't make any sense. Hotline Miami's vapourwave aesthetic is one of the most famous video game art-styles EVER, but I don't imagine anyone will be talking about this boring trash in 10 years.
This game's main claim to fame, aside from the Hong Kong action movie branding and similarities to better games, is that Chad Stahelski, director and originator of the John Wick movies, shouted it out as an inspiration for one of John Wick 4's scenes. Now, to be fair, I have both watched John Wick 4 and played this game, so I will admit that the shot in John Wick 4 is kinda reminiscent of Hong Kong Massacre. However, if you actually go to the article where Stahelski shouts out this game ("The Video Game That Inspired John Wick's Epic Top-Down Shot " by slashfilm from 2023, it's on the Wikipedia for Hong Kong Massacre), it barely gets more than a mention. In this article, Hong Kong Massacre is written about for, all told, just over 100 words. The article talks more about Hotline Miami- you know, the actual good top-down game that Stahelski was inspired by. I have written more in this review about Hong Kong Massacre than its main piece of marketing ever did. Indeed, with its stupid amount of muzzle flashes and blood splatters, Hong Kong Massacre feels like a game that's supposed to look fun watching someone else play it. In that regard, it's similar to that John Wick scene, which is actually quite fun to watch.
Sincerely, I hope that Studio VRESKI continue to make games and improve their craft. I understand that video game development is a difficult process, and that sometimes it's better to just get something out rather than work for an eternity trying to perfect it. That being said, I unfortunately cannot recommend The Hong Kong Massacre to anyone. It is simply not work it, in any way whatsoever. On the off-chance that the developers see this, I truly hope that your next game, as of now titled 'Untitled FPS Game', is better than this one. Life is improvement, and I believe that you can improve. However, this game is just not worth my time, and if I could refund it without also refunding RUINER, I would.
Oh, and also the music sucks. Boring EDM that I've already forgotten.