STORY
The story is told through an unreliable narrative which forces you to be observant of your surroundings and dialogues to learn more about what's going on and yourself since nothing much is revealed of the main character. No one even knows his name and he doesn't speak.
You play as a brutal assassin who dons an animal mask and a letter jacket. You receive orders through cryptic phone calls which seem completely random but you blindly follow them and complete your objectives no matter what it takes. However, that's not all.
PLOT
The plot is mysterious and riddled with doubt of your identity, your actions and their purpose. You'll be greeted by a scene of surrealist intrigue right off the bat as masked figures start ridiculing and riddling the protagonist about events that will never be explained which immediately establishes a sense of distrust. Reality will erode around the protagonist rendering his sanity questionable and you'll be generating question after question to answer that will urge you to finish what you started.
GAMEPLAY
This game is a top-down shooter (the devs describe it as a top-down f*ck-em up), with a heavy focus on an arcade scoring system where nearly every little action you do is recorded and considered in the final score. Nearly all enemies and especially the protagonist die in one hit, so I hope you have either fast reflexes or patience. The combination of the scoring system and 1-hit death is so unforgiving that it forces you to kill with utmost efficiency and not a single mistake.
HM offers you the flexibility of choosing your playstyle through unlockable animal masks and the random melee and ranged weapon pickups throughout the level. Animal masks confer all sorts of bonuses (except for the default mask) from starting with certain weapons, silent gunshots to lethal door slams. Melee weapons are silent whereas guns are loud enough to attract enemies from adjacent locations to hunt you.
Not much to badmouth about the gameplay. There's a rather repetitive sequence of alternating between missions and cutscenes. The cutscenes between missions provide the majority of the story and plot. Moreover, the VERY predictable and scatterbrained AI is double-edged sword here. It confers simplicity to the game though some people may argue that the AI is too stupid for them. Lastly, the game's short enough to be completed in a day or 2.
No need to panic though, a level editor is coming soon and a sequel is already in the making.
GRAPHICS
Psychedelic colors and pixel graphics with generous amounts of blood, gore and violence. The graphics are simple, trippy yet detailed enough to depict the brutal murders in the game leaving little to imagination as opposed to similar pixelated games.
The only sad part is that you can't choose the resolution.
AUDIO
The pulsing, electronic soundtrack is awesome and serves really well to amplify the psychedelic colors in the game. Although most of the soundtrack you hear during missions are slow and chill, the pulses and ominous basslines will keep you focused. The soundtrack also changes depending on the situation and there's one for every occasion for instance: right after you finish missions, ominous static begins to play which instantly replaces the usual psychedelic basslines. This helps to establish the sense of distrust and paranoia throughout the game.
Sound effects in this game are adequate, nothing feels missing and no more is needed. HM lacks voices which might be a pity if you want to hear screams and dialogue. It's not like you can expect much voice talent for an indie game so it's fine.
CONTROLS
The controls definitely need time to get used to and might be a little unresponsive (especially finishers) due to the layout and style of the game. However, the controls actually allow for even greater flexibility of how you want to execute your missions while remaining as simplistic as possible though that caused some buttons to overlap.
SUMMARY
This game is just so badass that I urge you to play it right now. Not only for the violence, blood and gore but for the story and plot as well. Unless you're squeamish and have a strong imagination, I'm pretty sure you'll get through the violence to enjoy the story and soundtrack.
Just be prepared to be frustrated a little when things don't go according to plan.
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