10 PERFECT Sound Design Moments That Improved Video Games

7. Hotline Miami – Aftermath

Thinking about Hotline Miami regarding the audio world, most will probably recall the game’s pulsing Outrun and synth-wave soundtrack as your hitman, Jacket, rampages through Russian mafia members with a combination of silenced pistols, machine guns, and a plethora of thrown projectiles.

Yet like the titular city, there’s a dark underbelly to Hotline Miami’s score.

Racing through room after room of uzi-wielding mob-members, the player will soon complete their objective and are greeted with a sudden record-screech, followed by a low drone. The off-putting whirr accompanies the player until they exit the level.

Suddenly, it’s not quite as fun walking through the blood-soaked rooms of your previous annihilations.

Hotline Miami relishes in psychologically messing with you and Jacket.

This monotonous hum crops up a few times in the campaign, most notably when listening to Jacket’s snide animal-mask wearing internal voices. The game’s design has you constantly questioning the destruction you’ve wrought, and why you’re even committing these massacres in the first place.