Bloodbath Kavkaz

Some games wear their inspirations on their sleeves. Bloodbath Kavkaz attempts to be one of them. Except in this particular case, devs thought that the two only things that make Hotline Miami great are top-down perspective and ultraviolence. So decided to run with that - but failed spectacularly in almost every way. Little did they know, that Hotline Miami is much-much-much more than that. HM has tight controls and an interesting story. BK has none of that. From its confusing story to its frustrating gameplay, Bloodbath Kavkaz feels more like a cheap imitation made for a quick buck, than a real game.

Story:

You're playing as a guy named Shamil Rakhmanov, who wakes up after a night of drinking and is forced into a deadly contract by some mysterious figure (who suspiciously looks like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin) so he can kill a Ukranian scientist for the "good" of the Russian Federation. Then the game quickly abandons this story for a huge chunk of the game.

Then, in a bar, Shamil meets, what seems like some Russian Youtuber named Maddyson who complains about losing subscribers, so Shamil raids and kills rival Youtubers, to "help" this Maddyson.

Then Shamil gets a call from some dude, who claims that he had intercourse with Shamil's mom. So Shamil decides to find and kill him.

It's fair to say that storytelling is a complete disaster. The story is a mix of random, poorly translated dialogue, racist stereotypes, and nonsense that barely makes sense. There’s no real character development, no engaging twists - just a jumbled mess of bad writing that feels slapped together with a huge load of some bottom-of-the-barrel "memes" sprayed on top.

Oh and don't forget the anti-Ukranian, right-wing sentiment present throughout the whole game.

Graphics:

There's no doubt, that Bloodbath Kavkaz is a poor attempt at recreating Hotline Miami’s retro aesthetic, extremely poor attempt. Forget the carefully drawn and stylish pixel art seen in HM. Say hi to the butt-ugly art drawn in Microsoft Paint with the CRT effect slapped on top. The character designs are bland and ugly, often racist caricatures, animations are pretty much non-existent, and environments feel repetitive. The game tries to copy Hotline Miami, instead just looks lazy and unfinished. I mean, Miami is famous for its neon-lit streets, oozing retro wave vibes. Moscow is 100%, not that. Everything feels thrown together with little care for detail. And don't get me started on this one Epilepsy level. I don't have epilepsy, but strobing flashing lights made me feel like I do. Complete with constant screen shaking and acid colors, I can't describe the experience as anything but "vomit-inducing". I am not kidding.

Audio:

One of the best things about Hotline Miami was its incredible soundtrack. Bloodbath Kavkaz has a couple of cool tracks, and even has some kind of ethnic music from the North Caucasus region, but mostly fails in this department too. Low-quality weak sound effects constantly bombard your eardrums without any regard for volume levels. Voice acting (if you can call it that) is a poorly recorded "joke" (no voiced dialogues mind you, just enemies.) You'll hear enemies screaming the same phrases over and over again. I bet it'll give you a headache sooner than you think.

Gameplay:

The core gameplay is supposed to be fast, violent action, but it just doesn’t work. Even when the devs shamelessly copied Hotline Miami, they messed up. Action is too zoomed in, you can't see further than your nose. 

Pitifully small selection of "masks" with uninteresting effects (two of these 6 masks just start you with a gun). The only interesting mask is the first one, which gives you the ability to slow time. And even that doesn't work from time to time. 

The controls are clunky and unresponsive, making precise movements feel impossible. You constantly get stuck on furniture and other props, and doors swing constantly without you even touching them. 

Enemies are either stupidly easy or unfairly difficult, with inconsistent AI that makes combat more frustrating than fun. But at least you can take a few hits before going down. 

Hit detection is all over the place (but at least it's a one-hit kill with a gun), and the game often bugs out, forcing you to restart levels. 

Remember how satisfying it was to speed through levels in Hotline Miami, killing everything in your path in a matter of seconds? Yeah, not gonna happen. Some "genius" had a bright idea of adding doors with code locks. So now, instead of being a death-bringing speedy killing machine, you're forced to navigate levels in search of a laptop with a code written in it. (One of the codes being "1488" - a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols. And no, it's not a coincidence).

This whole affair just feels like a poorly designed-mess.

And the only somewhat decent ideas in the whole game are the time slowing hat and a vehicle level.

The worst piece of software I ever installed on my PC and probably the worst game I ever played.
Its only saving grace is that it's extremely short and it's got pulled out from Steam.