Every Single Playable Character in Hotline Miami 2 Explained
If you’re coming from the first game, you probably expect to step back into the letterman jacket of a silent, chicken-masked killer and call it a day. But Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number doesn't work like that. It’s messy. It’s chaotic. Honestly, it’s a lot more like a Pulp Fiction-style ensemble piece than a standard sequel. Instead of one guy, you’re jumping between thirteen different perspectives across several decades.
It’s confusing. People get lost in the timeline. You’ll be a soldier in the 80s one minute and a bored, violent teenager in the 90s the next. Each character isn't just a different skin; they change how the game fundamentally feels. Some can’t use guns. Some can’t stop killing even if they wanted to.
The Fans: The Copycats Who Just Want Attention
Basically, these guys are the "protagonists" of the 1991 timeline. They’re obsessed with Jacket (the hero of the first game) and spend their time murdering low-level thugs just to get famous.
- Tony (The Tiger): He’s the fan favorite for a reason. He doesn't use guns. At all. He just punches people, and because he’s Tony, those punches are lethal. You have to be aggressive.
- Corey (The Zebra): She’s all about the dodge roll. She plays the most like Jacket but with a mobility buff that lets her dive under bullets.
- Alex and Ash (The Swans): This is where it gets weird. You play as two people at once. One has a chainsaw; the other has a pistol. If one dies, you’re basically screwed. It’s high-risk, high-reward stuff.
- Mark (The Bear): He starts with dual submachine guns and can fire them in opposite directions. It’s pure, unadulterated spray-and-pray.
The Law and the Lore: Pardo and Evan
Then you have the characters who aren't really "masks" in the traditional sense.
Manny Pardo is a detective who is, quite frankly, a total psychopath. He’s investigating a serial killer called the "Miami Mutilator" while being remarkably violent during his own police raids. He’s got "thick skin," as the memes say, and he can do unique executions with firearms that other characters can't.
On the flip side, you have Evan Wright. He’s a writer trying to piece together the 50 Blessings conspiracy. Playing as him is a trip because he’s a pacifist. He knocks people out instead of killing them. If you make him kill someone, the screen flashes red, he loses his mind, and the gameplay shifts into a brutal frenzy. It’s a great piece of storytelling through mechanics.
The Heavy Hitters: The Son and Beard
The most tragic parts of the game involve these two. Beard takes us back to the 1985 Hawaii conflict. His levels feel different—they’re war zones. You can't pick up weapons off the ground; you have to find ammo crates. It’s more tactical, more desperate.
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Then there’s The Son. He’s the head of the Russian Mafia, trying to rebuild what Jacket destroyed in the first game. He has different "techniques" you can choose from, like using his father's old katana or brass knuckles. His final level is one of the most trippy, drug-fueled sequences in gaming history.
The Reluctant Killers: Richter and Jake
Richter (the rat mask) returns from the first game, and we finally see his side of the story. He’s not a monster; he’s a guy being blackmailed into murder to protect his sick mother. His levels are some of the hardest because he usually starts with nothing.
Jake is the opposite. He’s a hardcore nationalist who loves the violence. He’s a member of 50 Blessings who actually believes in the "cause." His masks give him lethal throws or a nail gun, making him a mid-range specialist.
Why the Character Swapping Matters
The reason Dennaton Games did this wasn't just for variety. It’s about the "Big Picture." You aren't playing as a hero. You're playing as a bunch of people who are all, in one way or another, doomed by their own choices or the choices of people they’ve never met.
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The game forces you to see the Russian mobsters as people (through the Henchman’s eyes) and the police as monsters (through Pardo). It breaks that "us vs. them" mentality from the first game.
Actionable Insight: How to Handle the Roster
If you’re struggling with who do you play as in hotline miami 2, remember that your playstyle has to adapt to the character, not the other way around.
- Stop trying to play Tony like Corey. If you have no guns, stop standing in open hallways. Use corners.
- Use Evan’s pacifism to your advantage. You can dismantle a room much more safely if you aren't worried about reloading or picking up every dropped gun.
- Manage Beard’s ammo. Since you can't just grab a new gun every five seconds, you have to make every shot count. Switch to your knife when things get close.
The game is a puzzle. Each character is a different tool. Once you stop fighting the character's limitations and start using their specific "gimmicks," the 15+ hours of carnage actually start to make sense.
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Next Step: Take a look at the "Subway" level again. Try to spot how the different timelines overlap by looking at the background details—you'll see characters from other chapters appearing as NPCs before they become playable.