David Inspiring Goliath

My Father worked in the Film Industry for 25+ years, and he told me in the business there's two generations of film…

Pre-Matrix

And Post-Matrix.

It's rather remarkable how Keanu Reeves managed to be a part of a whole other franchise where that generational gap is just as obvious.

The John Wick franchise has inspired a whole wave of hyper-reality action films. Works that carry the one-man-army slaughter fest of cheeseball fests from the 80s, with the grittiness and tangibility of the 00's best offerings.

From entire films like Nobody, written by John Wick's author, to Le Castle Vania's electronica, character moves in Watch Dogs Legion, and so much more, the franchise's inspiration goes far beyond its genre of film.

So it's fascinating then to see such a juggernaut be so overtly inspired by a top down indie shooter made by two people.

The Hong Kong Massacre is… just that.

No character customization, no branching story arches, no online multiplayer, no globetrotting adventure, it's just a top down indie shooter with the same stylistic focus of Hotline Miami, only redirected to what so many action games and films are themselves inspired by, Hong Kong.

It's a game I honestly didn't think very highly of when starting, feeling it to be a janky imitation of Hotline Miami that itself wasn't lacking problems, which Hong Kong Massacre doesn't really address.

However, once I understood the application of bullet time, the pace of combat, and the most valuable weapon upgrades, the game really clicked.

It replicates Hotline Miami's addiction, where death is immediately frustrating, but it takes so little time to hop back into the action, that you can't help but restart again, and again, and again.

Especially when just firing a weapon is this much fun.

Hong Kong Massacre's main claim to fame is reclaiming the gorgeous particles and post-battle carnage that games from the 2000s like FEAR, BLACK, and Stranglehold were obsessed with.

Because enemies only die in a few hits, and you're just as fragile, it means you don't have time to precisely aim, and will instead dump a magazine into a wall that shatters into chunks of glass, splinters of wood, and clouds of dust to the point of barely seeing the enemy you were shooting at.

Combine that with dozens of enemies on screen, and one of your weapons having basically infinite ammunition, and it makes for a video-game that earns its name, replicating the iconic hospital shootout from Hard Boiled exquisitely.

It's hard not to get into the rush when you're literally diving through shattered glass, firing akimbo pistols from the floor as you just barely roll underneath a shotgun blast.

It is very true to say the Hong Kong Massacre is an MVP… a minimal viable product.

I completed the game in under three hours, the otherwise excellent score isn't varied enough to endure those three hours, nether are the backdrops and enemies, or the "story" sequences, and especially not the bossfights that give Warden Eternal a run for his money.

Yet, John Wick 4's arguably best scene wasn't based upon the Last of Us, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, Far Cry or any of the other biggest players in video-gaming, but instead, the debut attempt from a European duo wanting to play with particle effects.

What if that didn't happen?

What if the duo threw themselves into a bigger studio to make a more perfected product? What if they spent 5-10 years of their life trying to make some titanic super game? What if they never released it for fear of its underdeveloped qualities?

It wouldn't have influenced one of the most influential action franchises of recent memory.

This little game managed to inspire something that none of those big boys did, and that right there to me, is not just why I love indie and middle market games, it's the beauty of not chasing perfection but creative desire, of personal expression, of following your inspiration, that will one day...

be perfected.