Hotline Miami 2 level editor enters beta in December
Most of us have finished Hotline Miami 2 (unless you're a law abiding Australian), so it's good news that the game's level editor is entering beta on December 10. It'll roll out on Steam exclusively, but it won't have Steam Workshop support from the beginning. In a blogpost announcing the rollout, a Dennaton spokesperson said Steam was preferable as it's an easier platform to debug for.
You won't need to pull any strings to get access to the beta: it's available to everyone without an invite, and all content is available from the start (though more features will roll out with time). On the otherhand, there's no guarantee levels made during the beta period will carry over to the final version, which is expected to roll out some time in January.
The studio did confirm that no custom music or sprite editors will feature in the editor. "If we let people get free music when they download levels we are viewed as a illegal file sharing tool," the spokesperson said. On the topic of sprite editors, apparently modders are already on the job.
Fingers crossed the level editor can improve on what our reviewer Chris Thursten found to be a disappointing main game. "Restrictive design decisions sap the energy from a series that revels in it, and technical issues deal the killing blow," he wrote.
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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.