He’s falling. The sky is a neon smear of pink and orange, the Miami skyline is dissolving into a jagged hallucination of rainbow bridges, and The Son in Hotline Miami 2 is finally, mercifully, out of breath. If you’ve played through Wrong Number, you know this moment. It’s the "Apocalypse" level. It’s messy. It’s loud. It is the perfect, drug-fueled punctuation mark on a story that was never really about winning, but about the desperate, clawing need to live up to a ghost.
Most people talk about Jacket or even the Fans when they bring up the franchise. But The Son? He’s the actual heart of the sequel’s tragedy. He isn't some faceless mob boss sitting behind a desk. He’s a guy trying to rebuild an empire while the world literally burns around him. Honestly, his character arc is probably the most cohesive thing in a game that purposefully tries to confuse you with time skips and shifting perspectives.
The Weight of the Father's Legacy
You can’t talk about The Son without talking about his dad. In the first Hotline Miami, the Father (the old Russian mob boss) was the final hurdle. He died at the hands of Jacket. That left a vacuum. When we meet The Son in the sequel, he’s not just trying to run a business; he’s trying to reclaim a lost era of Russian dominance. It’s a classic "sins of the father" setup, but Dennaton Games gives it a grimey, synthwave twist.
He's obsessed. He wants the glory days back.
Think about his design. He looks like a younger, slicker version of the old man, but there’s a frantic energy to him. He isn't calm. He’s impulsive. While the Father felt like a looming presence, The Son feels like a live wire. He’s constantly pushing his men, pushing himself, and eventually pushing his own mind past the breaking point. It’s a doomed quest from the start. We know how this ends because the game’s timeline tells us the world is heading toward a nuclear flash, yet we watch him fight for turf that won't exist in twenty-four hours.
Gameplay Mechanics: More Than Just a Reskin
Usually, protagonist characters in these games are vessels for the player. Not here. The Son’s playstyle tells you everything about his personality. You get to choose between three "techniques" at the start of most of his levels: Bodyguard, Dirty Hands, and Bloodline.
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- Bodyguard: You start with a katana and a roll move. This is a direct nod to his father's personal bodyguard (the woman Jacket kills in the first game). It’s fast. It’s graceful. It’s also a sign of his attachment to the past.
- Dirty Hands: No weapons, just lethal punches. It’s brutal and inefficient compared to a gun, which feels like a guy who wants to get his hands bloody just to prove he can.
- Bloodline: You start with two submachine guns. High fire rate, total chaos. This is The Son at his most volatile.
Playing as him feels different than playing as the Fans or Pardo. With the Fans, there’s a sense of "bored kids looking for thrills." With Pardo, it’s "unhinged narcissism." But with The Son, the gameplay feels like a desperate reclamation project. You’re clearing out Colombian safehouses not because you want to, but because you have to. If you don't, who are you? Just a guy with a ponytail and a fancy suit?
That Infamous Trip in "Apocalypse"
Let’s get into the weeds on the ending. The level "Apocalypse" is a masterpiece of visual storytelling through mechanics. After taking a massive dose of experimental drugs, the world shifts. Your enemies aren't Russian or Colombian gangsters anymore. They’re demons. They’re giant swans. They’re the ghosts of the Fans.
When you’re playing this, it’s frustrating. The colors are sickening. The screen wobbles. You’re killing the Fans—characters you’ve spent the whole game playing as—and you’re doing it through the eyes of a man who has completely lost his grip on reality. When he walks across that rainbow bridge in the sky, he thinks he’s ascending. He thinks he’s finally surpassed his father.
Then he walks off the ledge.
He doesn't die in a blaze of glory fighting a hero. He trips off a roof because he's too high to see the edge. It’s pathetic. It’s sad. It’s exactly what the world of Hotline Miami deserves. There are no heroes here, just people who didn't realize they were already dead.
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Why He’s the Most Human Character
Look, The Son is a murderer. He’s a high-ranking criminal. But compared to the nihilism of most of the cast, his motivation is almost relatable. We’ve all felt the pressure of expectations. We’ve all tried to fix something that was already broken.
The Son represents the tragedy of "Moving On." He couldn't do it. While the rest of the world was moving toward a bleak, political end, he was stuck in the 1980s, trying to restart a war that had already been lost. He’s a man out of time.
The voice of the Father haunts him, not literally, but through the empty halls of the buildings he tries to conquer. Every time he takes over a new territory, it’s not enough. It’s never enough. This is why the drug trip is so significant—it’s the only way he can finally "win." In his mind, he defeats the monsters. In reality, he’s just a body on the pavement.
The Soundtrack of a Breakdown
You can't mention The Son in Hotline Miami 2 without talking about "Fahrenheit" by Light Club or "The Way Home" by Magic Sword. These tracks define his missions. They aren't the upbeat, pulse-pounding tracks of the first game. They have a weight to them. They sound like a frantic heart rate.
The music reflects his mental state. It starts confident and ends in a distorted, screeching mess. When you’re clearing rooms as The Son, you aren't "in the zone" the same way you are with Jacket. You’re in a panic. It’s a subtle shift in the game’s audio-visual feedback that makes his chapters some of the most stressful in the series.
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Tactical Advice for Mastering His Levels
If you're actually trying to S-rank his missions, you need to understand that The Son is a glass cannon. He doesn't have the durability of some other characters, and his techniques change the flow of the map entirely.
- Don't Sleep on Bodyguard. While "Bloodline" is fun for the "spray and pray" factor, the roll move in the Bodyguard technique is actually broken if you time it right. You can bypass bullets and close the gap on shooters, which is essential in the tighter Colombian maps.
- Abuse the Katana's Reach. The melee range for The Son’s katana is slightly more generous than the standard knife. Use it around corners. Don't wait for them to see you.
- Apocalypse Strategy. When the screen starts tilting during his final mission, stop trying to play "correctly." The hitboxes for the "demon" enemies are slightly off-center because of the visual distortion. Aim for the feet of the giant monsters to ensure you're actually hitting their core.
- Manage the SMGs. If you pick the dual submachine guns, remember that you can't pick up other weapons. You have to make every bullet count, or you’re stuck using your fists in a room full of guys with shotguns. It's a high-risk, high-reward playstyle that requires a lot of "baiting" enemies around doors.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think The Son is the "villain" of the second game. But Hotline Miami 2 doesn't really have a protagonist or a villain. It has a bunch of people who are all victims of the same cycle of violence.
The Son isn't trying to destroy the world. He’s just trying to find a place in it. He’s a guy who was born into a life he didn't choose and felt obligated to maintain it. If he had been born into any other family, maybe he would’ve just been some guy with a ponytail working a 9-to-5. But he was the son of a king, and he died trying to wear a crown that didn't fit.
Moving Forward in the Neon Wasteland
If you really want to appreciate the complexity of the character, go back and play his levels again, but pay attention to the background details. Look at the photos on the walls. Look at how his men react to him. There’s a level of fear and respect there, but also a sense that everyone knows the ship is sinking.
To get the most out of your next playthrough:
- Compare his levels to Jacket's. Notice the difference in architecture. Jacket’s levels feel like claustrophobic puzzles. The Son’s levels are grander, more open, and much more prone to long-range fire.
- Listen to the silence. After you finish a level as The Son, walk back through the rooms. The lack of music in those moments is intentional. It forces you to look at the mess you've made.
- Analyze the dialogue. His interactions with his henchmen show a man who is trying to act like a leader but is clearly terrified of being found out as a fraud.
The Son is the ultimate personification of the Hotline Miami ethos: Do you like hurting other people? For The Son, the answer wasn't "yes" or "no." The answer was "I don't have a choice." That's what makes him the most compelling figure in the entire neon-soaked tragedy.
Next time you load up Wrong Number, don't just rush through his levels for the combo points. Take a second to look at the character sprite. He's a man who has everything and is realizing, second by second, that it's all worth absolutely nothing.