Jackal

My experience with cinema isn’t as vast as my time with video games. Partially because I don’t watch a lot of movies, and also because I’d rather spend my free time doing something else. Go outside, exercise, listen to music, free-write, and of course play video games. It’s not that I hate the world of cinema. My heart just isn’t big enough for it. A shame as a majority of my friends are cinema fanatics. I believe there’s a term for this kind of person. The ‘film-bro’, and in other places it’s more commonly referred to as the ‘cinephile’....... Not exactly sure I am comfortable with that word, but whatever. People who constantly watch movies, analyze them, and all that makes them works of art. Similar to how I review video games and pick apart what makes them click. There’s joy to bad dissecting movies especially if it’s from a director known for having one or two specific styles of film direction. Wes Anderson is a really good example of directors with a specific style. His movies are often colorful and shot as if they took place on dollhouse sets. I never watched a Wes Anderson, so I’m basing this statement off of what friends have told me. In fact, this is gonna be the recurring theme for the intro so try not to get too annoyed.

You have Christopher Nolan whose films I have seen a couple of. His movies are often mature, dark both figuratively and literally, and considered by many to be complex. So complex that we often face arguments over whether or not Christopher Nolan and his writers are pretentious. This is one of the few reasons I’m not a film-bro. I don’t like arguing about movies, so instead I argue about video games online. Awesome. Then of course you have Quentin Tarantino. A man known for popularizing what we’ll simply refer to as ‘The Tarantino Film.” Movies that somehow strike a balance between being incredibly violent and stylized. Writing that’s crazy, angry, smart, and a whole other list of emotions you’d explain when stuck in traffic. Dialogue so infamous that all you gotta do is play a few seconds of audio and someone will instantly determine it’s a Tarantino film. A man who used slurs so many times in his films that everyone just got used to it at some point. I think that’s a reason why I’ve also never watched a Tarantino film. This man has done & said things that are truly insane, and it makes sense why his films target a niche audience. Hence why my friends and film-bros made a style of movies they declare as ‘The Tarantino Film.”

Why did I bring all of this up? A few months ago a game called Jackal released and it asks the question, “What if Hotline Miami was a stylized take on the Tarantino film?” Violent, crazy, full of drugs, and inner monologues that make you wonder if the protagonist is a badass or lunatic. In the end it’s usually both, so don’t think about it too hard. I remember seeing the reveal trailer for this game last year. Popped up on my Youtube recommended feed, and not having anything else to watch at the moment I decided to put it up. Jazzy music, vocals, and nothing but brisk action flows along the screen. This game looked awesome and I kept a close eye on it. Waiting for the day it finally came out, and thankfully it did. Jackal released earlier this year, and seeing how I haven’t covered a 2026 release yet I thought it was finally time to hop it. Spent last night playing through the whole thing, and can safely say Jackal lives up to the hype. The game is short and took me only three hours to beat, but what it manages to do during that runtime is impressive and feels worth talking about. Let’s shine some light on an indie that flew under a majority of folks’ radar. Today we’ll be talking about Jackal and why it deserves your humble attention.

Story

Our story opens up with a man thinking to himself. Across him is yet another gambler debating who will win. A pile of chips lie at the center of the table, and sweaty hands pinch the cards dealt minutes ago. The room is cramped with little space to maneuver around. Nothing but dim lights and wallpaper that’s most likely been there since the 1980s. Things are getting intense. Time for a bathroom break. The man stares at his reflection. Behind him no one, except for a tall figure donning a black suit. With a jackal head and fur as dark as the night. Only the protagonist can see this figure. Hear, feel, and interact in whatever way he sees fit. This jackal has existed for a long period of time. Having seen the pyramids be erected. Bandaged corpses sealed away deep within tombs for him. He is the Egyptian god of death, and you’ve made a deal with him. Kill people so death always has work to do. Your job is to kill for a living, so who better to trust than a guy who has become densensitized by gore. In exchange he grants divine power. The right tools for the job. The man steps out of the bathroom. His fists ready for what needs to be done. Smashing in faces and walking out with a corpse perched atop your shoulders. Burying it within the desert so not only people don’t find it, but the Jackal gets his offering. This is what your life is. Gambling, drugs, alcohol, and murder. It never gets old. It should never get old. As long as you don’t think about it too hard everything will be fine. Keep it all to yourself.

Gameplay

Have you played Hotline Miami before? Congratulations, you know exactly how Jackal plays. It is a fast paced action game where everything dies in one hit including you. All you can do is run fast, hit them hard, and try to out pace your opponents. You can pick up items, throw items, and unlike Hotline Miami you can slide. This allows you to out maneuver opponents and cross small rooms quickly, but the downside is that the slide has a short cooldown. You can’t just spam this and hope to build up speed instantly. You can however slide on tables. So if you have an enemy running towards you and you think you’re about to get pinned you can just slide to the other side of the room. The protagonist also has the ability to kick. Launching environmental objects at foes, and even stun them. Stunning an enemy allows you to perform as a finisher, and this gives you a few seconds of invincibility. Time to quickly evaluate what is being thrown at you and to react accordingly. It’s sorta like the glory kills of Doom 4. Execute quickly and then keep rushing running running. 

The more finisher moves you perform the higher you rank up, and every time you rank up you earn a reward. The God of Death grants you powers to use across each area. Chosen before entering or every time you die. These powers are incredibly useful if activated at the right moment. Slowing down time, teleport, double damage, or summoning an animal to assist. The catch is that powers can only be activated once in an area. Again, use them only during stressful scenarios. Enemies come in a good amount of flavors with some requiring more than one hit to kill. Such as buff guards or animals which act as minibosses for the player to deal with. Normal enemies are often equipped with the same weapons you wield, so it’s encouraged to switch up often. Throw a knife at a dude, pick up the gun he just dropped, spray and pray, before ditching the rifle and deciding to wield a sledge hammer. Aside from that there’s not much else I can say about the gameplay of Jackal. It is Hotline Miami done yet again, and even though I’m not a fan of Hotline Miami there are things I enjoy about Jackal more. To the point I’d say Jackal is the better video game. Let’s just hope all is in favor of you. Kill, kill, and kill some more. Remember, keep it all to yourself.

Thoughts

Out of all the games inspired by Hotline Miami this one feels like it understands it the most. That is not to say this is my favorite Miami-like. Katana Zero still holds the crown for me, but when I say Jackal “understand Hotline the most” what I mean are the principles. Top down view where you set almost everything around you, fast frenetic action, and down to how it all functions. The focus on melee weapons and making it so that ranged weapons only contain one clip of ammo. It then forces you to toss the gun aside and run up to the next weapon. Hotline Miami has always had a design philosophy I really like, but as I stated in the past I don’t like how it’s executed. If you were to compare Hotline Miami to its many successors you realize it’s quite cruel by design. To be fair that is the point. You are not a superhuman with godly powers. You're an average joe who bleeds and screams like everybody else when inflicted with the simplest stab wound. The artistic defense as to why Hotline Miami is hard I don’t mind. It’s the unfair stuff, because of the many technical limitations Hotline Miami faced back then. Not being able to see what is ahead of you. There is the option to gaze, but that’s hard to do during active fights. Leading to you often dying from attacks and stray bullets coming off screen. There’s also the wonky physics such as for doors, and the fact you can’t really dodge attacks. Make due with what you got.

Jackal feels like Hotline Miami, but if it were a better video game in my opinion. Rather than go for the top down view Hotline Miami went for instead it goes for isometrics. Everything is a 3D model, so it allows the developers to zoom the camera out a bit more. You have an easier time seeing what is coming from off screen giving you a few seconds to react. This rule doesn’t apply all the time. There were moments the game got demanding, but never did I think it was fair or it was pulling bullsh*t out of its own ass. Jackal is just pure addicting fun. Thrilling action where you get to make quick decisions on the fly and adapt quickly. It even makes sense for the protag and who he is as a person. The game assumes you understand the main character the moment he starts speaking. You can sense that he’s been doing this for a long time. He elicits no emotion or regret over what he does. He’s become desensitized from the violence he enacts and very little ever pleases him. He drinks, smokes, does drugs, and occasionally bangs but not because it’ll make him happy. It’s in hope these acts numb out the pain a little before he runs back out into the field. Another quick decision. Another move the targets would not expect as you cut them down. Spin a machete into their forehead before picking up a shotgun and blasting their pals.

The game runs surprisingly well despite how many visual effects and objects are being tossed all over the place. I’ve seen some Steam reviews discussing how Jackal feels clunky to control. It’s not as buttery smooth in the same way Katana Zero, OTXO, and other Miami-likes are. Swinging a crowbar isn’t instantaneous, and it takes a bit to get used to. Once you do get used to it, melee weapons become fun to utilize. Further adding to the role of being a wise minded killer. Slaying on the fly and dedicating yourself to every choice you make during your spree. The core loop is great, but what I don’t like so much are the powers. They’re not bad, but I never felt encouraged to use any aside from the time slow power. These games get crazy quickly, so why would I use anything else aside from the one that makes reacting to said crazy scenarios much easier. Jackal also has procedural generation. The moment I booted the game up it listed a seed, and I thought it was strange. Then when I died the game gave me an option to load a new setup. If the player is struggling too much on one specific section they can reload it. Changing the room layout or the placement of enemies. The thing is, how does that make the game easier? If I could just retry the same room, learn what to do, and move on. Randomizing it each time is just gonna make trying to learn this specific section harder. I can see this adding replay value to the game. Want more of the same action without it getting samey each playthrough? Cool.

I opened this review up talking about film directors and the game’s biggest inspiration, Quentin Tarantino. I have never watched a Tarantino film, but I still very much appreciate what this game is trying to do with its story. The way it’s shot, told, and presented to us. How a majority of this story is inner monologues. Well articulated thoughts that make us question how trustworthy our main protagonist is. Kind of weird that his best pal is the Egyptian god of death, but maybe it’s real. How else do you explain whipping out superpowers such as teleportation and summoning random animals easily. Maybe it’s not real. Maybe this god of death is a thought created from the mass consumption of drugs and alcohol. A result of our protagonist seeing murder as normal as ordering eggs at a diner. The protagonist himself is aware of his thoughts and hallucinations. No one will believe him and what he’s seeing, so he keeps it to himself. Screaming when no one is around, because he knows if he were to do it in public he’d been seen as a schizo. Even though he already is. The art direction, usage of colors, style, and the soundtrack that accommodates it all. My god the soundtrack Jackal knows when to slap when it wants to. 

I recommend Jackal. It only took me 3 hours to beat, but that’s a good runtime for a game such as this. The action and mechanics aren’t too complex, so it ends before it gets stale. The game doesn’t have that many reviews on Steam, so I suggest giving the devs a good review. In the end I am gonna have to give Jackal an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.

8.5/10, Pretty Good