Jackal

I jumped into Jackal expecting a Hotline Miami homage and left grinning like a junkie who’d just found a new hit. Transhuman Design leans hard into 70s noir, acid noir and John Wick-infused madness: it’s loud, brash and unapologetically violent. The core hook is glorious simplicity — you are a superhuman wrecking ball in neon Vegas, and the game rewards improvisation and creative brutality. If you like speedruns, messy combos and stylish takedowns, Jackal delivers a hit of pure arcade adrenaline.

Ripping Through Vegas, One Room at a Time

Jackal plays like the purest evolution of the Hotline Miami template: top-down, twin-stick gunplay with melee flair, instant responsivity and an emphasis on brutal, cinematic finishers. You barrel into rooms, improvise with weapons and furniture (yes, sofas become shotguns), and chain executions to keep your speed and bonuses. Movement is king — dashing, sliding and timing a kick feel weighty and responsive, so every successful run feels like a small personal triumph. Between levels you pick temporary drug-powered abilities that fundamentally alter how a raid plays: some turn you into a short-lived juggernaut, others bend time or peel enemies’ weapons away. The result is punchy, often manic combat where momentum matters more than cover.

When the World Is Your Weapon

What sets Jackal apart isn’t just the gore — it’s how the tools of the environment become extensions of your playstyle. Nearly everything is throwable, breakable or lethal, and the game delights in letting you improvise: toss a lamp, kick a drunk into a roulette table, or slap a corpse across a room to create a grenade of chaos. Randomized rooms, stackable mutators and unlockable “spells” mean no two massacres are identical; I had runs where a SuperHOT-style mutator turned a frantic gunfight into a slo-mo ballet, and others where enemy reinforcements became the main challenge. The finishing animations are a show in themselves, a weird little ballet of brutality that rewards creativity and gives each run theatrical flair.

Neon, Noise and Nasty Little Details

Visually, Jackal wears its influences proudly: dusty 70s palettes drenched in neon, comic-cut framing, and gritty animated cutscenes that read like pulp pulp-noir music videos. The soundtrack is a highlight — acid-jazz, sleazy synth and pulsing tracks that push your heartbeat higher during a rampage. Sound design does heavy lifting: the satisfying clack of a kick, the bone-shattering thud of a drop, and voice lines that sell the gonzo narrative. Technically it's generally solid on PC and Deck (players report smooth runs), though occasional hitbox oddities and map quirks show up — tiny annoyances that never fully derail the fun but are worth noting for perfectionists. Accessibility options are present but basic: variable difficulty and mutators help tune the experience, though I wished for more controller tuning out of the box.

Jackal is a breathless, stylish blast of neon violence that mostly gets the Hotline-Miami formula right while adding its own gonzo personality. It’s short but richly replayable, and the core combat loop is so fun you’ll forgive little hiccups. If you want a compact, fast-paced hit of chaotic action with speedrun pedigree, Jackal is worth the trip to its messed-up Vegas. If narrative depth or perfect polish are your top priorities, temper expectations.