Should enemy AI respond to each other's gunshots?
Yes. If the player's gunshots alert enemies, there's no reason the enemies' gunshots shouldn't as well. This would be more realistic/intuitive, and also add more of a stealth element to the game.
Should enemy AI respond to the sight of dead bodies?
No. I don't understand how this would work - it might be realistic, but it wouldn't work as well as enemies responding to gunshots. What would enemies do if they saw a dead body? If they just ran around in circles panicking, that would be silly. If they ran off and told the other enemies, I think that would be too complicated for a game like Hotline Miami. You could also argue that, realistically, people will continue to stand guard/patrol if they think there's a deadly intruder, rather than immediately trying to find him.
Should enemy AI respond to bullet impacts?
No. If an enemy didn't notice the sound of a gunshot, I don't think they'd notice the impact, either.
Should suppressors provide complete and total 'silencing' (as in, no enemies are alerted at all, regardless of range); or should they function more realistically, still alerting enemies but within a significantly reduced range?
That isn't a yes-or-no question, but I think silencers should completely negate gunshot sounds. Realistically, firearms are extremely loud, and unsuppressed gunshots would alert every enemy in the level, but they don't. If unsuppressed gunshots are quieter in-game than in real life, then suppressed gunshots should be as well. A "silenced" weapon that is only marginally quieter than an unsilenced weapon wouldn't be very fun. The Hotline Miami series is very cinematic and doesn't need to strive for total realism when it would hinder the gameplay.
Would the replacement of the current enemy AI (proximity-based) detection system with a conic FoV (field of view) detection system for enemy AI improve, or hinder the gameplay?
It would improve gameplay. This would be more realistic and add another fun layer of depth to the game. Hotline Miami's "stealth" element was not nearly fleshed-out enough. This idea, along with enemies responding to each others gunshots, would help make the stealth more substantial without turning Midnight Animal into something other than an "action" game.
If score and balance were not of concern, would you be willing to experiment with different and alternative playstyles (more tactically by setting traps, for example) atypical to the 'normal' (twitch-based run-and-gun, for lack of a better description) Hotline Miami experience?
Yes. I'd be cool with "slow-paced" playstyles as long as they weren't forced upon the player. I wouldn't want to go through a level in which I have to set traps, but a mask that allows you to set traps could be interesting. If you choose to flesh out the stealth by adding a conic FoV system, one mask that I think might be interesting is this: You start with a bomb in your pocket, which must be placed at a point on the last floor of the level, and then you must backtrack through the level back to your car, at which point the bomb will explode and all remaining enemies will die. You can freely travel between floors without killing enemies as long as none are currently alerted, but if an enemy ever enters their "alert" state, then every enemy on the floor is alerted to your presence as well. On one hand, this would allow you to clear a level without personally killing every single enemy. On the other hand, it would force you to play stealthily, and effectively make levels twice as long since you had to backtrack through floors that had enemies still on them. I'm not sure it would work on every stage without changes to level design, and it definitely wouldn't work without a conic FoV system, but it's just a thought.
How satisfying did melee combat feel in Hotline Miami vs. Hotline Miami 2?
HLM1: 9/10. HLM2: 7/10. Hotline Miami 1 forced you to actually time your melee strikes, which made things feel much more moment-to-moment. Executions were also generally too slow in Hotline Miami 2.
How satisfying did gun combat feel in Hotline Miami vs. Hotline Miami 2?
HLM1: 6/10. HLM2: 9/10. The fact that bullets weren't always one-hit kills in Hotline Miami made guns feel kind of useless. Hotline Miami 2 fixed this by making guns always one-hit kill, and also made the lock-on system actually useful. However, I don't like how guns were less accurate in the second game.
What were your favourite achievements in Hotline Miami 1 and Hotline Miami 2?
HLM1: Aced It, Combo King, Get a Life, Plain Luck, Sewer Alligator, These Are My Guns. HLM2: 1-800-GODDAMN, Don't Let Anger Get the Best of You, Assassin's Cred, Dead Silent, I'm Coming In and I'm Unarmed, Stare Into the Abyss, The Bar of Broken Heroes, Combo God. I like achievements that are "do this one challenging, optional thing" or "find this secret" rather than just "get to this part of the story" or "do this normal thing a certain amount of times."
Thank you for responding to this survey! If you have any additional comments or suggestions, please add them here.
You've mentioned before that Midnight Animal might not be 100% feature-complete by August 18th - if that just means a few weapons missing executions, I'd be okay with that. But if it means major gameplay elements (e.g. a conic field of view system) will have to be added later, a short delay for releasing it would probably be a better idea instead. I wouldn't mind waiting another few weeks if it meant having a better product on release, and making major changes to the core elements of a game strikes me as a bad idea.