I feel like in the original Hotline Miami my favorite is the Tony (Tiger) mask. Not being caught off guard without a melee weapon lets me play a little more recklessly making for some fun gameplay. The Zack (Frog) mask's longer combo window is also useful for the scraping out those high scores.
For the sequel I'd say my favorite is either Richter (Rat) (but I don't know how much of that is just because of how satisfying the combos you can get in First Blood are) or Jake with the Dallas (Black Mamba) mask because of how chaotic using the nunchucks can be.
What's your favorite? Here is a link to the Hotline Miami wiki page for masks if you can't remember them all.
On a side note who is your least favourite character/mask?
I mostly played on console and found using the lock-on system a bit challenging when I am getting swarmed so I really wasn't a fan of Ash and Alex. I'd frequently just use Ash to shoot at walls to lure enemies and use Alex for all the actual combat.
I would also get one of the twins stuck on one side of a wall and get them killed.
Oh yeah if you wanted a little more variety and story it's great. I still prefer the gameplay of the original though
I totally agree with you. I didn't really care to much about the story tbh. The gameplay is most important and that is pretty good in both games.