"hotline miami 2: wrong number" takes place in a heavily anachronistic order before and after the events of the original, focusing more on the latter between october and december 1991. during the events of "hotline miami", the player's character, "jacket," is unwittingly manipulated into killing off the leadership of the russian mob by 50 blessings, a neo-nationalist terror cell that masquerades as a peaceful activist group. the persona of "richard", a mysterious figure in a rooster mask that occasionally appeared to jacket in the original game, appears at different points to most of the game's playable characters. the player controls these individuals in a series of intersecting plotlines exploring both the background and the aftermath of jacket's rampage.