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Is The Last of Us 2 actually secretly spiritual successor to Hotline Miami?

Dust

Dust

C H A O S
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,235
Now before you go "lol no", think about it for a second.

I am just to finish my second playthrough and this time I went FULL rambo/psycho almost never using stealth and just flying around murdering everyone.

Now for the points why I think there are similarities between two:

1)HM3 mock title screen in HM2 was actually set in post apocalyptic world.
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2)Combat in TLoU2 is extremely frantic and tense once you disregard stealth and just dodge/circling around while blowing and smashing everything around. From super brutal meele finishers to gun combat, it does feel like HM at its core, with most enemies dying in one hit.

3)Restart system. It is absolutely wonderful where you can restart whole encounter/checkpoint in seconds, giving you that "I want to perfect this" mindset.

4)General disregard for life and brutality in the world. Just like in HM, life has little to no meaning and everything is "kill or be killed". Plus dealing with psychological trauma of that.

5)Actual Hotline Miami easter egg in the game, which is unavoidable.

After this playthrough I genuinely think Naughty Dog could make a 3D Hotline Miami game/remake, which I thought was a bullshit notion. Just needs that synth OST.

The game gained MASSIVELY in my eyes gameplay wise now. I almost feel like this is how it should have been played rather than with stealth.
 
KOfLegend

KOfLegend

Member
Jun 17, 2019
1,795
I'm actually really surprised Hotline Miami hasn't had a spiritual successor/a game in spider by it yet. There was that Mr. Shifty game but it wasn't good.
 
wafflebrain

wafflebrain

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,236
Suuure...but disagreed on the snap reload time, its nowhere near as fast as HM...the latter is like a split second before you're back in control and TLOU2 I'd estimate is a good 5-10 seconds with a loading screen. I'd love for it to be as fast as HM though. On my third playthrough now (which I almost never do with a game), the combat is just so satisfying.
 
Mr.Deadshot

Mr.Deadshot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,285
But to be honest, I think it's not a coincidence that they chose Hotline Miami as the east egg. There are also common motives in the story of both games.
For everyone who doesn't know, Hotline Miami 1+2 have a pretty deep storyline. Here is a good read-up and just read that last sentence. It could be 1:1 applied to TLOU2:
This is a story about being unable to let go of a difficult past and what happens when you allow old wounds to burn deeply to the point of obsession or, in some cases, madness. But ultimately, it's a tale of scarred, broken men struggling to adjust in a strange new world forged by their own defeat—too damaged to fit in, too bitter to let sleeping dogs lie

www.vice.com

The Story of ‘Hotline Miami 2’ Explained

You might have missed that it's really a tale of scarred, broken men struggling to adjust in a strange new world.
www.vice.com www.vice.com
 
SJRB

SJRB

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
4,861
Well if you look at some of the gifs people like Sunhi post on Twitter, it might as well be a Hotline Miami sequel.
 
Sande

Sande

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,981
Hotline Miami is obviously much higher tempo, but the combat is surprisingly similar when you think about it.

A "Hotline Miami" mode where you can't sneak and everything one shots would be pretty sweet in TLOU.
 
Ciao

Ciao

Member
Jun 14, 2018
4,850
Yes, feels like it. High speed, high stake ultra violence, with a nice gestion of distance/melee attacks. If ND just reused the battle system of TLOU2 with an appropriate artstyle and a little bit of tweaking, that would be a cool spiritual successor.

I don't really get the snarky comments of the thread. People are so defensive when it comes to that game, that's crazy.
 
BitterFig

BitterFig

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,099
People that played TLOU2 full stealth have not played the game yet.

Thanks OP, that's a brilliant analogy.

Waiting for PS5 to do a second play through, but if there is a difficulty setting where the enemy one shot you it might play even more like HM.
 
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Trisc

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,488
BitterFig said:
People that played TLOU2 full stealth have not played the game yet.

Thanks OP, that's a brilliant analogy.
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I'll counter that and say people who snuck through the bulk of the game got to enjoy one of the best stealth-action games since Metal Gear Solid 3. And even when shit goes loud, those few remaining stragglers put up a damn good fight and make having picked out their friends before shit hit the fan all the more rewarding.
 
BitterFig

BitterFig

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,099
Trisc said:
I'll counter that and say people who snuck through the bulk of the game got to enjoy one of the best stealth-action games since Metal Gear Solid 3. And even when shit goes loud, those few remaining stragglers put up a damn good fight and make having picked out their friends before shit hit the fan all the more rewarding.
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What sets TLOU2 apart is the post detection enemy AI. The bad stealth games have this two states mode where enemies are either almost blind or suddenly can see through walls. MGS has this alert mechanic that was fun when it was new... but it's still too punishing when detected making it in many instances too tempting to restart the encounter when a mistake is made. Still an extremely fun game but ultimately very different than your typical TLOU2 encounter.

TLOU2 makes you understand that it's ok to be loud. That it's good to run away. That it's efficient to poke enemies from different angles (that under water segment... yummy). That it's easy to break line of sight. That you should make use of all your arsenal.

Where I agree with OP on the comparison with Hotline Miami is that you cannot engage enemies full frontal without any kind of advantage and expect to succeed. It is not as punishing as in HM where an enemy hit = insta-death, but it's not too far off. Rush to an enemy that has a gun pointed at you and their shots will break all of your momentum leaving you exposed in the open. Spend too much time aiming for that sweet head shot and the enemy shot will set you on your back, completely ruining your aim and exposing you to further attacks. Instead you see a small group of enemies, you devise a plan that involves a series of quick action you have to do (mixing stealth, throawables, shooting and melee) while being aware of potential covers and escape plans when shit hits the fan as you put it. Of all the games I've seen TLOU2 being compared to, this reminds me the most of HM and that's why I find OP's observation brilliant.
 
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Lukemia SL

Lukemia SL

Member
Jan 30, 2018
9,384

Deleted member 7883

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
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If Naughty Dog intended this to be a spiritual successor to Hotline Miami, they wouldn't have announced the game with an acoustic guitar performance, and we'd be hearing a LOT more synths in the promo material.

edit: okay I love this HM easter egg in the game tho. Especially how she's playing it on Vita.
 
VaporSnake

VaporSnake

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,603
lolno but I did think the Hotline Miami easter egg was one of the coolest I had ever seen in a game. As soon as I heard MOON's Hydrogen my ears perked up and I thought "Oh cool they got a moon song" and then you look down and see the psp and hotline miami on the screen, so rad.
 
Ailanthium

Ailanthium

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,275
While I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a spiritual successor, I agree that its inclusion is thematically intentional and that its brutality was an inspiration for The Last of Us: Part II. They didn't choose it at random, especially considering that the other major Easter eggs (Uncharted, Jak & Daxter) are self-referential for Naughty Dog.
 
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