8 Videogame Sequels that Surpass the Original Game

ffronw

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8 Videogame Sequels that Surpass the Original Game

Sometimes sequels get looked down upon, but these eight games overshadow their predecessors.

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Veldel

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Saints row 3 only surpassed in goofiness in everything else the 2nd game is better most notably the customizing of your character.
 

Zontar

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No Fallout 2? I mean sure, before Fallout 3 came out people pretended it killed the franchise, but it's still a better game.

I also have to say that Borderlands 2 really seems out of place to me. I just never had the same 'click' with it Borderlands had.

I'd also like to nominate X3: reunion after the fact, though it's so small I can understand people not being aware of it.
 

The Enquirer

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I personally enjoy sr2 more than the third game, having played through it multiple times across multiple systems. I'm guessing this list is only counting base games, not mods, if that were the case I may have to nominate Battlefront 2.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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1. Horseshit! Everyone knows Asylum is the best of the entire series.

2.Yeah alright that's fair.

3. Absolutely!

4. Never played them. No idea.

5. I guess? Borderlands 2 still bored me to tears!

6. Yeah fair enough.

7. Sure? None of them aged well, but I guess.

8. Meh...Saints Row 2 was amazing.


...that's it? Where's Diablo 2? Mass Effect 2&3? Mario Kart 64! Ocarina of Time! Hell, Riven was better than Myst! Left 4 Dead 2! Fallout 3 and New Vegas!
Come on guys! You're not even trying!
 

Sniper Team 4

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I think the only part of Asylum that managed to outshine City was the story, and even then only by a bit. Asylum's story felt more structured and contained, where City's, being set in an open world, suffered just a little bit from the open-world story problem. Everything else though, City blew Asylum away in. Plus Catwoman. Best character to play as in the whole franchise.

Resident Evil 4 was actually the first RE game I ever played because X-Play gave it a 5 out of 5 (back in the day when that meant something) and all of my friends praised it. I admit I've never played any of the first 3, but wow was 4 an experience. Good times.

Half-Life 2. A shame Valve is sitting on their hands for the next game. 2 was amazing and I still enjoy it, but the whole series is sort of tainted now because of the cloud of, "They're never going to finish this, are they?" that hangs in my head.

I would like to add Silent Hill 2 as my contribution. Because nightmares. Terrifying nightmares...
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

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I gotta agree with Borderlands 2 and Assassin's Creed 2.

AC2 instantly became my favorite in the series and I love how the opening with Ezio and his brother set things up for the rest of the game. Very bittersweet and touching.

And with Borderlands 2, I've had a blast playing that one. I enjoyed the first one well enough, and you can see where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do in the DLC. The sequel was fun and it's great to play with other people. And dat loot. :D
 

Gailim

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Honestly video games do MUCH better the sequels department than most other media, to the point it's kind of weird to write an article about it. Gameplay is usually improved by seeing what they did wrong in the first game. obviously not all the time and not for everyone.

also, you missed the greatest example of the idea

Street Fighter 2

SF2 pretty much codified what all modern fighting games are
 

josemlopes

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Borderlands 2 and Saints Row 3 were inferior,

Borderlands 2 never knew when to shut up, why have key conversations in the middle of a fight with many explosions and screaming enemies (and on top of that have 80% of dialog be useless banter and the "oh so quirky" jokes). Also the weapons were worse then in the original.

Saints Row 3 is the worse of the series (not counting Gat out of Hell), SR4 actually made its humor and mechanics work, in the end feeling like a break up letter to the fans remembering of what it once was (SR1 and 2). SR3 on the other hand was lost in its sea of useless story moments and poor pacing.
 

TorchofThanatos

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josemlopes said:
Borderlands 2 and Saints Row 3 were inferior,

Borderlands 2 never knew when to shut up, why have key conversations in the middle of a fight with many explosions and screaming enemies (and on top of that have 80% of dialog be useless banter and the "oh so quirky" jokes). Also the weapons were worse then in the original.

Saints Row 3 is the worse of the series (not counting Gat out of Hell), SR4 actually made its humor and mechanics work, in the end feeling like a break up letter to the fans remembering of what it once was (SR1 and 2). SR3 on the other hand was lost in its sea of useless story moments and poor pacing.
Really BL1 was alright but the second just build on top of everything. More guns, crazier guns and for the compliant about the dialogue, I love that people were actually talking. The first had an interesting world but no one rememberable in it. Jack was an amazing villain and I don't even know who was the villain in the first. I can understand having found memories because of the experiences you had with your friends but the second was better in every single way. Well, not ever way. Hand cannons were great and I missed them in the second. Meh, I guess people like what they like.
 

Kyle Winston

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In the Pokemon franchise, I think the Gen2 games were superior to Gen1. Gen2 had everything Gen1 had, while adding enough to make it more than a rehash type sequel. Gen2 added day/night cycles, breeding, new methods of evolution, branch evolution, two new types, held items to name a few. Arguably the best addition is that you can go against the Gen1 protagonist in an epic battle atop the highest peak in the land.
 

kajinking

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Gotta really diagree about SR 3. 2 was amazing because it tried to be somewhat grounded and even had actual serious moments that just made the wackness stand out more and deliver more impact.

SR 2: Holy Crap! A minigun!

SR 3: Well I guess they just gave me a free tank less than an hour into the game. Neat...Sorta...
 

Politrukk

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Veldie said:
Saints row 3 only surpassed in goofiness in everything else the 2nd game is better most notably the customizing of your character.
Saints Row The Third was just a new game, the franchise basically died with 2 for what it was ( they could have improved on it without going overboard like they did in the end).
 

Secondhand Revenant

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Kyle Winston said:
In the Pokemon franchise, I think the Gen2 games were superior to Gen1. Gen2 had everything Gen1 had, while adding enough to make it more than a rehash type sequel. Gen2 added day/night cycles, breeding, new methods of evolution, branch evolution, two new types, held items to name a few. Arguably the best addition is that you can go against the Gen1 protagonist in an epic battle atop the highest peak in the land.
Eevee was the original branch evolution though
 

Xan Krieger

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Given how much it's been in the news lately I'm surprised you didn't mention how Star Wars Battlefront 2 was better than the first one. From the things I've seen it's even better than Star Wars Battlefront thought of course even Star Wars Battlefront is better than Star Wars Battlefront.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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The Real Sandman said:
Why do I come here anymore? The Escapist has been going downhill for a good year now, and these cheaply cobbled together articles and bits of click bait are part of the problem. Apart from Yahtzee and Shamus, The Escapist is several cow skulls and tumble weeds away from being a barren wasteland.

Not even gonna bother commenting on this post in particular, because the users above already quoted most of my thoughts verbatim.
You're always welcome to move on to greener pastures, pilgrim. No malice intended just saying if you're not gonna contribute to the discussion, and are gonna echo the "this place is dead" sentiment, you may have no more business here. Sorry but I don't see why you wasted time posting that when you could just close the tab and find something else to do, nothing of what you said is constructive or furthers any conversation/discussion.

OT: There were a lot of great games that surpassed their first entries. I'd agree with most of these, though Arkham City was great it missed a few things that Asylum really nailed. I'd say that City is a half-step behind Asylum in terms of relative greatness.
 

Vrach

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Ehhh, some of these are debatable at best:

Batman: First game had the better story, atmosphere and pretty much everything other than an open world and some cool new mechanics. It's certainly a worthy sequel, but I'd hardly say it's straight up better.

AC2 is in a similar boat, but I would say it's better on the whole. The story, setting and the atmosphere were generally better in the first game for me, but the gameplay was so dull and repetitive in the first game that the second one just wins out on pure polish.

SR3 I just find straight up worse. The "silly" level of SR2 felt just right. SR3 took it too far for me and made it boring and/or annoying for the most part. The world also felt (probably is) smaller and the game is far more repetitive. The story length is a lot shorter and even just judging on the amount of time I've had fun with the game after the story, SR2 easily wins out. Hell, I've reinstalled the game at least twice and played it through, then messed around in the open world. SR3 I played, got through the story, tried to mess around in free roam, got bored with it pretty quick and just never played it again.

Silentpony said:
...that's it? Where's Diablo 2? Mass Effect 2&3? Mario Kart 64! Ocarina of Time! Hell, Riven was better than Myst! Left 4 Dead 2! Fallout 3 and New Vegas!
Come on guys! You're not even trying!
ME2 was good (nice polish, great all around), but the first game was still pretty damn good and the story's on point. ME3 was just cinematic garbage - not even talking about the ending, there's virtually no choices to be had, long ass talking cutscenes and the story's shit compared to both earlier games.

L4D2 was good, but I still somehow always preferred the first game. Both are good though. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were completely different games from the old ones and if you're comparing the two of them, F3 had a miles better story and setting, F:NV just polished out some shooter mechanics really.
 

Dalisclock

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I like SR3, but I actually think 2 and 4 were better for various reasons. 3 was a lot of fun(and I still go back and replay it every so often), but SR2 had a lot more meat and a better story while SR4 took the new engine for SR3 and improved upon it in every way.

Gat out of Hell was just disappointing.
 

FoolKiller

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josemlopes said:
Borderlands 2 and Saints Row 3 were inferior,

Borderlands 2 never knew when to shut up, why have key conversations in the middle of a fight with many explosions and screaming enemies (and on top of that have 80% of dialog be useless banter and the "oh so quirky" jokes). Also the weapons were worse then in the original.

Saints Row 3 is the worse of the series (not counting Gat out of Hell), SR4 actually made its humor and mechanics work, in the end feeling like a break up letter to the fans remembering of what it once was (SR1 and 2). SR3 on the other hand was lost in its sea of useless story moments and poor pacing.
I disagree on Borderlands 2. It was more interesting story wise and the conversations added to the fun of the original. I loved the first one but hated reading the mission descriptions.

I liked SR3 but SR2 was the pinnacle of the series. SR4 was just plain fun.

As for the Batman fans. Asylum was superior in every way. The open world of City took away from the magic that Asylum was. There were many great aspects to City but Asylum just felt like a better game.