Are sequels ever really worse than the originals?

Joe Matsuda

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Sapient Pearwood said:
Joe Matsuda said:
no no no

usually 1 and 2 are good, then 3 bombs

4 tries too hard to make up for it and by 5 everyone has given up...usually...ish...
Thinking of Silent Hill by any chance? :p or Resi for that matter.
[snip]
Actually, I wasn't thinking of anything...I just typed what I felt was a good "lifeline of a game"

but those are good examples that support my random lifeline

yay randomness :D
 

Siorn

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I'd probably go with sequels are usually better and/or add more gameplay, but if the game was great for its story and not known for its gameplay then the first is usually better. Personally I like games to have story but I play more for gameplay so I usually like sequels better.
 

Jfswift

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Yes, in the case of Need For Speed: Underground 1. The sequel was horrible. I'm not quite sure how to describe it but the sequel felt.. "bland" somehow, like it had lost it's scary grit that 1 had. In 1 I remember blasting over trains and evading my opponents at breakneck speeds while listening to gritty killer tunes, weaving between concrete pillars. 2 I was driving an oversized SUV (funny!) over mild rolling hills and enjoying the scenary. (incidentally the very first song I heard was "Lost Prophets -- To hell we ride" which was a great song for a racing game).
 

migo

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Sapient Pearwood said:
Joe Matsuda said:
no no no

usually 1 and 2 are good, then 3 bombs

4 tries too hard to make up for it and by 5 everyone has given up...usually...ish...
Thinking of Silent Hill by any chance? :p or Resi for that matter.

Well a non-gaming example of a sequel being undoubtably worse would be Predator. Or The Grudge.

Gaming examples - Monkey Islands 3 and 4, Red Faction 2, Tomb Raiders 4 and Underworld (think that's number 7?)
Well, Resident Evil was never good, and neither was Monkey Island, they just seemed cool at the time.
 

Kurokami

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migo said:
I've noticed in a lot of cases the sequel is unquestionably better than the original, even if it isn't received as well. If the game was good to begin with, the sequel ends up being better, and the only case of a sequel seeming worse is if the game originally rode on hype or just had something that seemed cool for the time and wasn't actually that good to begin with.

So, are there any games where the sequel is actually bad, and the original is still good when you go back and play it years later?
Almost all of them.

Really? You prefer sequels?
 

Skorpyo

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"Splinter Cell" was better than "SC:pandora Tommorow", and "SC:Chaos Theory" was far better than "SC:Double Agent" and "SC: Conviction" combined.
 

Pearwood

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migo said:
Well, Resident Evil was never good, and neither was Monkey Island, they just seemed cool at the time.
Resi was alright. I have to disagree big time with Monkey Island though, it's not my favourite adventure game ever but the first 2 are definitely in my top 5.
 

Guitarmasterx7

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Usually gameplay improves but story takes a huge dive. Though sometimes the gameplay is reworked entirely (final fantasy) or in rare cases things are actually taken OUT (GTA4 anyone?) so yes, sometimes sequels are a lot worse.
 

Okuu_Fusion

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The original Manhunt is far superior to its sequel in many ways... Manhunt 2's storyline is weaker, there was some camera effects to block out most of the violence which just ends up disorienting you, the AI was dumber, and the violence was not justifiable like the original...
 

migo

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Sapient Pearwood said:
migo said:
Well, Resident Evil was never good, and neither was Monkey Island, they just seemed cool at the time.
Resi was alright. I have to disagree big time with Monkey Island though, it's not my favourite adventure game ever but the first 2 are definitely in my top 5.
All adventure games were horrible, they were built around forcing you to call a 1-900 number to get tips. That's worse than anything ActiVision is planning with pay to play Call of Duty, as it's sneaky. It had good humour, but it was a horrible game, and there isn't a single good old school point and click game. I liked Monkey Island when I first played them, but any appreciation I have for them is pure nostalgia. Resident Evil had awful controls and odd camera angles. It was a zombie game that hadn't really been done before on consoles, so people who liked the theme went for it, but with games you have now, there's not even remotely a point to playing them. On the other hand, Final Fantasy VIII still stands out as a good game except for the graphics.
 

Ekit

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PayNSprayBandit said:
Ekit said:
Super Mario Bros. is far superior to Super Mario Bros. 2.
The real SMB2 or the American thing?
The American thing. But come to think of it, the real Super Mario Bros. 2 is also inferior to the original.
 

Danpascooch

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migo said:
Bioshock Bioshock Bioshock Bioshock Bioshock Bioshock

......Bioshock

The original worked because of the amazing story, something the sequel failed at miserably.
 

Alon Shechter

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Joe Matsuda said:
no no no

usually 1 and 2 are good, then 3 bombs

4 tries too hard to make up for it and by 5 everyone has given up...usually...ish...
No no no,
It's:
First makes moneyz by being fine,
Second uses up all the money to be SUPAH awesome,
Third tries too hard and ends up being SHIAT!
Fourth tries to make up , as you said,
and 5 crashed and burned before it even came out.

This is actually an excellent list, too bad the money that the first game made is being spent on buying 5 infinity billion pens for the office.
 

TheYellowCellPhone

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It really depends. I could name you games that had better sequels or games that had worse sequels, but that would prove little.

Here's the point: Sequels can be better than originals, it really just depends on what the developers change.
 

migo

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Kurokami said:
Almost all of them.

Really? You prefer sequels?
Doom II is better than Doom.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is better than Unreal Tournament.

Feeding Frenzy 2 is better than Feeding Frenzy.

Geometry Wars 2 is better than Geometry Wars.

Gran Turismo 2 is better than Gran Turismo.

Super Mario Bros 3 is better than Super Mario Bros (2 doesn't count, it's Doki Doki Panic).

Quake 2 is better than Quake.

Descent 2 is better than Descent.

Civilization IV is better than Civilization III (Civilization 2-3 was an odd switch where it wasn't better or worse as much as different).

Street Fighter II is better than Street Fighter.

Gears of War 2 is better than Gears of War.

Grand Theft Auto 2 is better than Grand Theft Auto.

Soul Calibur is better than Soul Blade.

WarCraft 2 is better than WarCraft.

Windows 7 Minesweeper is better than the previous iteration that existed since 3.1 through Vista.

I could go on.

The closest thing to an exception I could see is Burnout Takedown & Revenge to Paradise City, where I don't like it because it's a different game, rather than a subsequent game actually being worse.
 

Pearwood

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migo said:
All adventure games were horrible, they were built around forcing you to call a 1-900 number to get tips. That's worse than anything ActiVision is planning with pay to play Call of Duty, as it's sneaky. It had good humour, but it was a horrible game, and there isn't a single good old school point and click game. I liked Monkey Island when I first played them, but any appreciation I have for them is pure nostalgia. Resident Evil had awful controls and odd camera angles. It was a zombie game that hadn't really been done before on consoles, so people who liked the theme went for it, but with games you have now, there's not even remotely a point to playing them. On the other hand, Final Fantasy VIII still stands out as a good game except for the graphics.
Well I disagree that you had to phone for a hint, it took a while but it was more satisfying when you figured it out. FF8 had probably the worst combat system in the series in my opinion, it let down the whole game. I much preferred 9 and 12.