Malnourished Sequels

Khazoth

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So, the usual idea is to add with sequels, but i've noticed a few games that seem to do the opposite. There seems to be a few that leave out many features their last game had, causing the game to suffer for it.

What games do you think are the guiltiest of this?


For me, i'd have to say Saints Row 3, it removed the serious elements of the plot, gave only a handful of side missions compared to the amount in the previous game, and cut the customization down into a fraction of the second game. It also oddly enough removed the plot that had been started in the second game. The oddest thing is despite how much it took out, and how much it went out of its way to disown the second game.. I still like it.
 

Dandark

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Red faction: Armagedeon is the first thing that came to mind. They had these awesome destruction physics and a nice big mostly open and free roam world in the first game. Then they turned it into a linear shooter and for some reason had a plot that had pretty much nothing to do with the original game.
It still makes me sad as THQ won't be making another Red faction game now, it was just so much wasted potential as if they just polished and improved the ideas from Guerilla then it would have been great.
 

K84

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Trilligan said:
Worst offender I can think of is Final Fantasy XIII. I mean, they took the entire game out of that one.
To this day, i cannot believe how much they destroyed, what happened?
FF XII was awesome, how can you go from THAT to Final Hallway?
 

ScrabbitRabbit

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Dandark said:
Red faction: Armagedeon is the first thing that came to mind. They had these awesome destruction physics and a nice big mostly open and free roam world in the first game. Then they turned it into a linear shooter and for some reason had a plot that had pretty much nothing to do with the original game.
You know Guerilla was the third game in the series, right? :p

When Jedi Academy took out the dismemberment console command from Jedi Outcast I have to admit I cried a little. Luckily dismemberment could be restored via mods and I was happy again.
 

Dandark

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ScrabbitRabbit said:
Dandark said:
Red faction: Armagedeon is the first thing that came to mind. They had these awesome destruction physics and a nice big mostly open and free roam world in the first game. Then they turned it into a linear shooter and for some reason had a plot that had pretty much nothing to do with the original game.
You know Guerilla was the third game in the series, right? :p

When Jedi Academy took out the dismemberment console command from Jedi Outcast I have to admit I cried a little. Luckily dismemberment could be restored via mods and I was happy again.
I am aware. I played the first 2 games and enjoyed them but I always look at Guerrilla as a reboot and it's probably my favorite game in the series. Armagedeon seemed to be there attempt to make a sequel to it, it was a terrible failure because I have no idea what they were thinking when they made it. I assume it was originally another game but they lost the IP rights or something so they quickly changed it to red faction.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Sean Hollyman said:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashead II

Need I explain? D:
You won't, but I will.

The Force Unleashed 2 is a game that proves that improving the gameplay alone does not automatically make for a better game. The combat and force mechanics are far better in FU2 than FU1, and yet the game utterly fails on every other level.

It is far too short, the story is incomprehensible, and there are countless parts where the game builds up to nothing. You go to Degobah. The entire segment is thirty seconds of wandering through a swamp until you meet Yoda and then the rest of the entire goddamn planet is a cutscene.

Boba Fett is in the game. In the cutscenes. He does nothing apart from stand there, grab Juno, and follow you in Slave One. You never fight him, he has three lines, and never does a single damn thing.

The first time you jump out a window and do a skydiving section it is a blast. When you do it six more times, it becomes boring. The boss fights are worse than the Star Destroyer section of the first game. The plot conflicts with the films, there is hardly any variety of enemy beyond QTE Droids, stormtrooper and AT-STs. The ending is the biggest fuck you to fans.

Vader is captured by the Alliance, months before A New Hope starts, with Starkiller alive and aiding the Rebellion, with Boba Fett chasing them. That's how the game ends, and no, there is no Force Unleashed 3 coming out.

How does Vader escape? Why does nobody mention Starkiller in A New Hope, if he is clearly active and leading full scale attacks against the Empire? It diminishes Luke's role as the last Jedi, and fucks over a ton of supplemental stuff that leads into episode 4.

This is one of the times where the Dark Side ending would be better for the canon, but Lucasart's policy is that the Light Side ending is always the true ending. The Dark Side Ending has Starkiller brutally cut down by Vader and his Starkiller Clones, thereby bringing Force Unleashed 2 to a tight, if cruel, end, ensuring it won't fuck over the rest of the canon.
 

ScrabbitRabbit

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Dandark said:
I am aware. I played the first 2 games and enjoyed them but I always look at Guerrilla as a reboot and it's probably my favorite game in the series. Armagedeon seemed to be there attempt to make a sequel to it, it was a terrible failure because I have no idea what they were thinking when they made it. I assume it was originally another game but they lost the IP rights or something so they quickly changed it to red faction.
I haven't played much of Armageddon, but from what I have played I do see what you mean. Guerilla was one of the most fun open-world games ever to just dick around in. I remember playing one of the hostage situation side missions and just plowing my truck right through the house, effectively demolishing it instantly. It was brilliant... then I played a demo of Armageddon on OnLive and it felt like a poor man's Gears with destruction hastily tacked on. Shame =[
 

Arkvoodle

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Star Wars: Rebel Strike.

Instead of expanding on the excellent, tried-and-true flying levels from the past two Rogue Squadron games the producers made an idiotic choice to include on-foot combat levels with PAINFUL controls and even worse enemy AI.
 

Dandark

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ScrabbitRabbit said:
Dandark said:
I am aware. I played the first 2 games and enjoyed them but I always look at Guerrilla as a reboot and it's probably my favorite game in the series. Armagedeon seemed to be there attempt to make a sequel to it, it was a terrible failure because I have no idea what they were thinking when they made it. I assume it was originally another game but they lost the IP rights or something so they quickly changed it to red faction.
I haven't played much of Armageddon, but from what I have played I do see what you mean. Guerilla was one of the most fun open-world games ever to just dick around in. I remember playing one of the hostage situation side missions and just plowing my truck right through the house, effectively demolishing it instantly. It was brilliant... then I played a demo of Armageddon on OnLive and it felt like a poor man's Gears with destruction hastily tacked on. Shame =[
When I think back to Guerilla I remember the times when I used the nano rifle to disentergrate the wing of a gunship which then crashed into a nearby building full of enemy soldiers. The building then slowly collapsed in that awesome authentic way. Those physics they had were so damn awesome.
I remember the epic games in multiplayer where I would caused a buildings top floor to collapse and therefore smash through other floors on it's way down or when I used the Rhino pack to smash through the bottom of a tower which caused it to fall to one side and crush a bridge with enemy players on it.
All of this was just epic unscripted awesomeness.


When I think back to the demo for Armageddon I remember playing a sub par corridor shooter that was linear and didn't have as many opportunities to destroy stuff. I remember hearing about the completely retarded story and I remember how dissapointed I was with it.
The only good things I can think of for it were the magnet gun and maybe the mech.
 

TheMann

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Unreal Tournament 3. *sigh* So, so disappointing. This is the franchise that used to be the flagship of run and gun shooters. I mean, there's some good ideas in there, the environmental effects are nice and the weapons animations are very cool. Yet, the levels are less imaginative and the gameplay is stripped down and anemic compared to UT 2004. I just bought it anyway, so I can gut the maps and resources in the UnrealEd. I suppose that's worth $10 in a way.
 

Shoggoth2588

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Trilligan said:
Worst offender I can think of is Final Fantasy XIII. I mean, they took the entire game out of that one.
It's the only Final Fantasy game where you can watch someone else playing it and have just as much fun (if not more fun) than actually playing the thing.

I can't help but feel like Resident Evil 5 took away not only the horror part of the franchise but also any hint of difficulty. Then again, I'm pretty sure I was in the minority when it came to players who re-played the first level again-and-again, farming enough money to afford the most powerful weapons...which Shiva snubbed because of how much she loved that stupid freaking pistol...

Soviet Heavy said:
(About Force Unleashed 2) It is far too short, the story is incomprehensible, and there are countless parts where the game builds up to nothing.
I think the biggest problem with the games story is that it shouldn't exist. It was dumb enough for the expanded universe to bring back Palpatine as a clone but Force Unleashed was a nice, sustained story that answered an unasked question about the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance. The fact that Force Unleashed 2 even exists seems like a huge slap to established canon and, a huge waste to what could have been an excellent anthology franchise. As I've said before on other threads, Force Unleashed could have been an exploration of the rise and, fall of Sith Lords and, Jedi Knights from the Old Republic, New Order, etc.
 

Azure-Supernova

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I said it on another thread, but I'll bring it up here too.

I like Mass Effect 2 for the most part. The shooting mechanics are definitely a lot stronger, but that's about all that improved. Oh and maybe the hacking and bypass minigames, but other than that I felt that it didn't really expand or improve anything else from Mass Effect.

The worst offender here is probably the weapons/armour systm, which is now a rigid process of upgrades and planet scanning. There are a few interchangeable bits and pieces, but it doesn't hold a candle to the varying armours available in the original. Unless of course you have all the pre-order bonuses and DLC.
Weapons suffer the same, there's not much variety and there's usually a clear superious weapon as opposed to ones with varying pros and cons. Also as an Infiltrator I hated thermal clips, 10 shots and then having to move for more ammo didn't make much sense. I much preferred my supercharged shots that overheated my rifle.

About that scanning mechanic, it was tedious. Sure the Mako handled like crap, but that was something to improve not outright replace. Exploring planets, coming across abandonded camps, getting ambushed by Thresher Maws. That's not to say that surveying ore should be done in the same way, I see no reason why the Mako simply couldn't do it the way that the M-44 Hammerhead did.
Also the constant need to replenish your supply of probes and fuel pretty much made the job extra tedious. The way the whole thing worked made it no more than a lengthy method of buying the ore.

One of my biggest disappointments is probably a small issue for most people. The new and improved citadel was now reduced to a series of fast travel menus. Looking back most of these are really personal preference... but did anyone really like scanning heaps of planets for Element Zero?
 

Swyftstar

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Khazoth said:
For me, i'd have to say Saints Row 3, it removed the serious elements of the plot, gave only a handful of side missions compared to the amount in the previous game, and cut the customization down into a fraction of the second game. It also oddly enough removed the plot that had been started in the second game. The oddest thing is despite how much it took out, and how much it went out of its way to disown the second game.. I still like it.
I'll second Saints Row 3. The story mode in 2 was full of humorous story based missions for three separate gangs. Most of which had some lengthy and entertaining cutscenes bookending the actual gameplay. The city was huge and there were side missions everywhere, some of which you had to actually accidentally stumble upon. The 3rd seemed like one big string of side missions with cheesy cutscenes. There was one big gang with three seeming divisions and you actually end up disposing of each division rather easily. It seemed incohesive and haphazardly put together. Like they added a whole bunch of fun things to do but forgot to put a game in there. I had fun with it because there was a lot of fun stuff to do but I liked 2 a lot better.