Sequals you can play without playing the first.

[Nobody82]

I would have to go with the Sly Cooper series. (In fact, I started with Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.)The major back-story and recurring characters are explained in each successive game.

 

[Zaksav91]

f.e.a.r 2

IDK bout that one, the first one is rather important for you to understand the second one.

But yeah lot's of games you can play without playing the first. Such as GTA, Final Fantasy, Total war games, and the dynasty warrior series. Idk those are all basically series. With direct sequels (that continue the same basic storyline) you may want to play the first one like Mass effect and Halo.

 

[Phoenix1213]

Deus Ex:Invisible War

You want to play the sequel first that way you aren't disappointed by it.

 

[SonicWaffle]

What sequels can't you play without playing the first?

This more or less sums it up. I think it would be harder to find a sequel that required a play-through the original game first. Most games nowadays use the sequel to update the game system and encourage more people to play it; updating the story comes more as an after thought.

That having been said, I doubt I would enjoy the upcoming Mass Effect 2 without finishing the first one. And as rhyno said earlier, the Kingdom Hearts series is more difficult to follow without having some idea what happened the first go around.

But then, that's what wikipedia is for...

I think the question would have been better posed as something like "Which games will make less sense/lessen your enjoyment if you only play the sequel", and it still really depends on how much you value story in a game. I really enjoy a good story, and it can sometimes keep me playing when the game is a bit crap, but if someone is only playing for the game part the story matters little.

I agree about Mass Effect 2, what with the whole thing about loading from your ME1 save games. I'd also say Assassin's Creed 2 (for me at least), since I loved the story and the gameplay, and hopefully the sequel will take up Desmond's story where the first left off. Which is the point where things started to go batshit crazy. I want to know about the other subjects, and the remaining assassins, and all the writing on the walls...

 

[Wintermoot]

any fighter HL2 (excl. the episodes) FO3 and The Elder scrolls series the story between HL1 and HL2 differec so much that you can play it als FO3 differc from setting from the first two and TES has al different stories

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

Pretty much every sequel. There's usually a way of explaining the story for people who haven't played the previous games.

 

[BlueMartian]

Gears 2, basically the same as 1 but with better graphics and it had a better crack at telling a story

 

[Orbot_Vectorman]

World or Warcraft, although it pisses some people off if you haven't at least played Warcraft 3, That is if you try talking about lore.

That's true one of my guild mates got pissed just cause i never played any of the other warcraft games. Needless to say i never healed for any of his daily heroics

I get distracted during dailies, it goes something like this "Hey Arthena, come and help kill the dragon" me "Ohhhhhhh, flower". And thats how I have switched guilds 10 times over.

 

[IamQ]

Jak 2. I never played the first one, and Jak 2 is still my favourite game of all time (Although I've played the first one now )

 

[Mighty Lighty]

This gen`s rachet and clank and last gen`s rachet and clank

 

[AddytheGreat]

Uncharted 2 I hear is pretty detached from the original story