Sequels that destroyed their great predecessors

[Frybird]

GTA3 is a prime example actually. I enjoyed the first 2 GTA games, but GTA3 just blew them away and I could not go back. GTA3 was itself overshadowed by Vice City and San Andreas, but not to the extent that GTA3 overshadowed the 2D games.

May have been true for me once, but nowadays i much rather go back to GTA2 than to GTA3 (i agree that GTA1 just seems pretty crappy by todays standards)..kinda for the same reasons i cannot play most PS1 games anymore. 3D Graphics age soooo badly. (also, GTA 2 has a very unique style that is unlike any other GTA Game).

Always troubling as "destroyed predecessors" go is Max Payne 1. The Story (cheesy as it might be) still holds up alright, and in terms of graphics it's mostly alright (even though the photographed face textures look really weird, not only on "Sam Lake Max") when compared to Max Payne 2, but with the changes the so called "Bullet Time 2.0" brought to the entire gameplay of Max Payne 2, the first one just feels annoying to play nowadays. When activated, Bullet Time drains far too quickly to be used for anything outside of the "diving moves", and without the possibility to "chain" kills in Bullet Time as well as being able to do fast reloads, combined with the fact that just about every shooter mimicked the Bullet Time Mechanic in some way, Max Payne 1 just plays a bit too dull.
Well, at least you can fix it to a certain degree with Mods.

 

[Fireaxe]

Warcraft was a good game, Warcraft 2 was better in virtually every way, and a bit later Warcraft 2 also came with the best online gaming platform that wasn't surpassed for at least a decade, and arguably still hasn't been.

 

[Bat Vader]

The Witcher 2 is one for me. Played The Witcher and loved it but after playing The Witcher 2 I can't bring myself to play the first one again. Love the first game but the second one is just so much better.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

LoZ:Windwaker, is not only my favorite in the series but also face slapps Majora's mask. However i also think Majora's mask beat the tights off of Ocarina of Time

Windwaker>Majora>Ocarina of time

bar none dude

 

[Harlemura]

I preferred almost everything in Kingdom Hearts 2 to the first one. Y'know, except Atlantica.
I know that a lot of the combat, especially with bosses near the end, revolved around pressing triangle for everything, but that combined with the revamped magic and the Drive system made combat feel a lot smoother and more like it flowed. Playing the first one again, everything just feels so much more clunky, with a lot of fights with flying enemies and bosses having you just jump and flail and hope you land hits.

Though I think I hold KH2 in such high regard for the sole reason that you get to go to Disney Castle. I don't know why it got me so hyped when I first got there, and I sure as hell don't know why I'd still get hyped if I were to play it through again.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I tried to Play Final Fantasy 11 back in the day. Didn't like it one bit.

Took one look at Final Fantasy 14 and greatly dismissed it.

Then, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn came out. Was going to dismiss it, played the beta...then joined the Escapist Final Fantasy 14 group here shortly thereafter and am one of their healers now!

So yeah, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn.

StarControl 2 to StarControl.

Oh yeah? Final Fantasy Legend 2 to Final Fantasy Legend. HA!

[/moreoldschoolthanyou]

......god, I feel like I was born in the Paleozoic Era after saying that. >.>

 

[Anachronism]

Baldur's Gate 2 completely overshadows the original unfortunately. I say unfortunately because BG1 does do quite a few things right and in a few cases even better than its sequel, and with mods the original is still a fantastic rpg experience which I highly recommend.

But 2, 2 doesn't even need mods. Even after well over ten years it's still in my mind one of the best games ever made. Kinda hard for the original to live up to that kind of glowing praise.

Yeah, pretty much this. I still really like Baldur's Gate, and it's the game that got me into RPGs, but Baldur's Gate II did everything it did bigger and better. Fewer companions, certainly, but there was so much more interaction with them and they got much more character development than in the first game. Prettier and more varied environments; better combat with lots more enemies courtesy of Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment; and a story which blows the first one's out of the water. To me, it's the best Western RPG ever made.

Also, to stick with a theme, Icewind Dale II to the first game. IWD1 is good, certainly, but I did get bored of it, and playing the sequel made me realise that the first one is nothing but one massive dungeon after another, with nothing to vary the pace. IWD2 is so much better with the pacing and level design that it's very hard for me to go back to the first one.

 

[MetalDooley]

Dragon Age 2 is for me the worst contender here by far.

Dragon Age Origins was a very good "successor" to Baldur's Gate 2 when they released it ( iteven got a few game of the year awards) and they had to go and screw it all up with their "press a for something awesome to happen" combat system. It was such an awful mainstreaming of the game starting from the combat to the Mass Effect wheel that I despise it even now and I can't push myself go to play it again to have a perfect save for Dragon Age Inquisition.

They should of remained to the DAO dialogue system which was way better. But eh, you can't have everything.

Someone didn't read the OP methinks.OP was asking for examples of sequels that improved so much upon their predecessors that it's hard to go back and play the originals now.Not sequels that were worse than the originals

OT:Assassin's Creed 2.The first AC game had some great ideas and I love the whole crusades time period but after playing the sequel holy hell is it a repetitive game with some terrible design decisions

 

[MrBaskerville]

Forbidden Siren 2 destroys Forbidden Siren 1, i like both but it is kinda hard to appreciate the illogical puzzles in Siren 1 and the controls leaves a lot to be desired when you've played Siren 2. Everything is just better in that game, even the atmosphere.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Assassin's Creed 2. Made the game a little less tedious and the swordplay a little more fun. Could have given Desmond more personality though, but we can't be perfect.
I'll second Arkham City, only because I felt it was a bit more Batman than the first. Nothing like being a rooftop perching psychopath locked in with a whole mess of other psychopaths. Plus Catwoman, Robin (which we should have had more of) and Nightwing (who should have had a playable side-story). Can't all be perfect though. Not to mention the storyline and surprise shocking end... Which since its a comic-book game can be retconned later by way of ambiguous convoluted explanation #125.
Seriously though I do feel Arkham City was more of what I liked about AA with better combat and more opportunity to be the Bat in his "element". Plus the sidestory's did set up a lot of material for the next chapter, soon as Rocksteady decides to unveil it. Also can't wait for Arkham Origins, just because.

Master of Orion 2, just felt like a sequel worthy of more praise.

Star Control 2: I don't know what genre to classify this as, but was an absolute gem.
EDIT: Ninja'd on this one, dammit.

Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of my all time favorite games and I really do love LoZ and Zelda II
EDIT: I don't include OOT, MM, Windwaker or Skyward Sword because of the style changes, those are set apart as games on their own.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Assassin's Creed was a shitty, boring game that tried new things most of which sucked. I mean WhoTF thought of the horse riding/disguise bollocks? Altair was a rubbish, uninteresting character. AssCreed 2 was a very good game that took the bits that worked (ie. the running/climbing), lost the shitty parts of the first that didn't and gave us an interesting, well realised character.

BG2:SoA/ToB over 1. Better engine, larger world and ability to level beyond 8

GTA: Vice City was much better than its predecessor and truth be told, its successors too. It nailed everything one expects from a sandbox GTA game.

Far Cry 3 is a great sandbox that improves on both of its predecessors in most ways.

Games where the opposite is true

Crysis 2/3 turned a unique, cutting edge PC shooter into a console MMS complete with handholding, checkpoints, set pieces and "staying frosty". After such a stellar title, the sequels were crushingly disappointing.

Dead Space 3 ruined and likely killed off the "franchise" entirely. There's almost nothing good about this game, except possibly...no, nothing.

Dragon Age II, while not a terrible game, was far from a great game. A rushed game with so little in common with its predecessor. Instead of a "spiritual successor" to the legendary Baldur's Gate, and the fantastic premise of the Origin stories, we got WoW gameplay mechanics, barely coherent, uninteresting story, copy/pasted levels and more DLC than can be reasonably counted.

 

[Ryleh]

Portal 2 and all the Myst sequels.

When portal 2 was announced I had no faith whatsoever that they could make the original any better... but they did... by lots.

 

[Pixelspeech]

Portal 2 and all the Myst sequels.

When portal 2 was announced I had no faith whatsoever that they could make the original any better... but they did... by lots.

I can't imagine Portal without Wheatley ever again. Nice pick.

 

[putowtin]

Fallout 3 & Fallout: New Vegas

I always had problems with Fallout 3 story, to be honest I found it boring, and even playing as a evil sadistic femfatale who would sell her own brother (if she had one) into slavery, got boring after a while.

Fallout: New Vegas however is a joy to play, not least for the different factions but how your reputation changes with various groups depending on your actions, making it a different game everytime you play.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

List one I havn't seen and is probably only experienced by me; Saints Row The Third flogs Sainst Row 2. Sure SR2 had some nicer narrative quirks, but from a technical standpoint the game is far superior. Better looking, better handling, better in my opinion.

It's sort of why I can 'forgive' the recycling of SR3's content in SR4. Mostly because they change up the gameplay so much (super powers and jumping around as opposed to driving around throwing all the grenades) that the game feels at home in the series, but doesn't make the last game 'obsolete' in a way. Apart from the added customization options, if you could patch those into SR3 Volition, that'd be great.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Mass Effect 2,
Half Life 2,
KoTOR II(it was just so much more than KoTOR I was(with tslrcm)),
Shogun 2,
Dirt 2(I am still amazed by how a) nice the game looks and b) how well optimized it is),
Payday 2,
Team Fortress 2,
Guild Wars 2(the only MMO I ever played for longer than two weeks, and considering it is me, that's quite something)
Borderlands 2,

...and I think that's about it for now, bear in mind, that list is limited to games I have played.

 

[lacktheknack]

all the Myst sequels.

How could I forget these? D:

The first game might be marginally better than the fifth, but the other four games blow them right out of the water.

So much <3 for Brad Dourif.

 

[ViridianV6]

Going oldschool, Syphon Filter 2 over SF.

You get your hands on a third person stealth shooter that isn't Metal Gear Solid, and you have a blast playing through it. Then, the sequel comes out which lets you use analogue sticks and you wonder how the hell you clunked through the first game with the d-pad alone.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Kingdom Hearts 2 (especially the Final Mix version) improved over everything (except the story, and that's debatable) Kingdom Hearts 1 did. I recently had a look at KH1 (having gotten the 1.5 HD remix) and it is impressive how much what I remember from that game differs from what is actually there (small clustered world, slow and clumsy combat, very finicky platforming).

 

[XMark]

System Shock 1 was amazing, but after System Shock 2 (and the evolution of FPS game controls in general), the first game's controls feel really cumbersome and counter-intuitive.