Sequels That Didn't Live Up To Their Predecessors

[Scarim Coral]

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

By all mean it's still had a good plots and boss battles but they try to please the fans too much.
Sure we hated those stupid battle entry fees so they got rid of that, wow way a go making the game shorter (yes it was annoying but it help to prolong the game)! While the idea of the minigames for cash gathering into a 8 bits NES game was good on the paper but they were bad in reality (there was nothing appealing after you played it for the first time).
The new weapons were cool like that duel weilding katana but they competely miss the chance of add an upgrade or at least a different apperances to it.

 

[Stall]

Every TES game after Morrowind, including Skyrim yes. I don't have to be psychic to call out that the hype around Skyrim is virtually identical to all the hype and build that was around Oblivion before it released. Same goes for Fallout 3. It's called pattern recognition-- it's one of the reasons why early humans didn't get pimp-smacked right out of the food chain.

Twilight Princess. Now, I am not one to call the LoZ series nothing but re-hashes. MM and OOT were quite different from one another, and WW was very different from both those. You can't really say TP isn't a rehash, since its basically a very linear OoT with prettier graphics. It's like Nintendo actually listened to the moronic vocal minority of LoZ fans who didn't want anything but OoT over and over again, and catered to them.

GTAIV. It was one of those fucking games that prance about under the pretense of "realism" in order to deliver mediocre and uninspired gameplay (note that I said "pretense" because GTA4 is far from realistic). I like to call it the SOREALISTIC school of gaming. The writing as a whole was good for video games, but the gameplay was bland and token. A game can't be carried JUST by its writing... a GAME is a GAME. If you try to carry a game on just the writing, and neglect gameplay and fun, you just get a very interactive novel. All-in-all, GTA was a series built on fun sandbox hijinks just ditches it all for "writing". Saints Row 2 was a better GTA4 than GTA4, and I suspect that SR3 is going to be a better GTA5 than GTA5.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

Duke Nukem Forever
For ... well, obvious reasons

Dragon Age II
How can you possibly make a worthy sequel to one of the best and most praised RPGs of all time in just one year? Origins had what, 4 years maybe? Fuck EA and their deadlines!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
IT WAS 5 HOURS LONG!!! THE FREAKING DLC WAS LONGER!!!!!

Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon
As mentioned above.

Devil May Cry 2 (maybe 4)
Dante became Emo, the gameplay wasn't as fun from what I've heard and etc.

Mass Effect 2
I personally preffer 2 to 1, but I can see some people's problems with this one. It was more of an "actionized"(?) sequel with fewer RPG elements. I dunno, I like ME2 as much as ME1.

Portal 2
Portal 2 is an amazing game, even better than the 1st, but like Yahtzee said - It just doesn't have the same impact as the first game did.

Call of Duty (after COD4)
Well ... I don't really need to say anything do I?

I haven't played these game but I'm told they were dissapointing
Bioshock 2
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
Final Fantasy VIII ... and the rest after VII I think
Super Mario Brothers 2
Metal Gear Solid 2
Resident Evil 5
Halo 2

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

Duke Nukem Forever
For ... well, obvious reasons

Dragon Age II
How can you possibly make a worthy sequel to one of the best and most praised RPGs of all time in just one year? Origins had what, 4 years maybe? Fuck EA and their deadlines!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
IT WAS 5 HOURS LONG!!! THE FREAKING DLC WAS LONGER!!!!!

Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon
As mentioned above.

Devil May Cry 2 (maybe 4)
Dante became Emo, the gameplay wasn't as fun from what I've heard and etc.

Mass Effect 2
I personally preffer 2 to 1, but I can see some people's problems with this one. It was more of an "actionized"(?) sequel with fewer RPG elements. I dunno, I like ME2 as much as ME1.

Portal 2
Portal 2 is an amazing game, even better than the 1st, but like Yahtzee said - It just doesn't have the same impact as the first game did.

Call of Duty (after COD4)
Well ... I don't really need to say anything do I?

I haven't played these game but I'm told they were dissapointing
Bioshock 2
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
Final Fantasy VIII ... and the rest after VII I think
Super Mario Brothers 2
Metal Gear Solid 2
Resident Evil 5
Halo 2
GTA IV

 

[evilneko]

So many people here who would fit right in over at No Mutants Allowed, all the irrational hatred for FO3...

So anyway, ditto on the following:
Mass Effect 2
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Duke Nukem Forever

And now a new one: Diablo 2. Admittedly I played it a lot, but there was always a creeping, nagging feeling in my stomach about it. And then one day it hit me: the game is boring, easy, and nothing like its predecessor. I wasn't so much playing as mindlessly clicking. Enemies were just a minor annoyance, and far from fearsome, bosses were just a battle of attrition. On that day I uninstalled the "game" and gave away the discs.

And then fired up Diablo for some real fun. Stealth church run? Oh yes.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

Also I would like to add Mercenaries 2.

You should try Just Cause 2, it has all the things I wish Mercenaries 2 had including jets.

My personal favorite disappointment belongs to Bioshock 2. I thought maybe after criticism from the first game they would fix their moral standpoint problem. I killed ONE little orphan and the game told me I was a soulless monster and because of me my daughter became a soulless monster, really?

Also Mercenaries 2, but Just Cause 2 fixed that.

 

[Gill Kaiser]

Aww, that's a little mean. Not the photos, I love those, but Jade Empire was a wonderful game, despite its lack of any real strategy. Admittedly, yes, it was Bioware's weakest game, but a weak game for Bioware is like a massive hit for any other de- Was like a masterpiece for anyone else. Was.

It's very mean. Jade Empire was a great game, and the actio-oriented combat was fine because the game was designed to be that way. The problem with DA2 is that it's not in line with its predecessor.

 

[DesiPrinceX09]

I liked Bioshock 2 personally, it wasn't as amazing as the first one but the gameplay was improved. The weapons and plasmid evolution and gene upgrade setup was all much much better; it's a shame it was over too soon.

Fallout new vegas is fun but not as good as fallout 3, I have beaten f3 like 3 times but haven't even finished new vegas once. I think I'll finish it someday, but it's just not as awesome as fallout 3.

 

[Arjen Ab]

Does anyone remember AvP the first game and how good that was. And then every sequel after that doesn't come close to it. It had no pvp was 3 campaigns and they all had their own thing and did it well.
Of-course I'm not talking about the pictures in sequence they dare call the movies of AvP.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

Cor, how long do you have? It's almost a rule of thumb that sequels won't live up to brilliant predessors, apart from the odd few gems and only if they don't milk the hell out of it afterwards. I can't really think of any more to add apart from the ones mentioned above.
I suppose Kane & Lynch 2 gets a special mention just because that was an abomination as a game and a sequel.

 

[The Shadowlord]

Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. Dear lord, I've never had my hopes crushed by a dream quite as much. It wasn't even recognisable as an Onimusha game. The magic attacks weren't elemental, the swords were purchased from a store and not gathered from certain points as the game progresses, the boss fights had little purpose and levels.

 

[Skoldpadda]

FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 FALLOUT 3 OH GOD FALLOUT 3 BY FAR!

It's a victim of what I hate the very most when developers do. "We're fans of the original" and "we just gotta make it more accessible". The fact that Bethesda is by far one of the laziest and most incompetent developers out there doesn't change that either. The story was uninspiring, the characters were boring and VATS was a terrible system that you could either choose to use or have to go through the worst combat in a game I have ever suffered through. They even had the same voice actors as in fucking Oblivion, but I suppose getting Liam Neeson to say a couple of lines is far more important than making anyone else in the game worth listening to. The wasteland was the by far most boring surrounding ever to explore, I couldn't bring myself to even try doing it for more than 5 minutes. Oh and while we're at exploration and surroundings, the fucking subways, they were fucking horrible to go through. Annoying, repetitive and just fucking boring.

Yes, I hate Fallout 3 with a passion. Gonna give New Vegas a shot once my friend who recently bought it has finished the game, I've heard that it's supposed to be alot better so thumbs crossed.

What this guy said (except for the bit where he didn't try it for more than 5 minutes, which is bullshit anyway, because then you couldn't have reached the subway system yet).

I'm a HUGE fan of the first two games, even the bug-ridden mess that was Fallout 2, but those Bethesda fucks couldn't write a decent NPC if you held their families hostage.
If I can only name one game, that in every way didn't even come close to anything resembling its predecessors, then it's this one. To the people who enjoyed it, more power to you, and I'm envious since I tried really hard to like it, but it just isn't Fallout at all. The similarities are only cosmetic.

I am allowed to name more than one game though, so here's another one that'll have the fanboys reaching for the pitchforks: Mass Effect 2. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the ride all the way through to the end (except the planet scanning), but I was really annoyed by the "streamlining" (*exaggerated quoting gesture*), and looking back on it, I really don't remember much of it. I remember much of ME1 (especially Virmire, of course, such an awesomely atmospheric level), but the second? I dunno. I just lacked a little... soul. I guess. I'm getting a bit of a vibe from Bioware that they're going on autopilot nowadays. They seem to have forgotten what rpg's are all about.

And if I'm not ninja'd several times with Deus Ex: Invisible War, than I don't know what will ninja me. Probably a ninja. Or JC Denton. Perfectly good game in its own right. Really. I'd recommend it. It's a cool and fun yarn. But they could've improved on what was already so awesome yet technically flawed, and they had to go and change some pretty essential things. In no way does it feel like the original.

 

[Drizzitdude]

Fable 2 and fable 3. Do I really need to explain this?

EDIT: So yeah i decided to explain it anyway. What made fableand fable TLC a great game was not the fact you could interact with the enviroment in minor way (as mr molyneux seems to believe the idiot) but it was its excellent combat system. It really took medieval rpg's to the next level. Honestly each sword hit felt as if it had wieght behind it and enemies reacted as such. Another plus was the fact that melee weapons could hit multiple enemies at once instead of simply phasing through any other enemy that happened to be in the path of your blade. Every shot with the bow did a good deal of damage and at long range but to balance that they made the bow have a slow fire rate and do more damage on a headshot forcing the player to either stay on the move for less damage or stand still to go for the headshot. Magic was FANTASTIC. there were so many spells that could be used in any situation and what really sold me on fable was I ALWAYS felt like I was improving. It was insanely easy to level up your skills like in 2 or 3.

In fable 2 and 3, their FIRST mistake outright was moving the camera angle farther back. I felt less in tune with the character and in the online mode you were simply looking at it from and overhead perspective and it felt like I was playing some arcade dungeon crawler rathe rthan fable.

The second Mistake made in the sequels was the fact the weapons no longer felt like they had weight to them. Sure enemies died fast and I mean FAST but it really didnt feel like I was knocking enemies back with a mighty blow and more like I was knicking them. Honestly In Fable 2 + 3 I not once, EVER felt like I had to flourish in any situation.

Thirdly can we please mention how OP ranged weaonry was with the inclusion of guns? Honestly there was no point in using anything else at all. Why run up and swing a sword at someone or take time to cast a spell when i could very easilly shoot them twice in rapid succession with the red dragon and be done with it?

And I am not even going to GO into the rant I have about how brutally they bitchered the magic system. Rather than keep all the upgradeable variety they replaced it with nothing but a charged AOE for EVERYTHING. I felt magic was so dull in fable 2 that the only spell I ever often used was a directed slow time, and that was because it was similar to assassins rush.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Every TES game after Morrowind, including Skyrim yes. I don't have to be psychic to call out that the hype around Skyrim is virtually identical to all the hype and build that was around Oblivion before it released. Same goes for Fallout 3. It's called pattern recognition-- it's one of the reasons why early humans didn't get pimp-smacked right out of the food chain.

Thank you so much for that - each and every time I see someone prattle on about how awesome Skyrim is going to be, or mention how "such and such" game will tide them over until Skyrim, Skyrim is going to be the best, blah blah blah etc etc you get the point, my brain practically goes into convulsions and I start internally shouting "Pattern recognition! Look into it!!!!" at them. Even more so because those comments have been literally the only response I've seen to the upcoming release of the game - I was beginning to feel like the only sane person in a sea of madness and delusions.

It's like no one else on the internet has caught on that Bethsada releases broken, buggy games with expansive settings promising potential that they hobble through poor design decisions, and that their fans then laboriously "fix" those games for them. For everything they get right, they do several other far more important things very very wrong.

Granted, I haven't played the game anymore than the overly exuberant folks have, but when a company has Bethsada's track record, unbridled optimism is a losers bet - if you're sitting there buying all the hype then I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you (you're gullible, is my drift).

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

No More Heroes 2. I played it years after the first, and it had been a while since I had used my Wii. To be frank, I found the game to be unplayable. It might still be good, but I just couldn't get past the first level.

Also, Brawl seemed less replayable than Melee for some reason I will never understand. I could play Melee multiplayer for days. Brawl, not so much...

Finally, even as a Bioshock fan, I would have to say Bioshock 2. Still a great game and it had some things better than the original (combat, emotional hook), it really is just the lesser game.

 

[teqrevisited]

Devil May Cry 2. Not just because Dante's personality had completely vanished. This game was easy. Easy to the point that everything could be solved with guns at no risk to the player.

It did introduce some nice combat elements that would be built on in DMC3 as separate styles, but this was quite an unsteady step inbetween.

 

[Xerosch]

Every 'Silent Hill' after 'The Room'. Others may feel to stop me right there but I think 'The Room' was an OK game. 'Homecoming' and 'Origins' on the other hand...

Oh, and I almost forgot about 'Condemned 2'. Prime example on how to completely annihilate a promising franchise before it lived up to its full potential.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Also I would like to add Mercenaries 2.

You should try Just Cause 2, it has all the things I wish Mercenaries 2 had including jets.

My personal favorite disappointment belongs to Bioshock 2. I thought maybe after criticism from the first game they would fix their moral standpoint problem. I killed ONE little orphan and the game told me I was a soulless monster and because of me my daughter became a soulless monster, really?

Also Mercenaries 2, but Just Cause 2 fixed that.

Don't get me wrong, Just Cause 2 was a fun game but I still thought that PoD was better; it actually had a reasonable plot, well voiced and charaterised characters and good atmosphere.

 

[jackpackage200]

Super Smash Bros Brawl
Call of Duty games after 4
Bioshock 2
And Borderlands (i dont care if it is not a sequel or made from bethesda, its still a soulless ripoff of fallout 3)

 

[tklivory]

I'm really surprised I'm the first to mention these, but:

1) Chrono Cross (loved the game, but come on - it had to live up to Chrono Trigger!)
2) Any Castlevania after Symphony of the Night (with the exception of some of the DS games). But no PS2/Xbox/PS3/360 Castlevania game has come anywhere close to living up to SOTN
3) Prince of Persia post Sands of Time. Again, I loved playing the sequels (yes, even Warrior Within and Prince of Nolan North), but none of them lived up to the 'holy shit, this is a fantastic/fun/friggin amazing game' feeling I got with the Sands of Time

And I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of disappointment of Dragon Age 2. Of course, I haven't played it all the way through (watched others played it, though), but then I'm not done with the first one yet (yes, I mod, why do you ask?), and there isn't even a toolset yet for the second one. Grrrr...