Good Games With Shitty Sequels - How did they mess it up so bad?

[frozen_runner]

The Suffering: The Ties That Bind (2005)

This one was clearly a situation where they had no sequel in mind when they made the cult classic original.

The original was a claustrophobic, frightening action/horror experience with an unreliable silent protagonist and set in a perfect horror setting, a gloomy, haunted prison island. The monster designs came from Stan Winston's people, for God's sake. It's nearly perfect.

But for some reason, the sequel takes place in and around Baltimore in broad daylight, the main character talks a lot more, all questions about the reality of what's happening are answered by the presence of a fucking government agency trying to study and harness the power of the monsters (uuuuuuuuggggghhhhh...), the monster designs are all reused with new explanations (?!), and it's buggy as fuck. Any sequel would have ruined the singular beauty of the first game, but the sequel we got its just depressing.

Lunar Dragon Song. The first two Lunar games were iconic jrpgs of their time and people wanted a third one so badly. They finally got their wish in Dragon Song which was so offensively bad that it killed the series.

Let's be honest: the series was dead at that point. Dragon Song was a half-hearted attempt to see if the IP still had any easily harvested juice in it. And, without the magic of the original devs, it did not.

 

[Blackstar]

Victoria 3 and Crusader Kings 3 were both shitty sequels to amazing games

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Ragnarok Online 2 was ass.

 

[OJ Simpson]

I loved Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.

Arkham Knight?
More like Arkham Shite, amirite, gamers? It was like they kicked me in the cunt with that game.

In a vacuum Knight is an alright game, but coming off the back of Asylum and City it was a letdown. What did it for me was the awful Batmobile. The novelty wore off really quick and I just got sick of it early on and it only got worse as the game progressed. And the boss fights weren't really all that memorable or enjoyable when you compare them to what Asylum and City had on offer, they just don't hold a candle.

 

[Tablet County]

The Suffering: The Ties That Bind (2005)

This one was clearly a situation where they had no sequel in mind when they made the cult classic original.

The original was a claustrophobic, frightening action/horror experience with an unreliable silent protagonist and set in a perfect horror setting, a gloomy, haunted prison island. The monster designs came from Stan Winston's people, for God's sake. It's nearly perfect.

But for some reason, the sequel takes place in and around New Orleans in broad daylight, the main character talks a lot more, all questions about the reality of what's happening are answered by the presence of a fucking government agency trying to study and harness the power of the monsters (uuuuuuuuggggghhhhh...), the monster designs are all reused with new explanations (?!), and it's buggy as fuck. Any sequel would have ruined the singular beauty of the first game, but the sequel we got its just depressing.

Sounds pretty similar to Condemned 2.

 

[frozen_runner]

Sounds pretty similar to Condemned 2.

In the sense of "do these people even understand what made their first game great?" Agreed.

Though I think Condemned 2 is more inexplicable. The Suffering: TtB is, again, pretty obviously an unplanned sequel where they were trying to iterate on and one-up the original game by the seat of their pants. Condemned 2, while I love how nightmarishly weird it is, is a very strange idea for a sequel to a (mostly) grounded original. It reminds me of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, where the publisher obviously ordered the devs to make it moer grimdark because that would sell to the kids... as if the original wasn't a masterpiece already.

The creator of Condemned said once that, if he was ever able to make another sequel, he would soft retcon Bloodshot as a partial hallucination by the main character because he was infected by the same contagion that was affecting all the enemies. That might almost work.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Dawn of War III essentially stopped the franchise dead in its tracks with no signs of life

Dawn of War 2 did that as well. The original was a RTS, with Dark Crusade's single player mode setting the template for what the series should have been. Soulstorm wasn't bad, but something felt off about it.

Then DoW 2 was a squad management game where you had to micro you guys cover.

I didn't know DoW 3 existed at all until recently, and supposedly it was really bad. It makes no sense how they keep messing it up.

The newer series of X-COM games are majorly declining now. Especially compared to the Long War mod. X-COM 2 was streamlined already enough. But Chimera Squad had almost infantile design and was insulting bad in its art direction and design choices.

Chimera Squad could've worked as an experiment to test mechanics, but the woke pandering nonsense killed anything that made the previous games special.

What's more, I don't see why they want to avoid Xcom 3. Xcom 2 had it's critics, mostly people who found it too difficult, but Xcom 2 ends with a teaser of the next game. We all know it's going to have the same concept as Terror from the Deep. Phoenix Point basically did the same concept but with worse gameplay.

Even if they want to take the game in a different direction, there's lots of mods to take inspiration from. X-Piratez was popular for a time, and you mentioned long war. Hell, revisit The Bureau setting but make it a strategy game instead of a squad based shooter, or that UFO game set on Mars.

Condemned 2, while I love how nightmarishly weird it is, is a very strange idea for a sequel to a (mostly) grounded original.

It's more weird, but at the same time less weird. I know Yahtzee said this in his review, but it's true. The weird mysteries of the first game. Why are all the birds dying? Why are these homeless people trying to kill you? Either explain it well or don't explain it at all. Instead, they waste it by saying it's noise generators dotted about the place you somehow didn't notice before.

 

[frozen_runner]

It's more weird, but at the same time less weird. I know Yahtzee said this in his review, but it's true. The weird mysteries of the first game. Why are all the birds dying? Why are these homeless people trying to kill you? Either explain it well or don't explain it at all. Instead, they waste it by saying it's noise generators dotted about the place you somehow didn't notice before.

Which, like the scream attack you gain eventually, is so bizarre and unexpected I almost appreciate it as a mindfuck plot twist (that seems so crazy you doubt the reality of it)... but not quite. It's not a bad game. It's just a bad sequel to Criminal Origins.

 

[PointOfNoReturnPoint]

The Suffering: The Ties That Bind (2005)

This one was clearly a situation where they had no sequel in mind when they made the cult classic original.

The original was a claustrophobic, frightening action/horror experience with an unreliable silent protagonist and set in a perfect horror setting, a gloomy, haunted prison island. The monster designs came from Stan Winston's people, for God's sake. It's nearly perfect.

But for some reason, the sequel takes place in and around New Orleans in broad daylight, the main character talks a lot more, all questions about the reality of what's happening are answered by the presence of a fucking government agency trying to study and harness the power of the monsters (uuuuuuuuggggghhhhh...), the monster designs are all reused with new explanations (?!), and it's buggy as fuck. Any sequel would have ruined the singular beauty of the first game, but the sequel we got its just depressing.

Let's be honest: the series was dead at that point. Dragon Song was a half-hearted attempt to see if the IP still had any easily harvested juice in it. And, without the magic of the original devs, it did not.

It takes place in Baltimore not New Orleans but to be fair both cities are equally shit in real life so it wouldn't make a difference. I don't know if you remember the endings on the first one but you had 3 of them based on if you killed other survivors you found around the island ( bad, neutral or good ) and they do state that on the neutral or good endings that you are supposed to head back to Maryland for the plot to continue based on your trial being botched. That doesn't excuse the fact that it did in-fact lose alot of the charm/mystique that the first game had from both the setting and the character starting to deal with a shadow gov organization. It's not bad IMO but the thing is the first one was such a high bar that you really couldn't top it. It's the same issue with Resident Evil 4 to Resident Evil 5, who can top perfection?


Let me add for clarification, You are correct but I don't think it's that bad. It did what Terminator 2 did by expanding on the lore and raising stakes with more back story just none of it had the same charm or interest as the first one so it felt like more bland content than anything.

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

In a vacuum Knight is an alright game, but coming off the back of Asylum and City it was a letdown. What did it for me was the awful Batmobile. The novelty wore off really quick and I just got sick of it early on and it only got worse as the game progressed. And the boss fights weren't really all that memorable or enjoyable when you compare them to what Asylum and City had on offer, they just don't hold a candle.

Everybody hates the Batmobile.

The thing I can never forgive them for is that whole bullshit tease to their audience with regard to the identity of the Arkham Knight.

"Ooh, he's a mysterious character that we've never seen before..."
And the literal first thing people asked was "Is it Jason Todd?"
And the fuckers lied to our fucking faces and said, "No, it isn't Jason Todd."

And then the game came out, and about a quarter of the way through, they start teasing a load of stuff from A Death In The Family, and I'm like, "It can't be Jason Todd, because they said it WASN'T Jason Todd," and then, lo and be-fucking-hold, it was Jason fucking Todd.

 

[TheHarbinger]

Golden Sun 3 is another example of a sequel that flatlined a franchise instantly with no recovery in sight.

 

[Dagoth AMOGUS]

Dead Space 3.

They designed the map to be big enough for co-op but how is it survival horror if you have a buddy? No cramped hallways so no fear of ambush, and really open field maps that just don’t jive with the genre. The king of all, resident evil 1, was inside the narrow hallways of a mansion.

 

[frozen_runner]

It takes place in Baltimore not New Orleans but to be fair both cities are equally shit in real life so it wouldn't make a difference.

Ah, you're right. My mistake. I didn't think New Orleans made any sense as I was writing that post.

I don't know if you remember the endings on the first one but you had 3 of them based on if you killed other survivors you found around the island ( bad, neutral or good ) and they do state that on the neutral or good endings that you are supposed to head back to Maryland for the plot to continue based on your trial being botched.

Yeah. They did the only thing that makes sense if there's a sequel... but there shouldn't have been a sequel. Or at least not a direct sequel to the first plot. It blunts the impact of the first game and all of its endings.

 

[PointOfNoReturnPoint]

Yeah. They did the only thing that makes sense if there's a sequel... but there shouldn't have been a sequel. Or at least not a direct sequel to the first plot. It blunts the impact of the first game and all of its endings.

I think that thats only because the game didn't entertain as well as the first one did. I can see what you're saying that it was left open for a sequel ( not that it really needed one ) like many other things are given how they perform but why not if it did well? I definitely wanted more from it but got the Nickel Back treatment instead with alot of average content that didn't do well.

 

[All My Niggas Nazis]

Sonic Adventure

Spoiler: Please be patient with me: I have Autism

The first game was a little janky, but a pretty good attempt at having Sonic run around a 3D enviroment: it was fast, had open enough stages for a bit of exploration, the jump-spindash mechnic allowed for some interesting sequence breaking and the other characters like Tails, Knuckles and Gamma were fun too (Big and Amy were shit though). Also the story was fairly simple and tonely fits with the classic games.

Sonic Adventure 2 basically made everything worse: the level design for Sonic and Shadow was just linear tracks, they gimped the spin-dash so you couldn't do it while running to build up even more speed, the somersault kills all momentum, Tails and Robotnik are slower, heavier and more jank than Gamma, and the Knuckles and Rouge levels are made so much worse by the fact the radar only detects one chaos emerald at a time. SA2 is also where the Sonic series went through its edgey teenage faze, with themes and plot points of: child death, government conspiracies, attempted Mundicide by a cartoon hedgehog etc.

The only thing that was better about Adventure 2 was the Chao Garden; which is why, despite thinking the game is kind of shit, I've probably put hundreds of hours into it.

 

[TheOtherSideofMakeBelieve]

Dead Space 3.

This was what I was going to say. Dead Space is awesome, Dead Space 2 is near perfect, Dead Space Mobile is probably the best phone game ever made, and even Extraction was pretty fun for what it was (rail shooter)

I will say I at least wasn't particularly disappointed by it. Even before it was announced I knew it was going to be a let-down so my expectations were extremely tempered, I just wanted more Dead Space 2

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Cities Skylines 2
The first game had some fundamental flaws as well as key elements added by DLC. Perfect for a sequel, but it come out and people hated it.

If you're implying Cities Skylines 1 was a good game I would make a dozen sock accounts just to give you the number of Disagrees you deserve.

 

[Ambidextype]

You all forgot Subnautica. The first game I heard was flawless with the gameplay being smooth progression, hard but fair, the audio accentuating the game being atmospheric and horrifying at times but those cuck devs thought it was a great idea to scrap all the good things in the first game and have DEI as the priority for the second game and make nonsensical story with obnoxious characters. While the sequel I think still sold well, the dev probably lost most of the goodwill and credbility.

 

[frozen_runner]

You all forgot Subnautica. The first game I heard was flawless with the gameplay being smooth progression, hard but fair, the audio accentuating the game being atmospheric and horrifying at times but those cuck devs thought it was a great idea to scrap all the good things in the first game and have DEI as the priority for the second game and make nonsensical story with obnoxious characters. While the sequel I think still sold well, the dev probably lost most of the goodwill and credbility.

Below Zero is honestly pretty great. I could do without having any overt narrative or characters in it at all (the first game is almost entirely solo), but the negativity towards the sequel is very exaggerated IMO. I think the devs are losers, but the game is fine, lameass shit like the lesbian sister aside.

By the way, the main character in the proper Subnautica 2 is another niggo with brocoli hair, so you might end up being right eventually.

 

[Meth Dick]

Every Assassin's Creed after Revelations. Even Revelations wasn't as great as Brotherhood, but AC III was ass in comparison
The RPG games shouldn't even count as AC games, but I will say out of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, I think Valhalla is the best of them, it's the best looking and and I like the level progression system in that one the best, and Male Eivor is so much better acted than Female Eivor I'm 100 percent in belief he was supposed to be a male all along but the whole "Eivor was canonically female!" bullshit was tacked on because of women who didn't even play the series crying about the lack of women, despite several games having women protagonists before, which they'd have known if they actually played the games they pretend they do.
I have no hope for Samurai Black and will not waste my time nor money on it.

Another game that's not out yet but I assume will be a shitty sequel, keeping in line with AC is Ghost of Yotei. Ghost of Tsushima was actually really stunning if you like story heavy games like I do. I wish there was a Kurosawa mode for cutscenes only because playing in it is kind of a pain in the ass, but it does look really cool.
I really hope Yotei isn't shit. Seeing a rifle in the trailer was a red flag for me though.