10 sequels that are much worse than the original

Harry Slater writes:

Sometimes, videogame sequels fail to capitalise on the excellent work begun by their elder brethren, be it a change of developer, a shift in focus or a bizarre and not required change of style. Here are some that failed to match their predecessors.

[The BS Police]

How could have possibly screwed up Perfect Dark Zero.

[Elven6]

The multiplayer was the saving grace of that game, 32 players in huge levels, plus the DLC for it was fantastic!

[Myst]

Eh, as much as they messed up and how much I personally disliked it from the original Perfect Dark...I kind of feel like playing it right now...

[Darkstorn]

KOTOR 2 and MGS2 are great games, they aren't 'much worse' than their forebearers. And Max Payne 2 and Halo 2 are brilliant games in their own right. Mediocre list.

[socomnick]

how is resistance 2 not on the list.

[Serial_EDX]

Personally MGS2 and Halo 2 really shouldn't be on that list, Those 2 were the top of my last gen gaming. And I had a lot of games.

I mean how can you even have These 2 games in the same list as DMC2?

>.>

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

@ Socomnick

Screw Resistance2... I want to know why Uncharted2 isnt on this list

[TheAntiFanboy]

I'm glad Halo 2 was on that list. Halo 1 was wonderful, and Halo 2 completely ruined it.

[ico92]

where the hell is socom crapu..Confrontation

[ThanatosDMC]

Resistance 2 was actually good. The one thing many people are complaining about is the weapon wheel but the idea behind that is the lack of classes on the 8 player co-op.

MGS2 was terrible. Raiden deserved to die. DMC2 was horrible as well as DMC5. F*cking Nero!!!

^Nice Nico Robin pic.

Fear 2 should be on the list. I'm pretty sure i killed that b*tch but then 2 comes out and tells me she's alive and for some odd reason you're not that same guy anymore that annihilated a battalion of soldiers.

[Nihilism]

I love kotor 2, it wasn't as good as the first but lucasarts made them release it 6 months before they were finished, so you can excuse the poor ending, hoping for that mod that adds the missing content in will be released soon, why oh why didn't they make kotor 3 instead of TOR...

[Saaking]

Resistance 2 wasn't as good as 1 imo, but it's not "much worse" just slightly not as good.

[hay]

I knew it. MGS2? Max Payne 2? It's not april fools.

[lightningsax]

Yeah. MGS2 especially. "Spends too much time running around naked." Sure, completely destroy the symbolism of that scene and gently mask your homophobia a bit more, Mr. "Den of Geek." If I have to pick my favorite game of the PS2/Xbox generation, well - I couldn't, but MGS2 is on my list of five. That ending sequence he just lampooned is still one of the most insane and emotional breakthrough moments in gaming history. This writer needs to go back to school.

Actually, the article would have been awesome if he just posted that Perfect Dark Zero picture up there and called it a day. Nice selection, BS Police!

[Tony P]

Perhaps they fall short, but very few of these indeed are actually bad games.

Although I have to agree with a lot of points...

MGS2 imo set the stage for a stupidly complex story. I do not mind complexity, I mind complexity for the sake of it. The entire thing is a shambles of misinformation by the end especially compared to it's narratively tighter predecessor.

Deus Ex... This game imo was completely ruined. Nowhere near the scope of the first with nowhere near the depth. It did not justify the graphical upgrade and meaningless physics. And to top it off, it ran like crap and still runs like crap.

Halo 2 helped perpetrate an egregious crime in gaming today: cliffhanger endings. If you think about it, these days it's almost a given that a new IP won't end with the first game. There's no effort put forth to suggest any kind of completion and that's f*cking lazy imo. Like Halo 2, most shooters now sacrifice a complete story and rely on MP to get by.

[dreamcast]

"Halo 2 helped perpetrate an egregious crime in gaming today: cliffhanger endings. If you think about it, these days it's almost a given that a new IP won't end with the first game. There's no effort put forth to suggest any kind of completion and that's f*cking lazy imo"

Yeah, most of the games I've completed recently have cliffhanger endings... MW2, Killzone 2, inFamous, Resistance 2, Prince of Persia and most likely Assassin's Creed 2 if the first is any indication. Some of them aren't too bad since they actually tell a story, but MW2 for example was half a story with a cliffhanger. Not cool devs.

[lightningsax]

I hear this "It's complex for the sake of complexity" argument all of the time. Unless you're putting some aspect of the plot under a microscope that I'm just not aware of, I don't get this argument.

It's a complex story, but it does work. The way it's done was thoroughly unique for its time. I keep coming back to that game and finding out more and more about it.

[lightningsax]

@Dreamcast - Word! Cliffhanger endings for games that will obviously have sequels are totally fine if they're done right. Are we going to bash The Dark Knight now because it didn't wrap up the Batman universe in a neat pink-ribboned box?

For obvious serial titles, you could, of course, just go the other way and tell the same story over and over and over again, making the endings worthless and only focusing on the game at hand (Mario), and that's also cool if the game's great. As I mentioned in the Heavenly Sword discussion, there's no substitute for a great game - no matter what the story or cutscenes are doing, all will be forgiven if you produce an awesome game. All, I say! Except FFXII. That was just inexcusable, Square.

[Bathyj]

What was wrong with Max Payne? And it might be time to finally get over Raiden. Seriously, let it go.

BTW, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Medal of Honour, even Doom, all proved FPS's could work on a console before Halo came along.
God, the first game was awesome, no doubt, even with the copy and paste level design, but lets not rewrite history, ok.

[lightningsax]

I loved the heck out of Max Payne 2. That game owned my life for quite a while, and rightfully so.

[MajestieBeast]

Where is modern warfare 2 on that list?

[Razgriz]

Eh? I fail to see why MGS2 is MUCH worse than MGS...

[KiRBY3000]

not playing as snake was justified. that was one of the point of the game. you're not bad ass because you play as snake, you're bad ass cause YOU are playing period. its explained at the end of the game, the speech about our genes (i dont remember clearly). but people need to get over it. MGS2 is actually one of the best sequel i can think of. it has an awesome story, epic graphics for its time, the gameplay from the 1st game was greatly improved and the game was full of brilliant ideas (hiding in lockers, interaction with the environment, great plot twists, memorable codec conversations, stealing goodies from the ennemy... you can even get peed on by a soldier patroling on a roof, and bird sh1t on your face if you try to shoot them! memories. :)

DMC2, on the other hand, would be the worst. that game was plain horrible.

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

I gotta admit... I love me some MGS2... :)
One of my fave games of all time... Jam packed with awesome easter eggs

[Serial_EDX]

I loved everything about MGS2.

Except...........

*Spoiler*

Naked Raiden doing cartwheels.

*End Spoiler*
O.o

[Tony P]

I disagree. There's a difference between great gameplay and a great story. The game has all the Kojima innovation in the gameplay, but the story is just a mass of subplots and random bits of info compared to MGS.

Maybe it's awesome once you rebuild it into something neater. But as it's presented, it's a confusing tale confusingly told about the new protagonist no one cared about. I don't see how that's on par with the older game.

[KiRBY3000]

you're playing the game and the game is playing with you.

MGS2 had an awesome story. everything about it was great, the characters, the cutscenes, the structure, the dialogue, the plot twists, the ending. Raiden was there to allow players to see Snake through a different perspective. the story and game design were build to confuse the players who played the first game.

MGS2 and Max Payne 2 have nothing to do on that list. enough said.

[lightningsax]

It's time to be men (or women) and get over the nudity, people! Are you ashamed every time you shower?

That last sequence wouldn't be the same without conveying a sense of being uncomfortable and powerless. Kojima decided to do it that way. So bleepin' what?

[Tony P]

"it IS supposed to be confusing"

So "I meant to do that" like the guy who spills his drink and tries not to be embarrassed about it.

Anyway, I wasn't saying he did it by accident, I was saying he did it badly.

[kraze07]

MGS2, Halo 2 and KOTOR 2 weren't that much worse than the originals. There are other games that should be on this list instead.

[robotnik]

Banjo flop, Perfect Flop 2, Halo 2.5, the Last Flop, Flopping Effect, Flop 4 Dead 2, Flopza 2.5, Flop Ocean: The Last Flop SD version with screen tearing, Flopble II, Too Floppy to be human, Halo reachs a new flop and Master's Chief horse riding.

Only for chatbox 360, jump in, be are gonna ban you.

Coming up next: Natal, the new flop!

[bjornbear]

IMO I think MGS2 and Max Payne 2 were AS good as the originals.

The rest however, true

Oh and, unfair for Invisible War, cz its extreemly hard to top one of the best games evar: Deus Ex!

[Jamescagney]

Max Payne 2? It improved on Max Payne in every sense and is one of the best shooters you can buy. Why is it in this list?

[free2game365]

Because he played it on a console. The console ports were crap and the blogger being a console fanboy couldn't play it where it was designed to be.

[AngryFork]

WOW Max Payne 2? No way. I like part 2 better than part 1 (by a little bit) both games are in my top 3 all time favorite games.

Part 2 was just as good as the original and I thought had better dialogue which is why I like it a little more, it had lots of more memorable lines.

MGS2 shouldn't be on there also, the only fault with MGS2 imo (besides Raiden but i'm over that) was The Arm, which was just flat out weird and dumb. Everything else was incredible.

[free2game365]

"The console ports are the worst offenders, with the controls feeling clumsy and awkward when transferred to a joypad. Maybe the upcoming threequel will right the wrongs of this pointless game."
translation, I want rockstar to dumb down the new one so it plays well on my XBAWKZ or PLAYSTATION because I played MP2 on a PLAYSTATION or XBAWKZ

[Bumpmapping]

Talk about a terrible sequel!

[Picnic]

I wouldn't say that Max Payne 2 was much worse than the first Max Payne game but, on the other hand, I wouldn't say that Max Payne 2 was necessarily better than the first game either.

A great moment in the first game was the restaurant which is set on fire. To me, the equivalent of that in Max Payne 2 was the funhouse which is a great level. Part of what makes it great is that, although you are in a realistic funhouse made possible with the best PC/Xbox graphics at the time, it feels like you are trapped in a nightmare, a game-like set-up that you are being forced to play by villains. Part of the essence of the Max Payne series is that there are real villains out to get you and villains in your head.

Perfect Dark Zero got average scores of 80%+ when it was released.
I have only played the single player game (and not much of the N64 Perect Dark). If you play it expecting some deep story, you will probably find it a bit lacking however if you approach it like the shiny arcade game that it looks, then you will find it to be enjoyable - and quite challenging in places. Think of it like a Sega shooter and you will love coming back to this colourful game.

[Rich1631]

Metal Gear Solid 2 is the weakest in the series by far but still insanely awesome. Best damn video game series out there, in my opinion.

[Barragan]

cause ps3 fans didnt make the list thats an easy answer, its not on there cause its WAAAAY better than the original

[Cajun Chicken]

Unreal Championship 2 is freaking awesome!