5 Video Game Sequels Better Than The Original & 5 Worse
TheGamer
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5 Video Game Sequels Better Than The Original & 5 Worse
Video Game sequels can be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes a sequel is much better than the original and sometimes they fall flat. Video Game sequels are a tricky affair - they are an opportunity to refine, expand, and innovate, whether that's through the advancement of physics like in Half-Life 2 or in the overhaul to combat as seen in Oblivion. However, whilst sequels are a great opportunity for developers, they can also be a downfall, leaving a mark on a series that will never go away. In that regard, here are five sequels that improved on their predecessors and five that did not. THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY Better Assassin s Creed II
The original Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft is a stellar game with a brilliant protagonist and villain. Altair takes center stage with you at the helm, letting you explore the Holy Land amidst the Third Crusade. Despite its prowess, Assassin's Creed was mechanically janky and needed a lot of work. That's where Assassin's Creed 2 came in, with a more character-driven narrative, completely refined gameplay, less repetitive missions, more variety in world design, the addition of new weaponry, and plenty more customization. It took the first game and made several giant strides forward with its potential. Worse Dark Souls II
By no means is Dark Souls II a bad game, but it's a fairly weak Souls entry, with boxy rooms, often confusingly designed levels, and clunkier gameplay. It improved on the backstab-galore PvP from the original but faltered in nearly every other aspect. Gone was the Metroidvania-style interconnected, tight-knit world design, and where every single location, no matter how small, was rich with detail and care in its predecessor, the sequel felt haphazard and slapped together. It was a downgrade in nearly every fashion, barring PvP and NG+, which is where it excelled. Better God of War PS4
The God of War series was renowned for its brilliance, becoming the most iconic hack-and-slash series to date, with a bloodthirsty beast at the helm, slaughtering the Gods of the Greek pantheon. Kratos' adventures were part of many people's childhoods, lamenting themselves as cherished nostalgic memories, entertaining to this day, but Santa Monica Studios took the series to new heights with the masterpiece that is the PS4 soft reboot. In it, the God of War is found in the land of the Nordic Gods. It's heartfelt, intricately designed, beautiful, and packed to the brim with content. Worse Super Mario Bros 2
, but the second entry into the gallery of bros fighting goombas in a 2D platformer setting is not nearly as fun as its predecessor. The original was released in Japan and criticized for being too difficult, and so, what is now known as The Lost Levels, wasn't launched in America. Instead, a reskin of another game, known as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, hit the shelves, and it was overwhelming and lacked the charm that the previous game had. Better Uncharted II
Take the openings from the first Uncharted and the second, and the stark contrast in Naughty Dog's evolution becomes clear. The original has you on a boat in an endless ocean, fighting henchman in a blatant tutorial. It's not visually stimulating, and it doesn't reel you in, in quite the same way. In the second, you're hanging on from a train, midway through the story, and beneath you is a range of snowy mountains, an endless and perilous drop that would spell your doom. It's sublime and feels less patronizing. Uncharted was a great step away from the Jak and Daxter series, putting Naughty Dog onto the path that led to The Last of Us, but it was clearly their first step into uncharted waters. Worse Fallout 4
Fallout 3 was fun, but it spelled the beginning of Bethesda's moving away from the RPG aspects of the series towards the FPS genre, but it still retained iconic features such as the karma system, which was unfortunately gutted in Fallout 4. Compared to the first three games and New Vegas, 4 is a hollow, cookie-cutter mess, cramming too many genres into one experience and refusing to go into any of them in any meaningful depth. Toppled with a dialogue wheel that refuses to let you be evil, opting instead for the more generic sarcastic route, and Better Borderlands 2
The first Borderlands wasn't made with the iconic comic-book aesthetic, but when Gearbox saw the final look, they decided that people would compare it to Fallout, and so, in a journey to plant their own identity into the ground, a new look was devised. That more or less sums up how the first game feels, like an experiment in Gearbox putting their feet into the world of gaming, and so the second one is naturally a step forward in every regard, with their personality found, their humor consistent and their look nailed down to a T. Worse Resident Evil 6
The first three Resident Evil games had tank-controls and emphasized survival horror with puzzle elements. Then, the fourth came along, and it moved to the over-the-shoulder, third-person-shooter genre, with more action than the previous three and fewer puzzles. Naturally, this led to five, an over-the-top, action-packed, co-op extravaganza. Its story wasn't great, but it was a fun ride. Six went way too far. The gunplay is worse, the story is unbearable, the pacing is sloppy, the visuals are bland and the difficulty is artificial. Better Portal 2
Valve saw a small team working on a game with portals and gobbled it up, reworked it, slapped it into the Half-Life universe, and released it as a puzzle-filled game with a loose thread of a story connecting it that ended in a so-so boss-fight. It was fun and holds up to this day. However, 2 sports a co-op mode and . It's great, and that's not just because of evil Stephen Merchant stealing the show. Glados is better than ever, Aperture is more personality-rich, the mechanics are improved, making for a smoother experience, the graphics are stunning and the music is perfect. Worse Doom 3
The first Doom is a classic and paved the way for the FPS genre as a whole, succeeded by Quake. However, after its stunning, albeit incredibly difficult sequel, the third game released, and it felt like the original Half-Life spliced with the second, only with worse atmosphere and confusing gameplay. On the one hand, it felt as though ID Software was attempting to make a survival horror, but it was clearly also intended to be an FPS, and with an unconvincing and generic story to boot, Doom 3 was a jarring mess that struggled to forge its own identity. At the very least, it had some cool monster designs. At best? The occasional fun boss fight.