10 Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels Of All Time

WhatCulture

How do you follow up a great game? Not like this.

Transcript

00:00The issue of managing a video game follow-up is a universal one across all scales of production.

00:05Fans want more of the same, but not too much. They want a budding series to evolve and grow,

00:09but not to fundamentally change. In some cases, a sequel arrives that gets the balance just

00:14right, but often expectations are outrageously high and disappointment is all too common.

00:19Whether because they took off in a strange new direction, lack that star quality that

00:23came before, or were just mediocre, I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 most

00:28disappointing video game sequels of all time.

00:3110. Paper Mario

00:33Longtime players of the Paper Mario series generally know what they're getting into. A colourful

00:37irreverent experience that leans into the whole everything is made out of paper concept and

00:42emphasises it throughout. For many, 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door represented

00:48the pinnacle of that format. It's tremendously fun and varied, with a large cast of characters

00:52that each have handy abilities in battle. The RPG elements seemed finely tuned to allow for

00:57strategy without becoming too deep or too shallow. Titles since, though, seem to have failed

01:01in getting this delicate balance right. 3DS in Storm and Paper Mario Sticker Star remains

01:06a controversial example, leaving behind those RPG trappings for the gimmicky titular sticker

01:11system, and being a landmark disappointment because of it. It might not be too bad a title,

01:16the stickers can be fun to experiment with and the writing is on point, but talk about a drop-off

01:21from what came before.

01:239. Prince of Persia Warrior Within

01:25Okay, full disclosure, I always loved this game. I mean, look at me. God smacks, I stand

01:31alone as the theme song, gaming did not get any better. Talk to anyone whose blood didn't

01:36bleed professional wrestling at the time though, and Warrior Within was a cataclysmic, nigh-hilarious

01:41letdown. Going from the super charming Sands of Time original, to this weirdly super angsty

01:46muted colour palette sequel that felt like the boss's teenage son had led the design meeting.

01:51Because to give the haters their due, Sands of Time was a magical fairytale game, boasting

01:55fantastic platforming sections that showcased the prince's remarkable athleticism and time

02:00powers, controlling the sands let you rewind to undo deaths, or bust out some sand powers

02:05in combat. Warrior Within then largely nailed its combat and level design, but went so all-in

02:10on a Jak 2 or Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness style tone that many players just couldn't

02:15accept it whatsoever. Losing the softly spoken prince that went before, follow-up Two Thrones

02:20attempted to hybridise the two styles into a twin gameplay approach. However, that just

02:25resulted in a reboot because Ubisoft couldn't think of a genuine way to truly move forward.

02:308. Dragon Age 2 The Dragon Age series represents Bioware

02:34at their best. A deep, involving set of RPGs with choices, consequences, and lots and lots

02:39of dialogue. It's a version of the legendary developer we may never see again, but that

02:44hot streak run across the 2000s is always worth admiring. Dragon Age 2 then represents

02:49a turbulent time in the series. Hawk's Adventure is one that never quite seemed to know what

02:53it wanted to be. It offered the player more freedom than before in terms of the choices

02:57they made, but its questionable pacing meant that you were never quite sure how or when they

03:01would actually matter. Most egregiously, Dragon Age 2 struggled to carve out a world that was

03:06truly its own, with some very familiar looking settings popping up throughout. It's a shame

03:11as Hawk is a memorably written character for those who stuck with the game until the credits,

03:16but this sequel was the first major stumble for a studio that would only fall apart more

03:20across the ensuing decade.

03:227. Resident Evil 6 There will always be highs and lows for any

03:26long-running series. In the case of Capcom's beloved survival horror franchise Resident Evil,

03:31the sixth numbered release would probably qualify as a major low. Resident Evil 4 had changed

03:36the formula forever. It implemented a new visceral action-focused two proceedings and pulled

03:40it off with purpose, charm and memorability. It's one of the most celebrated games ever

03:44made and the pressure of following it up was pretty immense. In attempting to do so, Capcom

03:49gave us Resident Evil 5 and 6. The former may not be a masterpiece, but it remains an enjoyable

03:54enough action-heavy romp, packed with some of the most absurd and memorable moments the series

03:59has to offer. Resident Evil 6, though, just took things too far. Trying to please what

04:04had now become two audiences, those of slower-paced horror and high-octane action, none of Resident

04:09Evil 6's smaller campaigns felt like Resident Evil at all. Capcom would take a long, hard

04:14look at themselves across five whole years of letting their IP rest, before coming back

04:19stronger than ever with Resident Evil 7, Village and an ongoing smattering of remakes. Whether

04:24they try to make 6 work after all this time, though, is something we'll just have to

04:28wait and see.

04:306. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2

04:32Adaptations of beloved franchises like Star Wars need to be treated with tremendous care.

04:37Fans are as invested as it's possible to be, and for Star Wars, they want authenticity

04:41across their games. Their most iconic characters, vehicles and locales, combat that feels just

04:46right, plus epic space battles and cosmic drama worthy of the name. Star Wars The Force Unleashed

04:512 had a great chance to deliver all of this. An expanded take on new canon character Starkiller

04:56could've been a visceral treat to control as before, with many expanded force powers and

05:01lightsaber tricks going down in history. Sadly, the game was a big critical disappointment,

05:06failing to refine the solid foundation the original had set down. It would later be revealed

05:10that the game was crunched to hell and turned around in just nine months, something that

05:14resulted in Force Unleashed 2 feeling like DLC. Poor sales followed and when Disney took over

05:19Star Wars in 2013, plans for Force Unleashed 3 were scrapped entirely.

05:235. Duke Nukem Forever A lot was riding on 2011's Duke Nukem Forever.

05:29It needed to honour the Duke's not-so-good name and prove a worthy addition to his adventures

05:33that had come before. Sadly, the project just seemed doomed from the start. Duke Nukem Forever's

05:38sad fate is one of the most infamous tales of development hell in gaming history. Once it finally

05:43arrived in players' hands, it was plain just how far the genre had come, leaving the Duke far behind.

05:48Forever was filled with some insanely outdated jokes, likely written almost a decade prior,

05:53and was a very basic FPS, failing to provide any innovation or a fresh feel to gameplay like the

05:59mighty Duke Nukem 3D once did. 4. Mass Effect Andromeda

06:03Is it terrible to mess up once like with Mass Effect 3, or mess up again when you're afforded a

06:08clean slate? Answers down in the comments, because like I said earlier, Bioware did have one hell of a

06:13decade across the 2010s. 2017's Mass Effect Andromeda then was ultimately a victim of its

06:19own hype or expectation, which is to say that if you had any, you were disappointed. The issue was

06:24with how weirdly undercooked the game's marketing was, but quadruply so once we saw just how little

06:29care and attention had gone into this supposed soft reboot. Receiving a ton of patches as DLC was

06:35cancelled, and we found out behind the scenes squabbles amongst Bioware dev teams were rife,

06:39EA declared Mass Effect as a franchise on ice, until December 2020 promised at least something

06:45would come again. 3. Devil May Cry 2

06:49Few games debut with so much confidence, swagger, and all-round panache as Devil May Cry.

06:54Spinning off from a Resident Evil 4 prototype, and including enemy juggles as a game mechanic thanks

06:59to a bug in development, tagging on a red coat wearing demon hunter who quipped and flipped in

07:03equal measure was instant gaming history. It was all massively helmed by one Hideki Kamiya,

07:09director of Resident Evil 2 who'd go on to make some of the most stylish games of all time.

07:14So, what to do for Devil May Cry's sequel? Well, how about you get in a completely different

07:18director, then swap another in with only a few months before launch. The resulting version of

07:23Devil May Cry 2 had wall running and multiple enemy targeting, but precisely none of the raw

07:28playability and appeal of the original, replete with a Dante that felt stripped of all personality.

07:342. Fable 3 On its 2004 launch, this vast, ambitious,

07:38Peter Molyneux-designed RPG delivered creative, engrossing gameplay. In itself,

07:43many had an issue with how overblown Molyneux's marketing tactics had been versus the reality of

07:47the game itself, but being a major, well-playing Xbox-exclusive RPG, en masse we kinda just let it

07:54slide. Fable 2 then hit supremely well too, leading to a part 3 that got everything wrong. Lacking the

08:00weighty decisions that made Fable identifiable, also stripped back were your clothing options,

08:04weapons and RPG customization across the board. Even the game's pause menu was just weird,

08:10booting you into a room of options that you literally had to walk around.

08:13Fable is currently in reboot mode, yet again after the practically finished Fable Legends

08:18was shelved instead, but Fable 3 was a monumental letdown.

08:221. Dead Space 3 There's Resident Evil 4 and there's Dead Space,

08:27the perfect twin over-shoulder shooter combo. For the latter, Isaac Clarke fights with salvaged

08:32mining tools, battles are frantic, gross and gory, and there's a killer atmosphere that brings it

08:37all together. For Dead Space 2, everything got enhanced. Combat proficiency, animation,

08:42monster design, lighting. For many, Dead Space 2 is the peak of action meets horror in all of gaming

08:47to this day. With so much love for two installments creating one hell of a trajectory,

08:52in came what we now know all too well as EA royally messing everything up. Series creator Glenn

08:57Schofield was long gone and in were premium currencies, microtransactions, co-op shooting

09:02campaigns and an evil moon as a boss fight. It all went sideways fast, undoing all that previous

09:07goodwill and benching Dead Space as an entire franchise until EA finally greenlit a remake in 2021.

09:14And those are our picks for the most disappointing video game sequels of all time. Let me know your

09:19favourites down in the comments below and please subscribe to the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast.

09:23For now, I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com and I'll catch you soon.

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