10 Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels Of All Time

Australian Cinephile

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.

00:04Fans 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 right,

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

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

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

00:28disappointing video game sequels of all time.

00:31Number 10, Paper Mario, Sticker Star.

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

00:37A colourful, irreverent experience that leans into the whole everything is made out of paper

00:41concept and emphasises it throughout. For many, 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario The Thousand Year

00:47Door represented the pinnacle of that format. It's tremendously fun and varied, with a large

00:51cast of characters that each have handy abilities in battle. The RPG elements seemed finely tuned

00:56to allow for strategy without becoming too deep or too shallow. Titles since, though,

01:01seem to have failed in getting this delicate balance right. 3DS in Storm and Paper Mario

01:05Sticker Star remains a controversial example, leaving behind those RPG trappings for the gimmicky

01:10titular sticker system, 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. 9. Prince of Persia Warrior Within

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

01:31I stand alone as the theme song. Gaming did not get any better. Talk to anyone whose blood

01:36didn't bleed professional wrestling at the time, though, and Warrior Within was a cataclysmic,

01:40nigh-hilarious letdown. Going from the super charming Sands of Time original to this weirdly

01:45super angsty, muted colour palette sequel that felt like the boss's teenage son had led the design

01:50meeting. Because to give the haters their due, Sands of Time was a magical fairytale game,

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

01:59and time powers, 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 on a

02:11Jack 2 or Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness style tone that many players just couldn't accept it

02:16whatsoever. Losing the softly spoken prince that went before, follow-up Two Thrones attempted to

02:21hybridise the two styles into a twin gameplay approach. However, that just resulted in a

02:26reboot because Ubisoft couldn't think of a genuine way to truly move forward.

02:30Number 8, Dragon Age 2. The Dragon Age series represents Bioware at their best. A deep,

02:35involving set of RPGs with choices, consequences, and lots and lots of dialogue. It's a version of the

02:41legendary developer we may never see again, but that hot streak run across the 2000s is always

02:46worth admiring. Dragon Age 2 then represents a turbulent time in the series. Hawke's adventure

02:51is one that never quite seemed to know what it wanted to be. It offered the player more freedom

02:55than before in terms of the choices they made, but its questionable pacing meant that you were never

03:00quite sure how or when they would actually matter. Most egregiously, Dragon Age 2 struggled to carve out

03:05a world that was truly its own, with some very familiar-looking settings popping up throughout.

03:10It's a shame as Hawke is a memorably written character for those who stuck with the game until

03:15the credits, but this sequel was the first major stumble for a studio that would only fall apart

03:20more across the ensuing decade. Number 7, Resident Evil 6. There will always be highs and lows for

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

03:30the sixth-numbered release would probably qualify as a major low. Resident Evil 4 had changed the

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

03:41with purpose, charm and memorability. It's one of the most celebrated games ever made and the pressure

03:45of following it up was pretty immense. In attempting to do so, Capcom gave us Resident Evil 5 and 6.

03:51The former may not be a masterpiece, but it remains an enjoyable enough action-heavy romp,

03:56packed with some of the most absurd and memorable moments the series has to offer.

04:00Resident Evil 6, though, just took things too far. Trying to please what had now become two audiences,

04:05those of slower-paced horror and high-octane action, none of Resident Evil 6's smaller campaigns

04:11felt like Resident Evil at all. Capcom would take a long, hard look at themselves across five whole

04:16years of letting their IP rest before coming back stronger than ever with Resident Evil 7,

04:21Village, and an ongoing smattering of remakes. Whether they try to make 6 work after all this

04:26time, though, is something we'll just have to wait and see.

04:29Number 6. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2

04:31Adaptations 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 across

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

04:47plus epic space battles and cosmic drama worthy of the name. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 had a great

04:52chance to deliver all of this. An expanded take on new canon character Starkiller could have been a

04:57visceral treat to control as before, with many expanded Force powers and lightsaber tricks going

05:02down in history. Sadly, the game was a big critical disappointment, failing to refine the solid

05:07foundation the original had set down. It would later be revealed that the game was crunched to

05:11hell and turned around in just nine months, something that resulted in Force Unleashed 2

05:16feeling like DLC. Poor sales followed, and when Disney took over Star Wars in 2013, plans for

05:21Force Unleashed 3 were scrapped entirely.

05:23Number 5. Duke Nukem Forever

05:25A lot was riding on 2011's Duke Nukem Forever. It needed to honour the Duke's not-so-good name and

05:31prove a worthy addition to his adventures that had come before. Sadly, the project just seemed doomed

05:36from the start. Duke Nukem Forever's sad fate is one of the most infamous tales of development hell in

05:41gaming history. Once it finally arrived in players' hands, it was plain just how far the genre had

05:46come, leaving the Duke far behind. Forever was filled with some insanely outdated jokes, likely

05:51written almost a decade prior, and was a very basic FPS, failing to provide any innovation or a fresh

05:58feel to gameplay like the mighty Duke Nukem 3D once did.

06:01Number 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 clean slate?

06:09Answers down in the comments, because like I said earlier, Bioware did have one hell of a decade

06:14across the 2010s. 2017's Mass Effect Andromeda then was ultimately a victim of its own hype or

06:19expectation, which is to say that if you had any, you were disappointed. The issue was with how weirdly

06:25undercooked the game's marketing was, but quadruply so once we saw just how little care and attention

06:30had gone into this supposed soft reboot. Receiving a ton of patches as DLC was cancelled, and we found out

06:36behind-the-scenes squabbles amongst Bioware dev teams were rife, EA declared Mass Effect as a

06:41franchise on ice, until December 2020 promised at least something would come again.

06:47Number 3. Devil May Cry 2

06:48Few games debut with so much confidence, swagger, and all-round panache as Devil May Cry. Spinning off

06:55from a Resident Evil 4 prototype, and including enemy juggles as a game mechanic thanks to a bug in

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

07:04was instant gaming history. It was all massively helmed by one Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident

07:10Evil 2 who'd go on to make some of the most stylish games of all time. So what to do for

07:15Devil May Cry's sequel? Well, how about you get in a completely different director, then swap another

07:20in with only a few months before launch? The resulting version of Devil May Cry 2 had wall running and

07:25multiple enemy targeting, but precisely none of the raw playability and appeal of the original,

07:30replete with a Dante that felt stripped of all personality.

07:34Number 2. Fable 3

07:35On its 2004 launch, this vast, ambitious Peter Molyneux-designed RPG delivered creative,

07:41engrossing gameplay. In itself, many had an issue with how overblown Molyneux's marketing tactics had

07:46been versus the reality of the game itself, but being a major, well-playing Xbox-exclusive RPG,

07:51on mass we kinda just let it slide. Fable 2 then hit supremely well too, leading to a part 3

07:58that got everything wrong. Lacking the weighty decisions that made Fable identifiable,

08:02also stripped back were your clothing options, weapons, and RPG customization across the board.

08:07Even the game's pause menu was just weird, booting you into a room of options that you

08:12literally had to walk around. Fable is currently in reboot mode yet again after the practically

08:17finished, Fable Legends was shelved instead, but Fable 3 was a monumental letdown.

08:22Number 1. Dead Space 3

08:24There's Resident Evil 4 and there's Dead Space, the perfect twin over-shoulder shooter combo.

08:30For the latter, Isaac Clarke fights with salvaged mining tools, battles are frantic, gross, and gory,

08:35and there's a killer atmosphere that brings it all together. For Dead Space 2, everything got enhanced.

08:40Combat proficiency, animation, monster design, lighting. For many, Dead Space 2 is the peak of action meets horror

08:47gaming to 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 Schofield

08:58was long gone, and in were premium currencies, microtransactions, co-op shooting campaigns,

09:03and an evil moon as a boss fight. It all went sideways fast, undoing all that previous goodwill,

09:08and 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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