We've all seen them. Games that showed great potential, but fail to hit the mark, possessing various design flaws that relegate them to mediocrity. It's a shame to see franchises so promising being cut short by bad decisions, before the flaws could be fixed. While most will never get this second (or third, or whatever) chance to redeem themselves, it's interesting to imagine what could be. What franchises would you have continued despite a botched initial outing?
For me, I'd like to see a sequel to Brink. Here was a game that had a great setup. An interesting world with a cool backstory, interesting graphics, tons of customization, team based gameplay and multiple classes. The first person parkour could have added a new dimension to combat. Instead, we had a dodgy game that failed to live up to expectations. The single player was a joke, with no story to speak of and limited to simply running multiplayer maps with bots. The gameplay was unsatisfying on many levels even in multiplayer,which was the clear focus. The world went completely to waste. I'd love to see a sequel that ironed out the gameplay, and added an actual single player campaign. Actually use the backstory that was given in the game to create something interesting. I'd love to see a story in this universe.
Another game I'd love to see given a better sequel is Clive Barker's Jericho. A first person shooter with supposed horror elements (it's no the slightest bit unnerving, just grotesque) where you control a squad of supernatural soldiers against unholy forces. Each of the squad members has different powers and weapons, some of which are quite fun. The Sniper can fire explosive rounds and use her power to guide bullets in first person to take out multiple enemies in one shot. Another character can slow time and throw grenades, so you can slow down time and precision drop grenades at enemy feet. Hell, one guy as a FIRE DEMON that he sets loose on enemies to wipe them out. The plot also had some potential, with the squad descending through multiple dimensions created by God's rejected creation fighting supernatural horrors from various time periods. However, the game was absolutely wretched. The squad AI was horrific, and you spent more time reviving them than actually fighting enemies. In every level you fight the same few enemy types with only minor variation, and every fight was just you hanging back and shooting at constantly spawning enemies. If the game could fine tune the allied AI, add more enemy variety, and make fights more varied than a round of whack-a-mole, the squad powers and setting could make a cool game.
For me, I'd like to see a sequel to Brink. Here was a game that had a great setup. An interesting world with a cool backstory, interesting graphics, tons of customization, team based gameplay and multiple classes. The first person parkour could have added a new dimension to combat. Instead, we had a dodgy game that failed to live up to expectations. The single player was a joke, with no story to speak of and limited to simply running multiplayer maps with bots. The gameplay was unsatisfying on many levels even in multiplayer,which was the clear focus. The world went completely to waste. I'd love to see a sequel that ironed out the gameplay, and added an actual single player campaign. Actually use the backstory that was given in the game to create something interesting. I'd love to see a story in this universe.
Another game I'd love to see given a better sequel is Clive Barker's Jericho. A first person shooter with supposed horror elements (it's no the slightest bit unnerving, just grotesque) where you control a squad of supernatural soldiers against unholy forces. Each of the squad members has different powers and weapons, some of which are quite fun. The Sniper can fire explosive rounds and use her power to guide bullets in first person to take out multiple enemies in one shot. Another character can slow time and throw grenades, so you can slow down time and precision drop grenades at enemy feet. Hell, one guy as a FIRE DEMON that he sets loose on enemies to wipe them out. The plot also had some potential, with the squad descending through multiple dimensions created by God's rejected creation fighting supernatural horrors from various time periods. However, the game was absolutely wretched. The squad AI was horrific, and you spent more time reviving them than actually fighting enemies. In every level you fight the same few enemy types with only minor variation, and every fight was just you hanging back and shooting at constantly spawning enemies. If the game could fine tune the allied AI, add more enemy variety, and make fights more varied than a round of whack-a-mole, the squad powers and setting could make a cool game.
