Bad Gaming Sequels

[WFox]

I'm getting tired of fanboys. OH HO And another thing which I forgot about was the Mako in the first game. At first it was clunky and hard to get used to but after I got used to it I had a load of fun with it. I loved zooming about the different planets in my tricked-out-off-roadster, but Bioware, in their infinite wisdom, decided to remove it in ME2. And they replaced it with something that was mind-numbingly boring! A freakin' planet scanner!

1) The story was not better than the first. In any way. In the first game you have a clear enemy: Saren. In ME2 there is no clear cut enemy. Most of the game felt like Shepard and his crew were just fumbling around in the dark following the Illusive Man's orders. It never felt like the game was actually GOING anywhere. Until it ended which was pretty epic I have to say.

2) How hard a game is does not decide if it is good or not. I played at the difficulty that suited me.

3) How was the inventory system bad? I loved going on to the Citadel to sell the stuff I had collected. I racked up thousands of credits. In ME2 however the only way to get money is to complete missions, which there are only a finite amount of.

/EndRant

I hated the Mako, and was glad to see it go, and I know for a fact that I"m not alone in that sentiment. I do agree that scanning planets sucked, even if you got the upgrade that made it faster. And Bioware eventually added the Hammerhead, which is vastly superior to the Mako (though I would have appreciated it more if it had been around for the entire game).

The inventory system was terrible. There was nothing more tedious and annoying in Mass Effect than realizing your inventory was full and having to go through and turn your weakest guns, and most useless upgrades into omnigel. Now don't get me wrong, I liked having more guns and more upgrade options in the original (though I liked how ME2 handled the armor a lot), but sorting through that inventory screen was almost as frustrating as sorting through your items when you wanted to sell them- which was a nightmare.

So for Mass Effect 3, I'm hoping they bring back the options for guns, but find a better way to handle the inventory menus.

 

[mrwoo112]

I cant belive no one has mentioned lego racers 2.

i mean lego racers was brillent when i was a kid but the second was a big letdown for me.

 

[DAOWAce]

Haven't read the thread, but I saw FFX-2 and need to say something about it.

I remember reading years back that Squaresoft would never make a sequel to Final Fantasy game (I doubt I could ever find this article again). Fast forward after Enix was aquired, FFX-2 was announced and released, contradicting what Square said in the past.

End result? One of the most hated Final Fantasy games ever.

I myself never finished it, but I didn't actually hate it, just thought it was different.


For a bad recent sequel.. Starcraft 2.

I wish I was trolling. I explain things briefly here: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6273407.html

For me, Starcraft 2 was afflicted by a multitude of personal issues, most resulting from being a dedicated Starcraft fan from 12 years ago. I may write a review of it one day to really elaborate on everything, but it's not on my to-do list.

 

[Starke]

Gothic III.
/Thread.

I wish, but, unfortunately we've already had the discussion, the OP defined it as first sequels only.

 

[blindthrall]

Invisible FUCKING War

You win thread. Congradulations! But Warren Spector didn't have anything to do with that piece of pablum.

For what it's worth, I thought Diablo 2 was a goddamn cartoon romp through the Unicorn Vale compared to the first, which actually did a pretty good job of instilling dread in the player. Especially if you're dumb enough to be a mage. Plus, I'm a sucker for randomized dungeons, especially when they're supposed to be manifested from the subconscious of someone possessed by chaos.

 

[Imbechile]

Invisible FUCKING War

You win thread. Congradulations! But Warren Spector didn't have anything to do with that piece of pablum.

For what it's worth, I thought Diablo 2 was a goddamn cartoon romp through the Unicorn Vale compared to the first, which actually did a pretty good job of instilling dread in the player. Especially if you're dumb enough to be a mage. Plus, I'm a sucker for randomized dungeons, especially when they're supposed to be manifested from the subconscious of someone possessed by chaos.

I thought that Diablo 2 was good. I didn't play 1 much since i was like 7 so i mostly watched my friend play

 

[DSK-]

Black and white 2.

You know Lionhead last I checked I went ahead and bought a GOD GAME not a generic rts mixed in with a lackluster civ management game. In fact if I recall its quite easy to forget you are playing a god game, because your godly powers are limited to "Throw nasty enery ball" or "Throw friendly helpful energy ball".

The worst thing was the bugs. Building walls to protect your town, only for creatures and enemy troops to miraculously clip through them. That really pissed me off.

I agree that it wasn't the same as the first B&W.

OT: I would say Unreal Tournament 3. Numerous things were wrong with the PC release, and the story mode that they said would be good (it had some decent VA mind you) was a joke. "We need to capture the F.l.a.g.s in order to shut down the respawners in that area" ...really?!

 

[MadCapMunchkin]

Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts.

If someone already mentioned it, I'm sorry, it's just stupid! The first two games were platformers and then suddenly Rare decides to turn it into a vehicle game?! Screw that!

 

[Super Toast]

the RPG elements in the first game were annoying as hell
all the biotic and tech powers were completely useless compared to the pistol
even if you powered them all the way up
and all the weapons were useless compared to the sniper
and there were enough points available to get all but one tree leveled all the way up
so the RPG element in ME1 was "how fast can i dump all my points into the sniper tree"

they did take out half the content from the first to the second game with the illumination of the explorable planets
but they gave a good reason to play as the biotic tech or mixed classes
in ME 1 the only reason to not be a soldier was to say "Look at me, I don't need heavy armor"
when all you did was snipe enemies from the next town over or run them over in the Mako

Mass Effect 2 was one of the only sequels that ever improved a game to me

but you're welcome to your opinion
even though it's my opinion that you're a tosser

Boy, stop trollin'!

OT: Mafia II. God damn that game sucked.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Infamous 2 would have been terrible if SuckerPunch had kept the Nathan Drake clone design

I might still be crap if they choose to go for a more cinematic experience. Meaning you might not receive the amount of freedom in handling missions the way you want as you did in the first game.

I might be jumping the gun, but I just don't want InFamous 2 to go all "Uncharted 2 blockbuster" on me. For a linear game it's fine, but for an open world game I'd rather it not be cinematic.

 

[RubyT]

Another vote for Mass Effect 2.

It felt like BioWare had too much on their plate with DA:O in development too, so they outsourced ME2 to a competent but visionless developer like Treyarch. And to avoid damaging the franchise too much, they decided to not really make it a sequel, but more an intermission.

At the end of ME1 Sheppard was about to go kick some Reaper butt, now that the proxy race The Geth were destroyed. For the intermission, we introduce some convenient second proxy race with The Collectors, who weren't mentioned before and whose purpose in this whole affair seems nebulous at best.

Now the competent but visionless developer takes a prototype they once did for a mediocre, redundant cover-based shooter and just slaps the ME franchise on there for good measure. Some previous NPCs here and there, do we really need more? And since no-one can expect anyone to develop a good game in 2 years, we just sacrifice a real story with a dozen crew gathering missions, all totally independent of each other, a dozen Side Quests if you will, that predominantly featured looong charges up or down indiscriminate structures with the least-subtle orchestrated battles ever.

And at the end of ME2, we're right back where we left, about to face the Reapers. How convenient. BioWare, please take over .... PLEASE. Otherwise I fear that the first thing we'll learn in ME3 is that there's still time before the Reaper Armada engages, so first Sheppard should take care of yet another proxy race at the other side of the galaxy, who turn up their music way too loud or something.

ME2 was the most disappointing sequel since Gothic 3, incidentally another RPG that has no palpable or coherent plot but just a big effin' bunch of non-related side quests.

 

[dark_paladin_Quest]

Invisible FUCKING War

This, turning the best game ever into utter shite

 

[Breaker deGodot]

EDIT: Ignore this post, sorry.

 

[Seamus8]

Invisible FUCKING War

You win thread. Congradulations! But Warren Spector didn't have anything to do with that piece of pablum.

For what it's worth, I thought Diablo 2 was a goddamn cartoon romp through the Unicorn Vale compared to the first, which actually did a pretty good job of instilling dread in the player. Especially if you're dumb enough to be a mage. Plus, I'm a sucker for randomized dungeons, especially when they're supposed to be manifested from the subconscious of someone possessed by chaos.

Agreed on d2, the original was so much more morose and poinient.

 

[ecoho]

Another vote for Mass Effect 2.

It felt like BioWare had too much on their plate with DA:O in development too, so they outsourced ME2 to a competent but visionless developer like Treyarch. And to avoid damaging the franchise too much, they decided to not really make it a sequel, but more an intermission.

At the end of ME1 Sheppard was about to go kick some Reaper butt, now that the proxy race The Geth were destroyed. For the intermission, we introduce some convenient second proxy race with The Collectors, who weren't mentioned before and whose purpose in this whole affair seems nebulous at best.

Now the competent but visionless developer takes a prototype they once did for a mediocre, redundant cover-based shooter and just slaps the ME franchise on there for good measure. Some previous NPCs here and there, do we really need more? And since no-one can expect anyone to develop a good game in 2 years, we just sacrifice a real story with a dozen crew gathering missions, all totally independent of each other, a dozen Side Quests if you will, that predominantly featured looong charges up or down indiscriminate structures with the least-subtle orchestrated battles ever.

And at the end of ME2, we're right back where we left, about to face the Reapers. How convenient. BioWare, please take over .... PLEASE. Otherwise I fear that the first thing we'll learn in ME3 is that there's still time before the Reaper Armada engages, so first Sheppard should take care of yet another proxy race at the other side of the galaxy, who turn up their music way too loud or something.

ME2 was the most disappointing sequel since Gothic 3, incidentally another RPG that has no palpable or coherent plot but just a big effin' bunch of non-related side quests.

ok yes they were rushed and that did make the game a bit thin but they fixed the combat the story was still better then just about every other game out at the time and they did add DLC FOR FREE!!! that was very good and help fill in some gameply hours. As to the collectors. Ok they kinda came out of left feild but i mean what did you think we would fight since they already said it was a trilligy the geth? So in closeing could the game have been better? yes if they would have had say another year it would have been alot better. I have to ask this though did you or for that matter anyone truly hate the game? If so i can only think of 3 reasons:
1) you play it on the PC i know the PC is kick ass but guys it was made for the console its not gonna be as good on a PC if you hate MS wait for the PS3 version.
2)you like the inventory system in the first game if thats the case i cant help you nor will i try
3)your just hateing it casue you can.

Now i want to make this clear i understand that you (the guy i quoted) simply stated that you were disappointed with it so my little rant mostly does not apply to you

 

[repeating integers]

I am rather surprised at all the hatred going towards Mass Effect 2. You guys all seem to be missing the point: This thread is about BAD sequels, as in, games that are properly bad. Mass Effect 2 certainly wasn't this, it's just that you found it disappointing due to a genre shift and gameplay changes. What emerged from Bioware's development offices was something different to Mass Effect, but something that still succeeded in what it was trying to do and be.

There are things I prefer Mass Effect 1 for. I love the Mako to death and would be perfectly happy with a game that consisted entirely of driving round on one massive planet (chock full of steep mountains to climb up, of course) in it. It was ridiculous, completely insane fun, and Bioware abruptly went and replaced it with... a somewhat-entertaining-for-a-little-while minigame that took up about half your time playing the game. I don't hate planet scanning, but I much, MUCH prefer the good old Mako.

The original game was also much more of an RPG in general, what with all the stats to upgrade and visibly getting experience points and loot from enemies you killed. I liked choosing between the many different weapon and armour varieties, and upgrading my gun with certain ammo types.

But in the end, Mass Effect 2 isn't an RPG with 3rd-person shooter elements, like Mass Effect. It's a 3rd-person shooter with RPG elements. This turns some of you off, and that's fine, but the fact is... it does TPS very well. The combat is better than the original game - it probably benefits from a somewhat smarter AI, quickly-recharging powers, a tweaked cover system (just pressing A to go into cover rather than having gravitationally attractive walls makes a hell of a lot more difference than it sounds) and better weapons... or should I say, better-balanced weapons. The story, I agree, is not as good as in Mass Effect 1, but it's still above par and draws you in. The character of Shepard feels a lot more realistic than in Mass Effect 1, no matter whether you're paragon or renegade, and the many other characters are also very good - I believe many of them are better than the original squadmates. I found all this sufficiently attractive to sell Mass Effect 2 for me, as, it seems, did many of the critics.

If Mass Effect 2 isn't your kind of game, that's fine. But claiming it belongs on this list just because it's a different kind of game to Mass Effect is ridiculous. It's like saying Halo 3 is a terrible game just because it's an FPS and you don't like FPS games.

 

[Squirrel1328]

Mercenaries 2. Not the sequel Mercs Playground of Destruction deserved. Anyone thinking of playing Mercs 2 just get the first one, not kidding, it's miles ahead of the second.

same i liked the first one alot better

 

[Sebenko]

DLC FOR FREE!!!

It's only free if you don't value your time at all. Took me hours of fucking around to get the piece of shit to work. I hate ME2.

OT: Oblivion. The Escapist has heard my complaints against that piss puddle many times.

I'm still playing Morrowind.