Favourite game with a crummy sequel

[Stammer]

I'm sure we've all been there. We have a game that we love dearly. A game that we hold close to us because it was so awesome. You waited and waited and waited for the sequel to come out. When it finally does come out, you start playing it... but something seems off to you. They've changed a gameplay mechanic or they gave it a really rushed and amateur story.

I can think of two, myself:

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. The difference between AC2 and ACB is pretty minimal, but I find some of the additions to the game to be really laughable. AC2 is still my second favourite game ever, and I was so hyped for Brotherhood. But Brotherhood seemed too easy. Between the crossbow that was extremely overpowered and the fact you could call other assassins in to help you out it was just way too easy. The only challenge came from the secondary objectives which weren't so much "hard" as they were "frustrating". The story was lacking and the controls felt way more stiff than in the previous installment.

C&C Red Alert 3: Uprising. RA3 is my favourite game of all, but Uprising was a severe disappointment. Sure it had more units and stuff to choose from, as well as a whole extra storyline to play through, but the new versatility removed the individuality between the factions and the stories were garbage. Playing through my favourite faction's story (the Empire), there were only 3 missions and only 1 of those you actually used the Empire's own units. None of the good characters were brought back for the expansion, none of the fun feeling remained, the "balanced but unique" factions were turned all samey, and even the music was replaced with garbage.

What are some of your favourite games that were given stupid sequels?

 

[DustyDrB]

Wind Waker--->Phantom Hourglass.
Phantom Hourglass remains the only Zelda game I do not like. Yeah, that one repetitive temple with the imposed time limit killed it for me.

That's all I can think of.

 

[The Cheezy One]

Drakengard
Health kits? Caim (<-) would not stand for this shit. He beats the health out of the enemies, and then eats it.
Also Nowe talks too much. In that he talks at all. Caim just goes "..." and kills someone again.
And Angelus could eat Legna for breakfast.
Leonard, while being a paedophile (questonably), is awesome - "I am already dead. Where this body drops and rots is of no matter now".
The story is also far better, where you get the feeling Caim does not care about the bigger picture, and just wants to focus on what is in front. And the Moonfire - hot knife through butter!

 

[tkmedic]

I just have to say it.
KotOR I, rocked, KotOR II.... much dissapoint

 

[Charli]

Tales of Symphonia.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the new world just missed the point of everything awesome in the first game.

 

[matell]

Fallout 3, Deus Ex Invisible War and Blood Omen 2. all rather dissapointing, most of which was the aforementioned F3, it was a huge let-down for me and I would probably have enjoyed it more if it wasn't the official sequel to the franchise.

 

[Popadoo]

Bioshock. The story in Bioshock 2 was no where near as amazing as the original, and what I loved about the first was the sense of mystery and wonder, which you can't get when your playing a giant robot that's lived in the city for years.

 

[nuba km]

Anyone say Bioshock 2 was a bad game I will punch them not nearly as good as it's predecessor yes, bad no.
edit:

Bioshock. The story in Bioshock 2 was no where near as amazing as the original, and what I loved about the first was the sense of mystery and wonder, which you can't get when your playing a giant robot that's lived in the city for years.

well you had to be just above my post. Even though it's not as good as Bioshock 1 it is still a good game.

 

[theginger]

The one that springs to mind is Final Fantasy X. I was excited about X-2 it at first but then it turned out to be a large heap of character debasement and fanservice.

 

[KalosCast]

Wind Waker--->Phantom Hourglass.
Phantom Hourglass remains the only Zelda game I do not like. Yeah, that one repetitive temple with the imposed time limit killed it for me.

That's all I can think of.

I've been gaming for nearly two decades at this point, and Phantom Hourglass stands as the only game that I gave up on for reasons other than the difficulty, and difficulty hasn't been a factor barring completion since the SNES era, at the latest.

I'll generally force myself through a game that's I don't really like out of a curiosity to see what more they did wrong, or how deep that wrongness goes (passing hobbyist interest in game design) but Phatom Hourglass was just... awful. And I'd even consider myself a bit of a Zelda fanboy.

 

[Stammer]

Anyone say Bioshock 2 was a bad game I will punch them not nearly as good as it's predecessor yes, bad no.

Yeah, I wouldn't really call it "bad" either. I had enjoyment playing the game. I was immersed when I was playing it, and that's all I care about.

My biggest disappointment with BioShock 2 was the story. I just didn't think Lamb made a very good villain. We were spoiled with Ryan and with Fontaine.

 

[wolf thing]

fear. the first game was so good but the sequel disappointed in almost every way.

 

[Legion]

I am so glad this isn't the Bioware forums.

Mafia 2 was a pretty bad sequel I think.

Command and Conquer 3 was an abomination.

 

[lostzombies.com]

COD WaW- Genuinely placed this game in my all time top 5. Single player was so-so but had a few great moments, the introduction of zombie mode and DLC zombie maps which have outshone all the of black ops versions, and a fun and brutal multiplayer.

MW2 and BO both have fallen far far short for me, the only good point about either is the single player in black ops.

 

[chromewarriorXIII]

Tales of Symphonia.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the new world just missed the point of everything awesome in the first game.

Well, I hate saying it but, this.

Also, Soul Calibur IV was a huge letdown in my opinion. The game was way too slow to be the sequel to SCIII.

 

[Jazoni89]

Jet set radio, I love the original, but the sequel Jet set radio Future is pretty awful in my opinion.

They changed so much for the worst, gone was time limits, gone was the police, gone was the skill of tagging, and instead it was just a game with very boring levels with no skill, and no real objective.

What it did have though was better music, and graphics than the original, I'll give it that at least.

 

[Gene O]

Bushido Blade and Bushido Blade 2

I'm not self-centered enough to think that Bushido Blade 2 was made the way it was just to spite me but it would explain a lot.

 

[ABLb0y]

Silent Hill: Homecoming was (In My opinion) a great game. However, whilst not being terrible, Shattered Memories was the worst in the series. Don't get me wrong, i kind of liked it, but it wasn't as good.

 

[Woodsey]

KotOR and KotOR 2.

And Mafia and Mafia 2. Mafia 2 was good, but it suffered from a rather odd development, and the fourth quarter of the game really nosedives.

 

[Stammer]

I just thought of a couple others...

C&C4 Tiberian Twilight. It wasn't really a bad "game". If it were a spin-off game or something I probably would have enjoyed it, but they really changed the gameplay from the rest of the Command & Conquer games preceding it. It changed everything: no more resource-gathering or base-building, adding a unit cap and a leveling-up system, and making the game less about killing your enemies and more about playing a Star Wars Battlefront-style game. Leaving gameplay aside, the story was absolutely terrible. The acting SUCKED, the writing SUCKED, the direction SUCKED. And the worst part was just how it discredited the 3 preceding games as if they didn't need to happen. C&C4 was to the C&C series what Indiana Jones 4 was to the Indiana Jones series.

Armored Core 4. I grew up with Armored Core 2, its expansion, and Armored Core 3, and its many expansions. So when I finally got a PS3, I bought AC4... and wow was I disappointed. They changed every iota of the controls and made everything try to appeal to a wider audience, but all it did was make it an uncontrollable mess. The graphics were more polished, but it's like they forgot to add in colour to the game. And now every part has like 100 different stats that all have pros and cons on your mech so it's almost impossible to ever figure out what your parts do. I know there's a few people that will tell you AC4 was "way better than the earlier games", but I strongly disagree.