Games you wish never had a sequel?

[Daedalus1942]

I'll have to agree with many others here and say Bioshock. If you're going to do an unecessary sequel, at least make it better than the first. Since that would be physically impossible in Bioshock's case, it's only natural that it was disappointing.

Despite how great the sequel was, it can't compare to the original, which will always be a standalone game in my heart.

Okay... sorry, but why?
Bioshock was a great game don't get me wrong, but II was simply amazing!
They plot tied in to the first game without too many glaringly obvious plotholes as well as expanding and bringing to light the whole idea behind the "WYK" agent.
They expanded on the world of rapture further and introduced new enemies as well as reintroduced old (goddamn did they beef up the spider splicers!).
Using the big daddy was just awesome, the drill mechanics (the fuel was a stroke of genius), the dual wielding plasmids and guns at the same time. The gameplay mechanics were so much improved from the first game as well as hacking was so much more interesting and yet still a challenge.
Not once did the game feel like a retread through rapture.
Bioshock II in many ways is easily far superiour to the first game and I would easily give it game of the year (so far, c'mon diablo III!).
In fact, my only one gripe would have to be that everytime you visited the Gene Bank, your plasmid order on the f1, f2, f3 buttons etc, would get all screwed up and it made it awkward in a fight when I was trying to freeze someone only to get telekinesis because of the mixing up. Apart from that, my experience with bioshock II was almost good enough to rival that of System shock and System Shock II.
I had hoped mass effect II would be my game of the year, but that game was awful.
In any case, I'm curious as to your reasons for "agreeing" with everyone else on what was essentially one of the best Videogame sequels (probably) ever concieved.

I agree, it did improve on the first in many ways, most notably the gameplay. I just didn't want there to be a sequel in the first place. I think we can all agree that Bioshock 1 was a masterpiece, and while it didn't have the greatest ending, it was at least conclusive. In my opinion, that's already a point against Bioshock 2, since they didn't need to make it to continue the story (which is why sequels are made). Instead, they made it because they knew it would sell well. The story of Bioshock 2 does complement the first, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. It had a really "tacked-on" kind of feeling.

Also, part of the greatness of the first Bioshock was exploring Rapture for the first time. The stellar atmosphere made traversing this strange underwater city an amazing experience, and I never knew what to expect next. Even though they did vary the environment in the sequel, and as cliche as this sounds, it gave me a "been there, done that" vibe. The sense of awe and discovery was gone, and let's face it, without this element, Bioshock is just another shooter. Not to mention I didn't find it nearly as atmospheric as the first.

The rest of my gripes with the game further brought down the experience. I didn't find the characters as strong, I couldn't really empathize with my character since he's a Big Daddy instead of a human, and there weren't any major plot twists this time around (aside from the Little Sister part, if you can call that a twist). All of these gripes with the game, coupled with the fact that I didn't want a sequel in the first place and that Bioshock 1 can never be matched in quality IMO made me regret Bioshock 2 being made. I had fun with it for a while, but I would have preferred them leaving it as a standalone game.

Well, I found Eleanor to be extremely likeable and the further expansion of the origins of the little sisters I found to be quite interesting. For me not once did it feel like a Retread (despite me having played bioshock 1 on ps3 a month or so before II was released).
I only paid $20 (including PnH) from eBay for it, so I was expecting it not to be good. My main issues with it were the number of game breaking glitches (no sound, wtf?) and the Games for windows live DRM is annoying as fuck.
Thanks for clarifying your reasons though.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Killzone 2. Ugh.

You say that like the first one was something impressive ?! I think killzone 2 is fine, but we'll see about KZ3

I quite liked Killzone one (apart from the awful framerate issues and aiming mechanics) and I also like Killzone 2, but overall I'd have to say the most interesting and fun game for the series would be liberation on psp. So, damn hard, so different from the others and just so much fun!. I'm looking forward to KZ3.

to be fair, I didn't notice his name. Now that I have, I see what he was doing...

Well, the only one I liked in the series was Liberation. That was actually really fun. The rest, ehh.... Controls could use a lot of work. For some reason, they felt really heavy and clunky, and I wish the graphics were little more than "Next-Gen-Brown".

On the other hand, the Helghast do look pretty sweet.

 

[HT_Black]

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention Deus Ex. Fantastic game. Not so fantastic sequel.

Sho'nuff, stranger. Sho'nuff.

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that KOTOR 2 and Mass Effect 2 have no right to exist. KOTOR 2, because it brutalized a great story that wrapped up tightly, and ME 2 because...well, just because it was everything that made the first one good, sans the good stuff. (Yes, by the way. That does make sense.)

 

[archvile93]

Killzone and Uncharted. Since both sequels weren't all that WOWZORZ and people would shut the fuck up about them on PSN.

Also Battlefield Bad Company 2, It's used in every FPS to have a go at MW2 "haha BFCB2 is better fagz"

Well I have to admit, I've played both games' multiplayer and I did find BC2 to be better in every way.

OT: Got to go with the new sonic games.

 

[Ishadus]

Gotta jump on the FF X-2 bandwagon here. That will go down in history as one of, if not THE, biggest disappointments in video game history for me. Especially since, unlike many Escapists, I absolutely loved FFX.

The couple of people saying Mass Effect II kind of boggles me though. True it didn't advance the overarching plot in any real way, but it did round it out well and put things into play for the inevitable MEIII.

 

[macuKAT]

Killzone 2. Ugh.

You say that like the first one was something impressive ?! I think killzone 2 is fine, but we'll see about KZ3

I quite liked Killzone one (apart from the awful framerate issues and aiming mechanics) and I also like Killzone 2, but overall I'd have to say the most interesting and fun game for the series would be liberation on psp. So, damn hard, so different from the others and just so much fun!. I'm looking forward to KZ3.

to be fair, I didn't notice his name. Now that I have, I see what he was doing...

Well, the only one I liked in the series was Liberation. That was actually really fun. The rest, ehh.... Controls could use a lot of work. For some reason, they felt really heavy and clunky, and I wish the graphics were little more than "Next-Gen-Brown".

On the other hand, the Helghast do look pretty sweet.

oh okay, your not trollin' then ^^ but I do agree, the game needs less of the wobbling walking thing, and Ironically, my favourite Killzone game is Liberation too, it did what every company attempted to make a decent game for the PSP

 

[Casual Shinji]

Resident Evil 5

It wouldn't even have been that bad if they hadn't changed up the entire game structure in order to make it suitable for co-op.

 

[Rachel317]

The Prince of Persia trilogy. Did the shitty 2008 one really need to happen? No, it was just a money spinner. And it hasn't changed the way the games will be approached because the new one that's about to come out is more like the first 3. Why does this game exist? He wasn't even a prince, and his sidekick was a complete waste of space. I hope Farah's in the new one...pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease.

 

[WyattEpp]

XCom
Deus Ex
Doom 2 (Yes, I dislike Doom 3)
Quake 3
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
One Must Fall
Alundra
Xenogears
C&C: Tiberian Sun
Starcraft
Diablo

 

[Nazulu]

There are many for me, and I mean only me.

Brawl after Melee is the first to come to mind. Even though I finished the game, it really is the down fall of the Smash Brothers series, ending it with an abomination.

Zelda series after Majora's Mask is another one. I liked how it continued with the same Link after OoT, but then they decided to completely destroy that series and move to another Link. I really hate that.

Mario after Mario Sunshine. Yahtzee is right, it really will go down hill from Galaxy, they really didn't think that through at all, or they probably just don't give a damn anymore.

Bishock 2 is the perfect example of gimmicky shit, shows how much they care too.

 

[ThrashJazzAssassin]

Civilisation II rendered all subsequent turn-based strategy games unnecessary (not counting games like the Total War series which feature real-time combat), whether or not they were direct sequels. Damn, I love that game. Can't say I'm actually that bothered by the sequels, though; just never bothered with them because, fourteen years after it was released, I'm still playing Civ II.

 

[Lacsapix]

Final Fantasy X-2 (only the name can make someone puke)
Worms 3D
I kinda like Bioshock 2 because it was just the same as Bioshock but then more =D
and I like Mw2 too because they finally fixed the overpowered frag grenade tennis in cod4!