Sequels that destroyed their great predecessors

[thethird0611]

So a more recent one that so many people are going to disagree with, but I personally hold true to.

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

 

[aguspal]

I will be that one guy an mention a game that no one is expecting:

Left 4 dead 2.



It KILLED the original L2D pretty damn badly. Its almost a crime or something.

For people that just play the game casually and at first glance, they would look almost the exact same... but me (And my team) started to see things... stuff that didnt quite clicked with us since they were far better done in the orignal game.

 

[Auron225]

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

I'm glad to hear someone say this - I just finished ME1 and am planning to play 2 & 3. I didn't hear too many complaints about 2 but all the complaints about 3's ending overshadowed anything else I could have heard about it, so I had no idea if the rest of the game was any good or not.

OT: I'd say Assassin's Creed 2 was leaps and bounds better than the first one, which was ridiculously simple in comparison. Also, FFIV. I haven't actually played the original FF so I can't comment on it but I personally thought that;

II was incredibly boring and seemed to focus too much on dungeons rather than actual plot,
III was still a little dungeon-focused but the plot was far better,
IV was the first one I really enjoyed for the story!

Haven't played 5 but 6 and onwards were very good at story-telling!

 

[FourCartridge]

Outrun 2 to the original. Turned a demonstration of 80's racing tech into the best arcade racer ever. Real cars, the sense of speed , the scenery... If it were to be combined with Blur's items & Gran Turismo's career mode, it would be the greatest game ever made.

Uncharted 2 to Drake's Fortune. The former is a wild rollercoaster ride, compared the it's prequel. the set pieces, the gameplay... I could go on as to how it improved upon Drake's Fortune.

 

[The Danger]

Resident Evil 4. A thousand times Resident Evil 4.

The first three (or however the hell many, depending on how you count)are, frankly, a bit of a mess: controls, scare-value, story, characters, gameplay mechanics--you name it, RE4 did a much better job.

Yes, the story is still silly, but at least it seems to own it like a champ.

 

[thethird0611]

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

I'm glad to hear someone say this - I just finished ME1 and am planning to play 2 & 3. I didn't hear too many complaints about 2 but all the complaints about 3's ending overshadowed anything else I could have heard about it, so I had no idea if the rest of the game was any good or not.

OT: I'd say Assassin's Creed 2 was leaps and bounds better than the first one, which was ridiculously simple in comparison. Also, FFIV. I haven't actually played the original FF so I can't comment on it but I personally thought that;

II was incredibly boring and seemed to focus too much on dungeons rather than actual plot,
III was still a little dungeon-focused but the plot was far better,
IV was the first one I really enjoyed for the story!

Haven't played 5 but 6 and onwards were very good at story-telling!

Well im one of the suppossed few who loved the ending, and the extended cut only made it better. Still need to get a couple of the DLC's for it though.

The bad thing about 2 is the combat is really... bleh. They made the inventory screen MUCH simpler (actually to simple personally, but it works), but the story was good. ME3 just went over the top on greatness.

And to actually add to your OT, I had forgotten all about AC. AC2 was I think one of the best, everything after it seemed 'franchised'.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Well, Left 4 Dead 2 literally and figuratively destroyed its predecessor, since it has all of the campaigns from Left 4 Dead 1 included, meaning that no one will ever buy Left 4 Dead 1 again.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate. There's a new one not yet mentioned. I tried playing Freedom Unite after playing Tri, Portable 3rd and Ultimate, but I could not for the life of me enjoy it anymore. It was a leap between 2nd and 3rd gen MH games. The combat in Unite felt so incredibly slow and clunky and blegh, the damage balance was way off in G rank hunts, and the movement was slightly awkward. Tri Ultimate is the pinnacle of the series, if you don't count Frontier (Dammit Japan only), and I for one can never look back. Ever. Funny, cause I now own the original. It was just one of those things I really wanted... >.>

 

[inzesky]

Paradox and their bloody grand strategies, whenever they make a new one in a series it's always better and another few hundred hours of my life get devoured. Other than that Kotor 2. I still play and enjoy the original every few years or so, but Kotor 2 has a more meatier philosophical side which makes it the preferable choice for me.

 

[piinyouri]

Borderlands 2.
It's just better in about every way that matters. Only thing I can understand is some people enjoy the gun generation in 1 more than the more sharply defined manufacturers in 2.

That aside, better plot, better environments, better enemies, better writing, better music, better skill trees.

 

[njrk97]

Banjo tooies

Now don't get me wrong, Banjo Kazooie is still a amazing game but holy crap does Banjo Tooie make everything better, firstly you don't have to recollect notes when you die and the jiggies are the primary focus. Second the moves you get in that game are better versions or new ones of your old moves, making it feel like your actually progressing as a character. Thirdly the levels, now this is very a matter of opinion but i feel that the most of the banjo tooie levels are better than the kazooie levels. I'm a sucker for factory levels (which is why i love frantic factory in DK64) and grunty industries floats that boat aswell. Finally the bosses oooo the bosses, im love the bosses in banjo tooie, chili billy and willy, welder, klungo and the hag one (I dont know but their is something incoherently awesome about a witch in a giant drilling machine!)

 

[lacktheknack]

Just Cause.

The first was a mind-blowing "Explode Everything" sandbox with a huge map, a ballsy premise and a few nifty gadgets where you explode government stuff, spark drug wars and use infinite parachutes.

The sequel was a mind-blowing "Explode Everything" sandbox with a huge map, a ballsy premise and a few nifty gadgets where you explode government stuff, spark drug wars and use infinite parachutes AND A GRAPPLE ARM.

I can't even play the original game anymore. It's just too slow.

 

[aozgolo]

Well that escalated quickly...

amazing examples... some of which surprised me (Ultima IV is a great one I didn't expect)

Snip

Of course when talking about games like Zelda, Final Fantasy and the like it's harder to make these comparisons because the whole franchise is relatively dissimilar enough to be considered different. Though there are many Zelda's (namely the SNES and Gameboy ones) that have the same exact feel and mechanics, and likewise until you hit 7, Final Fantasy games didn't completely reinvent themselves with each go around, the I, II, III are similar, and IV, V, VI are also similar and can easily be compared (though I'm probably the only person who liked V better than VI). As far as Elder Scrolls games go, generally I think most fans' favorite is either Daggerfall, Morrowind, or Skyrim, I think the only people who consider Oblivion to be the best are ones who didn't play Skyrim yet, and I really think as far as comparative sequels those are the only two in that franchise you can compare.

Dragon Quest is an interesting one, I've played "most" DQ games with the aside of 2 and 7 (and most of the Monster spin-offs) and I found DQ8 to be the best as well in terms of presentation, of course I am playing through 9 now and greatly enjoying it and gameplay wise with the amount of content it vastly overshadows 8 but the presentation is somewhat diminished by being relegated to a handheld, and personally the story felt more detached and less interesting than it did in 8. Though it is without a doubt that any game up to 6 (I can't testify for 7 yet) is overshadowed by both of these.

So a more recent one that so many people are going to disagree with, but I personally hold true to.

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

I kind of expected this one to crop up, never having played the second two yet, I'm still working my way through ME1 and finding it amazing but from those who've played the entire trilogy I never hear them claim 1 is their favorite (though I may be the only one who is going to miss the Mako)

Baldur's Gate 2 completely overshadows the original unfortunately. I say unfortunately because BG1 does do quite a few things right and in a few cases even better than its sequel, and with mods the original is still a fantastic rpg experience which I highly recommend.

But 2, 2 doesn't even need mods. Even after well over ten years it's still in my mind one of the best games ever made. Kinda hard for the original to live up to that kind of glowing praise.

I pretty much agree here, I loved how much more open BG1 seemed, every location in 2 was there for a very specific purpose and you knew it and could tell, but there were countless random locations on the BG1 map that seemed just there mostly for filler or tiny subquests, and it was awesome to explore every single one and fight more enemies. Aside from that though I can't really claim anything else about BG1 is better, it just did open world better (not to say BG2 isn't open)

Though from a roleplay perspective I still like to go back to 1 and start fresh and push through all the way and carry my character over to 2 as it feels more like "my character" if I'm with them from level 1, and with the Enhanced Editions I can now start BG1 with all the character creation options of 2 as well, double nice!

GTA3 is a prime example actually. I enjoyed the first 2 GTA games, but GTA3 just blew them away and I could not go back. GTA3 was itself overshadowed by Vice City and San Andreas, but not to the extent that GTA3 overshadowed the 2D games.

True for the most part, I hate comparing GTA3 to 1 & 2 simply because it's almost incomparable, it changed so much, but it is true that I had a hard time going back to enjoy 2 which I played for hours after GTA3 was released. As the kind of player who enjoys just extra sand in my sandbox and likes to judge a game on the merit of it's gameplay OUTSIDE of missions, in retrospect GTA3 couldn't hold a candle to the ones that came after. VC introduced bikes and actual real estate you could buy, several of which unlocking side-quests. San Andreas just brought the big guns and made everything bigger, better, and more interactive. Now I think we've just seen the exact same thing happen with GTAV killing GTAIV.

 

[RJ 17]

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

I'm glad to hear someone say this - I just finished ME1 and am planning to play 2 & 3. I didn't hear too many complaints about 2 but all the complaints about 3's ending overshadowed anything else I could have heard about it, so I had no idea if the rest of the game was any good or not.

It's really pretty much a 50-50 split in terms of people's feelings about the ending...perhaps a bit more slanted towards the "I frickin' hated it!" side of the argument. A lot of people would like you to believe that the vast majority of the people out there thought the ending was terrible, but I still think that it's closer to an even split. I've no numbers or anything to back this up, but you'll still find a lot of people who weren't raging over the ending.

There does seem to be a lot of people who will agree that the game up to the ending was really great. There's a couple hang-ups regarding a certain villain who is absolutely engulfed in plot-armor, but the way people complain about him you'd think that they'd never seen plot-armor in a game before.

In the end, ME3's combat finally reached perfection for the series. All the weapons feel unique and fire differently and have different effectiveness, the powers feel like they have real impact, and it really is just a great game.

That said, I'd highly suggest getting all the DLC...except for Omega, that one was pretty rushed and doesn't really add much of anything to the over-all story. Leviathan does, however, and Citadel is a great Final DLC that is light-hearted and full of pretty good jokes. I'd suggest playing both at right before you launch the final mission, though, to get the most out of them.

Oh, and don't forget to pick up the Extended Cut. There were a lot of people who found the ending it offered to be acceptable, though people who were clinging to the "Indoctrination Theory" were still pissed off that it wasn't made the official ending. Still, the ending it offers is MUCH better than the original ending.

Also, for ME2: be sure to get the Shadow Broker DLC if nothing else. Kasumi can be skipped over, and Arrival isn't too important but still fun/challenging. And just as a pro-tip: the Sentinel is the most overpowered class in ME2.

OT: Finally back on topic, for my on contribution to this topic I'll say Arkham City did this to Arkham Asylum.

Bigger map, ability to glide, more villains to beat up on in more challenging boss fights. Hell, the simple addition of the Bat-Beatdown following a cape-stun changed the entire flow of combat (at least for me) and made it much more fluid. Also the addition of the special-combo attacks really helped things out as well. They pretty much took everything that everyone loved about Asylum and made it better.

 

[RJ 17]

So a more recent one that so many people are going to disagree with, but I personally hold true to.

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

I kind of expected this one to crop up, never having played the second two yet, I'm still working my way through ME1 and finding it amazing but from those who've played the entire trilogy I never hear them claim 1 is their favorite (though I may be the only one who is going to miss the Mako).

ME1 had a fantastic story but the combat was pretty god awful. ME2 had a much better combat system, but the story wasn't fantastic. ME3 - at least in my opinion - is where it all comes together with a great story (saying that is apparently blasphemy on this site >.>) and great combat.

And the soundtrack to ME3 is absolutely beautiful. Really puts the "Opera" in "Space Opera".

 

[Drummodino]

Mass Effect 3. Ever since I played this I can barely go back to ME1 and start over. The combat and story were amazing. Especially after ME2... which I thought was 'eh'.

I'm glad to hear someone say this - I just finished ME1 and am planning to play 2 & 3. I didn't hear too many complaints about 2 but all the complaints about 3's ending overshadowed anything else I could have heard about it, so I had no idea if the rest of the game was any good or not.

OT: I'd say Assassin's Creed 2 was leaps and bounds better than the first one, which was ridiculously simple in comparison. Also, FFIV. I haven't actually played the original FF so I can't comment on it but I personally thought that;

II was incredibly boring and seemed to focus too much on dungeons rather than actual plot,
III was still a little dungeon-focused but the plot was far better,
IV was the first one I really enjoyed for the story!

Haven't played 5 but 6 and onwards were very good at story-telling!

I have to agree on Assassin's Creed 2. The original Assassin's Creed had the bare bones of a great game, Assassin's Creed 2 was that great game.

Now Assassin's Creed 3 is the other example OP mentioned... it destroyed the franchise for me.

 

[ThriKreen]

StarControl 2 to StarControl.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Dragon Age 2 is for me the worst contender here by far.

Dragon Age Origins was a very good "successor" to Baldur's Gate 2 when they released it ( iteven got a few game of the year awards) and they had to go and screw it all up with their "press a for something awesome to happen" combat system. It was such an awful mainstreaming of the game starting from the combat to the Mass Effect wheel that I despise it even now and I can't push myself go to play it again to have a perfect save for Dragon Age Inquisition.

They should of remained to the DAO dialogue system which was way better. But eh, you can't have everything.

 

[DeimosMasque]

StarControl 2 to StarControl.

Hell yeah. Unfortunate that Star Control 3 had to suck so bad though.

 

[Pixelspeech]

I will be that one guy an mention a game that no one is expecting:

Left 4 dead 2.



It KILLED the original L2D pretty damn badly. Its almost a crime or something.

For people that just play the game casually and at first glance, they would look almost the exact same... but me (And my team) started to see things... stuff that didnt quite clicked with us since they were far better done in the orignal game.

I completely agree with this. Also, don't forget that pretty much all the stages from the original have been added to 2, so there's absolutely no reason to go back to it.