10 Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels Of All Time
How do you follow up a great game? Not like this.
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00:00 The issue of managing a video game follow-up is a universal one across all scales of production.
00:04 Fans want more of the same, but not too much.
00:07 They want a budding series to evolve and grow, but not to fundamentally change.
00:11 In some cases, a sequel arrives that gets the balance just right, but often expectations
00:15 are outrageously high and disappointment is all too common.
00:19 Whether because they took off in a strange new direction, lacked that star quality that
00:22 came before, or were just mediocre, I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are the
00:27 10 most disappointing video game sequels of all time.
00:31 Paper Mario - Sticker Star Longtime players of the Paper Mario series
00:35 generally know what they're getting into.
00:37 A colourful, irreverent experience that leans into the whole "everything is made out of
00:40 paper" concept and emphasises it throughout.
00:43 For many, 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door represented the pinnacle
00:48 of that format.
00:49 It's tremendously fun and varied, with a large cast of characters that each have handy
00:53 abilities in battle.
00:54 The RPG elements seem finely tuned to allow for strategy without becoming too deep or
00:58 too shallow.
01:00 Titles since, though, seem to have failed in getting this delicate balance right.
01:03 3DS installment Paper Mario - Sticker Star remains a controversial example, leaving behind
01:08 those RPG trappings for the gimmicky, titular sticker system, and being a landmark disappointment
01:13 because of it.
01:14 It might not be too bad a title, the stickers can be fun to experiment with and the writing
01:19 is on point, but talk about a drop-off from what came before.
01:24 Prince of Persia - Warrior Within Okay, full disclosure, I always loved this
01:28 game.
01:29 I mean, look at me.
01:30 God smacks, I stand alone as the theme song, gaming did not get any better.
01:34 Talk to anyone whose blood didn't bleed professional wrestling at the time though, and Warrior
01:38 Within was a cataclysmic, nigh hilarious letdown.
01:42 Going from the super charming Sands of Time original, to this weirdly super angsty muted
01:46 colour palette sequel that felt like the boss's teenage son had led the design meeting.
01:51 Just to give the haters their due, Sands of Time was a magical fairy tale game.
01:55 Boasting fantastic platforming sections that showcased the prince's remarkable athleticism
01:59 and time powers, controlling the sands let you rewind to undo deaths, or bust out some
02:04 sand powers in combat.
02:06 Warrior Within then largely nailed its combat and level design, but went so all in on a
02:10 Jak 2 or Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness style tone that many players just couldn't accept
02:15 it whatsoever.
02:17 Using the softly spoken prince that went before, Follow Up Two Thrones attempted to hybridise
02:21 the two styles into a twin gameplay approach.
02:24 However, that just resulted in a reboot because Ubisoft couldn't think of a genuine way to
02:28 truly move forward.
02:32 The Dragon Age series represents Bioware at their best.
02:35 A deep, involving set of RPGs with choices, consequences and lots and lots of dialogue.
02:40 It's a version of the legendary developer we may never see again, but that hot streak
02:44 run across the 2000s is always worth admiring.
02:47 Dragon Age 2 then represents a turbulent time in the series.
02:50 Hawk's Adventure is one that never quite seemed to know what it wanted to be.
02:54 It offered the player more freedom than before in terms of the choices they made, but its
02:58 questionable pacing meant that you were never quite sure how or when they would actually
03:02 matter.
03:03 Most egregiously, Dragon Age 2 struggled to carve out a world that was truly its own,
03:07 with some very familiar looking settings popping up throughout.
03:10 It's a shame as Hawk is a memorably written character for those who stuck with the game
03:14 until the credits, but this sequel was the first major stumble for a studio that would
03:18 only fall apart more across the ensuing decade.
03:24 There will always be highs and lows for any long-running series.
03:27 In the case of Capcom's beloved survival horror franchise Resident Evil, the sixth
03:31 numbered release would probably qualify as a major low.
03:34 Resident Evil 4 had changed the formula forever.
03:37 It implemented a new visceral action-focused two proceedings, and pulled it off with purpose,
03:41 charm and memorability.
03:42 It's one of the most celebrated games ever made, and the pressure of following it up
03:46 was pretty immense.
03:47 In attempting to do so, Capcom gave us Resident Evil 5 and 6.
03:51 The former may not be a masterpiece, but it remains an enjoyable enough action-heavy romp,
03:56 packed with some of the most absurd and memorable moments the series has to offer.
04:00 Resident Evil 6, though, just took things too far.
04:03 Trying to please what had now become two audiences, those of slower-paced horror and high-octane
04:07 action, none of Resident Evil 6's smaller campaigns felt like Resident Evil at all.
04:13 Capcom would take a long, hard look at themselves across five whole years of letting their IP
04:17 rest, before coming back stronger than ever with Resident Evil 7, Village and an ongoing
04:22 smattering of remakes.
04:24 Whether they try to make 6 work after all this time, though, is something we'll just
04:27 have to wait and see.
04:30 Adaptations of beloved franchises like Star Wars need to be treated with tremendous care.
04:37 Fans are as invested as it's possible to be, and for Star Wars, they want authenticity
04:41 across their games.
04:42 The most iconic characters, vehicles and locales, combat that feels just right, plus epic space
04:47 battles and cosmic drama worthy of the name.
04:50 Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 had a great chance to deliver all of this.
04:53 An expanded take on new canon character Starkiller could have been a visceral treat to control
04:58 as before, with many expanded Force powers and lightsaber tricks going down in history.
05:03 Sadly, the game was a big critical disappointment, failing to refine the solid foundation the
05:07 original had set down.
05:09 It would later be revealed that the game was crunched to hell and turned around in just
05:12 nine months, something that resulted in Force Unleashed 2 feeling like DLC.
05:17 Poor sales followed, and when Disney took over Star Wars in 2013, plans for Force Unleashed
05:22 3 were scrapped entirely.
05:24 Duke Nukem Forever A lot was riding on 2011's Duke Nukem Forever.
05:29 It needed to honour the Duke's not-so-good name, and prove a worthy addition to his adventures
05:33 that had come before.
05:34 Sadly, the project just seemed doomed from the start.
05:37 Duke Nukem Forever's sad fate is one of the most infamous tales of development hell in
05:41 gaming history.
05:42 Once it finally arrived in players' hands, it was plain just how far the genre had come,
05:46 leaving the Duke far behind.
05:48 Forever was filled with some insanely outdated jokes, likely written almost a decade prior,
05:53 and was a very basic FPS, failing to provide any innovation or a fresh feel to gameplay
05:58 like the mighty Duke Nukem 3D once did.
06:02 Mass Effect Andromeda Is it terrible to mess up once, like with
06:05 Mass Effect 3, or mess up again when you're afforded a clean slate?
06:09 Answers down in the comments, because like I said earlier, Bioware did have one hell
06:13 of a decade across the 2010s.
06:15 2017's Mass Effect Andromeda then was ultimately a victim of its own hype or expectation, which
06:20 is to say that if you had any, you were disappointed.
06:23 The issue was with how weirdly undercooked the game's marketing was, but quadruply
06:27 so once we saw just how little care and attention had gone into this supposed soft reboot.
06:32 Receiving a ton of patches as DLC was cancelled and we found out behind-the-scenes squabbles
06:37 amongst Bioware dev teams were rife, EA declared Mass Effect as a franchise on ice, until December
06:43 2020 promised at least something would come again.
06:47 Devil May Cry 2 Few games debut with so much confidence,
06:51 swagger and all-round panache as Devil May Cry.
06:54 Spinning off from a Resident Evil 4 prototype and including enemy juggles as a game mechanic
06:58 thanks to a bug in development, tagging on a redcoat-wearing demon hunter who quipped
07:03 and flipped in equal measure was instant gaming history.
07:06 It was all massively helmed by one Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, who'd
07:10 go on to make some of the most stylish games of all time.
07:14 So what to do for Devil May Cry's sequel?
07:16 Well, how about you get in a completely different director, then swap another in with only a
07:20 few months before launch?
07:22 The resulting version of Devil May Cry 2 had wall-running and multiple enemy targeting,
07:26 but precisely none of the raw playability and appeal of the original, replete with a
07:31 Dante that felt stripped of all personality.
07:35 Fable III On its 2004 launch, this vast, ambitious Peter
07:38 Molyneux-designed RPG delivered creative and grossing gameplay.
07:42 In itself, many had an issue with how overblown Molyneux's marketing tactics had been versus
07:46 the reality of the game itself, but being a major well-playing Xbox-exclusive RPG, en
07:52 masse we kinda just let it slide.
07:54 Fable II then hit supremely well too, leading to a part three that got everything wrong.
07:59 Lacking the weighty decisions that made Fable identifiable, also stripped back were your
08:03 clothing options, weapons and RPG customisation across the board.
08:07 Even the game's pause menu was just weird, booting you into a room of options that you
08:12 literally had to walk around.
08:14 Fable is currently in reboot mode yet again after the practically finished Fable Legends
08:18 was shelved instead, but Fable III was a monumental letdown.
08:23 Dead Space 3 There's Resident Evil 4 and there's Dead
08:26 Space, the perfect twin over-shoulder shooter combo.
08:30 For the latter, Isaac Clarke fights with salvaged mining tools, battles are frantic, gross and
08:34 gory, and there's a killer atmosphere that brings it all together.
08:37 For Dead Space 2, everything got enhanced - combat proficiency, animation, monster design,
08:42 lighting - for many, Dead Space 2 is the peak of action meets horror in all of gaming to
08:47 this day.
08:48 With so much love for two instalments creating one hell of a trajectory, in came what we
08:53 now know all too well as EA royally messing everything up.
08:56 Series creator Glenn Schofield was long gone, and in were premium currencies, microtransactions,
09:01 co-op, shooting campaigns, and an evil moon as a boss fight.
09:05 It all went sideways fast, undoing all that previous goodwill and benching Dead Space
09:09 as an entire franchise until EA finally greenlit a remake in 2021.
09:14 And those are our picks for the most disappointing video game sequels of all time.
09:19 Let me know your favourites down in the comments below and please subscribe to the What Culture
09:22 Gaming Podcast.
09:23 For now, I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com and I'll catch you soon.