Sequels are a mainstay in the world of video games. After all, if you build a world that is fun to inhabit or an experience that is enjoyable, it only makes sense for people to want to come back and do it again, maybe with some tweaks or new developments to keep things fresh.
Unfortunately, not all sequels are successful, no matter how good the previous entries are. Some failed follow-ups are a misstep, others are ruinous. Whether they were only set back a little bit, ruined entirely, or somewhere in the middle, here are some great games that deserved better sequels.
7 Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 was the pinnacle of RE as an action game, dispensing with the horror entirely to deliver a superb shoot-em-up-with-a-buddy experience that none of the other games in the series ever really matched. All this was tied to a story of intrigue, gunfights, and shocking revelations.
Resident Evil 6…was not that. Instead, we got a generic action game with RE characters in it that says ‘Why have one decent plot when we can have four poorly constructed ones’. The game was lacking at best, and was missing the polish of the better RE titles. Luckily, RE7 would be a grand return to form.
6 Dead Space 2
The Dead Space series was poised for greatness. Despite its scattershot approach to a multimedia franchise, the core games were brilliant. Dead Space was a nerve-shredding entry into the action-horror genre, equal parts terrifying and frantic, and the sequel upping the ante in every way.
Then Dead Space 3 hit, and with it came the end. EA Games decided to run the series into the ground by changing the game from action-horror to just action, filling it with microtransactions and stripping the things that made it unique, opting for a generic cover shooter instead.
Luckily, the series might be on the way to a revival with the release of the Dead Space remake. Hopefully, they don’t make the same mistakes.
5 Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic has had a rough go of it, hasn’t he? From a beloved console mascot who could go toe-to-toe with Mario to a much smaller icon in the industry, kept around by diehard fans, and it seems like his problems all started after Sonic Adventure 2.
After SA2 was the mediocre Sonic Heroes, followed by the poorly-received Shadow the Hedgehog, and of course, the abysmal Sonic ‘06. It’s a shame, since SA2 was a genuinely good game that introduced a lot of cool characters to the series, which unfortunately the following games just did not know what to do with.
4 Silent Hill Series
The Silent Hill games were arguably ahead of their time, exploring mature themes and adult fears in strange and fascinating ways. Silent Hill 2 is rightfully regarded as a modern masterpiece of psychological horror, and the duology of SH1 and SH3 built a world of deep lore and interesting characters.
It’s sad then that there aren’t any equally brilliant entries in the series after the third game. SH4: The Room was a polarizing game that ultimately fell flat and the following games would not fare better. Shattered Memories, a remake of the first game was a fun diversion, but didn’t feel like a ‘real’ Silent Hill game.
3 Overwatch
A lot of sequels can be said to figuratively destroy their previous entries by being so bad that you wouldn’t even want to play what came before, since it would be ruined by association. But in the case of Overwatch 2, this is quite literal.
As soon as it got going, Overwatch 2 obliterated the original game in its wake, and though players got to keep all their unlocked content, the original is no longer playable. If the sequel was head and shoulders better than the original, then this might have been an acceptable change.
Unfortunately what we got is a game that only got a few changes and yet fundamentally different from the original, which is now completely lost.
2 Devil May Cry
These days, the Devil May Cry series is known as a mainstay in the action genre, whose influence reaches across other spectacle fighters like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata. However, it wasn’t always this way.
The original game blew everyone’s minds with its combo-heavy gameplay, interesting world, and of course, everyone’s favorite silver-haired half-demon with an attitude, Dante. Its sequel had none of these things, save Dante, who was watered down to a brooding, coin-flipping mute.
The game was poorly received and could have ended the franchise, if it didn’t sell a bunch of copies off the back of DMC’s success. Luckily, the game sold enough to convince Capcom that the legendarily great Devil May Cry 3 was worth making.
1 Tales Of The Borderlands
It could be argued that ever since Borderlands 2, the Borderlands series has been in a bit of a decline. Borderlands 3 was riddled with spotty writing, strange characterization, and cringe-inducing ‘modern’ humor that was stale as soon as the game released, all with an air of self-awareness so thick that you could drown in it. But, it was at least pretty fun to play.
New Tales of the Borderlands, on the other hand, doubled down on everything wrong with Borderlands 3, writing-wise. It’s full of unlikeable characters and has a story whose own post-modernity gets in the way of any decently-written beats. If the gap in quality between BL2 and BL3 is a valley, then the gap between the two Tales of the Borderlands games is a whole continent.