The worst game sequels

[jrrtoken]

As for video games, I'd have to say from Metal Gear Solid to MGS2. MGS2 has the single most convoluted plot I have ever heard of. It's worse than Halo 2, which made no sense to me until I looked it up on Wikipedia.

I can sympathize with you. MGS1's plot was easy to understand, but MGS2 is when they added The Patriots, memetics and what not, and that's when all Hell broke loose. In the end, it left me even more confused than KotOR II.

[mimartin]

Yeah, yeah, I knew I would take a lot of flak

No, flak here you are entitled to your opinion. I just happen to disagree with it in this case. I enjoyed Dark Forces 2, it may have had something to do with it being the first game I remember getting my hands on a lightsaber.

 

 

You spelled your beer?

I can't spell, but I spilled the beer.

[MacTavish]

NFS Carbon --> NFS Prostreet (way to take an amazing series of Racing games and completely change the dynamic and make it just like every other racing game out there YAY!!!)

 

I agree, it was heartbreaking to find out there was no "free roam" anymore.

[GodsillY]

I agree, it was heartbreaking to find out there was no "free roam" anymore.

 

I found it retarded, why would you take a succesful fracnchise and change the complete dynamic of it, it became a pimped version of PGR which leads me to another series of sequels I didn't like.

 

 

PGR --> All the PGR's after the 1st one. I just found it repetitive nothing changed overall really until they added motorcycles and the cars where pretty much repetitive as well. Maybe I'm stupid, everyone else likes the PGR series ehhh IDK.

[MacTavish]

I found it retarded, why would you take a succesful fracnchise and change the complete dynamic of it, it became a pimped version of PGR which leads me to another series of sequels I didn't like.

 

Well EA took a serious slap to face by profits being only half of what Carbon made. Now the next one (Undercover) looks pretty interesting actually sicne it's going to be alot like Most Wanted which imo, was the best one.

 

400th post!!!

[Arátoeldar]

why would you take a successful franchise and change the complete dynamic of it?

 

Money. Which is exactly why Ubisoft changed the Ghost Recon-Rainbow 6 series after the X-box version out sold the PC version of the original Ghost Recon game. The game play was the same for both versions. However the suits at Ubisoft decided that the game play had to be dumbed down in order to get more console sales.

[SW01]

Anything after Hitman 2 Silent Assassin was a disappointing addition to the franchise. Many of the assassination contracts in Hitman Contracts were re-workings of the original Codename 47. Blood Money - while having a more interesting story - seemed focused more on the customiable weapon system than graphical improvement. I thought that the textures all looked quite flat and boring.

 

Also, the WWE Smackdown! games after the PS1 releases were just more of the same - it eventually gets boring.

 

What else? Oh, Empire Earth II - no civilisation creator - no British Empire, or Egypt, or Persia, or Carthage, or Byzantine Empire...

 

The Sims 2 on console - awful, awful, awful, awful!!

[Revan 411]

^ Hitman Blood Money was one of the best Hitman game's I have ever played, sure Story is not as good as it seems, but game play is a lot improved since Hitman Silent Assassination.

 

Anyway as for the worst game sequels, it would have to be Jedi Knight 3 Jedi Academy, the story fails, terrible game play, and customization is retarded...

 

Terrible game...

 

And also Metal Gear Solid was a great game, but the sequel Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, was terrible, there was no 3D cut scenes, and they should have added some more VO as well, It just got boring reading lines after lines after lines...

[Rabish Bini]

You spelled your beer?

 

As for video games, I'd have to say from Metal Gear Solid to MGS2. MGS2 has the single most convoluted plot I have ever heard of. It's worse than Halo 2, which made no sense to me until I looked it up on Wikipedia.

 

I can sympathize with you. MGS1's plot was easy to understand, but MGS2 is when they added The Patriots, memetics and what not, and that's when all Hell broke loose. In the end, it left me even more confused than KotOR II.

 

Confusing, I honestly thought it was a great sequal, not as good as the first one though, the only thing that pissed me off was how, un-manly Raiden is, other than that, I loved it, and didn't think the plot was really all that confusing. And how can you say KotOR 2 was confusing?

[Darth_Yuthura]

Anyone ever play Deadlock: Planetary Conquest?

 

The sequel, Shrine Wars, was not as great an upgrade as I hoped. The character animation and gameplay were just not a match for the first one. Although I liked the Shrine Wars planets themselves, the ending of each race was severely lacking as well as character animation.

[MacTavish]

^ Hitman Blood Money was one of the best Hitman game's I have ever played, sure Story is not as good as it seems, but game play is a lot improved since Hitman Silent Assassination.

 

I have a feeling the next one will blow us all away.

[SW01]

I have a feeling the next one will blow us all away.

 

God I hope so! It would be a disgrace if the developers let the power of the PS3 (and 360) go to waste. I'd hate to see the franchise suffer any further.

 

Also, why all the JA bashing? I liked it - it was the first Star Wars game I had played where you could customise the character! Who couldn't enjoy lifting thugs with a Force Choke and tossing them off tall buildings? Maybe zap them with Force Lightning too just for good measure!

[mur'phon]

Also, why all the JA bashing?

 

Well, there is a myth about a wonderfull story in it's prequel, only those strong of faith have seen it, and understandably they are rather pissed when they play through JA. Personally, I don't believe in myths, I believe in slamming electrocuted stormies into walls:D

[Revan 411]

Jedi Academy, was one of the worst games I have ever played, The plot was so stupid, the story line sucked, and the customization and Mission selection, was terrible they shouldn't have added it there in the first place.

 

Jedi Knight 2 was awesome... same thing with Dark Forces 1 and 2..

[JCarter426]

Also, why all the JA bashing? I liked it

Fail.

 

Let's just take a look at JK3 for a minute (or seven)...

 

First, the characters: Se have your generic, blank slate of a PC, who doesn't say anything other than "yes, Master Katarn" or "only one more...". If it's customization you want, you're out of luck. You can decide what your PC looks like, yes, but it's like stringing decorations on an aluminum pole. Pretty pretty lights don't change the fact that it's an aluminum pole. Then we have our cast of support characters--Kyle, who is his usual self, so no complaints there except there's no Jan, he only shows up in about three levels and a handful of cutscenes, and doesn't do much since he's no longer the PC. There's Rosh, who I'm not going to even bother talking about. Luke is just an annoying Kyle in this game, and then we have our typical vixens Tavion and Alora, who aren't compelling villains because they're just bosses for the levels they appear in. And then we have Chewie and Boba Fett because this game is so pathetic that it has to stoop so low as to include cameos from Original Trilogy characters in order to compensate for the overall disappointment that is the game's "story".

 

And what is that "story"? Well, I'll get to that, but first let's go over the levels; you're presented with a laundry list of five missions--but you only need to do four, because each one is as pointless as the next, so there's no harm in skipping any. In the first level, you run around, tabbing people with your lightsaber--no need to shoot because all other weapons are worthless--until you get to whatever checkpoints the level has, or until you flip all five switches of the level. Then repeat three more times. There's one slightly different level out of the bunch, in which you ride on a swoop bike or have your lightsaber taken away, that almost makes the others bearable. Almost.

 

If the repetitive levels don't cancel out the good ones, well, then the absolutely annoying levels do. There are a handful that have invincible enemies that either kill you every five minutes, or just annoy you while you're trying to finish off the level's idiotic objectives. And then there's the prison escape level with the same NPC appearance used for all 16 bloody prisoners, and the idiotic AI that causes them to run towards instantaneous death instead of taking the shorter, nearer path that leads away from it. And of course these levels are really no different than any other; you're still just running around flipping switches or setting off triggers. The only difference is that instead of being invincible, you're killed every five minutes, whether it be with sharp teeth or excruciating annoyance.

 

Now, after you do all that, you get a set of two or three mandatory, or "plot" levels. These are the ones that actually carry out the game's "story". Yet another group of lightsaber-wielding baddies is roaming the galaxy, sucking up all the residual Force energy in the universe. Your job is to go find out what they're doing, fail to stop them, then report back to your masters. These levels take place on planets that may look familiar, as they've appeared in just about every Star Wars game, book, comic, etc from the past ten years, or they're from the Original Trilogy, just to be there to give the fanboys a few laughs, much like Chewie and Boba. Or they're knockoffs of any of the above. Wait, come to think of it, it's not just the "plot" levels that are like that; every bloody level is like that.

 

Now, what happens in these levels? Not much. Basically, the same thing that happens in every other level, only it's much longer, and there's a boss at the end. And afterwards, your PC that almost never speaks up babbles something about the Force, and you are promoted, so apparently the plot is progressing. The only good news is that Rosh disappears, but you see him later, of course. Afterwards, you're presented with another five missions, then do a few more plot levels, etc. There's no point to go over the second and third set of missions, because they're really the same. The only difference is that you'll be facing more and more Dark Jedi wannabes.

 

Like JK2, the lightsaber combat is so flawed that there's no real point in strategizing. You just click away and hope that you kill them before they kill you. Or you can trick them to killing themselves, or in some cases you can run past them without them even noticing you're there. The downside--well, one of the downsides--is that you'll be facing fewer enemies with guns. Because they can't kill you with guns, you can't kill any other Jedi with guns, meaning if you try to avoid using the lightsaber in an effort to increase the so-called "difficulty", you're out of luck. Well, you'll get what you wish; the game will be a lot more difficult, but not in a good way.

 

In any case, the whole is really just filler. Things only get interesting once you reach the third set of "plot" levels, in which you break into an Imperial facility in order to save Rosh for some reason. He's tried to kill twice you already, but you still want to save him; apparently he's your friend, despite his shortcomings. In a startling turn of events, you're given the choice to either kill him or save him. I'm not sure if it's even possible to execute this any more poorly than it is done in this game. You actually get a message on the screen saying "to kill Rosh, kill him; to save Rosh, put away your saber". Real subtle. This isn't an RPG, so this is the only player choice in the game, other than the choice of Force powers which doesn't really matter, and it's executed so poorly.

 

They're really copying JK1 and MOTS in this instance. In JK1 the player made a light side/dark side choice at the beginning of the third act, leading to one of two endings. Only in JK1, the choice wasn't made by the player--not all at once, in any case; JK1 had a light/dark meter like KOTOR, which looked at what Force powers the player had chosen, how many civilians they'd killed, etc, placing them on either the light side or dark side. Yes, it took the choice away from the player, but remember that this isn't an RPG, and if they'd given the player a choice, like JK3, well, you'd end up with an idiotic message on the screen telling you what to do. And since JK3 has no plot--other than the "save Rosh or kill Rosh" moment--the rest of the game is rendered pointless; whatever you did up until that point didn't matter. Now, as for MOTS, it had only one ending, in which the player had to disarm in order to beat the game. It's rather anticlimactic combat-wise, but it fits with the rest of the game rather well, and there's no idiotic "put your saber away" message; instead there are a few subtle hints.

 

Now, as I said, there's no plot other than that moment. The game before that point is worthless, and the game after that point is pretty worthless as well. Yes, you still have to go beat your final boss, Tavion, but as I mentioned earlier, she's not a villain, and there's nothing that drives the player to defeat her other than mission objectives. You don't even see her until you're halfway through the game, other than a few brief appearances in which they intentionally hide her face in a vain attempt at a plot twist. So the next set of "plot" levels is as pointless as the last, and there are barely any guys with guns, and odds are they'll get killed before you reach them, since there's an "epic battle" going on, in which your fellow Jedi are fighting off the rest of the Cultists. If you killed Rosh, you'll have to fight both sides, so that means more hacking and slashing. I'm only pointing this out because the dark side ending isn't half bad, all things considered; but before you get to that you have this monotonous level of hacking, slashing, and jumping, even more so since you fight both sides.

 

Then you get to the final level. There are a dozen or so Cultists who you can just run past--and you probably should, because fighting them is just a waste of time--and then you get to Tavion. Again due to the shoddy combat system, she's either annoyingly tough, or goes down in one or two hits. You may have to reload a few times. Then if you were goody goody, she she resurrects Marka Ragnos and he possesses her, and you have to fight her again, only this time she's a bit easier because she doesn't have that annoying scepter. If you killed Rosh, she lets you kill her right away, which says to me that if you turn evil, life is easier. Kyle then comes in and tries to stop you. Instead of trying to kill you, he uses some Force-enhanced martial arts moves, which only show up at that one point in the game--a shame, since they look pretty cool, and would give a much-needed boost to saberless enemies.

 

But in any case, as I was saying, after you beat Tavion in the light side story, Kyle and Luke show up--a bit too late, as usual--and there's an obligatory closing cutscene in which Rosh gets a new hand and Jaden babbles about being born ready or something equally stupid. If you killed Rosh, you'd defeat Kyle, steal a Star Destroyer, and go prepare to conquer the galaxy with the sceptor, a homage to the dark side ending of JK1. Kyle survives, and decides to resign from the Order once again, ashamed because both of his students fell to the dark side and murdered lots of people. The dark side ending, the only good part of the game--other than killing Rosh--is of course non-canon version, a lost opportunity at redemption.

 

But I'll stop rambling now. All in all, JK3 was a glorified expansion pack for JK2, with an awful--nay, nonexistent--story, and an even worse combat system.

 

(Rant over. Sorry for the length.)

[Ctrl Alt Del]

I can sympathize with you. MGS1's plot was easy to understand, but MGS2 is when they added The Patriots, memetics and what not, and that's when all Hell broke loose. In the end, it left me even more confused than KotOR II.

 

I agree with Rabish, the story was amazing, despite the overwhelming feeling you'd get. Granted, I had to play the game twice to grasp all the finer points of it's plot (a thing I did with pleasure), but it really isn't that difficult to get and store somewhere on your brain.

 

In fact, the game is completely amazing, not unlike every other MGS game out there. Even Raiden - who at first I'd ask myself who that sissy was - became torelable and fun to play after a short while.

 

Master Kojima *salutes*.

[Corinthian]

I'm not fond of Metal Gear Solid. In MGS it was fine, but then apparently Hideo got the idea that Complicated Plots = Good Ones. INCORRECT.

[SW01]

JCarter426:

I'm not saying JK3 had an amazing, engaging well-thought-out story (in fact, I agree with you that the dark side ending was the only worthwhile part of the story), but there were some charms to the force power system that unfortunately have not been reproduced in other Star Wars games. That series is the only one that I have seen that lets you throw opponents around like rag-dolls! And shoot lightning from both hands! Imagine if KotOR let you grab Malak, or Kreia, or anyone else you dislike, and throw them around, into things, and off things!

 

Also one of the reasons I'm looking forward to TFU.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

I'm not fond of Metal Gear Solid. In MGS it was fine, but then apparently Hideo got the idea that Complicated Plots = Good Ones. INCORRECT.

 

They're not complicated, did you really thought so?

 

MGS3 stands to prove their simplicity.

[GodsillY]

I despise the MGS series with a passion but taht might just be more because I suck at them than that they are actually bad games. However, I do agree the plots can be very complicated.

[Corinthian]

 

Not complicated? We are talking about a series that has a guy get possessed by a dead guy's arm but then gets the arm removed and replaced with a cybernetic one but then hypnotizes himself so he still acts like he's still possessed by a dead guys arm. Not only does that make no sense, IT'S RETARDED.

 

Then we have a guy who drinks blood for a fetish and gets shot in the gut and brain, then sniped, runs on water, and gets slashed to pieces. How does he do this? Nanomachines.

 

...what.

 

Then we have Big Boss, who has gotten killed how many times now? Three? And then he comes back from the dead, gives a thirty minute explanation of EVERYTHING that's happened (No Villain's Exposition should take half that long) and then drops dead of a heart attack.

 

There really aren't words to describe the kind of...apathy I have for this series. I think the worst part is that Hideo could have mixed the mystical in with this and a lot of it would have made perfect sense. Instead, he used more pseudo-science than the average season of Star Trek combined!

 

[GodsillY]

@ Corinthian - Amen! It really makes no sense.

[Rabish Bini]

Well, I don't know about MGS4, cos I have a 360, (Damn you Konami!), but I found the plots of the first 3 MGS' really simple to understand.

[Da_man]

You're kidding, right? Thyere were some many effin' plot twist in the last hour of the game (5 minutes of which was actual gameplay.) that i don't even know how the

Freakin' Arsenal Gear

Washed up halfway through New York City, and why no one cares about it.

[Rabish Bini]

Arsenal Gear washing up in NYC isn't really a plot twist...

And where did it ever show that no-one cared about it?