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Poll: Is the first or second game in a series better?

First or second game in a series better?


  • Total voters
    71

octavius

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There are several popular games series for which the opinion is divided wether the first or the second game in the series is better.
So I thought I'd make a poll to find out the Codex Consensus. In the case of HoMM the choice is between the second and third game since the first is more or less a Beta test in comparison.
 

Reality

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Doom 1 > Doom 2 - Both are great, but Doom 1 you can actually think about using pistol starts on death, while Doom 2 you pretty much have to treat like Gradius and play from the beginning if you can't start later levels with your full set of pickups.

Moo 1 > Moo 2 is entirely down to research tree randomization. All other feature and quality of life additions beyond this are nice but do not make one game a different 4X than the other like this does.

Thief is kin ofd a "per level" basis thing, but I guess I would go for Thief 2 at the end of the day.

I prefer HoMM 2, because the less balanced factions and the enforced aggression to Knight/Barbarian this causes appeal to me. I think the process of building up > post snowball in both games and it's generally more scrappy in HoMM 2.
 

JarlFrank

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Doom 1 > Doom 2 because of better and more consistent level design.

MoO 2 > MoO 1 because Elerians are hot.

Thief 1 > Thief 2 due to the overall more memorable level design, but both are about equal.

HoMM 3 > HoMM 2 because I have more nostalgia for 3, no objective reasons.
 
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Kalin

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Some more:

Baldur's Gate vs Baldur's Gate II
Civilization vs Civilization II
Crusader Kings vs Crusader Cucks 2
Dungeon Keeper vs Dungeon Keeper 2
Fallout vs Fallout 2
GTA vs GTA 2
Icewind Dale vs Icewind Dale 2
Jagged Alliance vs Jagged Alliance 2
SimCity vs SimCity 2000
System Shock vs System Shock 2
 

octavius

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Some more:

Baldur's Gate vs Baldur's Gate II
Civilization vs Civilization II
Crusader Kings vs Crusader Cucks 2
Dungeon Keeper vs Dungeon Keeper 2
Fallout vs Fallout 2
GTA vs GTA 2
Icewind Dale vs Icewind Dale 2
Jagged Alliance vs Jagged Alliance 2
SimCity vs SimCity 2000
System Shock vs System Shock 2

Thanks, I've added some of them.
 
Last edited:

octavius

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catfood

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DalekFlay

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I think the poll shows it (shockingly!) depends on the game. Try and take each game for what it is, not the title on the box.

P.S. Terminator is a better movie than T2.
 

overly excitable young man

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Gothic 1 vs 2
Monkey Island 1 vs 2
Maniac Mansion vs Day of the Tentacle
Portal 1 vs 2
Half Life 1 vs 2
Age of Empires 1 vs 2
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Jason Liang

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A dev studio's second game is nearly always better than their first, AND has an incredibly high ceiling.

For example, it should actually be Wolfenstein 3D vs. Doom.
 

octavius

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A dev studio's second game is nearly always better than their first, AND has an incredibly high ceiling.

I think it's about an even chance. A third game in a series is usually where the decline starts, though.
Incidentally when it comes to music (rock, prog, metal) it's often the third album that is an incline or the peak in my experience.

For example, it should actually be Wolfenstein 3D vs. Doom.

Does anyone really think Wolfenstein is better than Doom 1 and 2?
 

RoSoDude

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I prefer Doom 2 for its completed arsenal and enemy roster. The Super Shotgun is undeniably satisfying, and is balanced by the new tougher enemies (Mancubus, Revenant, Arch-Vile, Hellknight, Arachnotron, even Chaingunner and Pain Elemental apply). I'll admit the level design is inconsistent at parts, but the brutal and creative encounters make up for it. I think Doom was at its best in Episode 2 where resource scarcity added long-term tension to combat against cleverly placed fodder, and at its worst in something like Thy Flesh Consumed where you're expected to slowly plink away at Cacodemons and Barons of Hell with the standard shotgun. The Super Shotgun (and more rockets/cells found in the levels, I recall) sped up combat and allowed the designers to go balls to the wall with some insane fights that would have been incredibly tedious with Doom's arsenal and resource distribution... as they were in Thy Flesh Consumed. It's probably not fair that I include it in my assessment of the first game, but boy do I hate that episode.

I like Thief (Gold) more than Thief II: The Metal Age (my apologies, I have become a blogposter). Also, DalekFlay correctly notes that The Terminator > Terminator 2. The only T2 I like better than its associated T1 is Tribes 2.

I ultimately prefer System Shock 2 to System Shock, but we have a whole thread for that already that I posted a bunch in.

And just for the record, Dead Space > Dead Space 2, and Half-Life and its expansions run laps around Half-Life 2.
 

Dramart

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I like more the dungeons and levels in Icewind Dale II. Icewind Dale I have a lot of traps and I hate that a lot.

Another suggestion, Diablo I vs II.
 

Darth Canoli

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The fact is, if the second one is better, the devs did their job, because the second one is generally built on the foundations of the previous one.

But we all know, for one reason or another, it doesn't always work that way.

Civilization, first one was amazing, the concept was born and there is dozens, maybe even hundreds 4x which were born because of this game, second one was great too, specially since it was heavily moddable and was heavily modded.

I prefer Heroes 2 nice 2D graphics to Heroes 3, specially on release where it looked like a giant turd but it was relooked through expansions and HD versions so much they finally made it work, somewhat, still, there was thousands maps made for Heroes 2, they must have done something right.
Heroes 3 is fine though.

Fallout 1 & 2 is another dilemma, i like them equally for different reasons, one of them is a super mutant ...
 

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