Games that got sequels after a long time - the good and the bad

[Silly Germans]

Seeing how many old games that were pretty much dead are getting sequels nowadays, i was starting to wonder in which cases that actually worked out. List games that got sequels/remakes after a long time that are not terrible. There should be either a long time between sequels or a Studio switch or something like that to make it list-worthy. Cases where it was uncertain that the next game would be any good or games where the sequel/remake came out of the blue.

Some successful entries into game series after a long time that come to mind are

Age of Wonders : Shadow Magic (2003) -> Age of Wonder III (2014)
Deus Ex Invisible War (2003) -> Deus Ex : Human Revolution(2011)
Wasteland (1988) -> Wastelands 2 (2014)
X-COM: Enforcer (2001) -> XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)
Shadow Warrior (1997) -> Shadow Warrior (2013)
SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm (2007) -> SpellForce 3(2017)


Some failures that come to mind are

Underworld Ascendant
Duke Nukem Forever
Postal 3
Dawn of War 3
HoMM 6

This list is not meant to contain titles that killed a series but rather games that tried to "revive" a franchise and failed. Or titles that tried to use a franchise name without success.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Isn't Shadow Warrior (2013) a remake, and not a sequel?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Otherwise the topic is relevant to me, because one of the few games I'm looking forward to is a sequel that's coming out 16 years after the fact.

 

[A horse of course]

Some of those don't really count, like DoW3. The series wasn't put on ice until afterwards and you could see what was going wrong at Relic as it was happening. A better example would be a theoretical DoW reboot/requel five years from now.

Another problem is where there wasn't much wrong with the newer title, it was just that people no longer enjoyed what had once been the standard for a particular genre or series. I loved traditional RTS like C&C/AoE/Warcraft back in the day, but I just don't find that sort of gameplay compelling any longer, even if well made, so even a "true" Warcraft 4, or whatever wouldn't interest me much. Similarly, there are people who "grew out" of the Total War series, for example, and only play Paradox games or extremely anorak historical strategies like Ultimate General. In cases like that, it doesn't matter too much whether the 20-year-late reboot is faithful to the original titles, because their only attachment to the older games is nostalgia.

 

[King Crispy]

Might & Magic X: Legacy. While it was promising, ultimately this was a failure due to the poor choice of using Unity and from lack of any kind of post-release support.

 

[curds]

Knights of the Chalice 2, released roughly eleven years after the first game.

Half-Life: Alyx?

 

[Neuromancer]

Rise of the Triad: 1994 & 2013

 

[Grauken]

Might & Magic X: Legacy. While it was promising, ultimately this was a failure due to the poor choice of using Unity and from lack of any kind of post-release support.

Bullshit, great game that works fine as is

 

[Verylittlefishes]

No, Baldur's Gate 3 won't be good.

 

[Tehdagah]

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Castle Wolfenstein (1981) / Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984) and Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

 

[anvi]

There are so many I forget most of them because they are so offensive and stupid. Do you remember when they brought back Syndicate but it was a fucking fps? I was annoyed at Elite Dangerous too, it is the same gameplay from 1980, lazy asses. Jagged Alliance got some johnny come lately remakes and remasters and rehashes and they mostly suck from what I've read. The new Microsoft Flight Simulator seems cool though. Miracles can happen.

 

[deuxhero]

Mount and Blade: Warband (2010, standalone expansions and DLC in 2011, 2012 and 2014) > Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord (2020).
Mega Man 8 (1996) > Mega Man 9 (2008) and Mega Man 10 (2010) > Mega Man 11 (2018)

 

[Catacombs]

Mount and Blade: Warband (2010, standalone expansions and DLC in 2011, 2012 and 2014) > Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord (2020).

I, too, posted about M&B, but OP mentions this in his post:

This list is not meant to contain titles that killed a series but rather games that tried to "revive" a franchise and failed. Or titles that tried to use a franchise name without success.

M&B Bannerlord isn't reviving an old franchise nor using another company's franchise name.

 

[JDR13]

Duke Nukem Forever wasn't as terrible as its reputation would lead people to believe. Compared to Duke 3D it sucked, but it had some really good levels. Of course it had some really bad ones too.

 

[DraQ]

Deus Ex Invisible War (2003) -> Deus Ex : Human Revolution(2011)

Replace with IW with original DX.
No one would have wanted to follow up from IW.

Anyway:
Daggerfall -> Morrowind
Wizardry 7 -> Wizardry 8

 

[Ol' Willy]

Fallout 2 (1998) - Fallout New Vegas (2010)

 

[The Decline]

Isn't Shadow Warrior (2013) a remake, and not a sequel?

Yes. It's also a shit game.

 

[Wunderbar]

Isn't Shadow Warrior (2013) a remake, and not a sequel?

it was a reboot, like the majority of games listed by OP.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The Faery Tale Adventure (1986) and Faery Tale Adventure II: Halls of the Dead (1997)

 

[Excommunicator]

The Faery Tale Adventure (1986) and Faery Tale Adventure II: Halls of the Dead (1997)

This appears to be the worst attempt at perspective I've ever seen. Everything in the scene is at a different angle and nothing looks right

 

[Silly Germans]

Duke Nukem Forever wasn't as terrible as its reputation would lead people to believe. Compared to Duke 3D it sucked, but it had some really good levels. Of course it had some really bad ones too.

Yes, but it certainly was not a successful revival of the franchise. After all that development time it was quite disappointing. But the lists are not really about the quality of the games, rather about their success at reviving/revitalizing a franchise. I thought that there were much more failures than successes but so far it doesn't look that one sided. I guess there is no easy way to predict the outcome. I was mostly thinking if the past was any indicator how the recent "revivals" will turn out. Like BG3, Vampires 2, System Shock 3, etc.

 

[JDR13]

Duke Nukem Forever wasn't as terrible as its reputation would lead people to believe. Compared to Duke 3D it sucked, but it had some really good levels. Of course it had some really bad ones too.

Yes, but it certainly was not a successful revival of the franchise. After all that development time it was quite disappointing.

Oh it was definitely disappointing if you take development time into consideration. I don't think there's any game that wouldn't be disappointing after that much time.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Killer Instinct 2 (1996) -> Killer Instinct (2013)
Shadow of the Beast 3 -> Shadow of the Beast (2016)
SiN (1998) -> Sin Episodes: Emergence (2006)

I'm waiting for Franko 2 and nu-Battletoads.

 

[mondblut]

Bloodlines (2004) - Bloodlines 2 (never)