Never Enjoying Sequels More Than The Original

[Skinwalker]

I think Witcher 2 improved everything (or almost) on Witcher 1.

This. Witcher 2 was by far the best game of the trilogy.

I, for one, can't remember any sequels that I really hated, apart from Dragon Fag 2. Usually the decline starts at the third installment, or beyond.

 

[toucanplay]

nobody has mentioned lands of lore 2 yet...

You will pay for your lack of vision!

 

[Lady Error]

There are lots of examples of sequels that are better than the originals. Even among newer RPGs:

Shadowrun Dragonfall, Grimrock 2, Deadfire.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

There are lots of examples of sequels that are better than the originals. Even among newer RPGs:

Shadowrun Dragonfall, Grimrock 2, Deadfire.

I probably should've specified narrative driven RPGs because most of the examples in this thread are much more focused on other parts which I feel are much easier to improve upon

 

[JarlFrank]

Baldur's Gate 1 is boring shit, Baldur's Gate 2 is great. One example where the sequel is vastly better than its predecessor.

 

[jaekl]

Ahhh.. Mass Effect 2...

Instead of making the jeep handle better, they remove it and replace it with dragging your mouse across a variety of colorful spheres
Instead of collecting tons of exotic weapons and armors, you can choose your own colour and buy like 2 cosmetic armor pieces and a couple of sidegrade guns
Instead of charging into the midst of battle throwing magic missiles in heavy armor with infinite ammo, now you're cowering like a bitch behind a concrete barrier and scrounging around like a starving orphan for ammo clips

A sequel that subtracted in every single avenue, except maybe there was more talking? The one thing games could do with less of and they keep adding more and more as time goes on.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Drakensang: The River of Time is an improvement over the first game. I also prefer Dungeon Siege II, Sacred 2 and Torchlight 2 over the predecessors. Then there's of course Jagged Alliance 2. NWN2 is also better than NWN1, especially with expansions. I liked the magic system in Two Worlds II and thought it was better a better game than Two Worlds I, although both are rather mediocre.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

RTS sequels are usually better than the originals. Battle For Middle Earth II, Red Alert 2, AoE II, except maybe StarCraft and Stronghold.

I actually enjoy KotOR more than KotOR II, despite the latter being the superior game storywise and gameplaywise. It's probably down to atmosphere. K1 does "dark" well in places, but K2 is dark all day and it's depressing as a result. Preferred the aesthetics of BG1, but everything else about BG2 was better. Neverwinter Nights base campaigns 1 & 2 were about even. Better dialogue in the sequel, better C&C in the original. The Witcher 1 is the only one that gets the atmosphere right and, aside from lack of difficulty, is excellent. Guild Wars 1 is vastly superior to the sequel. Diablo was better than Diablo II, though that's controversial. Icewind Dale is better than Icewind Dale II.

I dunno, I guess it's a mixed bag for me but I still lean toward originals outside the RTS genre.

 

[luj1]

NWN2 is also better than NWN1

Nah

 

[Aemar]

I like Fallout 2 cause it has more traits, items, towns, it has more of everything

And no timed main quest. Finding that water chip and returning it in 150 days or less was so annoying during my first couple of playthroughs.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

And no timed main quest. Finding that water chip and returning it in 150 days or less was so annoying during my first couple of playthroughs

It took me around 13 hours my first time and preferred finally not being able to faff about the entire game and stumbling upon my goal.

A nice, short experience. Then came fallout 2 which I knew already didn't have a time limit despite the visions guiltily you about it. ended up not even going to at least 3 locations (New Reno, Broken Hills, and a few others) after I finished Vault City because what's the point? Luckily I seemed to have everything I needed and proceeded to NCR --> Vault 13 --> Navarro --> San Fran so st least props to the game for letting me do that. I even finished NCR in all of 5 minutes because I stumbled across the Vault 15 along the way. But again, what was the point of doing a bunch of stuff before that meant nothing? It's a jarring experience to have a supposed important, time sensitive main quest then spend 95% of your time resolving unrelated issues.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Is there some kind of term for this?

Nah bruv. Though it makes for a good joke, and there sure are many games this really applies to (Finuru Fantaji comes to mind), I think the current hegemony has pushed this meme hard because it's unable to produce anything of quality. I played most of the codex classics for the first time after I signed up here about ten years ago, and there is an objective quality to them that the gender-studies generation is completely incapable of comprehending, let alone reproducing.

Ahhh.. Mass Effect 2...
scrounging around like a starving orphan for ammo clips

Those things were ludonarrative cancer. The "heat sinks" were supposed to be universal, but the ammo was always spread evenly among your guns, and you couldn't shuffle them around to supply your more depleted weapons. Also, soldiers picked up 150% more heat sinks than adapts per pickup because they had 5 guns compared to the adept's 2. Mass Effects 2 & 3 really were like playing games based on Mass Effect. EA just cannot help but bend over and rocket diarrhea at everything it acquires.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

The "heat sinks" were supposed to be universal, but the ammo was always spread evenly among your guns, and you couldn't shuffle them around to supply your more depleted weapons

Yup, I played through the trilogy on the hardest difficulty on the hardest difficulty (Legendary mode I think?) And died only once, and that was in ME1 to a husk on one of the side missions on a ship because it could one shot you through a wall and I was caught off guard.

Mass effect 2 was the worst of the 3 when it came to combat for thst reason. The only part which required me to even think about positioning/giving commands to teammates was the final battle in taxi's recruitment mission. Others were slogs, especially Grunt's recruitment mission where it took me well over an hour because of running out of ammo as an infiltrator. Had to sit behind a wall and wait for cooldowns for abilities. It also doesn't help that you literslly need Miranda for every mission because of the 3 different layers of shields/HP every enemy has.