10 Most Disappointing Video Game Sequels Of All Time
How do you follow up a great game? Not like this.
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00:00 The issue of managing a video game follow-up is a universal one across all scales of production.
00:04 Fans want more of the same, but not too much. They want a budding series to evolve and grow,
00:09 but not to fundamentally change. In some cases, a sequel arrives that gets the balance just right,
00:14 but often expectations are outrageously high and disappointment is all too common.
00:19 Whether because they took off in a strange new direction,
00:21 lacked that star quality that came before, or were just mediocre,
00:25 I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 most disappointing video game sequels of all time.
00:30 Number 10 - Paper Mario - Sticker Star
00:33 Long-time players of the Paper Mario series generally know what they're getting into.
00:37 A colourful, irreverent experience that leans into the whole "everything is made out of paper"
00:41 concept and emphasises it throughout. For many, 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario,
00:46 the Thousand Year Door, represented the pinnacle of that format. It's tremendously fun and varied,
00:51 with a large cast of characters that each have handy abilities in battle. The RPG elements seemed
00:55 finely tuned to allow for strategy without becoming too deep or too shallow. Titles since
01:00 though seem to have failed in getting this delicate balance right. 3DS installment Paper Mario - Sticker
01:05 Star remains a controversial example, leaving behind those RPG trappings for the gimmicky,
01:10 titular sticker system, and being a landmark disappointment because of it. It might not be
01:15 too bad a title, the stickers can be fun to experiment with and the writing is on point,
01:20 but talk about a drop-off from what came before.
01:23 Number 9 - Prince of Persia - Warrior Within
01:26 Okay, full disclosure, I always loved this game. I mean, look at me. God smacks,
01:30 I stand alone as the theme song, gaming did not get any better. Talk to anyone whose blood didn't
01:36 bleed professional wrestling at the time though, and Warrior Within was a cataclysmic, nigh hilarious
01:41 letdown. Going from the super charming Sands of Time original, to this weirdly super angsty,
01:46 muted colour palette sequel that felt like the boss's teenage son had led the design meeting.
01:50 Because to give the haters their due, Sands of Time was a magical fairy tale game, boasting
01:55 fantastic platforming sections that showcased the prince's remarkable athleticism and time powers,
02:00 controlling the sands let you rewind to undo deaths, or bust out some sand powers in combat.
02:06 Warrior Within then largely nailed its combat and level design, but went so all in on a Jack
02:11 2 or Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness style tone, that many players just couldn't accept it whatsoever.
02:17 Losing the softly spoken prince that went before, Follow Up Two Thrones attempted to hybridise the
02:21 two styles into a twin gameplay approach. However, that just resulted in a reboot because Ubisoft
02:27 couldn't think of a genuine way to truly move forward.
02:30 Number 8 - Dragon Age 2 The Dragon Age series represents
02:33 Bioware at their best. A deep, involving set of RPGs with choices, consequences, and lots and lots
02:39 of dialogue. It's a version of the legendary developer we may never see again, but that hot
02:44 streak run across the 2000s is always worth admiring. Dragon Age 2 then represents a turbulent
02:49 time in the series. Hawke's Adventure is one that never quite seemed to know what it wanted to be.
02:54 It offered the player more freedom than before in terms of the choices they made,
02:58 but its questionable pacing meant that you were never quite sure how or when they would actually
03:02 matter. Most egregiously, Dragon Age 2 struggled to carve out a world that was truly its own,
03:07 with some very familiar looking settings popping up throughout. It's a shame as Hawke is a
03:12 memorably written character for those who stuck with the game until the credits, but this sequel
03:16 was the first major stumble for a studio that would only fall apart more across the ensuing decade.
03:21 Number 7 - Resident Evil 6 There will always be highs and lows for any
03:26 long-running series. In the case of Capcom's beloved survival horror franchise Resident Evil,
03:31 the sixth numbered release would probably qualify as a major low. Resident Evil 4 had changed the
03:36 formula forever. It implemented a new, visceral action-focused two proceedings, and pulled it off
03:41 with purpose, charm and memorability. It's one of the most celebrated games ever made, and the
03:45 pressure of following it up was pretty immense. In attempting to do so, Capcom gave us Resident
03:50 Evil 5 and 6. The former may not be a masterpiece, but it remains an enjoyable enough action-heavy
03:55 romp, packed with some of the most absurd and memorable moments the series has to offer.
04:00 Resident Evil 6, though, just took things too far. Trying to please what had now become two
04:05 audiences - those of slower-paced horror and high-octane action - none of Resident Evil 6's
04:10 smaller campaigns felt like Resident Evil at all. Capcom would take a long, hard look at themselves
04:15 across five whole years of letting their IP rest, before coming back stronger than ever with
04:20 Resident Evil 7, Village and an ongoing smattering of remakes. Whether they try to make 6 work after
04:26 all this time, though, is something we'll just have to wait and see.
04:29 Number 6 - Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 Adaptations of beloved franchises like Star
04:34 Wars need to be treated with tremendous care. Fans are as invested as it's possible to be,
04:39 and for Star Wars, they want authenticity across their games. The most iconic characters,
04:44 vehicles and locales, combat that feels just right, plus epic space battles and cosmic drama
04:49 worthy of the name. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 had a great chance to deliver all of this.
04:53 An expanded take on new canon character Starkiller could have been a visceral treat to control as
04:58 before, with many expanded Force powers and lightsaber tricks going down in history.
05:03 Sadly, the game was a big critical disappointment, failing to refine the solid foundation the
05:07 original had set down. It would later be revealed that the game was crunched to hell and turned
05:12 around in just nine months, something that resulted in Force Unleashed 2 feeling like DLC.
05:17 Poor sales followed, and when Disney took over Star Wars in 2013, plans for Force Unleashed 3
05:22 were scrapped entirely. Number 5 - Duke Nukem Forever
05:26 A lot was riding on 2011's Duke Nukem Forever. It needed to honour the Duke's not-so-good name,
05:31 and prove a worthy addition to his adventures that had come before. Sadly, the project just
05:35 seemed doomed from the start. Duke Nukem Forever's sad fate is one of the most infamous
05:40 tales of development hell in gaming history. Once it finally arrived in players' hands,
05:44 it was plain just how far the genre had come, leaving the Duke far behind. Forever was filled
05:49 with some insanely outdated jokes likely written almost a decade prior, and was a very basic FPS,
05:55 failing to provide any innovation or a fresh feel to gameplay like the mighty Duke Nukem 3D once
06:01 did. Number 4 - Mass Effect Andromeda
06:03 Is it terrible to mess up once, like with Mass Effect 3, or mess up again when you're afforded
06:08 a clean slate? Answers down in the comments, because like I said earlier, Bioware did have
06:13 one hell of a decade across the 2010s. 2017's Mass Effect Andromeda, then, was ultimately a
06:18 victim of its own hype or expectation. Which is to say that if you had any, you were disappointed.
06:23 The issue was with how weirdly undercooked the game's marketing was, but quadruply so once we
06:28 saw just how little care and attention had gone into this supposed soft reboot. Receiving a ton
06:33 of patches as DLC was cancelled and we found out behind-the-scenes squabbles amongst Bioware dev
06:38 teams were rife, EA declared Mass Effect as a franchise on ice, until December 2020 promised
06:44 at least something would come again. Number 3 - Devil May Cry 2
06:49 Few games debut with so much confidence, swagger and all-round panache as Devil May Cry.
06:54 Spinning off from a Resident Evil 4 prototype and including enemy juggles as a game mechanic
06:59 thanks to a bug in development, tagging on a redcoat-wearing demon hunter who quipped and
07:03 flipped in equal measure was instant gaming history. It was all massively helmed by one
07:08 Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, who'd go on to make some of the most stylish
07:12 games of all time. So what to do for Devil May Cry's sequel? Well, how about you get in a
07:18 completely different director, then swap another in with only a few months before launch. The
07:22 resulting version of Devil May Cry 2 had wall-running and multiple enemy targeting, but
07:27 precisely none of the raw playability and appeal of the original, replete with a Dante that felt
07:32 stripped of all personality. Number 2 - Fable III
07:35 On its 2004 launch, this vast, ambitious Peter Molyneux-designed RPG delivered creative and
07:41 grossing gameplay. In itself, many had an issue with how overblown Molyneux's marketing tactics
07:46 had been versus the reality of the game itself, but being a major, well-playing Xbox-exclusive
07:51 RPG, en masse we kinda just let it slide. Fable II then hit supremely well too, leading to a part
07:57 3 that got everything wrong. Lacking the weighty decisions that made Fable identifiable, also
08:03 stripped back were your clothing options, weapons and RPG customisation across the board. Even the
08:08 game's pause menu was just weird, booting you into a room of options that you literally had to walk
08:13 around. Fable is currently in reboot mode yet again after the practically finished Fable Legends was
08:18 shelved instead, but Fable III was a monumental letdown. Number 1 - Dead Space 3
08:24 There's Resident Evil 4 and there's Dead Space, the perfect twin over-shoulder shooter combo.
08:30 For the latter, Isaac Clarke fights with salvaged mining tools, battles are frantic, gross and gory,
08:35 and there's a killer atmosphere that brings it all together. For Dead Space 2, everything got
08:39 enhanced. Combat proficiency, animation, monster design, lighting - for many, Dead Space 2 is the
08:45 peak of action meets horror in all of gaming to this day. With so much love for two instalments
08:50 creating one hell of a trajectory, in came what we now know all too well as EA royally messing
08:55 everything up. Series creator Glenn Schofield was long gone and in were premium currencies,
09:00 microtransactions, co-op shooting campaigns and an evil moon as a boss fight. It all went sideways
09:06 fast, undoing all that previous goodwill and benching Dead Space as an entire franchise
09:11 until EA finally greenlit a remake in 2021. And those are our picks for the most disappointing
09:16 video game sequels of all time. Let me know your favourites down in the comments below and please
09:21 subscribe to the What Culture Gaming Podcast. For now, I've been Scott from whatculture.com,
09:25 and I'll catch you soon.