How do you follow up a great game? Not like this.
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00:00The issue of managing a video game follow-up is a universal one across all scales of production.
00:04Fans want more of the same, but not too much. They want a budding series to evolve and grow,
00:09but not to fundamentally change. In some cases, a sequel arrives that gets the balance just right,
00:14but often expectations are outrageously high and disappointment is all too common.
00:19Whether because they took off in a strange new direction,
00:21lacked that star quality that came before, or were just mediocre,
00:25I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 most disappointing video game sequels of all time.
00:30Number 10, Paper Mario Sticker Star
00:33Long-time players of the Paper Mario series generally know what they're getting into.
00:37A colourful, irreverent experience that leans into the whole everything is made out of paper
00:41concept and emphasises it throughout. For many, 2004 GameCube title Paper Mario the
00:46Thousand-Year Door represented the pinnacle of that format. It's tremendously fun and varied,
00:51with a large cast of characters that each have handy abilities in battle. The RPG elements seemed
00:55finely tuned to allow for strategy without becoming too deep or too shallow. Titles since
01:00though seem to have failed in getting this delicate balance right. 3DS installment Paper Mario Sticker
01:05Star remains a controversial example, leaving behind those RPG trappings for the gimmicky,
01:10titular sticker system, and being a landmark disappointment because of it. It might not be
01:15too bad a title, the stickers can be fun to experiment with and the writing is on point,
01:20but talk about a drop-off from what came before.
01:23Number 9, Prince of Persia Warrior Within
01:26Okay, full disclosure, I always loved this game. I mean, look at me,
01:30God smacks I stand alone as the theme song, gaming did not get any better. Talk to anyone
01:35whose blood didn't bleed professional wrestling at the time though and Warrior Within was a
01:39cataclysmic nigh hilarious letdown. Going from the super charming Sands of Time original,
01:44to this weirdly super angsty muted colour palette sequel that felt like the boss's teenage son had
01:49led the design meeting. Because to give the haters their due, Sands of Time was a magical
01:54fairytale game. Boasting fantastic platforming sections that showcased the prince's remarkable
01:59athleticism and time powers, controlling the sands let you rewind to undo deaths,
02:03or bust out some sand powers in combat. Warrior Within then largely nailed its combat and level
02:08design, but went so all in on a Jak 2 or Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness style tone,
02:14that many players just couldn't accept it whatsoever. Losing the softly spoken prince
02:18that went before, Follow Up Two Thrones attempted to hybridise the two styles into a twin gameplay
02:23approach. However, that just resulted in a reboot because Ubisoft couldn't think of a genuine way to
02:29truly move forward. The Dragon Age series represents Bioware at their best. A deep,
02:35involving set of RPGs with choices, consequences and lots and lots of dialogue. It's a version of
02:41the legendary developer we may never see again, but that hot streak run across the 2000s is always
02:46worth admiring. Dragon Age 2 then represents a turbulent time in the series. Hawke's adventure
02:51is one that never quite seemed to know what it wanted to be. It offered the player more freedom
02:55than before in terms of the choices they made, but its questionable pacing meant that you were
03:00never quite sure how or when they would actually matter. Most egregiously, Dragon Age 2 struggled
03:05to carve out a world that was truly its own, with some very familiar looking settings popping up
03:10throughout. It's a shame as Hawke is a memorably written character for those who stuck with the
03:14game until the credits, but this sequel was the first major stumble for a studio that would only
03:19fall apart more across the ensuing decade. 7. Resident Evil 6
03:24There will always be highs and lows for any long-running series. In the case of Capcom's
03:28beloved survival horror franchise Resident Evil, the sixth numbered release would probably qualify
03:33as a major low. Resident Evil 4 had changed the formula forever. It implemented a new, visceral
03:38action-focused two proceedings, and pulled it off with purpose, charm and memorability. It's one of
03:43the most celebrated games ever made, and the pressure of following it up was pretty immense.
03:47In attempting to do so, Capcom gave us Resident Evil 5 and 6. The former may not be a masterpiece,
03:53but it remains an enjoyable enough action-heavy romp, packed with some of the most absurd and
03:58memorable moments the series has to offer. Resident Evil 6, though, just took things too
04:02far. Trying to please what had now become two audiences, those of slower-paced horror and
04:07high-octane action, none of Resident Evil 6's smaller campaigns felt like Resident Evil at all.
04:13Capcom would take a long, hard look at themselves across five whole years of letting their IP rest,
04:18before coming back stronger than ever with Resident Evil 7, Village and an ongoing smattering
04:23of remakes. Whether they try to make 6 work after all this time, though, is something we'll just
04:28have to wait and see. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2
04:32Adaptations of beloved franchises like Star Wars need to be treated with tremendous care.
04:36Fans are as invested as it's possible to be, and for Star Wars, they want authenticity across
04:41their games. The most iconic characters, vehicles and locales, combat that feels just right,
04:46plus epic space battles and cosmic drama worthy of the name. Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 had
04:51a great chance to deliver all of this. An expanded take on new canon character Starkiller could have
04:56been a visceral treat to control as before, with many expanded Force powers and lightsaber tricks
05:02going down in history. Sadly, the game was a big critical disappointment, failing to refine the
05:06solid foundation the original had set down. It would later be revealed that the game was
05:10crunched to hell and turned around in just nine months, something that resulted in Force Unleashed
05:152 feeling like DLC. Poor sales followed, and when Disney took over Star Wars in 2013, plans for Force
05:21Unleashed 3 were scrapped entirely. Duke Nukem Forever
05:26A lot was riding on 2011's Duke Nukem Forever. It needed to honour the Duke's not-so-good name,
05:31and prove a worthy addition to his adventures that had come before. Sadly, the project just
05:35seemed doomed from the start. Duke Nukem Forever's sad fate is one of the most infamous tales of
05:40development hell in gaming history. Once it finally arrived in players' hands, it was plain
05:44just how far the genre had come, leaving the Duke far behind. Forever was filled with some
05:49insanely outdated jokes likely written almost a decade prior, and was a very basic FPS,
05:55failing to provide any innovation or a fresh feel to gameplay like the mighty Duke Nukem 3D once did.
06:01Number 4, Mass Effect Andromeda Is it terrible to mess up once,
06:05like with Mass Effect 3, or mess up again when you're afforded a clean slate?
06:09Answers down in the comments, because like I said earlier, Bioware did have one hell of a decade
06:14across the 2010s. 2017's Mass Effect Andromeda then was ultimately a victim of its own hype
06:19or expectation, which is to say that if you had any, you were disappointed. The issue was with
06:24how weirdly undercooked the game's marketing was, but quadruply so once we saw just how little care
06:29and attention had gone into this supposed soft reboot. Receiving a ton of patches as DLC was
06:35cancelled and we found out behind-the-scenes squabbles amongst Bioware dev teams were rife,
06:39EA declared Mass Effect as a franchise on ice, until December 2020 promised at least something
06:45would come again. Number 3, Devil May Cry 2
06:49Few games debut with so much confidence, swagger and all-round panache as Devil May Cry.
06:54Spinning off from a Resident Evil 4 prototype and including enemy juggles as a game mechanic
06:59thanks to a bug in development, tagging on a redcoat-wearing demon hunter who quipped and
07:03flipped in equal measure was instant gaming history. It was all massively helmed by one
07:08Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, who'd go on to make some of the most stylish
07:12games of all time. So what to do for Devil May Cry's sequel? Well, how about you get in a
07:18completely different director, then swap another in with only a few months before launch.
07:22The resulting version of Devil May Cry 2 had wall-running and multiple enemy targeting,
07:26but precisely none of the raw playability and appeal of the original, replete with a Dante
07:32that felt stripped of all personality. Number 2, Fable 3
07:35On its 2004 launch, this vast, ambitious Peter Molyneux-designed RPG delivered creative and
07:41grossing gameplay. In itself, many had an issue with how overblown Molyneux's marketing tactics
07:46had been versus the reality of the game itself, but being a major well-playing Xbox-exclusive RPG,
07:52en masse we kinda just let it slide. Fable 2 then hit supremely well too,
07:56leading to a part 3 that got everything wrong. Lacking the weighty decisions that made Fable
08:01identifiable, also stripped back were your clothing options, weapons and RPG customisation
08:06across the board. Even the game's pause menu was just weird, booting you into a room of options
08:11that you literally had to walk around. Fable is currently in reboot mode yet again after the
08:16practically finished Fable Legends was shelved instead, but Fable 3 was a monumental letdown.
08:22And number 1, Dead Space 3 There's Resident Evil 4 and there's Dead
08:27Space, the perfect twin over-shoulder shooter combo. For the latter, Isaac Clarke fights with
08:31salvaged mining tools, battles are frantic, gross and gory, and there's a killer atmosphere that
08:36brings it all together. For Dead Space 2, everything got enhanced. Combat proficiency,
08:41animation, monster design, lighting, for many, Dead Space 2 is the peak of action-meets-horror
08:46in all of gaming to this day. With so much love for two instalments creating one hell of a
08:51trajectory, in came what we now know all too well as EA royally messing everything up.
08:56Series creator Glenn Schofield was long gone and in were premium currencies, microtransactions,
09:01co-op shooting campaigns, and an evil moon as a boss fight. It all went sideways fast,
09:06undoing all that previous goodwill and benching Dead Space as an entire franchise until EA finally
09:12greenlit a remake in 2021. And those are our picks for the most disappointing video game sequels of
09:18all time. Let me know your favourites down in the comments below and please subscribe to the
09:22What Culture Gaming Podcast. For now, I've been Scott from whatculture.com and I'll catch you soon.