Video game sequels have a higher bar to clear than movies do. A video game sequel is far more likely deemed an artistic or critical failure by not improving enough over its original than being outright worse than it. A popular first entry with some issues is expected to be polished, visuals are expected to improve, scales should be bigger.
Here are five video game sequels that didn’t just fail to improve or iterate enough but failed to even match them. ‘Number Two’s or second entries only as we tackle inferior sequels.
Driver 2
Thanks to Driv3r‘s controversy, criticism and ultimate failure, Driver 2 passes under the radar for many when it comes to inferior video game sequels.
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The public has mostly since forgotten how Reflections had bitten off far more than they could chew and had little time to digest their ambitions on Driver 2‘s tight schedule.
Driver 2 was indeed an outrageously ambitious title. It featured curved roads (trust us, that was a big deal) in a scope far beyond the original title. Tanner could, for the first time, leave his vehicle. It spanned four cities and two whole discs, attempting to cram in a greater level of detail and greater variety of assets.
But all of this came at a huge cost. Driver 2 runs both sluggish and erratic, criminal in a driving game. The draw distance, already poor in Dr1ver, is somehow even shorter.
The greater detail and variety of assets meant more pixelation and fewer graphical effects that simulated the car-chase movies that inspired the franchise.
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And in a level of foreshadowing that would be considered “heavy handed” in a fictional tale, Driver 2‘s on-foot controls were abysmal, being out of the car was nothing but pain. Worse was somehow to come from on-foot Tanner; how little we knew.
Driver 2 stands as the very first time this middle-aged gaming writer noticed a poor framerate. The first time a franchise let me down and I could actually explain why, so it is special to me – but in a bad way.
Dark Souls II
Criticism of Dark Souls II has softened in recent years. The phrase “I like Dark Souls II” is now decriminalised in over 100 territories. However, it’s still the black sheep of the bunch and some of the more objective criticisms of the day still stand.
Making a sequel to cult hit can be as tricky as it can be lucrative. Developers need a keen sense for what made a game so admired in the first place. They also need a deft hand in deciding how to enhance those elements.
Dark Souls would be a tough act to follow in the best of circumstances. Its best elements, in particular its world design, would have been planned and executed in an unwaveringly unified fashion.
Dark Souls II was probably doomed long before release. The loss of the visionary behind the complex original game and a deadline eaten up by a change in direction after substantial work was done would prevent any sense of congruency to its worlds.
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The biggest disappointment at the time, and to this day, is a direct result of that tortured timeline. There are signs that they had intended to include that element in the game, especially in areas that survived the mid-development cull.
The devs could not recreate the labyrinthine and reflexive interconnectivity of the first half of that Dark Souls as they tried desperately to make disjointed worlds fit as the months went by.
Metal Gear: Snake’s Revenge
While the NES/Famicom version of Metal Gear itself is considered an inferior port of the MSX original, it garnered some acclaim at release as a unique, if flawed, stealth-action title that sold beyond expectations. Over time, it’s been accepted in the Nintendo Entertainment System canon. Metal Gear frequently appears on lists of ‘must-play’ titles or ‘Greatest game’ for the NES/Famicom.
Following the unexpected success of that port, a sequel was hastily whipped together. While the original Metal Gear port was done without the knowledge of Hideo Kojima and the team behind the MSX version, it was based on that innovative Japanese home computer original.
Metal Gear: Snake’s Revenge was once again made without the involvement of Kojima and co. This time without the acclaimed source material and with a western market in mind.
The result is an action-heavy game with clunky 8-bit stealth controls. Improvements over the NES Metal Gear, while present, are misplaced.
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More weaponry, a more streamlined progress route with less backtracking and vastly improved visuals can’t mask the misguided direction of an action-heavy game set in a stiff stealth control scheme and mechanical frame.
Devil May Cry 2
Many of you will not appreciate just how amazing the twisted Gothic-inspired and European-tinged setting of Devil May Cry looked in 2001. The dense and detailed worlds, and the game’s cinematic presentation were distinctly “next-gen”. While gameplay is a little crude by today’s standards, the gorgeous artwork and complex architecture made each area feel handmade. As if every inch was pored over by a medieval craftsman, swapping his chisel and mallet for a mouse and keyboard.
Devil May Cry 2 improves very limited parts of that first game. Adding scope and streamlined combat at the expense of practically everything that sucked fans into that first instalment.
The worlds of Devil May Cry 2 are perhaps the absolute worst disappointment of the bunch. Trading detail, variety, colour, and complexity, albeit confined, for a sense of empty grandness.
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DMC2 is one of the largest visual downgrades in the history of video game sequels. While Driver 2 looks terrible, Dr1ver didn’t look that great to begin with. That first Devil May Cry outing was a stunner while its sequel looks a half-gen older.
Castlevania II
Castlevania was a competent and stylish hack ‘n perish that captured NES owner’s imaginations at release. Its follow-up tries to do so much more and fails at most of it. Like Driver 2, it seems the devs bit off more than they could chew.
The change from linear platforming to an open-world RPG could have worked. However, the puzzles were too cryptic given how unhelpful the townsfolk were. Botched translations added to this unending confusion.
A day-and-night cycle sounds like a great idea but it’s poorly executed, adding frustration to the mix. Being lost and then experiencing the jarring interruption of the day/night change every five minutes was an evil combo.
Time has blown hot and cold over the legacy of Castlevania II. At launch in the west, it was considered an average sequel to a near-unmatchable original entry.
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Since then, it had its reputation dragged through the gutter for its obtuseness, then restored for its place in forming the later Castlevania style of exploration.
Dishonourable Mentions
The Legend of Zelda II is not remembered fondly even if, like Dark Souls II, critical disapproval has tempered over time. People even begrudgingly admire the video games industry of the day for doing something so drastically different to what was a winning formula. The Legend of Zelda II is a mechanically different game, almost a completely different genre.
The changes to the gameplay actually added to the combat and the graphics are more detailed. While it’s considered an inferior sequel for many reasons, it’s not the directly comparable downgrade or artistic mishandling seen on the list proper.
Fable II, while a decent button-mashing adventure game with broad but thin RPG elements, fell short of expectation on a technical level. And that’s without talking about the game, yet again, underdelivering on Peter Molyneux’s pre-launch promises.
Fable stood out for its visuals, charm and innovation within an artistically and technically competent light fantasy realm. Combat, while easy, was varied.
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Fable II didn’t look all that special when it arrived. New features were half-baked. A few of Fable‘s more interesting features were removed, only to come back in paid DLC. And worse, a game called Fable II would rehash and repackage a lot of its first tale to deliver an uninspired husk of a story and experience.
Fable II doesn’t make our list because it’s not quite poor enough compared to that first outing.
