Gaming

Weekend Hot Topic, part 2: Worst video game sequel


Resident Evil 6 – a series low point

GameCentral readers name and shame their least favourite sequels, from Halo 5 to Metroid: Other M.

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Grackle, who asked what follow-up have you found the most disappointing and why?

We had plenty of different suggestions from all eras of gaming but there were a few names that popped up multiple times, namely Capcom’s Devil May Cry 2 and Resident Evil 6, and the reliably unpopular Mass Effect: Andromeda.

 

Cap-bomb
I initially thought of Resident Evil 5 and 6 for this Hot Topic. 5 is a watered-down version of the brilliant Resident Evil 4 and also saddles you with the annoyance of Sheva, who was pretty useless if computer controlled. Resident Evil 6 didn’t seem to know what it was meant to be, so it tried to be like lots of other games, but in my mind did nothing well.

But no, I actually think Capcom have produced an even worse sequel than these two… and that ‘honour’ goes to Devil May Cry 2!

It was a complete lobotomy of the first game, with environments that were bigger but also incredibly sterile. The demons and combat were dull and Dante had gone from being a wise-cracking hero in the first game to a surly, virtually mute personality vacuum in 2!
LastYearsModel

 

Other problems
It has to be Metroid: Other M. Not only was it a terrible, terrible game in its own right but it was so detrimental to the Metroid series that they didn’t make another one for years, an even that was just a remake. The thing with Other M is I can’t work out whether the people making it (Team Ninja, who should’ve known better) just didn’t get Metroid or actively disliked and were purposefully trying to make something that was the opposite of it.

Linear, easy, and with terrible graphics and music, Other M is almost laughably bad and almost reaches the level of comically bad when you consider the horrible controls which use a D-pad to move around a 3D world. And this in a Nintendo game, the company that invented the analogue controller.

And then you get to the storytelling which was just horrendous. Badass Samus was turned into a whiny little wimp who was completely under the thumb of some father figure we’d never heard of before. It was just horrible and I don’t if it’s worse for those that know what a real Metroid is like or those coming to it for the first time.
Zebra

 

Sequels to reboots
I don’t know which one to go for here exactly but I’d just like to name all three of the Tomb Raider reboots, all of which I thought were a huge waste of potential in different ways. The first one started off well with a survival horror atmosphere and Lara acting like a real person… before turning into a psycho killer who fights ghost monsters.

The second one made her an unlikeable brat and got rid of most of the survival stuff, while the third one toyed with making her the villain, didn’t have the guts to go through with it, and then just ended up with a really silly story that I’m pretty sure is also culturally insensitive.

All the components were there to make a great game but neither of the sequels managed to build on them or improve themselves. I think if you chopped up all three and put them together into one game that would’ve worked out, but what we got instead was an entire waste of a trilogy.
Glampers

 

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

 

Wrong perspective
Anyone remember the Syndicate reboot? I don’t know if that counts as a sequel technically but it was so bad it destroyed the franchise and cause the team making it to split up and go and form MachineGames (who went on to make Wolfenstein, so I guess that worked out to a degree).

The original Syndicate was a top-down, isometric action strategy, kind of like a real-time strategy but with no base-building that was really unique. That was back in the Amiga days though so a modern day update would’ve been great. What did we get though? A first person shooter.

Seriously, the original had you controlling four agents at once and had a really cool cyberpunk type setting with a satirical edge. Plus the first sequel had some really cool destruction effects. The reboot had none of that and took itself completely seriously. It was awful.
Baker

 

Public admission
I think Halo 5 has got to be up there. I mean, you can tell a sequel has not worked out when the publisher abandons all plans for a follow-up and plans a soft reboot instead, despite the fact that it was supposed to be Halo 6 and continue the story.

Of course, the story was half the problem, with a short, uneventful campaign where you didn’t get to play as Master Chief most of the time and the new character – I forget his name – had to act like an idiot for the purposes of the plot.

And then there was all the changes to the gameplay. For some reason they tried to change it into a sort of Quake style arena shooter, instead of classic Halo. I’ve no idea why, other than the whole slower-paced Halo style of gameplay was thought of as old-fashioned by that point. Maybe it is but nobody wanted this new style either and that leads us back to Halo Infinite.

I hope the game is good, they do seem to be putting a lot of effort into it and acknowledge the issues with the last one but have things just moved on too much for enough people to want to play the old style of Halo? I don’t know but I do know nobody wants Halo 5 either.
Kernel Korn

 

Fourth mistake
Probably something a lot of fans have forgotten about, with good reason, but Sonic The Hedgehog 4 was just appalling. Apparently it started off as a mobile game or something but they got all the physics completely wrong and it was super short with no new ideas. We’d waited decades for a proper sequel at that point and what Sega put out was just as terrible as everything else in its own way.

It wasn’t until Sonic Mania came along that we got anything even half decent again and while that’s a relief it’s obviously sullied the name of the whole series and character. Well, that and the movie!
Freeland

 

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

 

Good game, bad sequel
As much as I love Metal Gear Solid as a series the worst sequel I played was Metal Gear Solid V. I know that sounds controversial given that it was met with rave reviews but hear me out.

I think Metal Gear Solid V is a great game to play. Solid controls, great graphics and can be fun. I just don’t think that it is a very good Metal Gear Solid game. The whole format was changed to open world which didn’t work for me. Metal Gear Solid has mostly always been about sneaking around a big facility and I could have coped with the change had it been something like Metal Gear Solid 3, where eventually you do get to a decent sized facility, after going through numerous smaller ones along the way.

The cut scenes were really dialled back too. In some ways that is a good thing, but this game went from feast to famine. Barely anything exciting happened, most of the characters were almost mute despite having decent voice actors and to top it all the story was mostly told by playing tapes on a Walkman! Also having to repeat missions towards the end to unlock the next was where I gave up.

As for the story itself, what a load of nonsense. Even by Metal Gear standards this one was out there. That whole game was just a big question mark for me and I don’t actually consider it a proper Metal Gear Solid game. I’m actually glad the series seems to have ended now for good.
OldMiley

 

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

 

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