The Quality of Game Sequels

Posted on Mar 10, 2011 in History

Sequels are popular in the game industry - even more so than in the movie industry. It's understandable why they are so popular: If a game sells well, it almost guarantees that a sequel will sell just as well, if not better. I'm not really all too fond of this situation - let's call it "sequelitis" - because constant sequels tend to reduce creativity and innovation from developers.

Some sequels are done well - improving on the mechanics of the previous games, while, at the same time, expanding gameplay and introducing new concepts. This is the focus of the post this week. But, we also have the bad sequels - quick cash-grabs by greedy publishers trying to churn out content to make as much profit as possible. And then there are the ridiculous examples that don't really have any right to be called sequels at all. Those will wait until next week's post.

Good Sequels

The gaming industry actually has a far higher sequel success percentage than movies. Whether this is because of consumer mentality or actual increases in game quality is up for debate. Regardless, there are a few universally acclaimed sequels - here are a few of them.

Half-Life 2

You can't talk about games (at least with me) for very long without Valve popping up. And here they are with the sequel to one of the best games of the 90's: Half-Life. The first game was quite the innovation back in 1998 - hardly the first, but still very ground-breaking in the world where games like Quake 2 were king. The main focus was on story and plot progression - back then, this was rare (though it was starting to become common, with games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 just around the corner). Looking back on it now, there really wasn't much in terms of story - but it is there, which is more than can be said about most games of it's time.

Half-Life 2 took that to a whole new level. There's a big focus on plot development, and while you aren't told everything, there's far more than the first game. It's easy to pick out flaws in Half-Life 2, but it's usually a sign of a very good game when the only nitpicks are small and focused rather than fundamental flaws in the game itself. Subsequent expansions to the game, Episodes One and Two, continue to stand out from other entries in the FPS genre as smart, engaging, and emotional games. Let's try to ignore that the complete lack of anything to do with Episode Three has made us all very bitter about Valve.

Uncharted 2

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is by far one of the most impressive games on the PlayStation 3 to date - in terms of both gameplay and graphics. With likeable characters, fast-paced gameplay and story progression, glorious scenery and level design, and a well-balanced multiplayer component, Uncharted 2 is the killer title for the platform. Following on from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, which is an excellent game in it's own right, the sequel takes everything the original did and improves on it.

Uncharted 2 also takes huge leaps in terms of creativity of levels and scenery. One of the more notable levels starts with our character, Nathan Drake, jumping onto a moving train. He then proceeds to work his way through (and often, over) the train as it travels seamlessly through a beautiful jungle, then a long tunnel, and finally out into a snowy mountain environment. Few other games have left such an impression on me as that has. With Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception due out by the end of the year, I await, along with millions of other eager gamers, for the next chapter of the series. Time shall tell if the new instalment is as good as the previous ones.

System Shock 2

I've talked about System Shock 2 before - and I'll talk about it again. System Shock 2 was developed by the combination of well-known studios Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Designed by the well-known Ken Levine (Thief: The Dark Project, SWAT 4, BioShock), System Shock 2 is a masterpiece in games, even now, ten years later.

A lot of people, including myself, played System Shock 2 without actually playing the original System Shock. Though the original was not a complete retail failure, it was overshadowed by the releases of Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth, as well as various others, such as Myst. Unfortunately the sequel suffered a similar fate - reporting fewer-than-expected retail sales.

Sales aside, the game was considered "ahead of it's time", and was very well-received critically. It has aged well - after a few engine tweaks and a high-definition texture mod, it stands up (maybe not graphically) against many modern games, and actually wipes the floor with most of them in terms of quality. It is very unfortunate that the so-called "consolification" of PC games resulted in the death of the System Shock 2-style interface. The only other game that comes to mind which even remotely resembles said interface is Deus Ex, released a year later.

Coming Soon: Not-So-Good Sequels!

Because this post got rather long (and because I'm running late this week), I'm going to stop here and continue on next week. Coming up: More sequels! We'll look at some examples of bad game sequels, and, if there's time, also some sequels that should exist but do not (which makes everyone sad!)

Posted on Mar 10, 2011 in History

Follow-Up Blogs

• The Quality of Game Sequels: The Sequel [Mar 14, 2011]

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