Since I apologize for my previous thread which was list based {I only made it because I was extremely bored out of my mind}. I decided to make another thread that's more reasonable because it doesn't involve list. So like the title says, share the game sequels you found to be disappointing compared to the original.

Here are my picks.

Deus Ex Invisible War:
The game was just dumbed down to it's core and was no where near as an engrossing experiance as the original masterpiece was. The game isn't bad as some fanboys make it out to be, the game is still fun but lacks the quality of the original and was not a worthy sequel.

Halo 2 & 3:
Halo Combat Evolved had a well thought, carefully designed, and epic campaign. The storyline was solid for a FPS to boot and greatly polished balance mechanics. However the sequels had a underwhelming campaign, the worst sci-fi story told since Battlefield Earth, and the mechanics were screwed up. The solid online multi-player for Halo 2 & 3 were the only thing going for it, but the near perfect weapon balance and the free formed melee attacks were ruined to the point where the weapons were poorly balanced and the melee attacks has some auto-lock charged feature that made it piss easy to hit someone without any skill.

Ultima IX Ascension:
EA has a reputation for fucking up great game franchises and this is their prime example.

KOTOR2.
KOTOR was the best RPG I'd ever played at the time. Ofcourse, now Bioware have released more RPG's, hoorah!

It was massively immersive and I just loved it. KOTOR2 however was an abomination to it's name and should be taken out back and shot in the kneecaps.

I blame it on the fact that it wasn't made by the same company, how could another company possibly hope to make a convincing sequel to a game that isn't theirs?

So you're saying Halo 2&3 have worse weapon balance than Halo: CE?

I ... um, how?

And Halo 2 has the best story of the series, maybe you don't like it but it's miles better than Battlefield Earth.

My disappointing sequel is (I have to think about this, game sequels are almost always improvements) 007: From Russia With Love

Mercs 2: The main reason i liked mercs 1 was becuase there was some planning in catching the Cards.i'll show you what i'm talking about.

Mercs 1,capturing an HVT: Sneaking around in the mountains,looking for a good vantage point.pulling out your laser designator,destroying they're vehicles with a good tactical strike(Tac strikes weren't in mercs 2 for some reason.)then taking out security with your sniper,finally sliding down the mountain,Running up behind the HVT,knocking him to the ground and cuffing him.

Mercs 2,capturing an HVT:finding the one way in to his closed area,taking out his guards who either die in one shot or loading a whole round into them before going down. catching the HVT,and cuffing him.

Eldritch Warlord:
So you're saying Halo 2&3 have worse weapon balance than Halo: CE?

I ... um, how?

And Halo 2 has the best story of the series, maybe you don't like it but it's miles better than Battlefield Earth.

My disappointing sequel is (I have to think about this, game sequels are almost always improvements) 007: From Russia With Love

The rocket launcher missle has a lock-on, the plasma pistol energy shot homes better than a heat seeking missle, the pistol is useless even when it's dual-wielded, the energy sword charges at a enemy even when they're only miles away {the damn thing has a longer range than the shotgun}, and the assault rifle is even stronger than the pistol from Halo Combat Evolved.

I forgotten to mention that the hit boxes are massive and the auto-aim is overly sticky.

the protaginist:
Mercs 2: The main reason i liked mercs 1 was becuase there was some planning in catching the Cards.i'll show you what i'm talking about.

Mercs 1,capturing an HVT: Sneaking around in the mountains,looking for a good vantage point.pulling out your laser designator,destroying they're vehicles with a good tactical strike(Tac strikes weren't in mercs 2 for some reason.)then taking out security with your sniper,finally sliding down the mountain,Running up behind the HVT,knocking him to the ground and cuffing him.

Mercs 2,capturing an HVT:finding the one way in to his closed area,taking out his guards who either die in one shot or loading a whole round into them before going down. catching the HVT,and cuffing him.

Really? I didn't see this at all in Mercs 2

I have to say the most disappointing sequel I ever played was Call of Duty 3, CoD2 was so good but 3 just sucked

mg66368:
and the assault rifle is even stronger than the pistol from Halo: CE

Do you mean battle rifle? There was no assault rifle in Halo 2

Spartan Bannana:

mg66368:
and the assault rifle is even stronger than the pistol from Halo: CE

Do you mean battle rifle? There was no assault rifle in Halo 2

Yeah keep forgetting that considering the battle rifle behaves like any other generic assault rifle {despite its overpowered strength} with a different name.

mg66368:

The rocket launcher missle has a lock-on, the plasma pistol energy shot homes better than a heat seeking missle, the pistol is useless even when it's dual-wielded, the energy sword charges at a enemy even when they're only miles away {the damn thing has a longer range than the shotgun}, and the assault rifle is even stronger than the pistol from Halo Combat Evolved.

I forgotten to mention that the hit boxes are massive and the auto-aim is overly sticky.

Those all relate to Halo 2 only. And the H2 battle rifle is far less effective against vehicles than the CE pistol.

Pretty much every Sonic game from the Dreamcast onwards, GBA & DS excluded.

On a more relevant (and serious) note, Spider-Man 3. Penny Arcade said it best, as they often do.

Eldritch Warlord:

mg66368:

The rocket launcher missle has a lock-on, the plasma pistol energy shot homes better than a heat seeking missle, the pistol is useless even when it's dual-wielded, the energy sword charges at a enemy even when they're only miles away {the damn thing has a longer range than the shotgun}, and the assault rifle is even stronger than the pistol from Halo Combat Evolved.

I forgotten to mention that the hit boxes are massive and the auto-aim is overly sticky.

Those all relate to Halo 2 only. And the H2 battle rifle is far less effective against vehicles than the CE pistol.

Your right about that.

KineticX49:
KOTOR2.
KOTOR was the best RPG I'd ever played at the time. Ofcourse, now Bioware have released more RPG's, hoorah!

It was massively immersive and I just loved it. KOTOR2 however was an abomination to it's name and should be taken out back and shot in the kneecaps.

I blame it on the fact that it wasn't made by the same company, how could another company possibly hope to make a convincing sequel to a game that isn't theirs?

I agree

Rayman Raving Rabbids was a game that begged for a sequel. It was an awesome idea with brilliant characters and a lot of fun, but a little bit buggy. We needed something with a bit more fleshed-out story, a bit more varied, a bit more polished and with a bit more creative challenges.

Instead we got Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: the same as the original game, but dull.

Alone in the Dark.

Next!

Duke Machine:

KineticX49:
KOTOR2.
KOTOR was the best RPG I'd ever played at the time. Ofcourse, now Bioware have released more RPG's, hoorah!

It was massively immersive and I just loved it. KOTOR2 however was an abomination to it's name and should be taken out back and shot in the kneecaps.

I blame it on the fact that it wasn't made by the same company, how could another company possibly hope to make a convincing sequel to a game that isn't theirs?

I agree

I disagree, I actually like KotOR 2 more. Don't hurt me.

erm..Syphon Filter 3.

I love the Syphon Filter franchise, 1&2 being my favourites. But Syphon Filter 3, well, the entire time i was playing it I just felt like I didn't need to live the past before Syphon Filter 1's events. I assume everything works out, I don't need to know how or why.

Thief: Deadly Shadows. Hell, even the developers realized it and dropped out the "III."

Levels were smaller, story was mediocre (wWhat the hell happened to that book? They never mentioned it after you stole it, even though it seemed to be pretty friggin' importantest thing at that point), dagger replaced the sword, Hammerites were normal people (they're supposed to be two-metre tall giants!), voice acting was bad, people looked ugly, etc.

Master of Orion 3

I guess they fired everyone who had even the most remote idea what HCI is about.

Fraser.J.A:
Rayman Raving Rabbids was a game that begged for a sequel. It was an awesome idea with brilliant characters and a lot of fun, but a little bit buggy. We needed something with a bit more fleshed-out story, a bit more varied, a bit more polished and with a bit more creative challenges.

Instead we got Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: the same as the original game, but dull.

I challenge that - the same as the original game, but with no single-player mode. Bah!

Other disappointing sequels: Mario Party 67 (or whatever number we're on now - a clear case of a series going on far too long), Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (tone-wise, since I thought the gameplay itself was brilliant), The Simpsons Game (not bad per se, just disappointing following the brilliant Hit and Run) and Daxter (because it's on the PSP and I'm not buying a system for 5 games, dammit).

Eldritch Warlord:

Duke Machine:

KineticX49:
KOTOR2.
KOTOR was the best RPG I'd ever played at the time. Ofcourse, now Bioware have released more RPG's, hoorah!

It was massively immersive and I just loved it. KOTOR2 however was an abomination to it's name and should be taken out back and shot in the kneecaps.

I blame it on the fact that it wasn't made by the same company, how could another company possibly hope to make a convincing sequel to a game that isn't theirs?

I agree

I disagree, I actually like KotOR 2 more. Don't hurt me.

Understandable.
I don't intend to say that KotOR2 was a bad game. It was just very different from the first and hence a bad sequel. Though personally I preferred the first :)

Eldritch Warlord:
maybe you don't like it but it's miles better than Battlefield Earth.

the rocky horror picture show had a story miles better than that pos.

anyway, gotta agree with the topic creator, invisible war. when you have a designer (the horrible harvey smith) that says that EVERYTHING that people loved about a game actually made it bad, and then take everything away that made it good (or bad in his conviluted mind), theres going to be a BIG problem with the sequal. that and the fact that due the the HORRIBLE coding of the game it restarts the bloody thing when entering a new area (basically going back to the desktop then back to the game), annoying as hell.

Let's go casual! Well, not really.

Roller COaster Tycoon and RCTG2 were a couple of the best sims I've played... then they dropped Chris Sawyer and produced the atrocious RCT3. It's 3D, congradulations, but they dropped the goals from the first games that were actually fun, removed a lot of the management and advertising tools, etc. in the name of making it more accessable, ruining a perfectly good game.

Splintercell pandora tomorrow, that game was awful compared to the original and chaos theory.

ratix2:

Eldritch Warlord:
maybe you don't like it but it's miles better than Battlefield Earth.

the rocky horror picture show had a story miles better than that pos.

anyway, gotta agree with the topic creator, invisible war. when you have a designer (the horrible harvey smith) that says that EVERYTHING that people loved about a game actually made it bad, and then take everything away that made it good (or bad in his conviluted mind), theres going to be a BIG problem with the sequal. that and the fact that due the the HORRIBLE coding of the game it restarts the bloody thing when entering a new area (basically going back to the desktop then back to the game), annoying as hell.

I bought Deus EX: Invisible War on XBox for 5 euros new around Christmas 2006 in a FNAC (just like a Virgin Megastore but French, for those who never saw one), and got past the confusing intro and confusing contradicting messages you get as soon as you leave the place at the beginning (forgot all the names). Then I bought some stuff, discovered the game had a retarded moral stance on health (smoking hurts you, and I doubt it's ever done anything else, someone to confirm ? at least in Bioshock it's got a gimmick) that sounds off when everyone has nano-implants and lives in a biomechanical world of synthesized foods, with diets consisting of candybars and energy drinks...

Then their universal ammo system makes every single fight a chore, you take tons of damage, you deal close to nil, and even your nightstick drains your ammo... good job...
Baically after 30 minutes of gameplay, including the dialogs I couldn't bother to care about, I got bored, and sold the game at a gameshop for the price I paid. The manager was friendly enough to let me pick a 15 Euros used game in exchange, and I got a copy of Ninja Gaiden.

As for failed sequels... I'd go for Doom 3. It's not Doom anymore, but it's not a bad game I think, I found it fun, and even if I want to play Resurrection of Evil as well. It's just that simple:

Not.
DooM.
Anymore.

Duke Machine:

KineticX49:
KOTOR2.
KOTOR was the best RPG I'd ever played at the time. Ofcourse, now Bioware have released more RPG's, hoorah!

It was massively immersive and I just loved it. KOTOR2 however was an abomination to it's name and should be taken out back and shot in the kneecaps.

I blame it on the fact that it wasn't made by the same company, how could another company possibly hope to make a convincing sequel to a game that isn't theirs?

I agree

Its weird. I'd never played KOTOR 1, but got hold of KOTOR 2. I really enjoyed it, as did all my friends who borrowed it (none of them played KOTOR1 either). Is it really that pants compared to the first?

As for bad sequels, I'd say Super Mario 2 on NES was absolute crap. Thankfully 3 sorted it all out.

Kingdom Hearts 2...
The first game was golden, but the other one was one of the worst and easiest games ever.

PS. I beat the final boss with my feet, with the worst weapon, without using the analog stick.

Are predictions allowed then?
Because EA owns Bioware now. That means we are going to go from the grandest, most important RPG ever, Mass Effect to... what? We MIGHT get a Mass Effect 2, and if we do it'll be all cut down to nothing and you'll be able to wear power armour and pump yourself up with "Nectar". We're lucky they released Mass Effect at all, but that game was finished right before EA did it's thing.

Other than my doomsaying, I guess I'll go with Perfect Dark Zero, or whatever. The original Perfect Dark was some kind of joy machine that ran on love.

It's 360 sequel was a brick. You could hold it, it definitely existed, but the only way it could be exciting is if someone hit you in the face with it.

Crunchy English:
That means we are going to go from the grandest, most important RPG ever, Mass Effect

No no no no no no. So wrong on so many levels. Mass Effect is watered down drivel built for the console generation. The Baldur's Gate series absolutely annhilates Mass Effect in sheer scope of story, character development, party interaction, and gameplay.
It takes a lot to get me to nerdrage, but god damnit people claiming Mass Effect is something grand instantly pushes me right over the edge.

Anyway, Master of Orion 3 is definitely the most disappointing sequel ever. I was a sad, sad panda when I finally got my hands on the copy I preordered.

AuntyEthel:

Duke Machine:

KineticX49:
KOTOR2.
KOTOR was the best RPG I'd ever played at the time. Ofcourse, now Bioware have released more RPG's, hoorah!

It was massively immersive and I just loved it. KOTOR2 however was an abomination to it's name and should be taken out back and shot in the kneecaps.

I blame it on the fact that it wasn't made by the same company, how could another company possibly hope to make a convincing sequel to a game that isn't theirs?

I agree

Its weird. I'd never played KOTOR 1, but got hold of KOTOR 2. I really enjoyed it, as did all my friends who borrowed it (none of them played KOTOR1 either). Is it really that pants compared to the first?

As for bad sequels, I'd say Super Mario 2 on NES was absolute crap. Thankfully 3 sorted it all out.

whats wrong with you people? kotor2 was just kotor with more force powers, a few more complex mechanics (i LOVED the influence system) and extended lightsabre customisation.
whats there not to like? ok the ending was a bit retarded and the beginning was a bit hard to get trough without falling asleep but its still an excellent game. its not like theyve change anything important about it.

the sequel i was most dissapointed in was max payne 2. theyve stripped it of all the magic and atmosphere. it was unbearable. and now mark fucking whalberg plays max payne. theyve defiled my precious memories so bad, only nuking my grandma's house can compare to it.

DX2, GTA: Vice City and San Andreas, (Can BioShock count as a sequel?)

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING ON ABOUT? Max Payne 2 was slightly easier than Max Payne, but apart from that it had no failings.

Eldritch Warlord:
So you're saying Halo 2&3 have worse weapon balance than Halo: CE?

I ... um, how?

And Halo 2 has the best story of the series, maybe you don't like it but it's miles better than Battlefield Earth.

My disappointing sequel is (I have to think about this, game sequels are almost always improvements) 007: From Russia With Love

Have you gone absolutely bat s!#t crazy? Halo 2 is the weakest link in the trilogy of Halo games. The story was ridiculous, it seemed like they were trying so hard to be funny at points. Playing as the arbiter wasn't what anyone wanted and you had to play has him for most of the game. Who thought it was a good idea to have the covenant start talking? What was worse was that they ended the game ON A F%^KING CLIFFHANGER!

Sure, Halo 2 has a better story than Battlefield Earth, but that is like comparing two Uwe boll movies to each other. "Well Bloodrayne was horrible, but at least it wasn't as bad as Alone in the Dark..."

You must have very low standards for game stories...

Metal Gear Solid 4. There, I said it.
Why you might ask? Sure, the game play delivered more so than the games previous, the weapon customization was in fact larger than other games boasting similar features(army of two) at the time. The graphics were good, hell, even some of the level's were the most epic in the series. But there is little that can be redeemed from a game that categorically destroyed my firm opinions of my favorite characters in the game. Meryl and Snake don't get back together. Johnny has a real role in the game. Raiden is an angry teenager instead of a whiny one, the colonel shows his personal life, HELL, they even put the original FOXHOUND call signs to shame. It was a big heaping pile of misplaced nostalgia, intermingled with short, often amazing game play sequences. Also, I'll perpetually be annoyed with octo-camo. Snake doesn't use that shit. More could, and probably will be said about this in the future.