Unsuccessful sequel

[AWarGuy]

MW2 & Black Ops

A disgrace to the series, 1, 2 & 4 were amazing.

[spets21]

Dragon Age 2 Fiasco

[rinoaff33]

My top disappointing sequel is most certainly Fable 3. It's like Fable 2...but they removed everything that made it fun, like multiple, varied weapon and item types, an open world (Fable 3 pulls you along by the nose), and lots of things to find and discover (most rewards in Fable 3 are just gold). The monarch gimmick was terrible and rushed, despite it being an over-hyped selling point. Maybe it's my fault for listening to LIONHEAD STUDIOS's hype once more, I don't know...

 

My second most disappointing was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The main gimmick of the game was just that - a gimmick. Summoning fellow assassins and sending them on missions didn't even feel useful or fun, but the game forces you to do so. Add to this the fact that most missions in the game are annoying sneaking missions of the "don't get spotted or it's game over" variety as well as the fact that the vast majority of the game takes place in one city, plus the fact that the gameplay is EXACTLY the same as ACII but with more annoyances...yeah. The whole "rally the people" thing was just bland, as the core of the game is about running across rooftops and assassinations (and not the kind where detection=you dead). I didn't even feel like finishing it - and the ending with its diabolus ex machina certainly wasn't worth the trouble.

 

Then there's Dragon Age 2, which is not at all like DA:O. Sure, DA2 was certainly fun...but it didn't feel like it was even part of the same series. The parts of the game that were obviously rushed certainly don't help, like the reused environments or the lack of item types (or even item names), not to mention the ridiculously railroaded ending with its terrible black-and-black morality that sucks out any potential satisfaction from completing the game. Compare this to the Mass Effect games where, by the time the credits start rolling, you're triumphant and cheering. Bioware simply tried far, FAR too hard to make DA2 a "dark fantasy," which is just ridiculous on top of the over-the-top Devil May Cry-esque combat (which isn't helped by the resident JRPG character, Fenris). I don't think they realize that angst, unlikable hypocrite characters, and bad endings don't automatically = true art, despite what Oscar bait movies and Newberry novels would have you to believe.

 

Metroid Prime 2 sort of counts here. Having played through MP1 recently once more, I decided to finally get its sequel (I rented MP2 briefly once, and I played most of MP3 until my Wii broke). Unfortunately, MP2 is MP1...but not as good. Every weapon except your peashooter uses ammo now (and you have to repeatedly spend said ammo to open DOORS). The Dark World reduces the game into a survival horror-esque crawl as you wait for your energy to regenerate after most fights, since said fights will often consist of enemies who love pushing you out of the safe areas into the poisonous air. The music is completely subpar compared to how great it was in MP1. The enemies all have far too much health unless you're feeling brave enough to risk using your ammo on regular enemies, plus most of said enemies have annoying gimmicks (like turning invisible/invulnerable); the bosses, on the other hand, feel like they're from Ninja Gaiden they're so annoying (two that particularly stand out are Amorbis and the Boost Guardian - the latter features your health constantly draining during the fight, as well as requiring you to use MORPH BALL BOMBS [even weaker peashooters] as your PRIMARY weapon...and let's not get started on how not getting hit by the boss is luck based). There's also the fact that most of the powerups that you get in MP2 just don't seem as, well...useful. In MP1, I remember going "SWEET!" when I got the Wave Beam for the first time. In MP2, when I got upgrades like the Dark and Light Beams and the Seeker Missiles, I just went "When am I ever going to use these? I don't have enough ammo to use the Dark/Light weapons for anything but door-opening, and the Seeker Missiles are just a waste of ammo period since if I'm ever fighting lots of enemies at the same time I'm better off with my fast-shooting peashooter." Also, one minor caveat on top of all this - the Dark Suit is the ugliest suit in the entire Metroid series.

 

Rant-a-licious.

 

Oddworld Munch's Oddysee. Abe's Oddysee and Exodus were excellent games, back when I first saw Munch's Oddysee I was very excited. After I bought it, I was very disappointed. The gameplay was tedious, and the story wasn't interesting to me.

 

Ooh, I almost forgot about this one. 2D platformers need to come back. :( The first two Oddworld games were fun, quirky, and had amazing CG backgrounds for the graphics, but the third...just no.

Edited July 29, 2011 by rinoaff33

[ub3rman123]

It was the Grapple guardian in MP2 that did it for me. The game, especially in the Sanctuary with the giant mech spider boss, was fun later on, but that one guardian took me 30 minutes to beat because of how infuriatingly slow it was. It wasn't a hard boss, but you had to dodge its very slow attacks and wait for it to open its mouth, which it almost never did.