Editorial: Enough Sequels?

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Community Blog Posted by: jalexbrown Dec 17, 2010 View all stories by jalexbrown 185 views | 6 comments 7 people like this | 3 Jimmys hate this Log on to vote	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Jimmy Gem Winner 2,509 Views 6 Stories Editor's Choice Release Date: Oct 13, 2009 User Ratings Buy it! 75 % - Rent it! 8 % - Flush it! 17 % PricePWNr™ $19.99
A brand new editorial from yours truly: should we be tired of sequels?

I have a confession to make, if you don't mind: I'm tired of sequels.  I've played a handful of them from this generation; even when the overall quality of the game is shining (Uncharted 2, for instance), I hate the sense of deja vu that I experience.  And it doesn't help that it seems like half the games that come out anymore end with a number.

I mentioned Uncharted 2, so let's start there.  Is it an improvement over the original?  Most certainly; I think that's a fair assessment.  And while I did notice those improvements when I was playing, it hardly seemed to matter much in the end.  By the end of the first one, I was pretty tired of Nathan "Cocksucking" Drake's adventures (yes, I hate Nathan Drake as a character!).  I wasn't very far into Uncharted 2 before I could barely take it anymore.  If I hadn't spent $40 on the game and felt obligated to continue, I would have quit then and there.

Now let's look at Mass Effect 2.  Again, there were great improvements made over the first Mass Effect - although admittedly, the first Mass Effect was much superior to the first Uncharted.  The problem was that I felt like I could have popped in the first Mass Effect and gotten such a similar experience that it was hardly exciting.  In fact, at one point I did start playing the first one, and I barely skipped a beat.  And for the record, Shepherd wasn't much more interesting than Nathan Drake, so as far as I'm concerned they can both go take a flying leap together.

I think I'm starting to see the problem here: video game characters aren't typically interesting enough to span out multiple stories and remain interesting.  Maybe that's why I beat Fable 2 with a smile and groaned my way through Uncharted 2, even though Fable 2 was a vastly inferior game.

And what about the gameplay?  Do the gameplay "evolutions" amount to all that much?  Did Bioware's changes make Mass Effect 2 feel like much more than the first one?  I didn't think so.  Mass Effect 1 was fresh; Mass Effect 2 was polished but basically more of the same.  I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a bit concerned that we're willing to wait two years and pay full price again for refinements that really should have been there in the first place.  Oh yeah, and you're also getting a sloppy-seconds story too.  I guess there's that much.

So what would I have you do?  Would I have you give the industry the finger until they decide to stop rehashing?  No, not at all.  What I would like is for gamers to demand higher-quality the first time around; I would like the gaming community to care about quality instead of what the hype machine is putting out.

Maybe if we do that, crappy refinement sequels will be weeded out, and we can be left with the sequels that really matter - and all that extra downtime would let developers give us new experiences.  Talk about your win-win.

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Release Date: Oct 13, 2009
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Comments

some sequels are good but the ones that come out every year, those are shit

DE bad shot has not rated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves yet.
Dec 17, 2010 by DE bad shot

Even Sequels to really good game feel unnecesary sometimes. Like, just give us hefy DLC's, no need for a whole new game.

iorilamia rated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Buy it
Dec 17, 2010 by iorilamia

I think ME is a bad example as Bioware stated that it was a trilogy before it came out, so both sequels were already in the works story-wise. I really don't mind stuff like that, as you said UC2 was a vast improvement, what gets me upset is the yearly Call of Duty nonsense, or even worse the madden/nhl/nba/fifa. They don't really make any improvements in those games year to year, if the best advice is to skip it and buy every two years, then that was a worthless sequel. For the sports games they could just give us roster update DLC every year and release a new engine when it was "ready".

BatRastered rated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Buy it
Dec 17, 2010 by BatRastered

All of the sequels seemed to be dumbed down(Fable III) or they add some bullshit multiplayer(Bioshock 2).

Mass Effect fucked with the inventory and the upgrading and now the guns HAVE bullets.

I can go on in that matter. Negative.

Halo is one game that always tried to give as much more as they could with each sequel. The only things the Jimmys don't have in Reach, is what they've wanted since Halo 2. Being able to lie down as a sniper. WTF is ... Jetpacks!

goukijones rated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Buy it
Dec 21, 2010 by goukijones

I'm currently playing Assassin's Creed 2, and it's actually a sequel that seems to improve on the original and have a really good story. And they didn't add any bullshit multiplayer until Brotherhood - which is, to be fair, supposedly a lot of fun.

jalexbrown rated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Buy it
Dec 21, 2010 by jalexbrown

i think sequels are good if they a interesting plot and high point or climax fuck the graphics i mean are all of you going to play mcv3 just for the graphics some of you may think hell yeah but im playing cause of unique fighting system i mean yall sure didnt kill yourselfs over the fact that you had to play 32bit games for decade right now that you have redefined graphics now everybody has a opinion

kof2012 rated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Flush it
Jan 13, 2011 by kof2012

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