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11 votes
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Keanu Reeves joins 'Sonic 3' as Shadow
26 votes -
Slay the Spire 2 | Reveal trailer
43 votes -
Streets of Rogue 2 | Official gameplay trailer
11 votes -
Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson to return for ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’; Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall also set
4 votes -
"Dune: Part Three" in the works, in addition to Denis Villeneuve adapation of "Nuclear War: A Scenario"
42 votes -
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Official teaser trailer
27 votes -
Inside Out 2 | Official trailer
16 votes -
‘Gladiator 2’ budget “ballooned” from 165 million to 310 million
20 votes -
'Dune: Part Two' first reactions from the premiere: “Jaw-dropping masterpiece”
31 votes -
Twisters | Official trailer
11 votes -
Disney announces Moana 2 set to release November 2024
25 votes -
Returning to Monkey Island
15 votes -
Zombie sequel ’28 Years Later’ lands at Sony
19 votes -
Showgirls | re:View
9 votes -
Prison Architect 2 - Coming March 26th! | Announcement trailer
9 votes -
Frostpunk 2 | Official gameplay trailer
13 votes -
Dune: Part Two | Official trailer 3
38 votes -
‘Beetlejuice 2’ is finished filming, Tim Burton announces; sequel only had ‘a day and half’ left to shoot after strikes ended
11 votes -
This is Spinal Tap's long-awaited sequel will be filmed in 2024
11 votes -
Inside Out 2 | Official teaser trailer
21 votes -
Alan Wake II PC path tracing: The next level in visual fidelity?
11 votes -
The Talos Principle 2 reviews
22 votes -
‘It Follows’ sequel revealed: Maika Monroe and director David Robert Mitchell reunite for ‘They Follow’
8 votes -
How Alan Wake II, one of gaming's lost sequels, finally got made
8 votes -
Cities: Skylines II | Official release trailer
29 votes -
Is cinema dying? And if so, who is responsible? – A murder mystery
23 votes -
‘Exorcist: Believer’ backlash: Franchise will live, but sequel changes likely
4 votes -
Michael Mann confirms ‘Heat 2’ as next movie and comments on potential reteam with Adam Driver
9 votes -
Counter-Strike 2 | Launch trailer
28 votes -
What games do you most wish had a remake, or a sequel or both?
Personally I would love a remake of Eternal Darkness or Jet Force Gemini.
59 votes -
‘It's time the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo grew up’ – Karin Smirnoff on her shocking sequel
13 votes -
Atari's making a Pong sequel about the ball escaping the paddles
16 votes -
Titan Quest II | Announcement trailer
32 votes -
Emily Blunt is 'so ready' for an Edge of Tomorrow sequel
72 votes -
‘Beyond the Spider-Verse’ taken off Sony release calendar as strikes delay ‘Kraven’ and ‘Ghostbusters’ sequel to 2024
32 votes -
Mattel execs on next Hollywood moves: ‘Barney,’ ‘Polly Pocket’ and ‘Barbie’ sequels
24 votes -
The Exorcist: Believer | Official trailer
5 votes -
Warner Bros.’ quest to build a better ‘Aquaman’ sequel: Three reshoots, two Batmans and non-stop test screenings
14 votes -
Cities: Skylines II | Official gameplay trailer
58 votes -
What's a sequel you were disappointed by?
Warning: this post may contain spoilers
See title. I thought this might make for an interesting topic and I can't see one like this in the search, so...
What sorta got me thinking about this - a couple days ago, I noticed that Dying Light 2 got a sizeable update, with a pretty heavy emphasis on changes to the game's parkour mechanics. I absolutely loved the first Dying Light, as well as both Mirror's Edge games - parkour and other kinds of momentum-driven gameplay are my jam - so that got me curious enough to check it out again, for the first time in a year.
I played for a few hours, got some of the way in, and... felt pretty underwhelmed. It certainly feels better than it did last time I played, and the change to retain momentum during parkour moves does feel pretty nice... but it still feels far too slow and floaty to me. It feels awkward and unresponsive to me. On top of that, the combat updates - while I actually appreciated DL2's changes to the combat over DL1's (a major gripe I've always had with DL1's combat is that sometimes zombies take just one or two hits and sometimes they take twenty, and I have never been able to detect any kind of pattern to it - combat level, game progress, weapon damage, etc., none of them seem to impact it so I have no idea what's up with it), playing it again now... left me feeling pretty disappointed.
I booted up DL1 for the first time in a while the next day, just intending to compare how it feels - and I've since found myself drawn several hours into it. Even in the first half hour of the game, where your climbing's super slow and everything, it feels so much more snappy and reactive - it feels good. And while my previous gripes with its combat are still present, it feels so much better to me now than DL2's does (for the most part - fighting human enemies still sucks). I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but there's just something really visceral and satisfying about it that DL2 doesn't have.
As I've been playing DL1, as well, I've been thinking about its story again. As much as it's maligned for its story, I think it's actually a really interesting subversion and deconstruction of expectations in a lot of ways - while that could be a thread (or video essay, I've thought about it) of its own, the way I see it: despite how the intro and story set him up, Crane actually fails pretty hard at being a hero until towards the end. I mean, the very first thing he does is take a crowbar to the back of the head, get bitten, and get someone else killed. It's a pattern that continues throughout most of the game (and even The Following, I'd argue, even though I don't care for it much). I find it pretty memorable beecause of that, even if it falls flat in some places.
Meanwhile, Dying Light 2... I honestly couldn't tell you much about the story? It didn't leave any kind of impact on me at all. I'm not really the kind of person who plays games for their stories very often (unless it's something like Ace Attorney where that's explicitly the point), and I have to admit that I went into DL2 with low expectations to begin with (I held off getting it at launch because of Denuvo, by the time I did pick it up reviews were already fairly negative; and I tend to view "your choices really matter!" in advertising as a huge red flag so that wasn't a good sign either), but even so. It might be in part because I actually quite liked DL1's ending - I found it pretty refreshing for a post-apocalyptic zombie game - so DL2 throwing that out didn't sit well with me from the get-go (also part of why I'm not too keen on The Following, but that's a different matter).
Overall, it just sorta left me thinking about how... even though I'd tried to go in with tempered expectations - all I really wanted was a fun zombie-flavoured parkour game, where climbing and jumping and swinging and stuff felt fluid and rewarding - I still found myself left feeling pretty hollow about it, even after an update that allegedly addressed some of my biggest issues with the game. It's especially frustrating, because the Inner Circle (I think that's what it was called, I can't remember - the second city map) is really, really cool and I would absolutely love to just aimlessly run around it... if the movement didn't feel floaty and awkward. Stuff like climbing to the top of the VNC Tower felt exhilarating and awesome - I could catch a glimpse of something excellent there, but it was so outweighed by everything else.
So... Yeah. I dunno, I thought this'd make for an interesting question. Have theere any been any sequels you've played that left you feeling underwhelmed, in comparison to the previous game? If so, why?
alright maybe some part of me just wants to ask this so i'd have an excuse to waffle about dying light and its story a bit but still i think it's an interesting topic nonetheless
EDIT: formatting51 votes -
Dune: Part Two | Official trailer 2
51 votes -
Indiana Jones and the perilous art of the sequel
7 votes -
Alan Wake II will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Epic Games Store in October, according to Alan Wake voice actor Matthew Porretta
10 votes -
‘True Detective was definitely on our mind’ – Remedy explains how the HBO show and '90s movies are key influences for Alan Wake II
3 votes -
Remedy's creative director Sam Lake shares how the long-awaited sequel to Alan Wake finally became a reality
6 votes -
THQ Nordic wants Remedy to change its mind about a digital-only release for Alan Wake II
5 votes -
Nicolas Cage, Bill Skarsgård playing father and son arms dealers in ‘Lord of War’ sequel
4 votes -
Darkest Dungeon II | Launch trailer
4 votes -
Dune: Part Two | Official trailer
17 votes