Sequel Prequel

[MrNeutrino]

Why is it that some sequels never come upto the level of "AWESOMENESS" of their Prequels.....and vice versa :o
Mostly seen series are Assassins Creed, Quake, NFS, MGS, HL, L4D, COD and finally can there ever be a TF 3 ?!?!?! :confused:

More comparatives are most welcome :cool:

[Elenoe]

Well, marketing do the thing. Many first games are created by bunch of people who got idea and realizes that in their way.

Soo many games like that. Then only few get good sellings - doesn't neccessary deend on quality. But few success. Like Crysis did. Then someone big notice "potential" and build up marketing based on success of the first one.

And if they have enough funds and someone is really interested in success, they start pushing it other way. And time is first and the most expensive resource here.

This is one of the reasons. The best result in sequel/prequel you get from indie developer who put little investment to first game, it was accepted as good and then they have enough funds to do second part with same passion and without anybody telling them how should they do it (I'm looking for Trine 2).

And second reason could be expectations. Half-Life was the first game I saw accelerated and first FPS with good story. That is what makes thet super game. HL2 was not worse, but it was just full of "already seen" thing so it was not "awesome". But it still is very good game. And I like HL2EP2 more then HL1.

[MrNeutrino]

But what can eventually happen when a game is only updated. Don't know if tf3 in under way, yet isn't that redundant and a bit away from a better version and creativity.
After TF2 became F2P, can there be stopping it.

[Fred DM]

i think you mean 'predecessors' and 'successors'. a prequel is a successor installment set before the predecessor installment. ;)

but there are examples of a successor beating its predecessor in every way: Baldur's Gate 2, Rainbox Six: Rogue Spear, Colin McRae Rally 2005, Commandos 2, SHIFT 2, etc.

[Nisseman]

So far Hitman 4: Blood Money is the best one in the series.

[gNatFreak]

It's the "Sequel Rule", in which it states that the odds of having a good sequel decrease exponentially as more sequels come out!

[Ganger]

I remember vietcong being one of my favorite games of all time but vietcong II was such a massive let down, not just in gameplay but everything else too.

Vietcong seem like a lot of love and hard work was placed into the game by the devs but vietcong II seemed to me like it was just casshing in on the first game.

[Dein]

Not always true at all. I would even go so far as to say that sequel games are mostly better than the originals. I'm not taking into account massive industrial money-pumping series like CoD, Tomb Raider, NFS and whatever else that's skipping my mind at the moment.

On a slight side note, I, personally, thought that the first assassins creed was absolute trash, and that the 2 other games were better in every single way.

[MrNeutrino]

It's the "Sequel Rule", in which it states that the odds of having a good sequel decrease exponentially as more sequels come out!


Yea, but in some instances its completely the way around. 1st was,is,and always will be the classic.

Dein, some beg to defer (:

[Spidery_Yoda]

It's odd that you mention Assassins Creed when general opinion seems to be that the series gets better with each installment.

Having only played the first 2 myself, I can easily say the 2nd is far better than the first.

[MrNeutrino]

It's odd that you mention Assassins Creed when general opinion seems to be that the series gets better with each installment.

Having only played the first 2 myself, I can easily say the 2nd is far better than the first.

Yes, there have been exponential changes,AC: Revelations will be the most promising. Still there are Games like CS.... wait what broke the roof before TF2 went F2P and may be the same when CS:Go comes out.

[Demon Wraith]

Because you've got nostalgia goggles on.

The Assassin's Creed sequels are far and above the original game. Metal Gear Solid 2 or 3 are the best, depending on who you talk to, not 1. Half-Life 2 is better than 1.

Quake probably peaked at Quake 3, too. At least as a multiplayer game.

[EroKenshin]

Because you've got nostalgia goggles on.

The Assassin's Creed sequels are far and above the original game. Metal Gear Solid 2 or 3 are the best, depending on who you talk to, not 1. Half-Life 2 is better than 1.

Quake probably peaked at Quake 3, too. At least as a multiplayer game.

I agree with you son. All sequels of Assassin's Creed are better than their prequels (AC2 is better than AC1 and AC:BH is better than AC2). I do prefer HL2 over HL1. There are other games that I think that the sequels are better too, like Max Payne (2 is better than 1), Mafia (2 is better than 1), Diablo (2 is better than 1 even though I prefer Diablo 1 because of my "nostalgia goggle" (lol)) and so on.

Of course this is just personal opinion, noone is wrong here. Nah, I'm right, those who disagree are wrong =].

[nigel]

Something like regression to the mean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_to_the_mean) I expect.

[PieceOfMind]

"Regression to mean" likely plays a part, but it's a statistical phenomenon that's difficult to explain to someone who has no interest in statistics.

Sequel syndrome is mainly caused by two things:

1. Sequels (or prequels) usually share a lot in common with their predecssors (whether it be the backstory, the gameplay, etc.) so it's natural to make comparisons (e.g. comparisons are easy to make between the 5 iterations of the Civilization series, Civ1 through to 5).

2. Most of the time, people who have played the predecessor expect the sequel to be better. This is where regression to mean can come in a bit, because if your experience with the first game was well above average, regression to mean predicts that your experience with the second game is more likely to be closer to the average, assuming that there aren't objective reasons that make one game better than the other (e.g. the second not being riddled with bugs/crashes).

It's an unfortunate phenomenon, because those who were disappointed with the original are the least likely to go and purchase the next in the series. They are the ones statistically most likely to be more satisfied with the sequel (again, assuming there aren't obvious objective reasons that make the second game better). Meanwhile, those most enraptured by the original stand to be the most disappointed with the sequel (because it likely won't live up to their expectations given how much they enjoyed the original), but these are perhaps the people most likely to get the sequel.

It's a vicious cycle.

[MrNeutrino]

Because you've got nostalgia goggles on.

The Assassin's Creed sequels are far and above the original game. Metal Gear Solid 2 or 3 are the best, depending on who you talk to, not 1. Half-Life 2 is better than 1.

Quake probably peaked at Quake 3, too. At least as a multiplayer game.

Sometimes,but some like TF2 are Updated updated updated n again updated :confused:

[thetechfreak]

Mafia 2 is a same let down for me.
After playing the utterly awesome Mafia : The city of lost heaven, the prequel Mafia 2 left of very very dissapointed.

[MrNeutrino]

Yep, that one is an exception. Many do not carry such a storyline as that. Its even beat Godfather in its score :p