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Biggest Positive Turnaround Between Series Entries

D

Deadpool_X

Banned
I know we usually quote the change from AssCreed to AssCreed 2 as the biggest improvement between entries in a single series, but I'd like to offer up two more suggestions on games that improved drastically between entries.

Grand Theft Auto 2 to Grand Theft Auto 3

This is a game that essentially created the sandbox genre as we now know it. Going from a top down, crime simulator to a 3d, open world black-comedy made all the difference, and brought the game to the mainstream. Had it not been for this entry, I'd wager that GTA would not still be around today.

Wolfenstein to Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein was a huge misstep for a franchise with roots going to the earliest days in PC gaming. Under the control of Activision, it essentially was a COD clone with some supernatural abilities, but with none of the fun that sounds like it would entail. When id and Bethesda reclaimed the franchise from Activision, it would've been simple to just reboot and forget that Wolfenstein ever happened. They didn't, however, and while The New Order is a continuation of the storyline, it is a completely revamped experience. As someone who adored Wolf 3d, Spear of Destiny, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I was very disappointed with Wolfenstein and had written off the series. I'm glad that Bethesda was able to right the ship.


So, what are all of your suggestions for the biggest improvement between entries of a given franchise?
 
O

Orb

Member
A lot of franchises that started on ps1/n64 and went to ps2/gamecube honestly.

Silent Hill to 2 and Resident Evil 3 to 4 especially, though horror was a bit easier because the only real increase was in graphical technology and in re4's case, third person shooting.

Bloodborne after Dark Souls 2, also.
 
T

The12thGripper

Member
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to Kingdom Hearts 2

From a portable rehash of KH1 with a weird battle system to one of the best Action RPGs ever made.
 
F

finley83

Banned
Killzone for PS2 was an ambitious titles technologically, but incredibly drab and average as a shooter.

Killzone 2 is still graphically impressive today and the gameplay is amazing. A massive step up.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Devil May Cry 2 to Devil May Cry 3. An all around terrible sequel to a great original game followed up by one of the best character action games ever made.
 
R

Rolf NB

Member
Mass Effect 2.

ME1 feels like it needed another half year at a minimum to reach alpha state. Glaring content holes, panic-mode mechanics, shit UI, 2000 rounds of Simon Says, no payoff for quests, not even the loading screen works properly.

Enter Mass Effect 2. Oh boy did they fix the loading screens.
 
Sub_Level

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Rolf NB said:
Mass Effect 2.

ME1 feels like it needed another half year at a minimum to reach alpha state. Glaring content holes, panic-mode mechanics, shit UI, 2000 rounds of Simon Says, no payoff for quests, not even the loading screen works properly.

Enter Mass Effect 2. Oh boy did they fix the loading screens.
Click to expand...

It wasn't all for the better tho. On the pc version the controls are noticeably worse. Multiple hotkeys are missing from the previous entry for no good reason. And from a game design standpoint, there's more hacking minigames in 2 which don't add much (luckily you can mod them out on pc lol)
 
N

Nairume

Banned
Street Fighter 1 -> Street Fighter 2 saw SF go from being a completely forgettable footnote to a genre defining game that is still getting updated over two decades later.
 
K

Kayhan

Member
Rolf NB said:
Mass Effect 2.

ME1 feels like it needed another half year at a minimum to reach alpha state. Glaring content holes, panic-mode mechanics, shit UI, 2000 rounds of Simon Says, no payoff for quests, not even the loading screen works properly.

Enter Mass Effect 2. Oh boy did they fix the loading screens.
Click to expand...
Hell no.

Much of the glorious atmosphere, exploration and vision was immediately lost.
 
K

KelpPlankton

Member
Assassin's Creed 1 was kind of a mess. Weird and underwhelming and tedious.

Assassin's Creed 2 was really, really good. Capitalized on all the promise of the ideas the series had and executed them well, with a fun story and some memorable characters.

The series has had ups and downs since then, but AC2 really turned a potentially DOA franchise into a big deal.
 
H

HamsterExAstris

Member
Mass Effect: Andromeda. It finally got us away from the corridor shooters of the last two games and got back to the exploration of the first game. It also managed to find a way forward for the story that let Casey Hudson's crazyball endings to Mass Effect 3 be ignored.
 
T

The Last Wizard

Member
HamsterExAstris said:
Mass Effect: Andromeda. It finally got us away from the corridor shooters of the last two games and got back to the exploration of the first game. It also managed to find a way forward for the story that let Casey Hudson's crazyball endings to Mass Effect 3 be ignored.
Click to expand...
VJAP4.gif
 
Neff

Neff

Member
I'm not sure I can agree on RE6-RE7, since RE7 has a significant share of detractors, and it has also to date sold substantially less than its prequel did.

RE0-RE4 would be my pick. RE0 is a decent enough game, but it struggled to impress at the time, showing the formula's age and putting folks off with its dual partner system/lack of item boxes.

RE4 was (and rightfully still is) almost universally adored.

Nairume said:
Street Fighter 1 -> Street Fighter 2 saw SF go from being a completely forgettable footnote to a genre defining game that is still getting updated over two decades later.
Click to expand...

SFII may have been an epochal, genre-defining, event horizon juggernaut of a game and a quantum improvement over the original, but Street Fighter 1 was still a fairly popular and successful game in arcades, so I don't think the term turnaround is quite apt.

daviyoung said:
Metroid Whatever to Metroid Prime
Click to expand...

I heard from folks that Super Metroid is pretty good.
 
F

Fisty

Member
RRockman said:
DMC 2-3?
Click to expand...

I'm surprised it took 12 posts. Yeah, a lesser pub would have just cut their losses and moved on, luckily Capcom in gen 6 had some sense and went from trash tier to setting the bar for the next decade... I mean, has DMC3 been topped yet?
 
B

BobJustBob

Member
Dead Rising 2 to Dead Rising 3. (And probably again to Dead Rising 4, but I haven't played it yet.)

Breath of Fire 4 to Breath of Fire 5.

Banjo Tooie to Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.
 
O

OBias

Member
HamsterExAstris said:
Mass Effect: Andromeda. It finally got us away from the corridor shooters of the last two games and got back to the exploration of the first game. It also managed to find a way forward for the story that let Casey Hudson's crazyball endings to Mass Effect 3 be ignored.
Click to expand...

Good joke.
 
B

Buckle

Member
Assassin's Creed to Assassin's Creed II is the biggest one that comes to mind for me.

Hated the controls in the first one and found the game to be a total slog though. ACII on the other hand is one of the best sequel improvements I've ever seen.
 
joecanada

joecanada

Member
Cod4 to mw2 .... Oh did you say positive?

Agree with op on GTA . Gta2 was like a cool arcade mini game. Gta3 was holy shit
 
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