Do you ever think sequel to games should be a true sequel? Let me explain

[ColdAsIce]

I have always thought it would be cool if a sequel to a game followed on from the original.

Games tend to follow the exact same formula of having the first few levels as tutorial levels and then you get the last two maybe 3 levels of a game that really become challenging.

Would it not be cool if the sequel skipped the easy tutorial levels and just continued to the same challenging level of game play that the later levels of the original had. If new game mechanics have been introduced there could be dedicated tutorial created that don't affect the storyline. Kind of like the system shock 2 VR training.

 

[drunkenmaster]

The problem with that is, you expect progression through a game, upgraded weapons, more equipment, more special abilities all depending on the style of game, if you don't increase the difficulty in some way then all the "upgrades" you get throughout a game either leave you overpowered, or underwhelmed(if they really aren't upgrades, just new but pointless devices/weapons/abilities).

You can have a game with a never ending level of difficulty increase, so you rather have to start afresh in a sequel, which is why so often you'll play either another character after the first one is tragically killed, a rookie in the same organisation, a captured hero with all his weapons taken at the beginning of the second game, a magical hero stripped of his power for some reason.

Theres almost always some mechanic to strip you of weapons, abilities and power to give your character somewhere to grow. Often, without the ability to improve and let your character improve in some way, games feel hollow and an increasing difficulty become unfair and frustrating.

Things like COD, MOH, basic fps's don't tend to be more or less difficult throughout, theres some tough levels in early and later sections with the odd "you must survive lots of waves at this one point" levels through in throughout that are normally difficult just from the sheer number of people to fight. Those games don't really get gradually more difficult or start off easily though.

 

[mame]

I must admit I don't like games in general that bombard you things to learn in the first hour. You barely get on your feet and you are being told "these are red stars, use these to upgrade your weapons" etc then you walk round the corner and get "collect 100 of these and use them to upgrade your armour" I quite liked Batman AA for this, it only introduced new moves/weapons when they were relevant and it actually seemed like it was adding an element of gameplay to a game you are already playing.

 

[FoxEye]

What OP wants is an add-on pack.

Sequels don't even have to have the same gameplay mechanics, tho most do, or similar.

 

[Langlest]

i think the only game that let you continue how you ended the first game was baldurs gate 2

 

[DavieJG]

portal is pretty awesome whereby the game is the tutorial somewhat.

 

[Swi1ch]

@ OP:

This may be nice, but you're forgetting one thing. This game would only appeal to people who had played the original and cared enough to carry on. Less market: less money: Not getting made.

 

[matt0r]

as fair as i could tell and it was a while ago ... american revolt followed on in difficulty from syndicate.

It was really hard!!

 

[James J]

2 problems really here

Firstly due to the amount of time a decent game takes to make, the gameplay/game engine would probably be different so you'd have to have some sort of tutorial in it to explain changes to existing features and the additional content.

Secondly the only proper "sequels" to games which I've seen are Half life 2 + ep 1 and 2 as they use the source engine for all, albiet a different build for ep2 but they keep the gameplay the same. However, due to these being stand alone games, you still may get users jumping into ep2 instead of playing half life 2, so they wouldnt have a clue how to play it lol.

What you are explaining sounds more like expansion packs/DLC, rather than true stand alone sequels to titles.

 

[House]

as fair as i could tell and it was a while ago ... american revolt followed on in difficulty from syndicate.

It was really hard!!

Followed on? it was much harder from memory.

I'm sure some "expansion packs" did this as well. Mechwarrior ones was it?

 

[matt0r]

Followed on? it was much harder from memory.

I'm sure some "expansion packs" did this as well. Mechwarrior ones was it?

aye, in as much as the last few missions of syndicate were really difficult and the first mission of american revolt was much int he same vein

 

[AHarvey]

I loved the storyline of Ground Control and it left itself open to a sequel, however, the sequel had nothing to do with the original story