Really Bad Game Sequels

[Clockwork]

I've been playing through Max Payne 3 again. While I disliked it first time around for not being set in NY with Max chasing after some sort of femme fatale, I dislike it now because it's just an awful game.


The most obvious and inexcusable reason why it's bad is the level design. We all know that the slo-mo bullet time is the signature feature of Max Payne, apparently Rockstar's level designers don't. Bullet time is best used to complete multiple actions simultaneously which would be difficult to do at regular speed, these sorts of things include, multiple takedowns when in the open, dodging bullets and running for cover. Or all three at the same time. The levels provide almost no space to do these things, there is cover absolutely everywhere and the times where there isn't, it's scripted so that you take less damage and very conveniently the enemies take a lot more.


It's an example of bad level design which alone is enough to break a game. But being a die hard Max Payne fan, that would not have stopped me from loving it if it wasn't for them doing what seems to be ever more fashionable - ultra-seriousismness. The original MP games were set in a serious tone about a guy who's been dealt a really crappy hand. However the dialogue from Max himself while interacting with things made it obvious the devs weren't taking the game as a whole too seriously. There were instances of Max breaking the fourth wall, commenting on game mechanics and design for example in 2 there was a comment about how he was practically a new man (they got a different actor).


So not only was it a bad shooter but it was also a bad Max Payne game.

[Flamekebab]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the way the game interrupts the player every few minutes to throw in a cut scene!

[Clockwork]

That I don't actually mind as long as it's done well... Gears of War for instance.


Gears of War Judgement! The game deviated too much from the feeling of the first three and felt more like a gears of war knockoff game than an actual title.

[Flamekebab]

I meant specifically in Max Payne 3. I don't mind cut scenes but I felt like I could scarcely get into an area before a cut scene came along and took away control.

[Clockwork]

Ah okay, yeah. And it switching you to weapon 1 after each of them when you really want to be using your assault rifle as quickly as possible

[Clockwork]

Heroes of Might and Magic IV. Adding the hero to the useable units was nice but the game took away the personalities and traits of each faction and boiled it down to merely good vs evil. On top of that the city management was dumbed down and the difficulty was insanely spikey.

[Clockwork]

Tropico 3,4 and 5.


After running your own pirate haven, what game could really compare to the Arr landlubber pieces of eight-ey-ness of Tropico 2: Pirate Cove? Sid Meier's Pirates probably. Regardless, being a probably south american dictator just doesn't compare. Plus the mechanics got overblown and intrusive to gameplay.

[Jubal]

King's Quest II. Awfully, awfully designed game. Though the later games got better again.

[Clockwork]

Mass Effect 3.


Just finished it again and it's awful. Gunplay is good but everything else is poor-average at best.

[Clockwork]

Not actually a really bad game sequel but one that generated problems where there were none in the previous title! Which lauded video game could this be?


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.


It's a great game, don't get me wrong. But.


Being a mage hybrid class sucks so much. In Oblivion it was one key to cast whichever spell you had equipped but it didn't require the full use of your hands. Sword/Board and magic was possible, bow and magic was possible. Yes this was exceptionally exploitative but it's a single player game with a difficulty slider. I could fire a shot then turn invisible without putting the bow away, readying a spell then casting the spell or top up my armour with a shield spell without having to sheathe my sword. This one little gripe has meant that I've never used spells bar transmute and heal to outlive poison after a combat unless I was going full wizard.


Skyrim does have a much better melee system, crafting is better than weapons breaking, companions are nice and the menus....nah actually they're still not great.


A combination of the two would be perfect....Oblivions story, setting (Cyrodil just beats Skyrim hands down for me.), cackling evil bad guys, decent elf voices, levelling up system, weapon variety (which is still worse than Morrowwind), quest variety and landscape variety with Skyrims human voices, animation quality, pretty faces, general voice acting quality, horse combat, blade/blunt rework to 1h/2h and archery.