It’s a familiar story these days. An incredible game is released to critical acclaim, everyone you know has brought it, everyone is playing it and those who have completed it are clamouring for more. The developers comply and announce a sequel: bigger, better, stronger.
At every turn we see a new Final Fantasy or Street Fighter and it becomes easy to think that the industry has run out of good ideas. We know the motivator to sequels is money; it’s what keeps developers fed and clothed and, while a great game can sell well, the sequel can bring in far more. It doesn’t cost a phenomenal amount; many sequels are built using the same assets and engine and storyline as the original (recycling at its finest) and companies already know they have established an expectant fan base. But, just as in the rest of the entertainment industry: films, books, albums, they can fall short of the original. With some being so bad it taints its predecessor.
When a great game is released, I’ll be asking for a sequel too, but when developers churn out so many it runs them down I lose interest completely. Although I like the sense of familiarity I also want something new to chew on. We can say this is one of Nintendo’s main problems; the first few Mario games were fantastic, I still play Mario Party on the N64, but I have no interest in modern ones and I certainly wouldn’t consider buying a new platform to play with the same characters. Mario and his friends have been overworked and maybe it’s time they have a nap.
Developers can often make the mistake of thinking: ‘well this sold, let’s give our audience exactly the same thing.’ When playing Batman: Arkham Origins all I could think was ‘haven’t I already played this?’ with the same map and combat system as Batman: Arkham City in place it didn’t give anything new. I can see this happening with a few other sequels/franchises, although the Assassin’s Creed games do bring something new each time, I don’t know how much longer I’ll want to keep playing them. I want a conclusion, but I don’t want it to come once I’ve started getting bored.
Sequels should be appropriately dispersed over time; if a series has too many sequels released too quickly players become jaded and quit playing them entirely. Who remembers playing the latest Mega Man?
This is not to say that all sequels are bad or lack creativity, personally I want The Last Guardian to hurry up and I expect something beautiful from it. We have Grand Theft Auto IV, Fable 2, Borderlands 2 and even the 2013 Tomb Raider as some wonderful sequels. The reason being that they created new expectations, and they came good on those expectations. The trick is to be distinctive, if I can play a sequel without any knowledge of its predecessor and still enjoy it as a game then it’s struck gold. For a sequel to be satisfying, it needs to take what worked well in its predecessor and improve on it, but fixing problems isn’t enough. Keep it fresh and you’re almost guaranteed success.
Too many sequels can get boring for an audience, they can lack creativity and feel as if you’re playing the same thing over and over, but that’s not to say they’re all bad, with some great examples of innovation out there. I for one am a big fan of sequels, as long as they are well executed.