10 Underappreciated Video Games That Deserve A Sequel
Second chances really are hard to come by, especially in the games industry.
Transcript
00:00 In the modern gaming industry, it can feel like every other game is a sequel.
00:03 The umpteenth entry in a franchise that's been trudging on for years, refusing to die,
00:08 sucking up all the oxygen the little guys need just to get on their feet.
00:12 The Final Fantasy series alone has over 90 games to its name, including spin-offs and
00:17 mobile installments, and that's not even the biggest one.
00:20 Gaming needs some more variety, but we don't have to rely on fresh faces and new ideas
00:24 when there are plenty of pretty damn good franchises that fell flat on their faces on
00:28 their first outing.
00:29 Releases that may have reviewed well, but that failed to live up to their publishers'
00:33 lofty sales standards or just sold terribly overall.
00:37 Even games that simply set up solid ground for that sequel to be the breakout hit that
00:40 the original outing should have been.
00:42 These games show that just because you missed your overly optimistic sales expectations
00:46 doesn't mean you're any less of a blast to play, or any less deserving of that big-budget
00:51 sequel.
00:52 I'm Scythe for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 Underappreciated Video Games That Deserve
00:56 a Sequel.
00:57 10.
00:58 Enslaved Odyssey to the West
01:00 You can have everything you'd think a game would need - star power, gorgeous visuals,
01:04 fun gameplay, an interesting story and engaging characters - and success is still not guaranteed.
01:10 On the other side of every sale, there's a decision, and if people don't feel like
01:13 your title is the best use of their money at that specific time, then you're out of
01:17 luck no matter how wonderful it is.
01:19 Take Enslaved, for example.
01:21 Slapped together by the talented team of Ninja Theory, it had everything going for it.
01:25 With its sharp dialogue and character interactions slap bang in the middle of when those were
01:29 at their peak popularity thanks to the Uncharted series, it should have been a hit.
01:33 The whole world should have been primed to enjoy the adventures of Monkey and Tripitaka,
01:36 but on the horizon there stirred a beast - a shambling behemoth.
01:40 Its name was Call of Duty Black Ops, and it released less than a month after Enslaved,
01:44 meaning it sucked up a lot of the advertising space in the preceding weeks, as well as saved
01:49 up pocket money.
01:50 To make matters worse, in the very same month as Enslaved, we had Fallout New Vegas and
01:54 Fable 3, so Enslaved wasn't so much released as kicked out of the door into a firing squad.
02:00 And because of this, there's almost no chance we'll get a pole-swinging, nimbus-riding,
02:03 piggyback-giving sequel out of our two protagonists.
02:06 Ah well, at least we'll always have Pigsy's perfect ten.
02:09 Number 9 - Singularity
02:11 Starting with a doomed helicopter ride into an abandoned Soviet science facility with
02:15 a beefy soldier voiced by Nolan North, you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for almost any
02:20 other shooter from an Activision studio.
02:22 But if you manage to push past all this, you'll surely have found out that while Singularity
02:26 looks like a by-the-numbers, grunty, muscle-bound patriotic shootathon, it's actually a time-travelling
02:32 grunty muscle-bound patriotic shootathon.
02:35 During development, deadlines caused a big chunk of story content to be removed due to
02:38 the technical constraints of having to render the world twice in two different states while
02:42 swiftly moving from one to the other, a la the medium.
02:45 Many time-travelling set pieces and entire chunks of finished product were excised just
02:50 to get it out on time as opposed to spending the required man-hours to work out the kinks,
02:55 leaving Singularity feeling gutted and a little bit rough around the edges, like it never
02:59 really got to explore its own premise properly.
03:02 But with the standardisation of super-fast SSDs and Microsoft's direct storage, a Singularity
03:07 sequel could have no problem blasting between 50s Russia and 2010s Russia as smooth as Sleevich
03:13 near Muslar.
03:14 That's Russian for butter, don't you know.
03:16 Looking for a more complete experience, a more enjoyable game, and who knows, maybe
03:20 even greater franchise potential down the line.
03:23 Number 8 - Madworld
03:25 If there's one thing you couldn't call Madworld, it's unoriginal.
03:28 Just look at it.
03:29 In a dystopian future hell world where people use death and violence as entertainment, you
03:33 must take part in the game show Death Watch and win yourself a fortune through creative
03:37 butchery.
03:38 On top of that, you're not just some schlub, you're a chainsaw-wielding slab of meat
03:42 with a hairy chest and a violent disposition.
03:45 Madworld then has you tearing through area after area and boss after boss as two seasoned
03:49 professional killers commentate your every slash and stab.
03:52 Points are awarded for kills, with extra multipliers for multi-kills and how unique your kill is.
03:57 It's all very well uppercutting someone into the air and slicing them in half from balls
04:00 to brain, but wouldn't you rather put a bin over their head and impale them with a road
04:04 sign first?
04:05 Needless to say, reviewers loved Madworld with its campy humour, black and white comic
04:09 book art style and extreme violence.
04:12 However, being a Wii game, that last part was probably more to its detriment than its
04:16 advantage.
04:17 The Wii was already considered to be more of a kid-slash-family console and so many
04:20 quote-unquote 'hardcore gamers' that would be interested in this kind of gorathon just
04:25 didn't own the hardware.
04:26 It's not really the type of thing you'd buy your gran for Christmas.
04:29 Unless you're looking at picking up your inheritance early.
04:32 7.
04:33 Vanquish In the distant future, the newly installed
04:35 Russian government uses a giant microwave to destroy San Francisco.
04:40 Instead of sending a thank you card, the USA sends our protagonist Sam, fitted with an
04:44 experimental battle suit, to infiltrate said giant microwave to take the fight to those
04:48 damn communists.
04:50 Vanquish is a video game about speed and guns and shooting those guns at high speed, preferably
04:55 while on your knees and smoking a cigarette while heavy metal blares all around you.
04:59 Sam vaults over cover to lay down fire, gently feeds enemy rockets back into the orifices
05:03 they were fired from and dropkicks crowds of bad guys to death in slow motion.
05:07 It's the kind of intentionally over-the-top ridiculousness we just don't see enough
05:11 of anymore.
05:12 It's got no illusions about being anything more than a fun, carefully crafted experience
05:16 about shooting people real good and it nails every aspect of the formula.
05:21 Critics said it was a blast, but a little bit short and sadly a lot of people take a
05:24 sort of pounds-per-hour approach to buying games as opposed to just enjoying fun.
05:30 You could easily see it as an open world title, taking full advantage of the battle suit for
05:34 fast traversal or even just a larger scale linear experience where Sam can spearhead
05:38 a counter-invasion against the Russians, complete with hilarious Russian side characters looking
05:42 to restore the pre-coup government.
05:44 6.
05:45 Never Dead
05:46 With the Souls series at its highest point of popularity, allow me to introduce you to
05:50 its total opposite, Never Dead, the game where it takes real concerted effort to die.
05:56 While our protagonist Bryce may be immortal, he's not invincible and, seemingly as part
06:00 of this immortality curse, his limbs appear to be attached with sticky tape, as they'll
06:04 fly off the moment an enemy brushes lightly up against you.
06:07 Lose a leg and Bryce will start hopping around moving slightly slower, lose both legs and
06:11 all you can do is crawl, lose an arm and you're down to only using one of your dual guns at
06:15 a time and so on and so forth.
06:17 Getting Bryce's limbs to reattach is as easy as dodge rolling over them, making them
06:21 magnetically zip up and back onto your torso.
06:24 It may sound like a liability to be so loosely attached to your own limbs that they constantly
06:28 drop off, but Bryce can use this ability to traverse tight areas by tearing his head off
06:32 and masterfully rolling it around through vents and the like, and his immortality allows
06:36 him to use himself as a human torch by lighting himself on fire.
06:40 It's this unique approach to the gameplay and tying every element of that gameplay into
06:44 Bryce's condition of immortality that makes Never Dead so unique, and a sequel that expands
06:49 even further on his abilities and his past would, at the very least, be interesting.
06:53 5.
06:54 Alpha Protocol
06:55 It feels like every other game bills itself as open-ended, granting the player the ability
06:59 to play and take the story in many different directions.
07:02 More often than not, this is a gross exaggeration.
07:05 Alpha Protocol tried to buck this trend by focusing mostly on the places you can take
07:09 the story within dialogue trees by offering as much variety as possible, while keeping
07:14 the gameplay itself fairly fenced in.
07:16 Dropped into the shoes of Michael Thornton, the game starts off looking pretty simplistic,
07:20 with the only choice of two preset classes or a complete blank slate to add it to your
07:24 heart's desire, but later on you'll find that the meat of the experience, and the vast
07:28 majority of the enjoyment people take from Alpha Protocol, is through the wealth of choices
07:32 you have in story progression.
07:34 Depending on the order you take missions, and how you interact with characters, and
07:37 at what times, you can end up with drastically different playthroughs, and just seeing how
07:41 Thornton interacts with his cohorts and enemies as you do very professional things like hang
07:46 up on your boss or pretend to have communications problems so you can execute surrounding bad
07:51 guys.
07:52 The world of Alpha Protocol is tied into the variability of its story, and a sequel that
07:56 could deliver a future for every possible end point would genuinely be a step up in
08:00 what we expect from narrative driven video games.
08:03 4.
08:04 Dark Void
08:05 Sometimes, your game just needs a little bit longer to cook.
08:08 Get those edges sanded down, and at the very least, finish inserting all the content.
08:13 Dark Void is yet another title that got pushed out of the door before it was ready and into
08:16 an unforgiving launch window, an ambitious mixture of arcade-style flight simulator and
08:21 third person cover shooter, Dark Void absolutely sings once you push past the first hour or
08:26 so.
08:27 In the game, you'll take on, and prepare yourself for this, Nazi supporting robot lizards,
08:32 alongside a ragtag group of human resistance fighters made up of people who have become
08:35 stranded in the Bermuda Triangle over the years.
08:38 This includes Nikola Tesla, who introduces you to his latest invention, only a bloody
08:42 jetpack.
08:43 It's from there that it really picks up speed and starts living up to its potential.
08:47 The inclusion of the jetpack into large open spaces filled with smaller objectives lets
08:51 you mix it up, swapping between aerial combat and ground combat at will.
08:55 Dark Void's main issue is that it ends just as it's starting to reach its peak, as in
08:59 it literally cuts from what feels like the midpoint of the story to the final boss.
09:03 The real tragedy is the possibilities of the continued story.
09:06 It ends with a return to the real world, jetpack in tow, just in time to get busy introducing
09:11 the allies to jetpack technology and setting up an alternate World War 2, Rocketeer-style
09:15 game that we'll sadly never get to play.
09:18 3.
09:19 Heavenly Sword Heavenly Sword was an early PS3 exclusive
09:22 that saw players guiding around a red-headed warrior called Noriko and smacking people
09:26 with the titular Heavenly Sword.
09:28 Taking inspiration mostly from God of War, Heavenly Sword bases its combat around changing
09:33 stances between fast, range and strong, depending on which kind of enemies you're fighting,
09:37 and on quick-time events as they were very much in vogue back then.
09:40 It's competently put together and tons of fun to play, and sometimes you even get a
09:44 nice motion-controlled crossbow level where you can try your best to fit as many crossbow
09:47 bolts as possible into one guy's balls before he hits the ground.
09:51 Where Heavenly Sword really sets itself apart is in the quality of the writing and acting,
09:56 with every single character being distinct and well-written.
09:59 They all have their own consistent personalities, motivations and arcs, and motion capture is
10:04 used to make the cutscenes as believable as possible, with the particular standout being
10:08 Andy Serkis in his role as King Bohan, the ultimate bad guy, and the means by which we
10:12 meet most of the colourful and sometimes terrifying characters Heavenly Sword has to offer.
10:18 The characterisation was so strong that it got both an animated series and a film, as
10:21 well as a sequel, that was tragically cancelled due to the game's poor sales, and as part
10:26 of moving Ninja Theory on to developing Enslaved Odyssey to the West, see previous.
10:32 Number 2 - Binary Domain
10:34 It's all very well to talk about crowded release schedules, rushed development, unfinished
10:38 products and unreached potential, but sometimes the problem is the public.
10:42 Sometimes gamers, you make me so mad.
10:45 Binary Domain has it all.
10:46 Slick third person shooting, tight controls, a unique art style, technical innovation,
10:51 likeable characters, a future setting where human-like robots have infiltrated society
10:55 even beknownst to themselves, it even has a French robot that does spin kicks and calls
11:00 you Monsieur.
11:01 And to make this game even cooler, you can give your squad commands, commendations and
11:05 just generally interact with them via your microphone.
11:08 Characters will react to what you say, and can gain or lose trust in you depending on
11:11 how you act.
11:12 Lose enough trust with a character and they'll start refusing to do what you say, like an
11:16 over-leveled Pokemon.
11:17 So if Binary Domain is so bloody good in every way, why didn't it sell well?
11:21 Why aren't we on to Binary Domain 4, the Robotining?
11:25 Well dear viewer, I blame you.
11:27 You chose not to buy Binary Domain.
11:29 You refused to heed all those glowing reviews and pretty marketing spots Sega bought to
11:32 evangelise this masterpiece games fail for all sorts of reasons.
11:36 Just be glad that the game's producer, Daikei Saito, expressed interest in bringing it back
11:41 after Yakuza's renewed success in the West.
11:43 And if that ever happens, you'll know what to do.
11:46 1.
11:47 Sunset Overdrive
11:48 It's been a common complaint of late that the Xbox has no exclusives.
11:51 Past Halo, and you'd struggle to find a title beyond Gears of War that you can only
11:55 play on the Microsoft machine.
11:57 It wasn't always this way.
11:58 There was once a time when third-party studios were very interested in bringing games to
12:02 the Big X, Sunset Overdrive being a standout from the previous generation.
12:06 A member of the barely populated comedy video game genre, Sunset Overdrive is a colourful
12:11 bombastic violent and almost obnoxiously tongue-in-cheek experience.
12:15 Kind of parody that does exactly what it's parodying, while winking at the camera.
12:18 But underneath all the self-abasement and dick jokes, there was genuinely a fun experience
12:23 based completely around bouncing on the hoods of cars and skating along electrical wiring.
12:27 Insomniac brought their A-game here along with their knack for inventive weaponry, giving
12:31 us guns that fire vinyl records, teddy bears and fireworks among other things.
12:35 The world is vibrant and colourful and moving through it is so cathartic, you could spend
12:39 entire play sessions just bouncing, skating and wall running around.
12:43 As such, Sunset Overdrive sold really well and everyone really liked it.
12:47 So why we've not seen a sequel yet is a mystery.
12:50 Interestingly, the likelihood is that if we do, it'll be a PlayStation exclusive, now
12:54 that Sony have bought the studio that owns the IP.
12:57 So let's look forward to a tense, dour-faced sequel where everyone communicates in either
13:02 grunting or crying.