10 Games That Deserve a Sequel (other than Half-Life)

In the video game world, there seems to be one sequel that people talk about incessantly, and thats Half-Life 3. The fact that its achieved meme status should be an indication of how often the internet and even gamers outside of the internet talk about it.

That said, there are many other games in the industry that haven't been in as much of a demand for sequels. Sometimes consumers forget about these games, or sometimes the publishers/developers end up working on something new, forsaking the obvious sequel bait of the old title. Industry-wise, we all know its just safer to continue on with a franchise that has fans rather than attempt to establish a new one. There are many games worth mentioning when it comes to "needing" a sequel, but we'd be here all day if we covered all of them. So here's an assortment of 10 games, other than Half-Life, that need a sequel.

Kingdoms of Amalur

What happens if you combined Fable, Skyrim and the writer of one of the most successful fantasy novels based off a D20 universe into a game? You get Kingdoms of Amalur, a title released to mostly positive reviews. With its engaging combat system and unique fluidity of the class system the game was a hit among players. It sold 1.2 million copies and yet, tragedy struck. 38 Studios went bankrupt, the title was lost and when they attempted to sell the license but they were unsuccessful. The game was pretty much set up to become a new IP, but unfortunately thanks to bad business practices we may never see what this game could have evolved into. Could it have been the next Elder Scrolls after a few years? Maybe. But for now all we can do is hope for an eventual sequel that will show us just what this series can do.

Beyond Good and Evil

Okay Ubisoft, we all know how much you like milking the blackened teats of the Assassin's Creed cow and how it makes you squirts of money milk every year, even if that milk is a spoiled. We get it. But you do remember this game exists, right? Beyond Good and Evil wasnt a hit, but it was a dramatically well-received game by the gaming community and is still ranked as one of the most underrated games of all time. It has an engaging story, a wonderful protagonist, heart-wrenching moments, a somewhat open world, and tons of side quests to keep you going for a while. A sequel was announced a while back, but for all we know the game has been put into development hell because Michael Ancel wants to “take his time” with the game and has a very small team working on it. Thats all fine and good, but its been 12 years and the HD re-release brought attention to the game once again. it would be nice for us to see some actual progress on a game that has been universally praised and had a cliffhanger ending that we still havent seen the resolution for.

Lost Odyssey

This game might have had a pretty definitive ending, but it was so well received that its surprising that this game never took off as a series. It had an interesting world, unique characters in reminiscent of classic Final Fantasy, amazing music and great writing. Special mention going to the beautiful interpersonal relationships and the pain shown of being an immortal. Without spoiling too much, the game was very heart-wrenching and it was nice to see considering some of the other JRPGS that were out around the same time. It didnt do well financially as it could have, however it was a breath of fresh air to the JRPG world and was a great exclusive for the Xbox 360 that drove certain people to buy the game, especially since so many industry veterans were working on it. Its a shame this never got a sequel and possibly made into a full series with how much this game had to offer.

Parasite Eve

This is another game that really deserves either a remake of the first game or a sequel that brings the series back to form. In recent years Parasite Eve has gotten a little… lost, thanks to a few bad design decisions on the part of the developers. However, it was a fantastic series when the games started out, and could be again if they just tried to bring the series back to its roots with the first game. Its a horror RPG, which already makes it a step out of the box compared to most horror games, that has gotten popular as of late. While the latest installment in the series, The 3rd Birthday, failed to deliver a thrilling experience Parasite Eve is easily one of the more unique horror series.Since horror games are having a renaissance now, with games like Five Nights at Freddys and Alien Isolation breathing new life into the genre, it would be a wonderful time to resurrect this series from its perceived watery grave.

Clock Tower/Haunting Ground/Rule of Rose

Speaking of horror games that need to be resurrected from their watery grave, how about Clock Tower? Clock Tower was such an odd title in the 16-bit era of gaming, being a point and click adventure on the console wasnt easy task to say the least. While the later games got a lukewarm reception, the spin-off game The Haunting Ground and Rule of Rose was quite good and was able to capture the feel of the original games while adding enough elements of it to make it unique. If either of these games got a sequel that somehow recaptured the original terror, it would really be a great move on Capcoms part. Problem is, we all know how Capcom likes messing with its horror games, so maybe itd be best if they sold the series off to someone else in order to give us a worthy sequel.

Condemned

Remember that strange Xbox 360 launch title Condemned: Criminal Origins? The one where you have to beat people up with various melee weapons in order to survive some sort of catastrophic event that happened that you have no idea how it happened? No? Not a lot of people do unfortunately, and the second game, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, launched with poor acclaim. Both games were horror/action games that managed to make the battles tense and in your face while still retaining the terror. There was a small misstep with the series, and that was giving the main character super powers in the second game. This made things rather silly at the end, but nonetheless the world it built up was interesting and could have been expanded upon more in a possible sequel. Its hard to make a first person horror game where you actually beat up your enemies with various household items scary, but Condemned did it and it could probably do it again if given a chance.

Pandora's Tower/The Last Story

Operation Rainfall brought over 3 games to the US from Japan: Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandoras Tower and The Last Story. Theres a strong chance youve heard of Xenoblade Chronicles, but not the other two. The other two games were actually received quite well critically and by fans, but they didnt see nearly as much exposure as Xenoblade, which is why we are seeing Xenoblade everywhere nowadays and yet virtually nothing about these other two. Pandoras Tower had a lot darker of a story than both of its Rainfall counterparts and The Last Story had more themes having to do with Love and politics, so it didnt have as much “universal” appeal as Xenoblade. So alas, these stories were left in the dust. However, a sequel to either of these games would be welcome for keeping a variety of stories and types of games around the world of JRPGs.

Psychonauts

Out of all of Tim Schafer's games, this is the one that most deserves a continuation. With its unique platforming, bizarre characters, fun psychic powers and out there humor, Psychonauts stood out as a platforming adventure game. It covered some dark subjects and the emotional range of characters that youd think would be one off characters with no personality at all in other games. It rose above and beyond what could have made it good and made itself amazing. The ending of the game strongly implied a sequel could come with more adventures in a mind, and yet it never did. This means seeing a sequel to this will make the many fans of Double Fine and the original game squeal with joy.

The World Ends With You

What happens when you make an action JRPG based in an urban setting with concepts completely different from Final Fantasy? Well, you get The World Ends With You, a very well received title, yet not as well-known as one might think due to the fact it was released on the Nintendo DS rather than a main console. The story was engaging, characters were fun, and the world that was built up really did a fantastic job of immersing the player into the world in its entirety. Yet, the only sequel-ish thing weve seen is the characters being featured in a Kingdom Hearts storyline rather than having its own sequel. Perhaps that means a sequel is on the way and Square-Enix is just teasing us?

Perfect Dark

When it came to FPS games on the N64, Perfect Dark was one of the main ones youd go for. With its sleek gameplay for the time and awesome lead character, how could you go wrong with a series like this? Well, with the buyout of Rare by Microsoft, they produced Perfect Dark Zero, which was a lackluster sequel to the original game. Since then nothing has been done with the series and fans are left with a sour taste from Perfect Dark Zero. Its just an IP just waiting to be given a bigger and better sequel. Who knows, maybe itll get a Kickstarter reboot like the spiritual successor of Banjo-Kazooie, Megaman and Castlevania if we are really lucky.

Angelina Bonilla, NoobFeed (@Twitter)