Unlike like with movies, video game sequels are almost universally better than their predecessors. It can be difficult to absolutely nail a new IP the first time out, and it usually takes that second game to build on the foundation of the first and fix the mistakes that critics were likely all too happy to point out about the original. It’s no coincidence that many of the greatest games of all time– Street Fighter II, Mega Man 2, Silent Hill 2, et al– are fantastic follow-ups to ambitious but flawed franchise debuts.
That being said, once things hit “franchise” status and game series stretch beyond just two installments, another trend begins to reveal itself: trilogies that end on a down note. As easy as it seems to be to make a great part two, following that up with an even better part three often eludes game companies. While most of the trilogies below don’t have bad third games– some are even great– they all represented a step down in quality from incredible second installments.
10 Max Payne
Combining the dual-wielding, sideways-diving action of John Woo movies with the “bullet time” of The Matrix, Max Payne was a revolutionary third-person shooter– but one that definitely had some room for improvement. Developer Remedy checked all the sequel boxes with the stellar Max Payne 2, a game that, for years, seemed like the end of the franchise. Nearly a decade later, Rockstar Studios revived the series with Max Payne 3, which was a very good action game but didn’t feel as groundbreaking as the second installment.
9 Dino Crisis
The three Dino Crisis games went good, great, terrible, in that order. The first game was basically just Resident Evil with dinosaurs, for better or worse, followed by a phenomenal action game that doesn’t get enough credit for how much it inspired the modern third-person action game genre.
Then, for reasons that are still impossible to comprehend, Dino Crisis 3 took the series to space– and with that, a promising franchise was stopped cold and still hasn’t recovered, 17 years later.
8 Batman: Arkham
Batman games have been very hit or miss throughout gaming history– and unfortunately, when a Batman game is bad, it is really, really bad. It took no time at all after the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum for people to declare it not only the best Batman game ever made, but one of the best games of its time, period. Follow-up Arkham City built on that foundation and went on to be one of the most critically-acclaimed games of the 2010s. It would’ve been almost impossible for third core installment Arkham Knight to be even better than City– but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing that it wasn’t.
7 God Of War
Sure, there are a lot more than three God of War games, but God of War through God of War III definitely still felt like a core trilogy, and one that saw an incredible part two give way to a let-down of a part three.
From a technical standpoint, GoWIII was a complete triumph and remains one of the PS3’s best graphical showcases– but beyond that, it was way too over the top, Kratos had completely stopped being a remotely likable character, and the plot had devolved into grindhouse revenge movie gobbledygook.
6 Def Jam
It was easy not to expect much from a wrestling game that featured real-life rappers, but Def Jam Vendetta proved a surprisingly polished and well-made game that sold enough to warrant a sequel. Fight for NY was an even bigger surprise, an excellent fighting game that is still praised (and played) a decade & a half later. Sadly, for the third installment of the Def Jam series, it was turned into a weird fighting game/rhythm game hybrid called Icon that squandered all the goodwill that the previous two games had built for the fledgling– and now dead– franchise.
5 Fable
For all the justified grief that Peter Molyneux gets for over-promising and under-delivering, he has made some great games, including the original Fable. While not the earth-shattering leap forward that it was hyped up to be, Fable II was a definite improvement over the original in almost every aspect. Then came Fable III, a game that had its moments in the opening hours but then inexplicably turns into a boring property management simulator. That would’ve been fine for a niche spin-off, but not as a required aspect of a core entry in the franchise.
4 Dead Space
Survival horror franchises like Resident Evil and Silent Hill had slowly shed the survival part and were increasingly becoming action horror, and as the horror genre went in that direction, Dead Space decided to fully embrace the action elements. The result was a fantastic action horror game and its awesome sequel that served as a benchmark of that style of game for years– a benchmark that the franchise’s own part three failed to meet. Dead Space 3 definitely isn’t a terrible game, but it was disappointing enough for EA to effectively retire the franchise.
3 Resistance
Developer Insomniac Games is best known as the people behind Ratchet & Clank as well as the incredible Spider-Man game for PS4, but the company has done a lot of great stuff over the years. On the PS3, between R&C releases, Insomniac created the well-liked but overall underappreciated FPS trilogy Resistance, which saw a decent first entry followed by a much-better sequel, only to end with a rushed, letdown of a third installment. It would be great to see Insomniac– or another capable developer– revive this gone-too-soon series someday.
2 Street Fighter Alpha
This is likely to be the most controversial entry on our list. Most people agree that the original Street Fighter Alpha was a gorgeous game that needed a sequel to help it realize its full potential. Where the true debate lies is whether that potential hit its peak with Alpha 2 or Alpha 3. Both are excellent games, but at the end of the day, Alpha 3 feels a little too over the top and “everything for everyone” while Alpha 2 is the purer expression of what the Alpha series is truly about.
1 Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2 is still considered one of the best games of its generation, if not of all time. The original was good, but it wasn’t until part two that the series came into its own after abandoning some of the more archaic RPG elements that Bioware was still clinging to from its past. Mass Effect 3 definitely had the odds stacked against it, but considering that its ending was so hated that Bioware literally went in and changed it after release just to appease fans, there’s no arguing that the original ME trilogy ended on a sour note.
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