In today’s industry, video game sequels so often get in the way of developers creating new ideas. But while I am a supporter of originality in the gaming industry, I am also a hypocrite, and I quite like it when a sequel to one of my favourite games is released.
With that being said, here are five video game sequels that I really want to see. I have excluded Half-Life 3 from this list, because did you really want to read someone else begging Valve for it?
A Reddit user recently posted an image from Valve’s offices that seemed to confirm the existence of Left 4 Dead 3, and now I can’t think of anything better than sinking my teeth into another iteration in the gloriously gory series.
L4D and L4D2 have attracted two of the most dedicated online communities in PC gaming, with awesome mods ensuring that players consistently have something new to keep them entertained. This community would lap up Left 4 Dead 3 and the new zombie types, weaponry and maps it would bring.
The best part: Bigger isn’t always better, but I’d love to see the inclusion of a mode that allowed for more than 4 survivors. I’m thinking a Dawn of the Dead-esque mall setting, where up to 16 players are tasked with securing different areas King of the Hill-style as waves upon waves of undead surround them. Throw in a few player-controller special zombie types and Valve have got themselves a new fan-favourite game type.
I didn’t really like the time I spent with Jack Marston following John Marston’s tragic death in Red Dead Redemption, as he was far more embittered and a lot less likeable than his dear ol’ dad. With that being said, the biggest complaint I had with RDR was how its story depicted John as a rather saintly cowboy, despite you still being allowed to commit GTA-esque atrocities such as tying nuns to train tracks and shooting innocent horses in the head.
Following the events of RDR, Jack Marston seemed to have more of a dark side than John, and so it is easy to see how the skillful writers at Rockstar could build a much darker story revolving around his trials and tribulations in the Wild West in Red Dead Redemption 2.
The best part: While Red Dead Redemption‘s tight narrative was what made it my favourite game of 2010, allowing players to make choices and then face consequences for those choices is really more fitting for its ruthless western setting. Rather than having a linear narrative structure, I’d like to see Red Dead Redemption 2 challenge players morally rather than allowing them to turn the west into a war zone with little to no punishment.
David Cage, Quantic Dream’s head honcho, has previously stated that he has no intention to make Heavy Rain 2 because he has “said everything [he] wants to say”, and it’s commendable that rather than milking in the cash cow, he opted to bring a new IP to the PlayStation 3 in the form of the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls.
However, Heavy Rain is one of my favourite games on the PS3, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to see a sequel. If you received the “good” ending for Madison, it was hinted that another Origami Killer could soon be on the loose. While I’d rather see Cage and his team explore new ideas, if they ever found time to revisit the world of Heavy Rain, or use its unique concept for a completely new game, I’d lap that s*** up.
The best part: In Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead game, at the end of each chapter you’d be informed what percentage of players made the same decisions as you, and what percentage didn’t. This was an interesting way of seeing just how heroic/sociopathic the rest of the gaming community was, and it’d be fun to see a similar feature implemented in a Heavy Rain sequel.
2012’s Twisted Metal reboot hardly set the sales chart on fire, so it’s unlikely we’d see a retail follow-up in the near future. However, with the series’ mastermind David Jaffe moving to free-to-play games, we could see the car combat franchise becoming a downloadable title, something which I’d be more than happy about.
The Twisted Metal reboot was tons of fun despite well-noted problems with its story and crippling online connectivity issues, but with the PlayStation 4’s improved PlayStation Plus, a downloadable, online-only Twisted Metal title could potentially be the perfect evolution of the series.
The best part: As a free-to-play game Twisted Metal would rely on profits from DLC, which would inevitably mean that Twisted Metal 8 would likely have the largest roster of vehicles in the series. Last year’s Twisted Metal featured a helicopter, and I’d hope that Twisted Metal 8 would feature even more diverse vehicles, from tanks, to hovercrafts, to mechs.
Fallout 3 ate away more of my time than any other video game, so while I’m somewhat worried what impact Fallout 4 may have on my life, I’m more than prepared to go into a self-imposed hibernation to take to the Wastelands once again.
Fallout 4 is inevitable, but while you have to believe that developers Bethesda is hard at work on making the sequel, we’ve received very little information regarding the title, so its content is still a complete mystery. I hope that Fallout 4 invokes the same awe I experienced when leaving the Vault for the first time, and given Bethesda’s track record, I am confident that it will.
The best part: When I don’t eat, sleep or shave for weeks because I’m too busy being the Saviour of the Wastes.
