Sequels to games… we’re sick of them aren’t we? COD:10 now with added dog, Assassins creed 4 but actually the 6th game in the main franchise, Splinter Cell 6 etc etc… We want some originality in games don’t we? We want some new unique IP’s to be created. Well yes we do, BUT there are a few games that break the exception in which we’d love a sequel. Mirrors Edge is finally getting one, Star Wars Battlefront is finally getting a 3rd installment and this is awesome news and very highly anticipated by us, However we each have our own desired sequels. Some more likely than other’s.
Here’s our choice for a game / franchise in which we’re desperate to see a sequel.
Shenmue 3
Back when Dreamcast was my console of choice I’d read up and kept informed on a little (far from little in terms of budget) game called Shenmue. The screenshot’s that i’d see in the magazine and the size of scope of the game had me instantly interested, not to mention the plot. Go on martial arts ass kicking adventure in the 1980’s on a revenge mission to find your fathers killer. Yup I’m in…
From the first stormy cut scene seeing the villainous Lan Di murder your father in a fight, I knew I was going to be missing alot of homework for school. I can still remember walking towards Dobuita for the first time and finding the orphaned kitten 🙁 My goal was to take care of that little ball of fur (I was later gutted to
find it disappears after all the Yen I spent on Milk and fish for that little thing). But that’s an example of one distraction from many you encounter in this game. Your a deeply angered young man, out for revenge to find your fathers killer… oh hey cool an arcade, I’ll have a few games of Hang on. Right focus back on track… “Have you seen any sailors around here?”… Oh wow a toy capsule machine, I’m gunna collect them all.
As you can see the story is very serious, but there are numerous things to do other than the story. I found the fork truck racing incredibly fun (So much so that I wanted to be a fork lift truck driver in real life, and alas that was what my first real job ended up being 😉 )
As you progress through the game you encounter numerous characters and villians which ultimately end’s up with a 70 man fight in the end of the game. The end see’s Ryo ready to prepare for his next adventure in Shenmue 2.
Everything was so much bigger in this game. More jobs, more gambling, dodging your hotel payments by staying out. Just more fun. Until the 4th disc. That magical magical 4th disc. Now I can’t lie. I’m a little rusty with it, I haven’t completed it again for a good 6+ years. But I do remember jumping over logs, running through a forest and being treated to seeing a magical scene in which Ryo finds a sword which then gets combined with the Phoenix Mirror which then makes a sword float leaving us on that cliff hanger…
WHAT? The game while outrageous in some parts never went full magic until that part. What does it mean… why is this sword floating. What does the girl from Ryo’s dreams have to do with the next chapter in his life… Please Sega… tell us. But alas I feel we’ll never get closure on this. Ryo and Ling Shen are destined to remain in that cave, forever staring at the floating sword, And we’ll never be told what happens next.
– Murr
I’ve always wanted to be a Jedi!
For me there is one stand out game which I would love a sequel for and that’s Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic,(Yea, ok it had a sequel, but I want another one). KotOR was and is one of my favourite games of all time. KotOR 2 wasn’t quite as good, but I still enjoyed it a lot, come on what’s not to love about more Star Wars RPG-ness?
The game takes place approximately 4000 years before the events of the Star Wars films where you start on board the Republic ship the Endar Spire with the biggest hang over ever, not only can you not remember what you did last night, but you can barely remember anything. The ship is under attack by the main bad dudes (Darth Malak) forces, who is the former apprentice of total Sith Lord bad ass Darth Revan. You need to escape the ship, and start to rebuild some memories. All whilst becoming ‘One’ with the force.
Not only do you get to see a lot of the iconic locations from the Star Wars films and the Star Wars lore such as Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Korriban etc… You also get to be the Captain of one of the most awesome spaceships around, The Ebon Hawk! Oh and you get duel Lightsabers, how can you not be sold on this?
There are also a plethora of memorable characters to meet and ‘collect’ for your party along the way. HK-47 being a particular fan favourite, mainly for his excellent outlook on humans “Kill one meatbag, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of meatbags, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.”
This game was one of the first RPG’s I ever played (just never really got in to them before) so was pretty much my first proper experience of a really well story driven game. Which at the end treated me to one of the best game twists I have experienced, I’m talking M Night Shyamalan style! *MAJOR SPOILER ALERT* YOU WERE DARTH REVAN THE WHOLE TIME! Yup, the ultimate Sith Super Villain was you. By this point you are pretty late in the game, and are faced with the tough choice of either saving the world (light side) or kicking Malak out of his ‘Chief Exec of the Sith’ spot to take over yourself (dark side). When playing I was good, I saved everyone, and was a hero.
KotOR II: Sith Lords just didn’t quite manage to reach the same heights for me, but still has a pretty impressive metacritic score of 86 on Xbox, KotOR got 94.
I also dabbled in The Old Republic MMORPG on PC for a while, but couldn’t get in to it. This could be partly due to the fact that I couldn’t get my character to look how I wanted, and therefore instantly hated them. Because we all know a good RPG is 90% character creation right?
I loved playing KotOR so much and was genuinely sad when I completed it. Just imagine what this game could be now. If KotOR were to get a next gen sequel the possibilities for it are tantalising. Please someone, make it happen!
– Will
