Are the any sequels that are better than the original game?

[mirdza]

Hitman Blood Money totally owns the previous ones in my opinion...

well, Hitman 2 is way better than the original...
I just remembered I have Blood Money and did not play it 'cause my computer was old...

 

[mirdza]

Monkey Island 2 has a slight edge on the first game.

.

The original is better, in my opinion, MI2 has too much pixel hunting and too much illogical puzzles.

 

[DirtyDreamDesigner]

Don't double post.

 

[Lord 342]

Grand Theft Auto definitely peaked with Vice City, which was in every way superior to III, which is a classic in its own right.
San Andreas is good, but it has some glaring weaknesses compared to Vice City, most notably its plot. The plot of Vice City, though, was even better than that of III.

I'm one of those people who think that Fallout 2 is better than its predecessor. True there are things Fallout does better than 2, but it's just overall better.

 

[SimpleMinded]

I'm not sure between the fallouts. Fallout 1 had a better atmosphere and compelling stories within areas. Nevertheless, Fallout 2 had better gameplay and I felt, a greater world. The towns in Fallout were cool but the various powers at play in FO 2 were fun.

Now if Fallout 1 had Fallout 2's improved system, I think it would have to go to FO1.

 

[Thrawn]

If it weren’t for the god awful dialog and story in GTA:SA it definitely would have been the top of the series.

I think X-Com 1 was awesome, 2 was meh, and 3 was better than 1. After that it went down hill... I know a lot of people disagree with me on Apocalypse, but having to manage politics, having less units (meaning people also die less often) and actually being able to keep up with the aliens made for a much more interesting game.

As a side note, I have beaten X-Com Apocalypse on Superhuman and "Iron man" meaning I don't save or load unless I am closing the game. You just have to be extremely smart about researching and weapons and have a little luck with what UFOs you shoot down.

In X-Com 1 it didn't really matter how smart you were in tactical. 1 shot could kill your very best unit and 1 blaster could take out an entire squad. Very frustrating (but still fun as hell)

Anyways... as for other sequels I would have to say MOOII was better than 1 (3 was still cool but imcomplete), Civ 4 is the best Civ, the total war games keep getting better, and Halo got better.

 

[Sorrow]

If it weren’t for the god awful dialog and story in GTA:SA it definitely would have been the top of the series.

I think X-Com 1 was awesome, 2 was meh, and 3 was better than 1. After that it went down hill... I know a lot of people disagree with me on Apocalypse, but having to manage politics, having less units (meaning people also die less often) and actually being able to keep up with the aliens made for a much more interesting game.

As a side note, I have beaten X-Com Apocalypse on Superhuman and "Iron man" meaning I don't save or load unless I am closing the game. You just have to be extremely smart about researching and weapons and have a little luck with what UFOs you shoot down.

In X-Com 1 it didn't really matter how smart you were in tactical. 1 shot could kill your very best unit and 1 blaster could take out an entire squad. Very frustrating (but still fun as hell)

I'd agree about X-Com 3, but:
1. X-Com 3 wasn't finished - it missed a lot of features (capturing VIPs for example) and economy was FUBAR (organisations couldn't go bankrupt, rebuilt their buildings despite lack of money, had infinite amount of soldiers, crafts and equipment).
2. It lacked tension of previous parts - weapon damages were drastically decreased, weapon sound were less agressive, agents couldn't lose consciousness from physical injuries, etc.

 

[Thrawn]

I'd agree about X-Com 3, but:
1. X-Com 3 wasn't finished - it missed a lot of features (capturing VIPs for example) and economy was FUBAR (organisations couldn't go bankrupt, rebuilt their buildings despite lack of money, had infinite amount of soldiers, crafts and equipment).
2. It lacked tension of previous parts - weapon damages were drastically decreased, weapon sound were less agressive, agents couldn't lose consciousness from physical injuries, etc.

#1 It was definitely missing features. You were even supposed to be able to have prisons in your base (I don't know if they were for the VIPs or criminals). I do think if you bankrupted organizations they sent less people at you through.

#2 I disagree with. 3 maybe had less tense moments but they were far more tense than in 1. In 1 it really almost never mattered if you lost a unit. MAYBE if you custom named him or if he was one of your ultra high end PSI guys but other than that they were throw away.

In 3 not only were troops more expensive but half the time there weren't even any available. That is why you panicked every time you saw a brainsucker jump or a popper running at you.

In 1 on the rare occasion that a guy got shot and LIVED if I didn't have a med pack he was just going to die in 2 turns anyway. If you passed out due to his wounds it just meant he had one more turn to die and you weren't able to heal him.

Over and over in 3 I had a guy run out of the map just before bleeding to death.

And the BEST thing about 3? Buildings fell down! I spent 20 minuets once setting up a chain reaction that would take down the entire Senate building (the one where at the very bottom left of the map you had to go up 3 flights of stairs to get to the door). The system was far from perfect but it was still always fun to watch .

A little more on topic, I think adding gravity in Xcom is a perfect example of SMART sequel design. Take a feature everyone liked (deformable terrain) and make it better.

 

[Sorrow]

I do think if you bankrupted organizations they sent less people at you through.

They stop raiding entirely. But on the other hand you can still raid them for weapons and goods that they shouldn't be able to afford.

#2 I disagree with. 3 maybe had less tense moments but they were far more tense than in 1. In 1 it really almost never mattered if you lost a unit. MAYBE if you custom named him or if he was one of your ultra high end PSI guys but other than that they were throw away.

I think that tense moments are very important part of X-Com series atmosphere - life of an individual soldier was cheap, but his/her sudden death (tap...tap...tap...tap...tap...BLAM! AAAARRRRGH! ) was scary.
I've noticed that every Julian Gollop's game after TFTD has less fear/tension-building sound/visual effects.

In 3 not only were troops more expensive but half the time there weren't even any available. That is why you panicked every time you saw a brainsucker jump or a popper running at you.

I didn't. I just calmly issued orders and hoped that my soldiers will kill them. Also, it never aroused much emotions in me - it's hard to be panicking when the game is paused . Unless I saw one of those Heavy Launcher armed guys.

In 1 on the rare occasion that a guy got shot and LIVED if I didn't have a med pack he was just going to die in 2 turns anyway. If you passed out due to his wounds it just meant he had one more turn to die and you weren't able to heal him.

That was one of the scarier parts of the game. And, frankly, I can't imagine X-Com 1/2 being such a great game with aliens that would just wound soldiers like in X-Com 3.

And the BEST thing about 3? Buildings fell down! I spent 20 minuets once setting up a chain reaction that would take down the entire Senate building (the one where at the very bottom left of the map you had to go up 3 flights of stairs to get to the door). The system was far from perfect but it was still always fun to watch .

I love devastating buildings . It would be even greater if they allowed player to stay on battlescape after defeating the security to do some real damage to buildings .

I didn't like that they removed HWPs. I think that city vehicles like hoverbikes, hovercars, APCs and IFVs would be great fire support vehicles.
Just imagine a Phoenix Hovercar hovering over battlefield and firing it's 40mm autocannon and rocket launcher at enemies ...

Or breaking into Luxury Apartments only to discover that the enemy is supported by a Wolfhound ...

Anyway, I'm still playing X-Com 3 and I'm working on a mod that brings back old damages and some of old prices (so, for example Marsec Heavy Launcher = Alien Blaster, Marsec Power Suit = Flying Suit, Megapol Armor > Personal Armor Megapol Laser Sniper Gun > Laser Rifle, etc.) .

 

[Madbringer]

X-com geeks

San Andreas is good, but it has some glaring weaknesses compared to Vice City, most notably its plot. The plot of Vice City, though, was even better than that of III.

No, i cant agree. Plot is better in Vice City, but it's still all in all a worse game than San Andreas. Let's see - incomparably bigger and better built gameplay area, ability to swim (WOW! lol), way sexier shooting system, well, dammit, basically everything that is in SA is better than VC, except the plot (you just have to love all those mafia movies references in VC).

Just remembered - Frontier: FE is way better than Frontier and Elite games. It's even better than his modern-day successors (X: blabla series, tho, The Threat is kinda cool.)