Video game sequels are often big business. Developers spend a ton of resources to create a new IP, so when one is successful, they understandably want to follow up on it by making things bigger and better. That often leads to a hyped-up fanbase, expecting the world from the follow-up. It doesn’t always work out this way, but every so often, a sequel comes out and blows the original out of the water, exceeding even the most optimistic fan’s dreams. Below, you’ll find five games that did just that. Of course, there are plenty of sequels that are better than the original, but these five games truly blew fan expectations and their original game out of the water.
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Here are five great sequels that more than lived up to fan expectations.
5) Borderlands 2
The first Borderlands game was a bit of a surprise hit. Developer Gearbox was, at that point, best known by most for its Brothers in Arms series. That tactical shooter was solid, but had a very different vibe from the wacky, sci-fi loot shooter.
That said, it blew the doors off fan expectations when it launched, selling over two million copies and establishing the loot shooter genre. There were a few issues, most notably a lackluster final boss, so players were excited when Gearbox announced it was working on Borderlands 2.
Gearbox delivered one of the best games of its era, giving fans plenty of important quality-of-life improvements and expanding nearly every aspect of gameplay. Borderlands 2 more than doubled the original game’s sales, making it clear that Borderlands had staying power.
4) Red Dead Redemption 2
The first Red Dead Redemption wasn’t exactly a surprising success. After all, it was a Rockstar game. In 2010, there weren’t many developers more beloved. Plus, the Wild West was a mostly untapped setting for the industry. Having one of the best developers play in that setting was a recipe for success.
When Rockstar teased that Red Dead Redemption 2 was its next big game after Grand Theft Auto 5, fans were understandably thrilled. Sure, the original game had a satisfying finale and easily could’ve gone without a sequel, but that Western theme was sorely underutilized in the industry, despite Red Dead’s success.
Red Dead Redemption 2 absolutely blew fan expectations out of the water. The gameplay can be a little too methodical, but there hasn’t been a better cinematic game than the second Red Dead. Simply put, Rockstar created a new industry standard for storytelling that hasn’t been topped since.
3) Portal 2
The first Portal game was a huge surprise. Yes, it was coming from Valve, which was following up on Half-Life 2, but Portal‘s development team was relatively unknown at the time. Valve had seen a project from DigiPen students called Narbacular Drop, and brought them in to work on a fully fledged game.
That turned into Portal, one of the best and funniest puzzle games of all time. When Valve announced that it was working on a second game and had more than doubled the staff, fans were understandably excited. Heck, a month before Portal 2 released, Valve president Gabe Newell called it “the best game we’ve ever done.”
Fortunately, it lived up to the hype. The single-player story took things up a notch with new ways to solve puzzles and a new boss character, called Wheatley, joining GLaDOS to give the sequel the comedy it’s known for. Add in an all-time great co-op campaign that makes the puzzles even better, and you have one of the best games of all time.
2) Diablo 2
The first Diablo was a massive hit for Blizzard. The team hoped to hit 500,000 sales, but Diablo smashed past that, selling more than 2.5 million copies over its lifespan. The isometric dungeon crawling mixed with a procedurally generated item system to create a gameplay formula that kept players coming back for more.
Diablo 2 takes that formula and makes it bigger and better. There are more classes, more levels to play through, and so many more weapons to find. It was so popular, Diablo 2 blew past the first game’s sales in about two months.
And that hype didn’t really die until around 2010. The Diablo: Battle Chest was still consistently showing up in the top 10 PC game sales list that year, despite being a decade old. Diablo 2 can’t take the throne as Blizzard’s most successful game thanks to World of Warcraft‘s overwhelming popularity, but it’s definitely up there.
1) Mass Effect 2
You wouldn’t call the first Mass Effect a surprise hit. BioWare was in the middle of a generational roll at that point, and giving fans a brand-new sci-fi world to play in seemed like a sure bet. It being an Xbox 360 exclusive might’ve made fans a little trepidacious, but it was instantly a critical and commercial hit.
BioWare made it known that choices made in the first Mass Effect would greatly impact the future of future games. Mass Effect 2 was our first chance to see that in action, and BioWare blew fan expectations out of the water. Your romances come over, though you can break it off with them if you want. Characters who died in your ME playthrough won’t be available, even if they can play a major part in the story.
It was an almost unheard-of amount of player choice then, and BioWare didn’t stop there. Mass Effect 2 also has updated combat, a more complex class system, and one of the most in-depth and impactful final missions in gaming’s history to that point. Simply put, the original Mass Effect was a Game of the Year contender, but Mass Effect 2 was on the very short list for Game of the Generation.
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