The Games That May Never See Sequels (And Need To) July 31, 2012

With the games that I’ve been replaying this summer, I’ve been reliving a lot of classic memories over the years, and also been forced to play them with the full knowledge that in many cases the development houses that made them no longer exist, and that a chance for seeing any more games in the series is very slim.

I thought it would be a good opporutnity to talk about some games that really need sequels, but for several reasons probably will never get one. This is by no means a complete list, but its a good start, and I’m sure more will follow. These are in chronological order.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (2004)

Welcome to the World of Darkness. Everything you thought you knew about monsters is actually true. Vampires, werewolfs, ghosts, and monsters are all real and they live among you. However, the reason why you don’t know about them is because of the Masquerade, which are the rules they have enacted to ensure their own protection and make sure that normal people don’t know about them. Southern California is practically a haven for the creatures of the night, and as a fledgling vampire recently sired your job is to learn the rules and quickly, and to make a new life for yourself in the real Los Angeles.

The end of the game leaves very little actually resolved, and in some cases it looked like it was going to be the start of horrible days to come for both mortals and immortals alike. However, the World of Darkness in Los Angeles was still ripe for further stories to be told in it. It would be great to check in with all the characters that we had become so attached to and see how they were doing in these dark times. It also opened up the possiblity to play from other clans that were not part of the Camerilla and see the game world from an entirely new perspective, like the Anarchs or the Sabbat, or possibly even the Thin Bloods.

While the game’s finale left open the chance that the player character could have died at the end, I would have had no problem creating a whole new character and going back into the world that Troika had created.

Why We Probably Won’t Get a Sequel:

There are many things working against the chances that we will ever get a sequel for this game. After completing the game the game’s developer, Troika, announced their next project was not going to be a sequel to Bloodlines. In fact the promotional video for their new game looked like it was heavily inspired by Fallout. The other problem is Troika closed a few months after the game’s completion, due to the fact they couldn’t secure funding for their next project.

The other issue is the Vampire: The Masquerade license. It’s over. In fact Bloodlines was supposed to set up the finale of the game’s universe! White Wolf has changed their entire RPG ruleset with a completely different world which has no story ties to the Masquerade. If a new game was going to be developed, it would probably be forced to use the new license, and that would mean cutting story ties to the older game.

However, not all is lost for lovers of the creatures of the night. A MMORPG is in development for the updated World of Darkness by CCP, but it is unlikely that a continuation of Bloodlines will ever see the light of day.

Infected (2005)

My favorite game for the Sony Playstation Portable, Infected is a third person action game where you fight zombies througout New York City in the days leading up to Christmas. You discover after being bitten that your blood is completely immune to the zombie virus, and in fact is so immune that firing it at a zombie causes them to explode in large groups! It was developed by Planet Moon Studios, well known for their hilarious stories in games, and this game was no different.

At the game’s conclusion, the source of the zombie infection is revealed and the news anchor announces that New York City has been saved, but that there was still no word from other major cities in several days. It is possible that future games could take place in these still-infected cities. Could it be possible that the other cities could have people in them that are also immune to the virus like Officer Stevens was?

Why We Won’t See a Sequel:

Well, other than the fact that the Playstation Portable is in the process of being phased out in favor of the new Playstation Vita, there are many reasons why the game may never see a sequel. The game launched very early in the PSP’s lifespan and while it was a fantastic game which took complete advantage of the hardware’s capabilites and control system, it was a new property on a new platform and the game just didn’t have the publicity blitz behind it to sell the platform. I am curious if the game could have sold better if it was released later in the PSP’s lifespan, but as it stands the game never even released as a downloadable title on the Playstation Network, completely cutting out sales on the PSP Go.

There’s also the problem with the game’s publisher, Majesco, deciding to shift all their focus to value software instead of producing full priced retail games. Because of that, they’ve let many of their properties languish, and even lost some of them in the process, most recently the Psychonauts property, as it reverted back to Tim Schaffer and Double Fine last year. It’s just too bad. With its superior hardware and second analog stick, man would it be awesome to see a sequel to the game on the Vita.

Brütal Legend (2009)

Mic check, one, two. A roadie is mysteriously transported to a land far, far away during a rock concert. With his ability to build things on the fly and his knowledge of heavy metal music he takes the materials in the land the inhabitants could never understand and is able to take a rock concert and turn it into a weapon. His goal is to free the land from those who oppress it, and if that means taking on the gods, then so be it.

At the end of the game all appears to be well, but the roadie never returns home. There could still be plenty of stories told in the universe that Double Fine created. Perhaps a new threat could emerge to conquer the land, and it will be up to the characters that we grew to love to save it.

Why We Won’t See a Sequel:

Double Fine was ready and willing to go at making a sequel to Brütal Legend. In fact, development started on the game’s sequel almost immediatly after the game’s release, but that was stopped by the game’s publisher. Since Brütal Legend‘s release (and slightly disappointing commercial results) Double Fine shifted focus to producing downloadable games like Costume Quest and Stacking.

While the new downloadable games are a lot of fun I would have loved to see what Double Fine’s plans were for the sequel.

Splatterhouse (2010)

Thirty years after the first Splatterhouse hit the arcades the game that die hard Splatterhouse fans had been asking to play for years was released. A 3D action game where you play a frail man attacked and left for dead in a haunted mansion. During his last breaths an old mask in the mansion speaks to him and offers him a deal. If he puts on the mask he will have his wounds healed and give him the strength to save his girlfriend, who had been taken by the master of the house. He does, and with his newfound strength he fights his way through the mansion all in an effort to get back the woman he wants to ask to marry him.

The game’s ending was a heavy cliffhanger. At the end of the game Rick saves his girlfriend, but we have no idea what has happened to her during the time Rick took to save her. Is she herself or has she been possessed by whatever Dr. West was trying to bring into this world? The mask knew that something was indeed wrong with Jen because it wouldn’t let Rick remove it when she was saved. All the pieces were set for a whole new story.

Why We Won’t Get a Sequel:

It was pretty obvious in the time leading up to the release of this game that Namco was preparing for Splatterhouse to be a disappointment. There have been plenty of articles written about this so I really don’t want to retread them but comments from everyone ranging from the former webmaster of the biggest Splatterhouse fan site on the internet to the Happy Video Game Nerd have made that case.

The biggest rumor I’ve read was that Namco was planning to shift their development focus from creating brand new retail games to focus instead on their nostaglic back catalog and get to porting them on modern platforms like the iPhone and Android. In fact, the original arcade version of Splatterhouse was released to the iPhone around the same time, and you can find plenty of other classic Namco games on sale for the mobile platforms as well.

With the development teams shut down and the project leads now on other projects its unlikely we’ll ever find out if Rick really did save his girl or not.

Catherine (2011)

The sleeper hit of Summer 2011, Catherine came out after a media blitz and suprised everyone. Here was a game that was completely unlike anything we had seen in a long time and completely unlike any other game that was currently on the market. In it, you followed an everyman as he tried to balance two relationships with two very different women, all the while making all the hard decisions we all have to face in life. Am I ready to settle down? Gamers and critics alike loved it, and let me tell you I have put plenty of hours this summer into replaying this game and getting the last achievements in it.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to catch up again on Vincent and see what he’s up to now? Or to shift the game’s focus to a new character that is having the same nightmares that Vincent and the other people at the Stray Sheep were having for that week? Or possibly to go to a new venue, like Kappa Heaven, and interact with people there?

Why We Won’t See a Sequel:

Here’s the spot where I normally will mention the development team was shut down or the publisher wasn’t interested in any further use of the license, but actually in this game’s case we have seen no evidence of that. Atlus is best known for it’s Persona series, and it looks like their attention got shifted back to that after completing Catherine, as Persona 4 Arena just got released. In fact, I couldn’t find any announcements saying anything along the lines of Catherine being a financial disappointment or anything bad happening to the development house following the release of the game.

The only thing that is working against it is that Catherine is a complete package. The entire story is told in one game. No loose ends were left dangling, and by the end of the game all your questions are answered. There was also a wide array of endings for the game, with everything from Vincent ending up single and going into space to Vincent getting married and settling down. I know, that’s not much of a reason to completely rule out a sequel may be coming. In fact, this is probably the most likely game out of this entire list to actually get a sequel.

So that is my first list of games that I feel really need sequels but unfortunatly will probably never get one. I’m sure there are more games that can be added to this list, and I would love to read your comments on what games should be added!

Rest assured, more articles about this will be coming, and more games will be added to the list!