Like the movie industry, video game companies bank on sequels to hit new franchisees to expand the player base and exponentially grow their profits. Some companies are great at creating sequels and developing strong franchises with dedicated fanbases. Others try and strike while the iron's hot and disregard quality concerns in hopes of getting it to market as soon as they can, and even great franchises like Resident Evil or Devil May Cry have fallen victim to it. Let's look at the 10 worst video game sequels of all-time according to Metacritic.
10 Star Wars Battlefront 2
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is a case of an okay game being brought down by choices made by the publisher of the game. Despite Battlefront 2 being in a good place in 2019, it still launched with microtransactions and loot boxes that were done so poorly it ushered in a mini-revolution in the industry. The predatory nature of them had governments from around the world investigating microtransactions in video games and it had lasting effects. It's understandable why it currently sits at a 68 on Metacritic.
9 Crackdown 3
It's always disappointing when a beloved movie star or comedian is attached to a project that ends up releasing in a less than stellar state. Crackdown 3 was a game marred by a terrible development cycle that had the game shifting hands numerous times and was the focus of new and unproven cloud technology. The hilarious Terry Crews couldn't even stop this game from landing at a horrid rating of 60 on Metacritic. It's a shame as it may have been the swan song for the franchise.
8 Devil May Cry 2
With a series as long-running as Devil May Cry, you'll often hear numerous opinions on which game in the series is the worst of the bunch. For Devil May Cry, in particular, it seems to be an easy and unanimous answer: Devil May Cry 2.
It's considered the blandest and most boring entry in the franchise sitting at a 68 on Metacritic, which is sad considering the lead-up to its release made it feel like an evolution or next-step for the franchise. It eliminated the challenge and creativity that made the original so special.
7 Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2
Depending on who you talk to you'll either hear that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 was solidly swimming in 7's type experience, or that it was a disappointing broken mess. Considering it evened out to a 61 on Metacritic, it seems that most reviews fell in the camp of the latter as opposed to the former. Star Wars games have a history of releasing disappointing sequels to games that were both hits and others that were simply considered average or decent.
6 Driver 3
Developers have a tough time dealing with poor critical reception for a project that they poured years of their lives into. Despite this struggle, you assume they all have the self-respect to never pay people to give them better reviews.
It turns out that people involved with Driver 3 thought it was worth a try and spawned the infamous Driv3r Gate. You would think that a game like Driver 3, a 61 on Metacritic, could be a franchise killer, but somehow the license survived to release 5 more games in the Driver series.
5 Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil is known as a classic video game series and easily sits atop the horror game Mt. Rushmore. As the series progressed, however, it shifted from its survival horror roots into an action game with slight horror elements.
This shift eventually resulted in Resident Evil 6, a 60 overall Metacritic averaged title. Thankfully Resident Evil 7 and the remake of Resident Evil 2 have brought the series back in both sales and genre. Fans are just hoping Capcom learned their lesson.
4 Medal Of Honor: Warfighter
Medal of Honor: Warfighter, with a 55 on Metacritic, wasn't just a poorly received game, it happened to be the end of what many people thought was the premiere first-person shooter franchise. The game was rushed to market, and, because of that released with unacceptably poor AI and had too many bugs for a AAA release.
With Call of Duty and Battlefield hitting their strides in the genre, Medal of Honor just couldn't survive releasing as poor of a product as Medal of Honor: Warfighter was. That's what poor decision making will get you.
3 Homefront: The Revolution
Homefront: The Revolution is a game that was essential dead in the water. The game shifted so many hands during development that it's shocking it even boots up. According to several investigations into its development, comments were stating that there was no overall plan or strategy with its development and the game never really had anyone in a leadership position. It's hard to understand the vision or goal of the game you're making when everyone's simply making it up as they go along which resulted in a game with a 48 on Metacritic.
2 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is the sad result of a publisher running out of time with a license and trying to squeeze every penny out of it. The game was critically panned and not only disappointed Tony Hawk fans around the world, but also the legend himself, Tony Hawk. There was one game left on the contract between Tony Hawk and Activision, and it's no surprise that Activision was simply looking to make a few extra bucks on an expiring license at the expense of Tony Hawk's reputation and landing at a Metacritic score of 35.
1 Duke Nukem Forever
Developers will often talk about how tough development cycles that see a game enter a never-ending loop of delays and restarts are terrifying. This is due to the game, once actually released, feeling like a game out of time that was developed in a vacuum while the industry grew and evolved.
Not only did this happen with the gameplay of Duke Nukem Forever, but the humor didn't age well, as it ended up feeling unnecessarily immature and childish. The game also had game-breaking bugs and glitches which resulted in a 54 average on Metacritic.