5 amazing games that deserve a sequel

Video game sequels have always been a tricky subject for video game developers. A sequel is only good if it evolves from what its predecessor did. While doing so, it also changes some things up so as to not feel like an overpriced DLC.

But if a game is already at the peak of the intended experience, evolving and adding to it for a sequel without altering its identity becomes very challenging.

The seventh console generation, despite previously mentioned hurdles, saw a surge in game sequels getting published. Most major publishers began designing their games around the idea of announcing a sequel within a few years of the first title's release. Soon there were sequels to almost every other video game title in the wild.

Most of them were good and followed the core tenets of a good video game sequel. Inevitably, with less development time and higher demand from publishers as well as fans of an IP (intellectual property), some fell into the rabbit hole of mediocre, or at times, outright bad video game sequels.

With the modern gaming market feeling overly saturated with sequels for every other game, the lack of creativity and new ideas for video games are at an all-time high. Even with a sequel to almost every original IP under the sun, there are still some very good games that never received a sequel.

The following are some amazing video games that, despite having great quality, haven’t had a sequel announced.

Note: This article reflects the writer's opinion.

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5 games that are truly deserving of a sequel

1) Bloodborne

Sony’s eighth generation of PlayStation consoles, despite being one of the best-selling consoles to date, did not have a very strong lineup of games at launch in 2013.

Yes, with games like Infamous Second Son and Killzone Shadow Fall, Sony did showcase the visual prowess of the PlayStation 4. But these games weren’t what one would call 'system sellers' and hence didn't receive a sequel.

The PlayStation first-party title that did start the legacy of the PlayStation 4 as a must-have gaming console was Bloodborne. Upon its launch, Bloodborne was promptly heralded as the best video gaming experience on the PlayStation 4.

With overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and a similarly positive reception among players, Bloodborne became an instant classic.

To this day (almost seven years since release, albeit no sequel) the game has a super healthy player base, with new players, old fans, and communities that play Bloodborne, sharing build ideas, strategies, lore ideas, and whatnot. Despite all the fanfare, a sequel to Bloodborne was never announced by either Sony or FromSoftware.

Bloodborne was the brainchild of Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware, having developed games like Demon’s Souls and the two Dark Souls Games. Demon’s Souls, and its spiritual sequel Dark Souls, albeit being very niche, were equally praised by their players due to their captivating and rewarding experience.

These games are brutally difficult with little to no guidance or hand-holding for players.

What is Bloodborne about?

Falling under the medieval era fantasy role-playing game genre, these games do not hold their punches back when it comes to combat and exploration. With a tightly knit hitbox-based combat system that rewards patience and timing attacks, and a vast, interconnected world with secrets hidden around every nook and cranny, the title is sublime.

The challenging but fair difficulty is the draw for these games and it is what makes the players that stick with these games. Powering through challenges made it one of the best gaming experiences. With three consecutive games under the same fantasy RPG genre, Miyazaki and team wanted to explore other ideas for future games and sequels.

That’s when Bloodborne was created. Straight off the heels of the sequel to Dark Souls that came out just a year ago, Bloodborne, although encompassing the core tenets of the Souls game, is its own thing with a unique identity of its own.

Set in a Victorian era with gothic architecture and a lot of Lovercraftian influence, it almost felt like a horror game with the combat system of action games. Being in a similar vein to that of the Souls titles, there is almost no hand-holding with objective markers and quest logs.

Instead, the game relies on subtle environmental hints and its impeccable level design to naturally nudge the player towards their objectives.

How combat works in Bloodborne

Combat has been tweaked a lot, and yet it is still a hitbox-based combat. However, the combat speed in Bloodborne is way faster than that of other Souls games. Firstly, there aren’t any traditional shields in Bloodborne and hence the only defensive option is to dodge attacks by either backstepping or rolling.

Weapon variety too is trimmed a lot to essentially only one weapon for any given playstyle, giving players time to invest in a single weapon and learn its combat possibilities. This is done so well that if the player chooses, they can effectively finish the entire game without needing to change their loadout.

Everything in Bloodborne is immaculately designed by the developers to instill a sense of awe and excitement in players. It's an experience one has to take part in themselves to understand and appreciate. If there’s any Soulslike that is worthy of a sequel, it's Bloodborne.

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2) Prey (2017)

Prey, developed by Arkane Studios Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks (not to be confused with Prey (2006) by Human Head Studios) was released in 2017. It received a positive reception from both players and critics alike, but there wasn't enough drive for the makers to release a sequel.

However, some criticism was expressed towards its technical polish, or lack thereof, at launch. Regardless, Prey is still held by many as one of Arkane’s finest works and one of the best immersive simulations out there. But despite that, Prey hasn't received a sequel yet.

Prey is a product of a very niche and lesser known genre of immersive simulation games (in the same vein as games like Deus Ex, System Shock, etc.).

How Prey relates to other immersive simulation games

Immersive simulations are games where the narrative and the gameplay are intertwined. Rather than the developers laying a linear plot, the story of the game is molded by the players themselves via their actions and interactions with the game's world and various non-player characters.

Prey may look like an average first-person shooter with sci-fi elements thrown in at first glance, but playing for just a few hours brings out the game’s true nature as an immersive simulator. Players have complete liberty to explore and experiment with various tools and environments from the get go.

What actually is the story in Prey

In Prey, players are given the role of Morgan Yu in Talos 1, a space station orbiting the earth. Due to certain reasons, an alien race called the Typhons have invaded Talos 1 and are hunting the space station's inhabitants.

The story immediately grasps the player with its introductory sequence, which is one of gaming’s best introductions in recent memory. The plot revolves around exploring the space station and uncovering the secrets and reasons behind the invasion.

Gameplay and tools for players in Prey

Players are equipped with traditional weapons like handguns and shotguns. They are also given a handful of unique weapons like the GLOO cannon, which shoots a solid foam-like substance that hardens on impact. These special weapons are very useful during combat, but can also be used to aid exploration and solve various environmental puzzles.

As much as it may look like a shooter, combat isn’t the main focus of Prey. Exploration and finding unique and creative ways to interact with the environment is the actual draw of this game. Almost every environmental puzzle or quest-related challenge has more than one solution.

Players are always incentivised for careful exploration with story-related information, new tools, and even entirely new areas to explore at times.

With so many ways to play the game and tackle its many objectives, Prey has an unprecedented level of replayability. Prey also received a DLC add-on called Mooncrash, which has its own spin on the gameplay of the base game. There is also a new game plus, which adds to the replayability factor of the game.

Prey is one of the best immersive simulations ever developed, and a great game to sink hours of playtime in. It deserves a sequel, for exploring the ideas already established in the base game as well as the DLC, and expanding upon them even further.

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3) Days Gone

Sony’s Bend Studios developed Days Gone as their first Triple-A open world game. And despite facing some technical hiccups, it's one of the very few open world games that gets the open world right. Despite this, it never got a sequel green-lit by the publisher Sony.

The story in Days Gone

Days Gone, at its heart, is a post-apocalyptic action adventure game with zombie-like creatures called Freakers roaming its vast open world. Players step into the shoes of Deacon Saint John, a former military veteran-turned-enforcer for a motorcycle club.

The game, for the most part, is set in the lush countryside of Oregon, filled with forests and remnants of past civilization. To explore this vast open world, players are given a drifter bike. It can be upgraded and customized, though the customization is limited to paints and decals only.

Deacon's drifter bike and arsenal of zombie-killing weapons

The bike’s handling is completely arcade-like, with brakes to drift and even a nitrous kit. It proved to be a bit troublesome at first, with players needing to manage fuel and damage to the bike.

But with a few hours of playtime and some basic upgrades installed, the bike becomes a fun way to explore the stretches of Oregon.

Apart from this, the game also sees players collecting various firearms and makeshift melee weapons. These are used to fight against human enemies as well as zombie hordes.

The zombie-hordes in Days Gone

The standout feature of Days Gone is the presence of freaker hordes, with hundreds of freakers on the player's tail at times. These can be killed using various tools ranging from the weapons players have in their arsenal, environmental traps, explosive barrels, and many more. But early on, the best course of action on encountering a horde is to run away.

Experiencing one of these hordes is a real adrenaline rush. The marketing for Days Gone was heavily centered around this particular mechanic and players were expecting the hordes to be a big part of the game.

Unfortunately, the hordes are relegated to the final arc of the story. That is when players are given enough tools and firepower to go toe-to-toe with one of these hordes.

The game, though, introduced a few hordes during the first half of the game. These early hordes are fairly small in scope and can be easily escaped or fought with early game weapons.

The unique side-quests in Days Gone

The real strength of Days Gone lies in its narrative structure and how every main and side quest is designed to not feel out of place or filler-like. Most cookie cutters of open-world games rely on filling the map with pointless checklists of mostly mundane activities.

These don’t usually hold much meaning besides being filler activities between the main story quests. Side quests in Days Gone, on the other hand, are very well structured and almost every single one adds something to the main narrative of the game.

There are rarely any filler quests to pad the length of a particular chapter of the story. For a developer for whom Days Gone is their first open-world game, it’s really impressive.

But, even though it was a quality open-world game, it did not receive much critical acclaim, mostly due to the lack of technical polish this game had at launch. There were reports of frequent game crashes, framerate drops, muddy textures, glitched-out quests, and many more issues. The game suffered greatly due to its unoptimised launch.

Now, after almost three years and numerous patches, the game is in a respectable state in terms of stability and framerates. The game was recently ported over to PC, allowing more players to experience Deacon’s story. Days Gone admittedly is one of the best open-world experiences on the PlayStation 4.

Despite that, Days Gone, according to Sony wasn’t a success partly due its meddling critical reception. Thus, a pitch for its sequel by the developers was reportedly declined by Sony. So, for now, a sequel to Days Gone is off the table, but never say never.

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4) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro is a completely different experience from any of FromSoftware’s previous ventures. Bloodborne, however distinct it was from the original Souls games, still had the same core features as Dark Souls. Creating a custom character, improving the said character’s distinct stats using souls/blood echoes, and having a number of weapons to choose from.

Sekiro is one of the first times where Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the Dark Souls series, chose to forgo the unnamed player character and went with a named protagonist. Along with a rather easy-to-understand story that was set in the developers’ homeland of Japan during the Sengoku era.

Although the story has its fair share of cryptic elements, it is still a far cry from the Souls titles. There is a good amount of straightforward dialogue and cutscenes that explain the story of Sekiro. FromSoftware still maintains the features of the item descriptions, but going through them is optional and is not necessary in order to understand the plot of the game.

Sekiro also ditches the weapon variety and classic leveling system of the Souls games. Instead, it gives players just a sword and combat skills to overcome its many challenges.

Being a FromSoftware title, Sekiro boasts a relentless difficulty curve. Some players even consider it the single most difficult game FromSoftware has ever developed. This is due to the lack of a leveling system, which forces players to learn the game’s combat mechanics in order to survive and get through bosses.

The unique combat and progression in Sekiro

Sekiro also has a number of unique mechanics exclusive to the game. First of these being the posture system for both the players and the enemy NPCs. This is basically a meter that fills up over time on dealing health damage, parrying or countering attacks. This opens up the enemy for a critical hit called Deathblow.

The player character, who goes by the name Sekiro or Wolf, isn’t immune to this mechanic. Their posture too takes a hit every time upon taking damage or failing to properly parry and counter enemy attacks. These features were further carried to Sekiro and Dark Souls' spiritual sequel, Elden Ring.

The parry system was overhauled a lot to make it much more effective as parrying or deflecting attacks is the only defensive option in Sekiro. There’s also a prosthetic arm that acts as a secondary weapon.

It has a number of switchable tools that can be used during combat. Any use of the prosthetic tool costs spirit emblems, which can only be carried in a limited amount at any given time.

The combat of Sekiro is like a rhythm game but with swords. The first couple of hours are the most difficult ones, even for veterans of Soulslike titles. Sekiro actively discourages the Souls style of rolling through enemy attacks and landing a hit or two in between.

Instead, it heavily incentivizes an aggressive playstyle of constantly clashing swords, be it for attacking or deflecting attacks.

How aggresive gameplay is facilitated in Sekiro

Another major change in Sekiro is the removal of the stamina bar. In Dark Souls and its sequel, the stamina bar governs most actions during combat be it attacking, dodge rolling or even blocking. Sekiro’s lack of stamina bar is meant to facilitate the aggressive style of action it's going for.

Also, as the title suggests, death in Sekiro isn’t an immediate game over. Players have a limited window to resurrect themselves upon death with half of their health replenished. This allows players to make mistakes and still have one last chance to recover.

Once they learn the art of deflecting and attacking in Sekiro, the game immediately becomes so much more fun to play.

A few of Sekiro’s bosses are some of the finest creations in the entire boss catalog of FromSoftware. Bosses like Genichiro, Lady Butterfly, Owl Father, and Isshin Ashina are the highlights of this game.

With Sekiro being the only game from its developers that never received DLC expansions, a sequel is something that many fans have been asking for. With a lot of narrative threads left hanging that can be explored and an impeccable combat style, Sekiro undoubtedly deserves one.

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5) Control

Finland-based developer Remedy Entertainment’s Control was one of the most overlooked games of 2019. Control was loosely set in the same universe as Remedy’s previous game Alan Wake. It was one of Remedy’s biggest projects that they worked on without the backing of a big publisher.

Remedy has always been a great innovator when it comes to designing their games. With unique gameplay and storytelling features, Remedy’s games always push the envelope when it comes to video game innovation.

They pioneered the Bullet Time Mechanic with Max Payne and its sequel. With Alan Wake, they introduced the episodic structure of storytelling as a first for any video game. Control is nothing short of such innovative and unique ideas.

At its core, Control is a third-person action game with mild horror themes and a psychological thriller-like narrative. Control’s story is heavily inspired by the ideas of the SCP Foundation.

What Control's story is all about

Control sees the player assume the role of Jesse Faden as she journeys into the oldest house to look for her long-lost brother Dylan.

The oldest house is the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), a fictional organization that houses many secrets for Jesse and the players to uncover.

Upon arriving, Jesse learns the former director of FBC has died under mysterious circumstances. She is then immediately made the next director in his place, which gives her possession of the director’s firearm called the Service Weapon, which is a shapeshifting gun.

Combat and the Service weapon

The gun can be configured into different kinds of weapons, from a regular handgun to a shotgun to even a grenade launcher. Along with this weapon, she also receives a number of supernatural abilities.

These range from the ability to quickly dash around the arena, the ability to conjure a shield from debris, and even the ability to levitate for a short period of time.

The combat style is very fast paced for a third person shooter. It encourages constant movement to avoid getting hit and staying aggressive on enemies as killing one is the only way to heal. The large assortment of abilities with the shapeshifting gun allows players to experiment with their loadout.

The gameplay of Control is really addicting. With constant weapon mods and upgrades, the game gets better with more time that is spent with it.

Control's advanced PC features and critical reception

Control, apart from having the Remedy’s signature uniqueness in both gameplay and combat, is also a graphical powerhouse. Built from the ground up using Remedy’s in-house Northlight engine, the title boasts some of the best real-time graphics in video games.

It is also one of the first games to come out with native support for real-time Ray traced reflections on PC.

Control received a very positive reception from both critics and players alike, with praise for its vague but gripping story and fun gameplay. It received two DLC expansions that mostly felt like a mini sequel to the game. One of them even had a direct crossover with Alan Wake.

With a sequel to Alan Wake on the horizon being the primary focus of Remedy, it's going to be a long time before we see a follow up. With a really unique premise and truly inventive and cathartic gameplay, Control, for certain, demands a sequel.

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Maybe some day we will get news of a Bloodborne or Sekiro sequel, or maybe a follow up to Prey. Only time will tell if any of the games on this list will ever get a seque. Until then, we do have these great games to play and enjoy.