With so many popular video-game franchises receiving sequel upon sequel, it can sometimes be easy to forget that there are a whole bunch of really decent titles that never had a chance to finish their story, as it were. As such, here are ten great games that we feel are in desperate need of the sequel treatment.
Alien: Isolation
Arguably one of the best games to ever be based on the Alien movie franchise, along with earning numerous awards as one of the very best survival horror efforts full stop, Alien: Isolation remains a masterclass in fostering a truly oppressive atmosphere where death can be waiting around the corner and effective stealth is paramount. More than that, however, Alien: Isolation excelled because it channelled the 80s aesthetic of the movies like nothing else before it, with all manner of faulty lighting, dark passageways filled with extensive dark piping, colourful old-fashioned keyboards and circular monitor displays to name just a few. In short, Alien: Isolation was fantastic and with the game celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, surely there’s no better time to announce a sequel. Right, SEGA?
Bloodborne
Widely acknowledged as one of the best games of the last decade, and a superlative entry in the Soulslike subgenre, Bloodborne’s delectable combination of Lovecraftian aesthetics, fiendish level design and superbly deep (yet unforgiving) combat ensured that From Software’s PlayStation exclusive effort would linger long in the hearts and minds of those who experienced it. Certainly up there with Elden Ring in terms of player affection – if not more so simply because of the sheer amount of time that has passed since Bloodborne’s 2015 release – a sequel to Bloodborne would set the industry alight and it’s a crying shame that it still hasn’t happened as I scribble this. One can hope, eh?
Bully
Representing something of a departure from all of the open world, ultraviolent crime capers that typified Rockstar Games output in the 2000s, Bully (or ‘Canis Canem Edit’ if you happen to live in the UK), instead shifted gears to the classroom, casting players as James “Jimmy” Hopkins, a troubled teen that looked to navigate the murky cliques and dysfunctional adults of his life in boarding school. With its much more linear trappings and a darkly funny, though still quite adult narrative that spanned across a full school year, Bully’s third-person action-adventure shenanigans felt like a breath of fresh air at its release in 2006, thanks in no small part to its refreshing setting that few games have attempted mimic since its release. With Bully’s twentieth anniversary fast approaching and constant rumours swirling about a potential sequel being locked in the bowels of development hell, it’s fair to say that a second Bully title is desperately needed.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
The most recent entry in a pioneering first-person cyberpunk action RPG that goes all the way back to the early 2000s, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, though not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, nonetheless crafted an immersive cyberpunk world filled with complex conspiracies, personal stories and philosophical musings about what it means to be human. Throw in some eye-popping visuals, an emphasis on non-linear storytelling and progression, together with the hybrid first-person shooter and stealth elements, and it’s clear that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and well the series at large, is crying out for a continuation. With the recent redemption and newfound success of Cyberpunk 2077, one would think that the market has never been more ripe for Deus Ex to continue but alas, a new entry in the beloved series does not seem to be in the cards.
Disco Elysium
Elevated to ludicrous heights on account of its peerless world-building, sardonic dialogue, brilliantly written characters and tabletop-esque RPG sensibilities, Disco Elysium is an outstanding, isometric RPG that puts players in the shoes of a detective who must solve a murder with far-reaching ramifications for society at large. The kicker, however, is that the player protagonist is a walking mess of a person who is constantly at war with himself, his vices and his inner voices. Stuffed to the gills with witty, incisive writing and filled with bizarre characters, Disco Elysium is one of the most entertaining yarns to come along in a long, long time and an effort that is utterly deserving of an encore. Sadly with the well-publicised turmoil at developer ZA/UM making the news rounds just a few months ago, a sequel to Disco Elysium seems further away than it ever has been. Sorry folks.
L.A. Noire
Coming from the now defunct Team Bondi, L.A. Noire deftly tapped into the detective noir genre that Hollywood works such as L.A. Confidential and The Blue Dahlia managed to exemplify so well on the big screen. Set in a beautifully realised post-war Los Angeles, L.A. Noire is a third-person detective adventure that has you solving crimes the old-fashioned way – by examining clues, interrogating suspects and engaging in raucous shootouts with bad folk who really don’t want to be taken alive. With Team Bondi no longer around and L.A. Noire sitting near the bottom of publisher Rockstar Games’ to-do list, it doesn’t seem likely that we will get the L.A. Noire sequel that many of us have been waiting for.
NieR:Automata
Yoko Taro’s NieR:Automata was that rare sequel that didn’t just surpass its predecessor, but entirely reinvigorated the series in utterly unexpected ways, bringing NieR to millions of new players and earning a decent share of Game of the Year nods into the bargain. NieR:Automata deserved all of that success and then some too, with its pixel-perfect third-person combat, riveting exploration of a genuinely fascinating dystopian machine world, esoteric characters and a range of very different and surprising endings that give the game legs far beyond its initial playthrough. Though there have been rumblings of a follow-up to NieR: Automata, the fact that it hasn’t yet happened in the seven years or so since 2B and friends stormed onto our screens back in 2017, is something of a travesty in and of itself.
Prey
Owing a debt to not just the Dishonored titles that came before it but also Looking Glass Technologies’ superb System Shock games, Arkane’s Prey whisked players off to the Talos I space station where a pioneering experiment has gone wrong, resulting in the breakout of a murderous alien menace that can co-opt the physical properties of other objects. Equal parts visceral and thoughtful with an atmosphere that can be cut with a knife, Prey is regarded by many as Arkane’s finest hour. The fact that it has yet to receive a full sugar sequel (Prey did receive some DLC, conversely) still doesn’t sit well with us more than six years since its original release.
Sleeping Dogs
With a market seemingly saturated by open-world extravaganzas such as Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row, developer United Front Games needed to make Sleeping Dogs stand out from the crowd and boy-howdy did they ever succeed. Set in modern-day Hong Kong, Sleeping Dogs puts players in the well-worn shoes of Wei Shen, an undercover police officer tasked with taking down the Triad gangs ruling the city. Where Sleeping Dogs separates itself from its peers, however, is in the bone-breakingly tremendous martial arts combat system, which feels at once an ode to the Hong Kong kung-fu films of old while also meaningfully iterating upon the satisfying environmental combat systems of contemporary action games. It’s great stuff, to say the least, and the fact that Sleeping Dogs also provides such an evocative take on Hong Kong further helps to elevate it in ways that its genre-stablemates cannot compete with. Honestly, not making a Sleeping Dogs sequel is leaving big fat and very tall stacks of money on the table and yet, here we are.
The Order: 1886
One of the PlayStation 4’s most opulent launch titles, The Order: 1886 was much more than just an exercise in hardware-taxing eye candy. A visually arresting third-person cover shooter set in an alternate Victorian London infested with werewolves and other such dark creatures, The Order: 1886 did a great job of building a world oozing with potential, fully enveloping players in its fantastical setting that had them using weapons created by Nikola Tesla(!) to take down the creatures of the night. Annoyingly, The Order: 1886 not only finished on something of a cliffhanger, but the quality of the world-building and lore hinted at a setting that expanded far beyond what players could see in the game, resulting in a double whammy of disappointment that nearly a decade later, we’re still without something resembling closure.
