The 7 Most Panned Game Sequels-When Follow-Ups Go Horribly Wrong

Nothing stings quite like a bad sequel. You've got your hopes up, your controller ready, and then—boom—disappointment hits you like a lag spike in an online match. Some sequels improve on their predecessors, delivering bigger worlds, better mechanics, and a more polished experience. Others? Well, let's just say they should've stayed on the drawing board.

1. Ride to Hell: Retribution - A Casino, Bikers, and Absolute Chaos
If you've never heard of Ride to Hell: Retribution, consider yourself lucky. This 2013 game tried to blend an action-packed biker story with gritty casino underworld elements, but instead, it became one of the most infamous disasters in gaming history. Players were promised an open-world experience filled with gang warfare, high-speed chases, and yes, some shady casino dealings. What they got was a game so broken, it felt unfinished—awful controls, laughable dialogue, and combat that made button-mashing feel like a strategy. The casino scenes, meant to add a touch of seedy underworld glamor, instead highlighted the game's lifeless NPCs, clunky animations, and an overall lack of polish.

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2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 - A Glitch-Filled Nightmare
The original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games were legendary, blending perfect arcade-style skating with killer soundtracks. Then came Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, which felt like someone took all that greatness, threw it in a blender, and hit "puree." The game was riddled with glitches, had awful physics, and somehow made skating feel boring—an impressive failure. It was so bad that Activision had to rush out patches just to make it barely playable.

3. Duke Nukem Forever - 15 Years of Waiting for... This?
If there were an award for the most disappointing sequel of all time, Duke Nukem Forever would be a front-runner. After a whopping 15 years of development, the game finally launched in 2011—and it was a trainwreck. Clunky mechanics, outdated humor, and terrible level design made it feel like a relic from the early 2000s (and not in a good way). Fans who had waited over a decade for Duke's triumphant return were instead treated to a crude, unfunny, and painfully unfun game.

4. Aliens: Colonial Marines - Where's the AI?
Fans of the Aliens franchise were excited when Colonial Marines was announced—a first-person shooter set in the terrifying world of xenomorphs? Yes, please! But what they got was a broken mess with brain-dead enemy AI and lackluster gunplay. In fact, it was later discovered that a simple typo in the game's code caused the xenomorphs to act completely stupid. A literal one-letter mistake turned terrifying aliens into clueless puppets.

5. Resident Evil 6 - An Identity Crisis in a Box
After the masterpiece that was Resident Evil 4 and the solid Resident Evil 5, expectations were high for Resident Evil 6. But instead of a gripping survival horror experience, players got a game that didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. It tried to mix horror, action, and co-op gameplay but failed at all of them. The campaign felt bloated, the story was all over the place, and the over-the-top action sequences felt like they belonged in a different franchise.

6. Medal of Honor: Warfighter - Generic Shooter Syndrome
The Medal of Honor series once rivaled Call of Duty as a top-tier military shooter. Then came Medal of Honor: Warfighter, a game so bland and uninspired that it felt like a rejected Call of Duty clone. Terrible AI, repetitive missions, and a story that was somehow both confusing and forgettable turned this game into a massive flop. It was so bad that it effectively killed the franchise—there hasn't been a new Medal of Honor game since.

7. Devil May Cry 2 - Dante's Emo Phase
The first Devil May Cry was a stylish, high-energy action game with a cocky protagonist, Dante, who oozed charisma. Then came Devil May Cry 2, where Dante barely spoke, the combat was watered down, and the game felt sluggish and uninspired. Fans were so disappointed that Capcom had to completely rethink the series with Devil May Cry 3, which thankfully brought back the fast-paced action and Dante's signature charm.