With recreation growth prices climbing and publishers all the time searching for the following massive hit, it’s uncommon {that a} profitable recreation is a one-and-done affair. Far extra usually, the most effective video games are was long-running collection, with sequels and spinoff video games aplenty. When that doesn’t occur, it’s uncommon, and it may be both as a result of the sport’s gross sales didn’t match its evaluations, or its creators merely weren’t keen on making one other recreation. For the most effective video games that by no means obtained sequels, Digital Trends checked out video games that weren’t was franchises, in addition to video games that have been the final of their collection with no signal of return.
Further studying
Second Sight
Free Radical Design is finest recognized for the TimeSplitters video games, however the studio’s underrated psychological thriller simply is perhaps its finest work. Second Sight is a third-person motion recreation with telekinesis and psychic skills, set partially in an asylum and partially in a distant analysis facility. Hero John Vattic isn’t a one-man wrecking crew, with a degree of vulnerability that makes each selection necessary — whether or not or not it’s sneaking by enemies or launching objects at their heads.
Second Sight flew below the radar, probably as a result of it launched so near the same Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, nevertheless it’s the extra attention-grabbing recreation of the 2. Told in non-linear order, its story options a number of big twists that utterly flip the sport’s occasions on their head, and it’s value seeing to the tip.

Sunset Overdrive
Insomniac Games has only a few dangerous video games in its library, and virtually all of them find yourself profitable. Ratchet & Clank stays common and after Marvel’s Spider-Man, Sony even opted to buy the studio outright. Before this, nonetheless, Insomniac created the superb third-person motion recreation Sunset Overdrive for Xbox One, mixing its earlier shooter expertise with platforming and Tony Hawk grinding for one thing wholly distinctive.
Sunset Overdrive‘s Xbox One exclusivity during a very rough period for the console likely hurt its sales, despite the game’s crucial reward. Sony has mentioned in an interview that it isn’t prioritizing the collection going ahead, nevertheless it did launch on PC ultimately.
Read our full Sunset Overdrive assessment

Kid Icarus: Uprising
The Super Smash Bros. franchise has saved designer Masahiro Sakurai remarkably busy over time. One exterior recreation he did take time to develop was Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012. The third-person and rail-based shooter felt like fantasy Star Fox, with full voice appearing and fourth-wall-breaking humor. Online aggressive multiplayer and charming characters made it seem to be Nintendo’s subsequent massive franchise, and a giant step up from the unique NES and Game Boy variations.
Super Smash Bros. followers can’t be happy, nonetheless, and Sakurai returned to the combating collection with Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Utlimate. An Uprising sequel has already been dominated out, as has a contemporary port. Pit will seemingly solely stay on in Smash Bros. now.
Read our full Kid Icarus: Uprising assessment

Bloodborne
One of the most effective video games FromSoftware has ever made, Bloodborne took the Dark Souls method and made it quicker, ditching heavy armor and shields for noticed cleavers and pistols. Its gothic Victorian structure and Lovecraft-inspired enemies felt distinct from the Souls collection, as did its extra agile fight and horror components. But with the sport and its sole growth launched, Bloodborne was put apart in favor of Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Perhaps Sony and FromSoftware have plans for a sequel on PlayStation 5, however the five-year wait since Bloodborne launched has solely gotten tougher. The recreation’s creepy universe is ripe for exploration and growth, and there are positive to be loads of terrifying monster designs floating inside director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s head.
Read our full Bloodborne assessment

DmC: Devil May Cry
Yes, the Devil May Cry collection as a complete did return in 2019 with the outstanding Devil May Cry 5, however its reimagining DmC: Devil May Cry underperformed when it launched six years earlier. The recreation ditched the primary 4 video games’ storylines and canon in favor of a darker They Live story that seen companies and right-wing information shops as covers for demons. It saved the collection’ traditional fight, however improved the digicam and streamlined the weapons.
Did DmC take the collection too removed from its roots? Quite probably, as its model of Dante was much less corny and self-deprecating, nevertheless it was nonetheless one of the spectacular motion video games of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 period. With a cliffhanger ending improved by means of a DLC episode, the sport is dying for a full sequel.
Read our full DmC: Devil May Cry assessment

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Nintendo has no scarcity of tactical role-playing video games due to the resurgent Fire Emblem collection. However, it has been nicely over a decade since Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and there’s no signal of a sequel. The military-themed turn-based recreation scratched a distinct itch than Fire Emblem, placing consideration extra on battle ways than particular person characters. The darker tone of Days of Ruin specifically obtained a combined reception, which can have had one thing to do with the collection’ hiatus.
In the meantime, successors have begun popping up. Tiny Metal was one of many first to hold the mantle, and the fantasy-themed Wargroove constructed on Advance Wars’ mechanics in 2019. Still, nothing can evaluate to Nintendo’s personal video games.

L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire was one of the groundbreaking journey video games ever made when it launched in 2011. Oddly, it has stayed largely uncopied within the years that adopted. The recreation’s investigation and interrogation programs trusted gamers to identify necessary clues by means of facial expressions and environmental particulars, and these moments have been punctuated by intense motion. Only a digital reality-exclusive model that bundled collectively a couple of missions would observe.
The probabilities of a sequel are very low. Developer Team Bondi closed months after the sport’s launch, and its subsequent mission was canceled after publishers pulled out. It would seemingly be as much as writer Rockstar Games to develop a follow-up, if one have been ever made.
Read our full L.A. Noire assessment

Freedom Fighters
Long earlier than Homefront, there was Freedom Fighters, developed by Hitman studio IO Interactive. Set in an alternate historical past the place the Soviet Union invaded the United States, the sport targeted on guerilla warfare and underground ways to overwhelm the occupying power. As gamers progressed and accomplished missions, they may recruit extra resistance fighters and additional drive the communists from New York City.
Though a deliberate sequel by no means emerged, there’s a slight likelihood IO Interactive ultimately brings again Freedom Fighters. After it cut up from Square Enix, it took the rights to the IP, although the success of the current Hitman video games imply it might be years for the sequel to launch.

Chrono Cross
There have been dozens of Final Fantasy video games launched over time, however solely three Chrono video games, and solely two of these launched exterior Japan. It’s an injustice, as these two video games are each glorious. Chrono Trigger stands as among the finest — if not the most effective — role-playing video games of all time, and its PlayStation successor Chrono Cross builds on its timeline-hopping gameplay and Techs system.
Chrono has by no means had the identical identify recognition of Final Fantasy, and with no new recreation in 20 years, it’s impossible there’ll ever be a sequel. A 3rd recreation known as Chrono Break was truly deliberate, with its concepts being moved into Final Fantasy Dimensions II after it was in the end canceled.

Jade Empire
BioWare is most well-known for the Mass Effect collection, Baldur’s Gate, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, nevertheless it developed the Xbox-exclusive Jade Empire simply earlier than the Xbox 360 launched. The Chinese-influenced action-fantasy recreation additionally featured a binary morality system known as “Way of the Open Palm” and “Way of the Closed Fist,” constructing on the sunshine facet and darkish facet of Star Wars and setting the state for Paragon and Renegade in Mass Effect.
Perhaps as a result of it launched so late within the unique Xbox’s life, Jade Empire‘s sales were disappointing. BioWare’s later successes with Mass Effect and Dragon Age imply a sequel isn’t seemingly, however its core gameplay and storytelling are nearly as good as something the studio has ever performed.

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