My thoughts on sequels and the problem they pose

By Andrew “WorldDude” Passafiume

This blog post will be for two purposes. The first is to give my final thoughts on both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. The second is to discuss the problem I have with yearly sequels for big franchises. It’s clear we’ll be seeing new Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed games yearly for a little while, but what’s the problem with that?

Call of Duty: Black Ops is…well, Treyarch’s best effort yet, and the first game they’ve developed that could easily stand on the same level as Infinity Ward’s previous efforts. The single player campaign is solid, but it does still have some huge problems, and the narrative can be a bit silly at times (but not more so than Modern Warfare 2′s).Otherwise, it’s still a pretty fun ride. It’s just a shame that it always felt like…more of the same, but in different settings. I love the series, but it’s clear they need another “Modern Warfare” (and not just another game named Modern Warfare, you know what I mean!) to get the series really going again.

The game is still packed full of content, so despite the short campaign, there is plenty to do. The multiplayer is the best in the series so far, and the zombie mode is still pretty fun. What’s missing? Well, zombies are cool, but Spec-Ops was easily the coolest thing about Modern Warfare 2, so to see no kind of co-op like that is a bit disappointing. Problems aside, Black Ops is still a great game that is well worth a playthrough. But I suppose everyone who wants to play it probably has by now.

And then there’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, a game that’s still not perfect, but easily the best in the series. It’s not quite the jump in quality from the first to the second was, but all of the polish and nice new additions in AC2 are still present here. The addition of the “brotherhood” is pretty cool as well, giving you chances to take out your enemies without even getting blood on your outfit. Having lackeys is fun, isn’t it?

In terms of the story, it’s pretty lackluster. Ezio’s story reaches a more fulfilling conclusion overall, but nothing really exciting happens as it did in the previous title. As for Desmond, well…he only plays a big role in the story at the beginning and the end of the game. The ending though…it’s pretty fucked up. I’m still unsure how to feel about it. But the multiplayer is surprisingly great, and despite my limited playtime with it, I still found myself enjoying it.

So there you go, two great new franchise titles that have already sold plenty of copies. Now here’s the big problem: I don’t want a new Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed next year. That’s ridiculous, you say! I should want new games in every series I love as quickly as possible, especially if they’re this good, right? Not exactly.

The first problem is that they feel less special. Getting a new Call of Duty game this year felt the same as getting a new Madden. Okay, I was a bit more excited about Call of Duty, but my point still stands. At this time, it just feels like “Oh, another Call of Duty game” instead of “OH MAN, ANOTHER CALL OF DUTY GAME!” It was just last year when I was super excited about the mere announcement of Modern Warfare 2, but I’m slowly beginning to get tired of it.

Sure, next year we could get something incredibly new and different in the series like the first Modern Warfare was, which is something I want, but I still feel like each new game is less impactful and exciting. Assassin’s Creed doesn’t feel that way yet, but if we get a new game next year (which we most likely will), then I can already tell it won’t be nearly as exciting.

The other major problem? Like with Guitar Hero, Activision is going to milk Call of Duty for as much as it’s worth. Sure, we haven’t reached the point of multiple CoD titles a year (but that wouldn’t surprise me at this point), but we might be getting there. You may not see it now, considering Black Ops bested Modern Warfare 2′s amazing launch considerably, but give it a couple of years and soon enough, even the most hardcore fans will begin to get tired of it.

Will Assassin’s Creed suffer the same fate? Well, we’ll see what happens next year, but it could. Either way, I’d like a year off from both franchises. Oh yeah, I’ll continue to support them as long as they stay the same quality, but my excitement will begin to fade more and more each year. Sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.

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