Call of Duty is one of those FPS series that will never stop pumping out sequels. There are a number of other first-person shooters that are in the same boat, like Halo and Battlefield. However, for all of those franchises, countless others only received one game before fading into the sunset, despite possibly having the potential to produce sequels.
That's not counting games that stopped having sequels, either. First-person fans would love to see Condemned 3, Titanfall 3, or Crysis 4 at some point, but those types of discontinuities are not the point of this article. At least, they got one sequel. No, let's look through history and pick out those fantastic FPS games that, for one reason or another, never led to anything more.
Note
While we are focusing on solo games for the most part, we will consider spin-offs from other series, as long as they never received direct sequels. Some examples came close, though.
Battlefield Hardline
Bad Boys, Bad Boys
The Battlefield series has had numerous spin-offs, but most of them have been set in war zones throughout time: past, present, and future. Battlefield Hardline is still one of the most fascinating games in the franchise, being set primarily in modern-day Miami. Players were a police detective going after the drug cartel in the city, with a mix of action and stealth that allowed players to either shoot up gangsters or arrest them tactfully. Perhaps it wasn’t the high-octane action of the war zone games, but this different approach also made it a fun spin-off worthy of a sequel, despite the game having its share of issues at launch.
Bulletstorm
Kicking In The Name Of
Bulletstorm has come so close to a sequel that it’s almost painful no one has pulled the trigger yet. The game was initially released in 2011 for systems like the PS3 and Xbox 360, serving as a more over-the-top shooter parodying others, like Halo 3, with its nonsensical story and ludicrous gameplay. It received decent enough scores, and the next attention it got was a remaster, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, which added Duke Nukem as a playable character, along with a later VR edition: Bulletstorm VR. While keeping the game accessible and its name alive is great for new audiences, old fans would also love an actual sequel, since this universe has so much potential to develop into something more.
Deathloop
Live Die Repeat
Deathloop is now five years old, hitting the halfway point of being retro with no future in sight. While not quite a roguelike, the time loop nature of the gameplay lends itself to the other genre. As Colt, players are trapped on an island, doomed to repeat their lives until they can kill the leaders on the island. The twist is that a second player, Julianna, could try to actively kill Colt along with the AI enemies, but players could opt out of this multiplayer aspect if they wanted. While challenging, the game had a lot of great ideas from the masters at Arkane Studios, and they could assuredly nail it with a sequel, given the chance.
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Squad Up
There’s almost no genre out there that Star Wars hasn’t touched in games, including quite a handful of first-person shooters. Star Wars: Republic Commando is among the best ones, which was originally an Xbox console exclusive in 2005 before getting a remaster in 2021.
As a group of four Clone Troopers, players got to command their squad throughout tight missions, blasting droids of all varieties with plenty of laser blasts and thermal charged grenades. There technically was a mobile sequel, Star Wars: Republic Commando: Order 66, but that’s not really the same thing as a fully fleshed-out console/PC successor that builds on the first game's ideas. Sadly, there was a proper sequel planned called Imperial Commando, but work didn’t get too far before it was canceled.
Darkwatch
Riders In The Storm
Vampire stories and Westerns mix so well together, and Darkwatch might be the best video game that combines the two. A cowboy named Jericho gets turned into a vampire, with players able to fight the disease or embrace it to gain powers during the campaign as they fight the forces of darkness for the titular Darkwatch organization. Elaborate steampunk crossbows, revolvers, shotguns, and more aided players in their campaign.
The game was never ported in any form, making it virtually unplayable today without a physical copy (at least, legally), and worse yet, Darkwatch almost had a sequel, but it was canceled. Evil West is probably the closest we will get to a spiritual successor to Darkwatch, and it is far from the same thing.
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
