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Old 06-11-19, 20:22   #1
TR1249
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Default The Third Game Curse - a TR Conspiracy Thread

With Shadow leaving a bigger mess behind than Taylor Swift Fans at her GMA Concert, I've been thinking about something lately.

I noticed how the third entry is always either a mess/mediocre/rushed/unfinished etc.

Idk if it's just me, but I start to notice this more and more.

Let's start with TR3

Back then the GP kinda got tired of the formula, so Core tried to make some stuff different, but it ended up being controversal around the GP and Fans. The difficulty spiked up, the level design wasn't always the best and somehow it just went down in quality.

AoD - Yeah not wasting time on it, we all know the Story

Underworld - Crystal tried to change it up as well with new Motion Captured Moves, new Lara Model and more focus on exploration and puzzles. It ended up being an animation mess with a lackluster story and scrapped ideas and cut stuff (Looking at you BTA and LS). Kind of like TR3, they tried to change the formula and gameplay up, but it has it's flaws.

See the patern so far?

Shadow - Eidos trying the same like Core and Crystal - trying to switch gameplay up with bigger Tombs, Exploration and less focus on Combat. It ended up being a buggy mess as well with less polish and also scrapped stuff (Circus Theme enters the chat).

In conclusion, the third entry always tries to fresh things up with new gameplay material, direction etc. but somehow always fails.

Please share your opinions in this thread and make sure to tune in for more conspiracy threads in the future.

Love, TR1249 ♥
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Old 06-11-19, 20:31   #2
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I have all respect for these games despite their tragedies. I love their ambitions and what they were trying to do. TR3 certainly is the less wounded by far but I agree about your inclusion of it.
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Old 06-11-19, 20:31   #3
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Yeah I agree that the third game always seems to underperform. Perhaps because it doesn’t revamp things enough so it feels exactly the same (Tomb Raider as an example) or perhaps it’s because they’re rushing and not making them to a higher standard. If the first game is amazing and well received, so a sequel has to try an jump on that bandwagon to follow suit.

Uncharted is the same amongst fans, first two being great but the third having a more mixture of reviews.
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Old 06-11-19, 21:54   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lara_Fan1 View Post
Uncharted is the same amongst fans, first two being great but the third having a more mixture of reviews.
kinda disagree, the first uncharted is just so so so so so so bad, I literally forced myself playing and finishing it. 2 and 3 though were definitely better (2 being the best xoxo)
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Old 06-11-19, 22:13   #5
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The third game in a trilogy for me does seem to be the "more of the same" game. It doesn't improve as much as it could. Crash Bandicoot 3, Uncharted 3 etc... However this isn't a bad thing. Why fix something if its not broken. Gradually adding more features ontop of the current formula makes sense to me.

But I wouldn't class Tomb Raider 3 in this. TR3 was more of the same too but it was originally supposed to be an expansion to TR2 allowing the player the choice of the order of their adventure. I wouldn't class TR3 as a failure.

Last edited by Tombraider95; 06-11-19 at 22:15.
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Old 07-11-19, 11:06   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SrDanielPonces View Post
kinda disagree, the first uncharted is just so so so so so so bad, I literally forced myself playing and finishing it. 2 and 3 though were definitely better (2 being the best xoxo)
I agree with this so much. I just don't get the hype about the first UC.
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Old 07-11-19, 17:00   #7
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Funny, I am the opposite.

I prefer Uncharted 1, 4 and Lost Legacy over Uncharted 2 & 3. Uncharted 2 & 3 are basically the same game on a loop. Michael Bay explosions and third person shootouts, rinse n repeat. Very frustrating gameplay to say the least. I love UC1 , it has a certain charm to it that I can't quite figure out.

edit: a bit off topic sorry

To answer the thread:

I was literally thinking the same way specially after the recent turn of events so I am glad to see I am not the only one noticing this, I thought I was going crazy for a minute noticing the pattern. I think it falls down to being more of the same with not much innovation. It happens with every other videogame series or at least with most of them when they attempt the third game in their respective trilogies. There are very few exceptions games like GTA III , God of War 3 , etc. very few

Last edited by JsotoTRSaga; 07-11-19 at 17:11.
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Old 07-11-19, 17:48   #8
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I don't really agree about the third to be less innovative. The prime example is obviously AOD, but I also think Shadow did more efforts than Rise, again with TRU because TRA was a remake and didn't have the goal to evolve the franchise.
Of course the first of a trilogy is the most fresh and innovative but still !
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Old 07-11-19, 20:59   #9
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There's also The Prophecy, the third in the Game Boy trilogy. It was developed by a different company but it's just bad. Poor animation, lackluster music and actress...

I think Lara Croft GO is the only one in a trilogy to break the curse, but some don't count it since it originated on mobile.
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Old 08-11-19, 08:05   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LateRaider View Post
There's also The Prophecy, the third in the Game Boy trilogy. It was developed by a different company but it's just bad. Poor animation, lackluster music and actress...
I actually prefer the Prophecy from the previous two GBC games

As for the 3rd game curse, I don't think TR3 falls in this category. I think it depends on the developer. Take MGS3 for example, which had almost the same review score as MGS2. It's just that CD can't make a third game without messing up something along the process. They will fix one thing and they will ruin everything else.
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