The 10 Best Video Game Prequels

In the satellite of movies, prequels person a somewhat mixed reputation. There's the ones that enrich their existing worlds and stories, similar X-Men: First Class. There's the ones that ruin the mystery, similar the heinous Hannibal Rising. And past there's the ones nary 1 tin really hold on, similar the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Over successful the satellite of games, though, prequels thin to fare amended than their cinematic counterparts. Just look astatine the precocious released Mafia: The Old Country, an enjoyable romp done the aboriginal 1900s that chronicles the formative years of the earlier games' transgression empires.

Prequel games often payment from amended exertion and improvement tools, making them visually and technically much awesome than their predecessors. But genuinely large prequels aren’t conscionable remembered for however they look oregon play, but by however they alteration the mode we acquisition the archetypal games we fell successful emotion with and adhd to the stories we already clasp dear.

With that successful mind, the pursuing prequels were chosen not conscionable for their technological and gameplay achievements, but due to the fact that they everlastingly changed the mode we look astatine immoderate of our favourite characters and worlds. That other accidental to make and deepen what we already clasp beloved means immoderate games connected this database are adjacent considered the champion successful their full series. So without further ado, present are the 10 champion video crippled prequels ever made.

10. Batman: Arkham Origins

Released successful an effort to shorten the hold betwixt Rocksteady’s Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Batman: Arkham Origins is described arsenic a “Year Two” story, taking spot connected Christmas night, 8 years earlier the events of the archetypal game. Developed by WB Montreal, it stars a 27-year-old Batman facing disconnected against 8 of Gotham’s deadliest assassins, including Bane, Deathstroke, and Deadshot, who person each been hired by Black Mask to termination the Bat for $50 million. These events besides service arsenic an root communicative for The Joker, who makes himself known to Gotham for the archetypal clip and introduces the metropolis to his unsocial marque of transgression lunacy.

At the clip of release, Arkham Origins was possibly unfairly compared to Arkham City. But this examination was a disservice to Arkham Origins, which acts arsenic a fantastic accompanying enactment to Rocksteady’s 2nd section alternatively than one-upping it. WB Montreal took everything that made Rocksteady’s games truthful great, held them faithfully successful place, and utilized them to make a compelling aboriginal communicative for the Arkham-specific versions of Batman and the Joker. More than that, Arkham Origins sets the signifier for the main Arkham trilogy by introducing TN-1, Bane’s ace worker serum that’s yet utilized arsenic the ground for Titan, a much almighty cause that has large consequences implicit the events of Arkham Asylum and Arkham Knight.

9. God of War: Chains of Olympus

Despite arriving connected a handheld, the PSP’s God of War: Chains of Olympus was nary smaller successful standard than the archetypal location console trilogy erstwhile it came to story.. A prequel to 2005’s God of War, Chains of Olympus takes Kratos and his Blades of Chaos to The Underworld and backmost connected a foreboding communicative that sets his’ communicative successful motion, laying the gathering blocks for his disdain for the Gods.

By fueling that occurrence of hatred, developer Ready astatine Dawn not lone created an introduction steeped successful breathtaking God of War lore, but performed borderline witchcraft successful getting a PlayStation Portable crippled to some look truthful handsome and play truthful responsively. Perhaps the astir visually awesome merchandise to deed Sony’s archetypal handheld, the workplace managed to construe God of War’s breakneck enactment and signature head-splitting combos for the tiny device, ensuring those blades felt conscionable arsenic satisfying to plaything with wantonness contempt the deficiency of a 2nd analog stick. It’s a short, stylish burst of ungodly convulsive enactment that could easy basal alone, but arsenic a prequel to 1 of PlayStation’s landmark trilogies, it serves arsenic a fantastic enlargement of Kratos’ blood-soaked Greek saga.

8. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Following the merchandise of Super Mario World successful 1990 and with the 3D gyration looming connected the horizon, Nintendo needed 1 last, great, side-scrolling Mario platformer for the SNES. So, with Miyamoto’s blessing, Yoshi creator Shigefumi Hino received the green light to make a crippled starring his fashionable dinosaur creation. The effect was Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, 1 of the top 2D platformers of each time.

Nintendo’s header enactment is not typically acrophobic with timelines and canon, but Super Mario World 2 jumps backwards to archer a communicative astir however a radical of Yoshis rescued Baby Mario earlier they each acceptable disconnected to rescue Baby Luigi from Kamek. It’s a cute root communicative that explains however an babe plumber became friends with a dinosaur, but communicative is truly beside the point. With Yoshi’s Island, Nintendo acceptable retired with a extremity to marque a much “gentle and relaxing” crippled that encouraged exploration implicit precise platforming. To bash this, Nintendo removed clip limits for players truthful they tin advancement astatine their ain pace, and Yoshi’s circumstantial moveset, similar the flutter jump, made it easier to power the quality successful the air.

But beyond conscionable Yoshi’s unsocial abilities, Super Mario World 2 is an iconic send-off to the SNES era. The beautiful, marker-like creation benignant was drawn by manus and scanned digitally, and Koji Kondo’s Yoshi’s Island taxable is an earworm truthful cleanable you can’t assistance but hum on with it whenever it comes on. It whitethorn amusement america immoderate of Baby Mario’s precise archetypal steps, but arsenic a afloat package, it is the culmination of a 2D-platforming improvement squad putting each of their exceptional visual, audio, and method plan acquisition connected display.

7. Divinity: Original Sin

While Divinity: Original Sin isn’t technically the earliest constituent connected the Divinity timeline (that would beryllium Dragon Commander, an antithetic matrimony of role-playing and strategy crippled systems) it is the lone crippled successful the bid we’d genuinely see a prequel. Taking spot implicit a millennium anterior to 2002’s Divine Divinity, this RPG charts the aboriginal years of Rivellon, Larian Studios’ archetypal high-fantasy world. While not an indispensable foundational section of the land’s lore, Original Sin does a fantastic occupation of establishing the dangers of Source magic and the motivations of those who usage it. And acknowledgment to Divinity’s immortal wizards, longtime fans get to conscionable much, overmuch younger versions of characters similar Zandalor and Bellegar.

But Original Sin’s communicative is not what makes it special. Instead, this prequel’s triumph is successful however it spun the destiny of the Divinity bid connected its head, taking it from a struggling cult curiosity and putting it connected the roadworthy to becoming an all-time RPG heavyweight. Larian developed a marque caller turn-based combat strategy for Original Sin, fuelled by an elemental attack that allows you to harvester effects to nutrient exhilarating results; frost liquid with an crystal spell and unit your foes to gaffe connected the humor that they spill, oregon bolster forked lightning with the assistance of a small electricity-conducting rain. All this makes conflict a profoundly tactical, flexible affair, and the aforesaid attraction to item is afforded to the RPG elements, too. With the state to attack quests successful astir immoderate mode you tin deliberation of, Original Sin laid down the rules for not conscionable its exceptional successor, Original Sin 2, but besides Larian’s aggregate Game of the Year-winning Baldur’s Gate 3.

6. Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening

Set respective years earlier the archetypal game, Devil May Cry 3 features a overmuch younger Dante, erstwhile again sporting the chill and arrogant persona that had been mislaid successful the moodier, much superior 2nd game. Going backmost successful clip allowed developer Capcom to reconstruct the property that fans fell successful emotion with successful the archetypal place. More than that, Devil May Cry 3 adjacent retcons the aboriginal beingness of Dante’s duplicate brother, Vergil, ensuring a teenage mentation of the fan-favorite quality could beryllium live for the events of Dante’s Awakening.

Devil May Cry 3 had the unenviable occupation of salvaging Dante’s sullied estimation and did truthful with aplomb. What’s more, portion Devil May Cry 2 is inactive technically canon, the events of Dante’s Awakening service arsenic the foundations for each aboriginal DMC games, and explicate important quality motivations portion fixing crippled holes.

Beyond returning Dante to his chill roots and resurrecting Vergil, Devil May Cry 3 delighted fans by being wickedly difficult. To enactment things into context, Capcom famously made the Japanese mentation of the game’s hard mode the mean trouble for the North American release. That posed a hurdle for some, but galore fans relished the other challenge, particularly fixed however fashionable the changes to the conflict strategy were.

While Dante was ever capable to mix-and-match melee and ranged weapons to concatenation stylish combos, DMC 3’s biggest betterment was adding antithetic combat styles that changed the mode Dante controlled. You could absorption connected either melee (Swordmaster), ranged (Gunslinger), dodging (Trickster), oregon parry (Royal Guard) styles and play utilizing your astir preferred playstyle, an overwhelmingly fashionable prime for a crippled that challenges you to concatenation the biggest, coolest combos.

5. Halo: Reach

For 10 years, fans journeyed alongside the soundless Master Chief arsenic helium fought and yet defeated the alien invaders known arsenic the Covenant. But for its last Halo game, Bungie rewound the timepiece to the aboriginal days of the intergalactic war, erstwhile humanity was precise overmuch connected the losing side.

Set during the weeks earlier the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: Reach casts you arsenic a subordinate of Noble Team, a special-ops Spartan unit, connected a fateful ngo to support the satellite Reach from falling to the Covenant. The afloat self-contained prequel feels astir liberated by the lack of Master Chief, with the varied personalities of Noble Team highlighting however antithetic different Spartan soldiers tin beryllium from the series’ astir celebrated character, contempt their shared heritage.

This team’s doomed but nevertheless captious last ngo sees them escort Cortana from a laboratory connected Reach to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn ship, thereby kickstarting the events of the archetypal Halo. It’s some a cleanable send-off for Bungie and an fantabulous closing-the-circle infinitesimal for the Halo story. But those triumphs are tinged by tragedy; Noble Team’s actions whitethorn trigger Master Chief’s quest to prevention the universe, but their last ngo demands dense sacrifices. Noble Six remaining connected the dying satellite successful a last-stand combat against the Covenant is present a legendary infinitesimal successful the Halo franchise – its ain Rogue One infinitesimal that arrived years earlier Star Wars did it – and 1 of the top last levels ever made.

4. Yakuza 0

Yakuza has agelong been 1 of Sega’s biggest Japanese series, but lone comparatively precocious has it gained traction successful the West. This surge successful popularity tin beryllium traced to Yakuza 0, a prequel that reintroduces heroes Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro to a caller procreation of fans who whitethorn person missed retired connected the archetypal Yakuza crippled backmost successful 2005.

Yakuza 0 is acceptable astir 2 decades earlier the events of the archetypal Yakuza game, and tells the funny communicative of a tiny vacant spot batch that someway drags each of Kamurocho’s biggest transgression families into an improbable turf war. To accidental anymore would spoil a chaotic communicative afloat of Yakuza bosses jockeying for power, Chinese assassins, and head-spinning betrayals. Luckily, owed to its prequel nature, players request nary anterior cognition of the bid to leap close in.

While Yakuza 0’s engrossing communicative volition delight immoderate instrumentality of Japanese transgression dramas, it’s the accidental to spot a younger Kazuma and Majima, who enactment rather otherwise successful their younker compared to their aboriginal years, that delivers the game’s biggest surprises. Kazuma is much hot-headed, not yet the stoic elder gangster helium yet becomes, portion Majima’s chaotic canine persona has yet to afloat form, truthful the Joker-like gangster is alternatively much of a soundless and chill protagonist. Their improvement into the characters they yet go forms the backbone of Yakuza 0’s sprawling narrative, and makes this prequel the cleanable starting constituent for anyone looking to get into Sega’s present massively fashionable series.

3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

There’s an statement to beryllium made that Deus Ex: Human Revolution watered down a batch of what made the archetypal Deus Ex a landmark success. It’s little flexible and much streamlined than its incredibly freeform forerunner. Despite this, Human Revolution earns its spot among the greats, successful portion owed to however its prequel communicative takes a deeper, much idiosyncratic look astatine the series’ transhuman elements.

Protagonist Adam Jensen is robbed of his arms successful an early-game disaster, his limbs forcibly replaced with mechanical prosthetics. But portion they prevention his career, they unwittingly unit him into a taste warfare betwixt the world's wealthy, augmented elite and the deprived moving classes. As some Jensen himself and his breached bath reflector archer you, helium “never asked for this.” While the game’s cardinal communicative successfully takes connected the conspiracy-fuelled sci-fi of the original, it’s the taste and ethical questions posed by Human Revolution’s augmented nine that truly assistance it high. Every quality has their ain instrumentality connected the world’s dividing contented and, contempt immoderate somewhat hamfisted racism metaphors, the communicative makes salient points connected the dangers of unrestrained, capitalism-fuelled science.

Deus Ex’s Matrix-coded, nanotech-fuelled satellite was a far-fetched fictional aboriginal astatine the crook of the millenium, but it has lone grown progressively realistic with each passing year. Human Revolution successfully bridges the spread betwixt the original’s astir satirical attack and thing much knowingly serious, resulting successful a profoundly compelling cyberpunk dystopia.

2. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Hideo Kojima played the eventual prank successful Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, making newcomer Raiden the astonishment protagonist alternatively of everyone’s favourite spy hero, Solid Snake. Three years later, Kojima performed different saltation of this prank by having Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater beryllium a prequel starring Naked Snake, the antheral who would yet go the series’ main antagonist, Big Boss.

We didn’t cognize erstwhile it was archetypal announced, but Metal Gear Solid 3 would go arguably the astir important crippled successful the series, some from gameplay and communicative perspectives. It revolutionized the stealth genre by putting Naked Snake retired successful the unfastened jungle and fulfilling Kojima’s imagination of having a Metal Gear crippled instrumentality spot successful an expansive setting. A method triumph, the PS2 hardware-pushing Soviet jungles were a large departure from the walled corridors of Shadow Moses oregon Big Shell, with a astute adaptive camouflage strategy replacing static hiding places similar lockers. As a effect of this caller design, everything from stealth to brag fights is dramatically antithetic successful Metal Gear Solid 3 compared to erstwhile games, with plentifulness of country to experimentation with however to decision a brag oregon infiltrate a compound.

But it’s not conscionable successful however you combat each brag that magic tin beryllium found, but successful the communicative that each of them tells. The events of Metal Gear Solid 3 acceptable the foundations for everything that came earlier and aft it. Not lone does Snake Eater uncover the origins of the Patriots, the shadiness enactment and eventual antagonist of the series, but besides the tragic origins of Big Boss. The aftermath of his face-off with The Boss everlastingly changed the mode we presumption Kojima’s iconic villain. As his ngo progresses, Naked Snake transforms from CIA spy into a tragic figure, whose betrayal astatine the hands of his state sets him connected a way that leads done each Metal Gear game, each the mode to the saga’s chronological ending successful Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

1. Red Dead Redemption 2

How bash you travel up a masterpiece? Well, if you’re Rockstar Games, you simply marque different masterpiece.

Taking afloat vantage of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Rockstar created 1 of the astir breathtaking, expansive open-world games ever enactment connected a disc with Red Dead Redemption 2. The level of item the workplace enactment into it is simply head-spinning, from the mode caller protagonist Arthur Morgan’s value fluctuates depending connected however overmuch helium eats, to however carnal carcasses volition decompose astir successful real-time. And yes, Rockstar whitethorn person gone a spot overboard erstwhile they made it truthful your horse’s testicles shrink and turn depending connected the temperature, but it each goes towards afloat recreating a beautiful(?) imaginativeness of the Old West.

But the method achievements astir airy successful examination to Red Dead Redemption 2’s epic communicative of a dying Wild West connected the cusp of a new, concern century. Arthur Morgan is simply a antheral whose clip is coming to an end, not due to the fact that of his transgression lifestyle, but due to the fact that he’s dilatory being made redundant by the rapidly changing United States arsenic it evolves into a modern nation. Roger Clark’s show arsenic Morgan is frankly staggering, portrayed with adjacent parts assurance and vulnerability arsenic his accomplices, lifestyle, and ain assemblage proceed to betray him. Across the twilight years of his transgression career, Arthur sees firsthand however his beloved pack disintegrates owed to the negligence of its leader, Dutch, and that downfall provides a beardown level for the passing of the baton from Arthur to John Marston, the archetypal game’s protagonist.

Red Dead Redemption 2 does everything you could ever privation for from a prequel — from improving connected each facet of a series’ gameplay, to telling a communicative that builds retired its world’s mythos to unthinkable effect — and is wherefore it tops our database of the top video crippled prequels.

And determination you person it, our picks for the champion prequels successful video games. Was your favourite included? Let america cognize what you deliberation of our choices, oregon stock your favorites successful the comments below.

Matt Kim is IGN's Senior Features Editor. Additional contributions from Matt Purslow and Simon Cardy.