8 Video Game Franchises That Made Their Mark With Sequels

6. Borderlands

Borderlands was a fun cel-shaded four player co-op roleplaying shooter hybrid, but never really blew anyone away with it's shallow plot, boring characters and uninvolving character growth mechanics. At the time, it seemed like it just wanted to be a fun time, but couldn't really commit and ended up falling flat in many areas, leaving some players with a very dull impression of the game. Fast forward to September of 2012, and we get the highly anticipated Borderlands 2, a game that really went all out to be an outstanding, in-your-face smorgasbord of RPG elements, mindless shooting, endless looting, and comedic storytelling. Borderlands 2 expanded upon its predecessor's potential in nearly every way, creating a self-aware, explosively enjoyable RPG-FPS hybrid chock full of content and secrets to uncover. Borderlands 2 went on to sell over eight million copies, quickly becoming 2K Games' highest selling game in the publisher's nine year history. It has since been supported with a slew of downloadable content including additional campaigns, costumes and expansions. It's appeal is so widespread in fact, that Telltale is even making an episodic adventure game series set in the universe called Tales from the Borderlands, with Gearbox working on a Borderlands 2: The Pre-Sequel, whatever that is. We're not sure what a pre-sequel is, but it's surely a sign of rampant success.