Current Generation Trilogies

On this week’s Bombcast, slight shade was thrown at the recent Tomb Raider trilogy for being the same game over and over.

While Shadow failed to raise the bar from Rise, thought the first two games were great, and the third was good enough without being in any way exceptional.

This started me wondering, what are this generation’s best trilogies? What counts?

Last saw a number of trilogies within the confines of a single generation. Halo, Mass Effect, Gears of War, and more.

- Tomb Raider may be my favorite, shooting from the hip.

- I’ve yet to play Banner Saga, but it’s on my list.

- Does Life is Strange (1, Before the Storm, and 2) count?

Any thoughts out there?

I can’t really think of many from this gen. I’d probably vote Life is Strange tho I haven’t played 2.

I was always dismissive of the Assassin’s Creed series but Black Flag, Syndicate, Origins, and Odyssey to me are much stronger entries than any of the ones before. We can forget about Unity right?

Maybe the Yakuza series could count? Zero, 6, 7? Zero, 1, 2? I'm not sure but seems like a solid string of games.

I'm struggling to think of any trilogies at all. The only ones that come to mind are ones that include remasters from past generations, like Dark Souls or Assassin's Creed. When you think about it, it's pretty hard to pump out three games worth a damn given the time involved, even in a long console generation.

I know this doesn't count, since it definitely doesn't represent a "trilogy" in the traditional sense, but Forza Horizon 2, 3, and 4 were three tremendous games of a contiguous series that all launched this generation.

@liquiddragon: I was thinking Yakuza as well, but...not really? Only in the sense that they’ve found new life this generation.

I loved Life is Strange and Before the Storm. I’m ready to be let-down by Life is Strange 2, but I’ll still play it, once all episodes are released.

It’s weird, I know last generation was long, but we had all these prestige trilogies. That seemed to vanish. Maybe part of it is the rise of backwards compatibility and everything basically being x86? You don’t need to write a new engine or get it working on a wholly different platform. You can kinda just keep going, these days.

Not to be that guy but technically Tomb Raider (2013) was last generation so i'm not sure that qualifies. I enjoyed them all too, I havent listened to the bombcast (beastcast?) where they tear it down but I feel like the same could be said for most trilogies, even highly acclaimed ones. (Uncharted and Gears of War comes to mind) It's not often that a series evolves that much in single generation.

Anyway, i'm struggling to think of one this generation. I'm not sure Yakuza counts but I enjoy all of those even if they are very iterative and never really make huge leaps. The biggest was probably 2 to 3 mechanically but Kenzan was between the two, which i've never played so it's hard to say. I guess maybe Titanfall if you count Apex Legends? (I really wish they'd made a 3rd Titanfall...)

@boozak: Yeah, you’re right. It’s on Xbox One and PS4, but it did launch on 360.

Frankly, I really dig that generational lines have blurred like this. It does make things somehow feel a little less special, though.

@liquiddragon: For PC and soon Xbox One, Zero, Kiwami one and two is the Yakuza trilogy.

This probably doesn't really count as a trilogy but, because of their excellence, I want to give a shout out to the three SteamWorld games of this gen: Heist, Dig 2, and Quest.

Dark Souls, Tomb Raider and Banner Saga.

@tatsuyarr: Dark Souls was 360-era, as was Tomb Raider (as I totally forgot earlier).

It seemed like trilogies were this huge prestige thing that people got excited about last-gen. Maybe the ability to build once and expand in sequels, given tech used to change between generations significantly.

At the same time, Metal Gear Solid was on a different platform than 2 and 3. God of War 3 was on a new platform, also.

It just felt like more of a thing, but that was also a very long generation...

@nutter: Totally agree but I think they are valid choices: both the first Dark Souls and Tomb Raider have been redeveloped on this generation's hardware so in my mind it counts ^^

@tatsuyarr: Sure. You could look at it as a collection, like MGS on PS4. Who am I to disagree?

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago. How many trilogies we had last gen, versus this gen. I still vote for Mass Effect even though it's a last gen one.

The only trilogy I can think of off the top of my head this gen are the Atelier games. And hey... I like those games a lot, but they ain't exactly mainstream relevant. It's harder to put out a trilogy when a lot of developers are focused on games as a service.

This. So much this.

@notnert427 said:

Totally agree, as some one who has a passing interest in racing games and cars, these are games are unbridled joy. I've said it before, but I can't think of a more genuinely uplifting experience in games than the 1st few minutes of any Forza game.

@brian_: As an old man who hates coming back to a game and finding that I no longer recognize it, I can’t stand games as a service.

I think the idea was always “hey, what if Madden or wrestling game didn’t have to do yearly releases and could just sell a $20 roster update in off-years.”

Instead we have battlepasses for days.

To think that trilogies are maybe another victim of games as a service...

I’m really digging Remnant, in part because it doesn’t have the games-as-a-service trappings that turned me off of Destiny 2, Division, etc.

To be fair, I think Ubisoft largely gets it right (massive changes to Division, aside). I can never spend a penny on Rainbow Six Siege or Ghost Recon (whatever Cocaine Mountain was called) content and be totally fine. I guess those games aren’t about chasing numbers, like Destiny, Anthem, and Division, though.