Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed 2, God of War 2, Portal 2, Rayman Legends (Origins 2)...
Most of the direct sequels are better than the first one because they take a very solid framework and run with it, adding more variety to the game and fixing the most glaring problems.
As others have pointed out, its more common that a series starts going downhill at the third game or so, because by that time they often focus on the wrong things or are too similar to the previous one.
If anything, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a sequel that ISN'T better than the original.
The only sequel that I personally think is better than the original...even though I know the majority of people will highly disagree with me...is Bioshock 2. I thought that game was worlds better than the first game in both its gameplay mechanics, overall story arc, and general world-building. Beyond that, I was actually able to SEE the results unfold from my moral ambiguities/implications. How I decided to handle the Little Sisters actually AFFECTED a person's life, and I saw all of that actually play out in front of me. THAT was the moment the game went over the bar for me that Bioshock had set.
That's not to say Bioshock isn't an amazing story with amazing characters. However, the protagonist was not someone I could be attached to (hell, I don't even know the guy's name) and the gameplay was about as subpar for an FPS as subpar can get. The world itself was intriguing, but the expansions of that world set in motion by Bioshock 2 were far more intriguing to me. The philosophical debates between Ryan and Lamb were some of my favorite stuff.
A sequel that is worse than the predecessor is uncommon in video games. It does definitely happen that a sequel disappoints but more often than not sequels to video games often become better to a certain extent.
It's much more rare in movies for example that a sequel is even half as good as the original.
As other people have mentioned, though, sequels usually are better. It's the 3rd game where a lot of series run into trouble. Fable 2-->Fable 3, Assassins Creed 2 --> Assassin's Creed 3, Mass Effect 2 --> Mass Effect 3, etc.
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