5 Trilogies That Got Better With Each Game

Developing a gaming trilogy that consistently improves is a difficult task for any studio. Most franchises tend to lose their momentum or run out of new ideas by the time the third game arrives. A small group of series has managed to defy this trend by using each new release to fix previous mistakes and expand a player's options. These developers focused on making their worlds larger and their gameplay more fluid.

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By Gerardo Molina

Achieving this level of consistency is one of the hardest things to do in gaming. It requires a studio to be self-critical and brave enough to change things that many people already like. This kind of progress ensures that the final entry is not just a conclusion but the best possible version of the developer's original dream.

The Witcher

From a Solid Start to a Standard for Open-World RPGs

Each entry improved writing, combat depth, and player choice, with the third game becoming a benchmark for open-world RPG storytelling.
The series shows clear growth in scope and polish, moving from a niche RPG to a globally celebrated masterpiece.

The Witcher trilogy shows how a game series can grow in quality and reach over time. The first game appeared in 2007 and put players into a dark fantasy world inspired by a Polish book of the same title. It introduced Geralt of Rivia, mature moral choices, and branching outcomes that set the tone for the series’ approach to consequence. While the combat was not exactly the best, the storytelling was great. When the second game, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, arrived in 2011, the series improved on nearly every front. Combat became more complex, adding traps and more kinds of weapons and choices for building character strength.

The third entry, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, exploded the series’ scale without losing the moral complexities that made the first two work. It expanded the world massively and added quests that felt like small novels, not simple fetch tasks. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is probably one of the most successful open-world RPGs out there today, largely due to its rich world design, memorable narrative, layered characters, and systems that let choices reshape outcomes. All in all, across these three games, there is a clear arc of growth. The first built a strong foundation and offered promise. The second improved mechanics and visuals, and expanded narrative ambition. The third took those lessons and built a world and system of choices that set new standards for the genre.

Killzone

The first game established the dark tone while later entries delivered stronger visuals, tighter shooting, and more cinematic battles.
By the third game, the series had become one of PlayStation’s most technically impressive shooter trilogies of its era.

The early Killzone games show how a franchise can sharpen its vision and technology over time. The first Killzone tried to deliver gritty sci-fi conflict between human soldiers and the brutal Helghast forces. The distinctive art style, sound, and atmospheric battle were some of the things developers got right. But the game’s AI and awkward controls showed it needed a bit of work. Still, it showed potential and marked an early identity for the series. The sequel, Killzone 2, arrived in 2009 and was a huge leap forward for the trilogy. Its graphics, intensity, pacing, and multiplayer mode made it one of the best shooters at the time. The refined combat, improved presentation, and atmospheric missions showed that the developers learned from the first game’s issues and created a more focused, polished experience.

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By Ollie Tuscarny

Two years after the second installment, Killzone 3 expanded the story again. The game picked up right after the events of Killzone 2 and continued Sev’s struggle against Helghast forces that refused to die even with Visari gone. The developers pushed the visuals further and added new technical features like stereoscopic 3D support and optional motion controls. The story introduced internal conflicts among the Helghast, with new leaders vying for power, and it kept the series’ signature blend of tightly directed missions and intense gunfights. Multiplayer is a central feature of the game, supporting up to 24 players.

Street Fighter

From Simple Fights To Deep Competition

The original introduced the core idea, Street Fighter 2 defined the genre, and Street Fighter 3 pushed skill and mechanics further.
Each game added depth, speed, and competitive systems that raised the skill ceiling and long-term appeal.

Street Fighter began in 1987 as a simple one-on-one fighting game made by Capcom. Players controlled Ryu or Ken, martial artists who used basic attacks and a few special moves like the Hadouken (a fireball), Shoryuken (a rising uppercut), and Tatsumaki Senpū Kyaku (a spinning kick). The game’s six-button layout and command-based special moves were early innovations for the fight game genre, even if the original had limited character options and a smaller competitive scene compared with later titles.

Four years after the first game, Street Fighter 2 arrived and changed fighting games forever. Instead of a single playable character, Street Fighter 2 launched with a roster of eight unique fighters from different countries, each with signature special moves and distinct styles. This variety made matches feel more strategic, and it made the game hugely popular in arcades around the world. Street Fighter 2 was much more than a technical step up; it became a cultural phenomenon and helped define the modern fighting genre. Street Fighter 3 took the formula into more advanced and refined territory, with smoother animation, advanced defensive options, and a focus on timing and precision that pushed the genre forward. The Street Fighter shows how fighting games evolved from simple competitive matches to complex, high-skill competitions.

GTA Trilogy

Growing Worlds, Growing Ambition

The storytelling improved significantly as the series moved from a silent protagonist to fully voiced characters with complex motivations and histories.
The world map grew from a single city into an entire state featuring three major metropolitan areas and a vast countryside to explore.

The Grand Theft Auto trilogy made a huge mark on video games because it took the series into three-dimensional open worlds that millions of players could explore freely. The first title in this trilogy is Grand Theft Auto 3, and it came out in 2001. It was the first GTA game built in full 3D, allowing players to walk or drive around Liberty City, a fictional place inspired by New York. The freedom to roam, take missions in any order, and explore the city made the game feel different from nearly every action game that came before. The story, gameplay, and the way it let players make choices about how to approach objectives made Grand Theft Auto 3 pretty successful.

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By Ritwik Mitra

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came the following year, building on what GTA 3 had done and giving players a world with very different energy. Vice City is set in a fictional version of 1980s Miami, complete with bright colors, neon lights, period music, and a cast of characters inspired by crime films of that decade. Instead of a silent protagonist, this game introduced Tommy Vercetti, a gangster freshly released from prison who must rebuild his reputation after a drug deal goes wrong. Players could again drive, fly, and fight anywhere in the city, but the missions were written with better storytelling. The atmosphere, music, and larger world made Vice City one of the best-selling titles on the PlayStation 2. The trilogy reached its widest scale with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004. The state of San Andreas offered far more places to visit, missions to complete, people to meet, and activities to do than either of the earlier games in the trilogy. For many players, San Andreas gave a feeling of scale and freedom that felt bigger than anything in GTA 3 or Vice City, and it became another massive commercial success.

Ratchet & Clank PS2 Trilogy

Perfecting the Platformer-Shooter Hybrid

The first game introduced the universe, the second expanded gameplay systems, and the third perfected combat and pacing.
Weapon design, humor, and overall flow improved with every release.

Insomniac Games used the original PlayStation 2 trilogy to perfect the action-platformer hybrid genre, adding more depth to the combat with every release. In the original Ratchet & Clank, players meet Ratchet, a young mechanic living alone on a quiet planet whose life changes after he meets Clank, a small robot created to expose a dangerous plot. Together, they travel across the galaxy to stop Chairman Drek, a villain who plans to destroy entire planets to build a new one for his own species. The game mixes platforming, shooting, and gadget-based puzzles, and while it impressed players with creativity and style, its movement and combat were still fairly basic. That first entry clearly focused on ideas and personality more than polish. In 2003, the sequel Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando expanded everything that made the original fun. This second game moves the action to a new setting and introduces a deeper system with more weapons, stronger gameplay, more content, and smarter level design.

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal came in 2004 and refined the series even further. This game tries to blend the familiar platforming and shooting action with larger levels, expanded weapon progression, and a more engaging narrative involving a new villain, Dr. Nefarious, who aims to destroy all organic life. Up Your Arsenal also introduces multiplayer features for the first time in the series, offering split-screen matches and even online play on PlayStation Network, where players could face off using many of the game’s inventive weapons. The visuals looked sharper, the worlds felt bigger, and the mix of combat, gadgets, and humor gave this third game a wider appeal than ever before.