What franchises started off good/interesting and are meh now?

I’ll start with Borderlands. When this franchise first came out, it was pretty cool. Since then we’ve had a ton of looter shooters to the point that I hardly find a new one interesting now.

How about you, SW? What franchises started off good/interesting and are meh now?

Uncharted

Horizon zero dawn/ forbidden west

Halo Single Player Campaigns. Halo CE was great. A real breath of fresh air in the FPS space at the time. Halo 2 started out great then went a bit meh. After that completely forgettable. Not even CO-OP could save ODST (the last i could be bothered to play.

Metal Gear Solid: I quite enjoyed MGS on the PS1 but lost all intetest in the series after that (too many cutscenes that go on for too long put me off).

Deus EX. The first Deus Ex is fantastic (though i am a bit afraid to play it now). Really ahead of its time. Then it took a big nose Dive with the second one (Infinite war was it?). Human Revolution did improve again but the first one still hasn't been topped.

Halo. Granted I didn't play until MCC, but Halo 4... WTF was that?

Mario Party for sure. Thankfully, Nintendo seems to slow down.

CoD... I was done after Black Ops 2. Still want to get to older stuff on GameCube though.

I didn't really like Portal 2s SP that much.

COOP basically saved it for me, along with mods.

Halo should have been rebooted.

😳😳😳 I need to know why! Portal 2 is one of those rare near perfect jams for me. 10/10

Halo, Gears, Resistance, killzone (likes 2 and 3), Mario Party.

Call of Duty,Halo,Battlefield. Still pretty ok,but lost it’s appeal over time.

@TheEroica: Mean, not dumb enough to claim it's bad. It's clearly a good game. Just didn't do it for me.

The original felt like lightning in a bottle. Perfectly paced tight experience that does what it sets out to do then ends.

A lot of sections like this kinda felt like a slog. And in comparison to Portal 1 like it was trying too hard to be charming and cookie.

There's sections of the game where all you are doing is walking along narrow railings listening to dialogue. Like, big chunks of the game are that.

This isn't something new for Valve, the literal opening of Halflife is listening to dialogue while sit in a tram, But this does it numerous times in an obvious manner where you know it's just connecting you to the next section with nothing visually interesting (i.e. City17) to keep you interested in A-B. It becomes more apparent in replays with diminishing returns.

Mostly got enjoyment from the COOP section. Wish the entire product was that TBH. Expand upon the hub, make it more Mario 64 like with optional areas opening up.

Halo😁😅🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

So true! The first game was epic and should have been the end of the series. It got extremely stupid.

Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts just got worse and worse as the game’s progress… and don’t even get me started on that super stupid main story!!

Uncharted is another one, the first entry was pretty solid and then just became more and more of a movie until we got to the abomination that was UC4!🤮🤮

Gears and Halo without a doubt.

Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi are both Mario RPGs that started strong, but their respective last few entries were forgettable. Unfortunately for Mario & Luigi's developer Alphadreams, it was forced to file for bankrupcy before closing its doors due.

I was let down by it as well. Definitely not a bad game, but a lot of the puzzles felt like ones from the first game. That, and the length of the game left me unsatiated.

I would say almost all games/franchises stay around too long. If you don't nail the vision on your first try, it's makes sense to continue improving on that original idea. But too often, that innovation gets overshadowed with the desire to maintain. I can understand not wanting to fire your whole staff after a stumble, but I also think a lot of these companies are just hanging on... and should get out of the way.

Most of franchise ruined in 7th gen now doesnot exist. only one improved was Hitman after ruined by absolution the new trilogy bring it back.

Watch Dogs the first game it had so much promise it wasn't a bad game it just couldn't live up to the hype especially after the downgrade then the series went hipster and Legion was weird and not in the good way.

I like the more serious tone of the first game.

This E3 trailer was pretty cool and interesting and it's even more relevant today.

Assassin's Creed

Really liked the 1st two games. AC1 was barebones and repetitive but felt like something fresh at the time. Nothing like it. And the Crusades setting was still the best timeline imo. AC2 improved on gameplay, characters and story. The yearly releases ruined it for me. Unity was my last AC and, even though I still enjoyed it, I didnt care for the series ever since. I've nor the patience or the time to keep up with a yearly series

I third this.

Having just recently replayed both Portal games, not sure what you're talking about. If anything, maybe a bit derivative in the prologue just to get you back into the groove, but the rest of the game throws completely new things your way.

Fair enough... It is definitely not the sort of game that unfurls its story in the middle of a puzzle. I feel like those narrative bits in hallways or back rooms between puzzles is how it expands on the story... That said it may not resonate with everyone, because it's stop and go in terms of momentum. That ending though! That for me is when it cemented the 10/10.... So many games just don't give a shite about the finale.... Portal 2 had a hugely satisfying final scene.

The coop was sublime.... Maybe the tightest coop experience I've ever played. 100 percent need a good collaborator on those puzzles. It was awesome.

That's fair. I think I might be talking more from memory, and less from fact. I'm also conflating 1&2 in my head. Looking at my Steam stats, I played and beat 1 in about 3 hours, but took about 12 hours with 2. But like you said, the prologue is very similar to the previous game. I'm guessing that fact had a more negative effect on me than it deserved. But to be honest, I barely remember the game. I played it 3 years ago, and all I can barely remember is shooting goo on the wall or something. But that's probably more about me, and less a problem with the game.

I would argue most game series beyond five installments probably started off well enough but devolved into "cash cow" status.

Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and so on.

There might still be a bit of magic left and they obviously sell well enough, but to say they are still interesting games would be misguided I think.

@dimebag667: I think Portal 2 is bigger and better than the first game in every conceivable way. The first game is still a masterpiece and it's my recommendation for everyone to play, including non-gamers if they want a chance to appreciate at least any game.

But Portal 2, it does everything the first game does and so much more. Portal 2 also throws a bunch of new stuff your way; including gels that have different properties, light bridges and zero gravity beams. Each new property introduced in the game brings new scenarios that was not possible in the first game.

I guess the mysterious allure of slipping into the back rooms of the first game isn't quite as mysterious anymore, but the sequel seems to be aware of this and instead spends a lot more time in these areas giving you a history and a tour of Aperture Science.

Not even going on with the co-op campaign, but that is a whole other beast and puzzles that aren't possible in either the first Portal or Portal 2 single player.

Maybe it's been a long time for you, and the Portal games can use a revisit. Honestly, I greatly enjoyed Portal 2 when it first launched, but my appreciation for it shot up significantly most recently during the playthrough I just had.

@jaydan: Yeah, they're probably worth a replay. At least to see if my opinion has changed.

Halo & Call of Duty come to mind

Uncharted. I played the first two games but after that I lost interest in the series.

@vatususreturns: I would say even though they added some nice stuff in AC2 ... it might be worse then the 1st because of how on rails the campaign missions are ... which is the template the series followed until Unity. Then we get to the modern day trash that's a mtx machine attached to a meh rpg.

The first game remade with improved mechanics (more like Syndicate/Unity) with less bland missions would actually be pretty interesting.

I'm pretty bored with most fps games. I think doom eternal was the last one I played and that was pretty good. Nothing really since, unless you count RE:Village which I don't

Yep, totally agree with these.

Not so much with Assassin's Creed, think it was basically bad from the start and had a more competent sequel that is really, very overrated.

Far Cry is more interesting, I love the first game, has some shit sections but it's proto-Crysis. Far Cry 2, lots of great ideas, poorly executed. Far Cry 3, far less ambitious, actually fun compared to 2.

Then, usual Ubisoft spam it until you dislike it.

Call Of Duty and Battlefield first 1-2 entries felt mind-blowing at the time, though still hugely popular can see a lot of the original players such as myself just fed up with them.

A lot of it as well is just, the shady as **** business practices. Feels less like games and more like watching people partake in a Activision/EAs pyramid schemes.

Fear/Crysis also come to mind as great franchises that almost immediately became "meh".

Both Fear 2 and Crysis 2 are practically reboots for consoles. They were (perhaps understandably) after bigger $$$, but that didn't bode well for the actual gameplay.

Halo

Man I still think what if we got true sequels that weren't dumbed down lets be real when this happened the golden age of PC gaming was pretty much dead it was a end of a era the best IMO. 1998-2007.

Contra definitely springs to mind.

Definitely Paper Mario, the first two were amazing. I don't know what they smoked to make the remaining ones.

A lot. Here's some.

Halo
Call of Duty
Battlefield
Paper Mario
Contra
FEAR
Tomb Raider
Resident Evil
Crysis

For some fucked up reason, they felt they had to do away with the perfect forumla they had in favor of bullshit gimmicks that no one enjoyed. Nintendo also felt that the Paper Mario series can no longer include any original characters.

I have simply no clue why they sabotaged the series.

Crysis and FEAR doesnot exist now.

Resident evil is only one that is better. RE2 remake is best third person RE game and RE7 is by far best game.

another PC gaming died after 2007 lol. welcome to gametrailers.com.

PC getting tons of masterpeices after 2007. even better than console movie games. dont care AAA exclusive shit or not.

PC even getting everything from MS and sony too. who thoughts PC would get a sony exclusive back than??

Halo

Making it really scripted and first person didn't make RE better, no. Disagree completely. Like most RE fans.

RE4 was scripted with terrible game mechanics lol. RE7 put some immersion into series. first time series feel horror game.

• Kingdom Hearts
• Pokemon
• Assassin's Creed
• Far Cry

Kingdom Hearts 3 sucked. I never played the handheld junk.

Pokémon started sucking from Black and White on. Thankfully Violet and Scarlet are great additions.

Assassin's Creed went downhill once they decided to go the RPG route, though admittedly AC Unity is when I started falling off the boat.

Far Cry refuses to be any good after 3. There isn't a lot of game with sequels where I'm like, this is the same game, but Far Cry is one of those games.

fourthed

Killzone 2/3 >> Shadow fall

Assassin's Creed. The second one was the first good one and now it's just copy and Paste.