10 Video Game Sequels That Prove Fans Shouldn't Get What They Want
Change isn't always a bad thing.
In a gaming landscape where it seems like every announced game is a sequel to a long-running and successful franchise, it seems like showing some form of innovation is as rare as striking gold.
Even when it does rarely happen, gamers are so reluctant to embrace change that they often don't react in the best way.
Look at a game like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Easily one of the best Zelda games in the franchise, yet when it was first shown off people instantly wrote it off because of how it looked - just because it tried to meaningfully differentiate itself aesthetically from what came before.
That's potentially too old an example, but it shows just how scary change can be to those who rely on games being the same, year-in, year-out.
When a sequel, reboot, or mix of the two tries to change everything that a franchise or previous instalment is known for, it's almost always met with mixed reactions. And yet, the games that do this are so often the ones that succeed.
Here's to the sequels that risked it all, and showed that changing and innovating can truly be a good thing.
10. Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil went from a slow paced horror, to a survival action game and somehow managed to turn it all around to a fantastic, first-person mix of the two.
Resident Evil 7 may be different from what came before it, but that's exactly what saved the franchise. Before Resi 7, older entries were aiming to be explosive third-person shooters, rather than actually focusing on horror. This was a mistake that cost the series and almost killed it forever.
One of the biggest changes that came from the seventh entry in the storied horror series is the fact that it was played completely in first-person. Although this at first seemed like a desperate attempt to emulate Outlast and other famous horror games, it actually finally returned the series to its former glory.
With Resident Evil 4 doing the same thing of completely changing from previous games, it seems like the Resident Evil franchise works best when it's completely flipping expectations on their heads.