10 Risky Sequels That Saved Dying Video Game Franchises
It's always darkest before the dawn.
Video game franchises, more so than movies, are always conceived to be around forever. The industry as a whole rarely greenlights one-offs (the the point where even a complete experience like The Last of Us inevitably ends up with a follow up), instead wanting bankable franchises it can count on, be it through sequels, spin-offs or remasters.
Of course, managing to maintain a brand's relevancy for potentially decades is no easy feat. While some of the earliest major names in the industry like Doom are as big as they've ever been today, popularity is never unwavering. More often than not, if a franchise was once successful it will eventually bounce back, even if it's driven into the ground and killed temporarily by terrible business decisions or bewildering creative left turns.
It's not easy to bring a series back from the brink though, and it usually takes a risky reinvention - something which looks completely ridiculous on paper, veering too far away from what people either liked originally or what's profitable at the moment - to deliver something special that jolts the corpse of a video game series back to the land of the living.
In many cases, however, they don't just return to their former glory, but surpass it completely...