10 Video Game Franchises That Desperately Need Reboots
Call Of Duty isn’t the only game in need of freshening up.
This truly is the age of the reboot.
News broke recently that Batman is due to be rebooted with Robert Pattinson in the lead, while Fantastic Four was rebooted in 2015, and will likely go through the process all over again as the crew join the MCU.
As well as these, Disney is remaking a lot of its classics in live action, Taika Waititi soft-rebooted Thor in Ragnarok, and Chris Rock is helming the next Saw, which will likely bring sweeping changes across the board.
That’s before you mention that The Addams Family, Hellboy, Shaft and Men In Black - all of which will have been rebooted by the end of 2019.
Gaming is no different.
PlayStation icons Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon have been taken back to their roots with remakes of their original trilogies, and that’s just for starters.
Call Of Duty is returning to the Modern Warfare label, while Doom, Wolfenstein, Tomb Raider and DmC: Devil May Cry have all had critically and commercially successful reboots this past decade.
In the current climate, there are plenty of titles fans are hoping get a fresh start. Whether it’s to strip away what didn't work or create a full-on revival, these games certainly deserve it.
10. Mass Effect
Mass Effect needs a soft reboot in the style of Thor: Ragnarok. Keep the core momentum going but with some fairly drastic changes.
The original trilogy was phenomenal, even if the ending left a lot to be desired (especially before The Extended Cut was added). Then Andromeda, though good in places and featuring some of the best combat in the series, had flat character development, world building and villain motivations; essentially it was bad at all the things Mass Effect was known for.
The series needs a fresh start. A proper Mass Effect 4, with Andromeda seen as more of a spin-off. They’re better off cutting ties than they are trying to save Ryder’s story.
Keep Andromeda's gunplay, bring back the characterisation and Paragon/Renegade mechanics from the OT, and freshen up the missions. There’s always been a lot right in the series, it just needs rejuvenating.
Andromeda died so that Anthem could live, but in the end, that too was half-baked and disappointing. BioWare will be dealing with Dragon Age 4 next, a game not particularly malleable to EA’s games as a service model.
After both Andromeda and Anthem flopped, here’s hoping BioWare survives long enough to reboot Mass Effect.