8 Video Game Franchises That Reinvented Themselves

8. Resident Evil

Let's kick things off with one of the most impressively fluid and malleable video game franchises of all time - Resident Evil.

Though the original trilogy offered varying flavours of gut-wrenchingly tense survival horror with fixed camera angles and tank controls, Resident Evil 4 marked a major shift for the series by adopting an over-the-shoulder camera, ditching the tank controls, and featuring a more fast-paced, action-centric gameplay style.

The fifth and sixth games further amped up the action while dialling back the horror, as proved hugely divisive with fans, before Resident Evil 7 gloriously returned to the series' horror-forward roots while boldly switching to a first-person perspective.

Since then Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil Requiem have further refined the formula, with Requiem offering the ability to swap between first and third-person play-styles, in turn finding a sturdy compromise for fans of all persuasions.

With Requiem becoming the fastest-selling Resident Evil game to date, Capcom will probably stick with what's working for the foreseeable future - until they inevitably reinvent it once again.