8 Video Game Franchises That Ruined Their Identity

8. Assassin's Creed

The original Assassin's Creed games felt like a breath of fresh air for the gaming industry, tightly focused on social stealth, parkour and an interesting Assassin vs Templar story with a sci-fi twist.

However, after years of annualised release that became increasingly buggy and stale, fresh ideas were needed. Rather than figure out how to take the core components of the series and provide a new spin on them though, Ubisoft looked to other games for inspiration.

From Assassin's Creed: Origins onwards, the franchise turned into a bloated action-RPG that included every sandbox trope under the sun. Incorporating elements from The Witcher 3 in particular, modern Assassin's Creed is trying to be the "everygame", with a loot system that wouldn't feel out of place in Destiny, combat based around abilities and cooldowns, and a massive open world that's no longer built around parkour.

That't not to say the games haven't been enjoyable of course, but when there's barely a focus on the Assassins and their stories in a game called Assassin's Creed, why give it this title at all?

Though the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Mirage is largely dropping this new approach and going back to basics, this will be short-lived as Ubisoft have already announced plans for a live-service future for the franchise.