10 Great Video Game Franchises People Simply Abandoned
7. Deus Ex
Deus Ex, as a first title, is often considered a benchmark in narrative gaming design. Sure, by today's standards it's a bit rough, but it is twenty two years old now. After a somewhat "dumbed down" sequel, the series bounced back again with the stellar Deus Ex: Human revolution in 2011.
So when sequel-to-the-reboot Mankind Divided was announced for 2016, using the template Human Revolution laid out five years prior and on newer technology, it should have been an easy win.
Yet in a history-repeats-itself kind of fashion, Mankind Divided hit the same lackluster response that Invisible War faced on release. Not, however, for the same reasons.
You see, Mankind Divided was an improvement on HR, that's not in question here. What it wasn't, though, was bigger. To fans and critics alike, it felt more like an expansion to Human Revolution, rather than a full-fledged sequel.
For a sequel, it had less areas to explore and one boss fight. As such, disappointing sales and a messy pre-order system saw it somewhat fail, and Square Enix shelved it and in recent years, chose to churn out mediocre Marvel games instead.