10 Great Video Game Franchises People Simply Abandoned
3. Syphon Filter
When Gabe Logan debuted in his 1999 offering, Syphon Filter, it would have been easy to read the boxart and call it any other action game. Yet for those who don't judge books (or games) by covers, they were greeted with an excellent espionage title to not rival but compliment Konami's beast from a year before.
What followed were two cracking sequels on the PlayStation, and logic should have dictated that Syphon Filter would make the leap to the PS2 safely with many other PS1 alumni.
But... it didn't. The Omega Strain, as well as sounding like a Charlton Heston film, hit a "meh" response on its 2004 release. Not only did it deviate from its very solid template, the game had players not being Gabe Logan.
It was as scandalous as playing a Metal Gear Solid and not being Solid Snake, and was about as well received as that debacle. Dark Mirror tried to recapture that magic by putting us in Logan's boots again, but the spark had gone.
What didn't help matters was putting it and sequel Logan's Shadow onto the PSP first, before their respective PS2 ports a year after each release. Everyone knew that was franchise suicide.