10 Video Game Developers Who Killed The Franchise They Were Handed

4. The Coalition - Gears Of War

Why, when you have a crew of characters everybody knows, loves and remembers the names for, would you lose them for half the game and design another set that feel like a marketing buzzword speadsheet come to life?

There was nothing truly off-putting about JD Fenix, main-man Marcus' son, but it felt like playing as someone doing their best Nolan North impression. The quips, the "Oh crap!" reactions, the general assumed nonchalance to any seismic events - we'd seen every bit of him before, and that was before you got to a story whose most interesting part was the cliffhanger before the credits.

At least developers The Coalition saw Epic Games' Rod Fergusson carry over onto their staff, but without director and ideas man Cliff Bleszinski on-hand to inject some personality, it killed any interest in a Gears 5 stone dead.