10 Video Game Franchises That Never Got Better Than The First Instalment

10. BioShock

The Franchise: Although it shares much of its gaming DNA with the earlier System Shock, Bioshock stepped forward in 2007 as its own thing. Trumpeting complex character upgrades, the game was noteworthy for its complex and well-written story. Set in the underwater and now run-down city of Rapture, the game chronicles the last days of the city's fall, pitting you in the middle of a violent power struggle. If you've played the game then you already know all its twists and turns and if you haven't we won't ruin them here (you can thank us kindly later). The sequel continued the story of Rapture, while last year's Bioshock Infinite took to the skies. Set in the floating city of Columbia where the founding fathers are viewed as prophets, it too had a twisty plot that really has to be experienced first-hand. Why The First Was Best: No one's going to claim that Bioshock 2, which improved the gameplay but was really just a retread of the original, is a worthy successor to the original, but last year's Infinite showed just how strong the guys over at Irrational Games are at telling entertaining stories loaded with subtext. What inches the original ahead of the latest is that while Infinite certainly has the better plot, it didn't have the same perfectly balanced gameplay, nor anything to quite match the horror of coming up against a Big Daddy.