10 Video Game Franchises That Never Topped The Original
9. Crackdown
Failures seemed imminent for Crackdown, considering it came out immediately after the highly anticipated Halo 3.
Fortunately, critics were won over by almost everything Realtime World's sci-fi shooter had to offer. Hell, if Crackdown could be classified as a superhero IP, it's up there with the best.
Despite being an early Xbox 360 standout though, there was admittedly room for improvement, and it seemed certain a sequel could take things to the next level. Taking the underdeveloped story and brief campaign mode into account - if these flaws were fixed in the sequels, Crackdown could become something truly special, a real rival to Halo and Gears.
Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Crackdown 2 should've been called Crackdown Again since it's the same game with a few infuriating features and mechanics tacked on.
As for Crackdown 3, it perfectly encapsulates the phrase, "What the heck happened here?" It's so derivative of its predecessors, it's bizarre how the developers thought this travesty was worth bringing Crackdown out of its 12-year hiatus. If someone played the third entry with no prior knowledge of the franchise, they would find it difficult to believe anyone was ever pumped for the franchise.