10 Video Game Reboots That Saved Dying Franchises

4. DOOM

Wolfenstein never really moved beyond a handful of games spread across decades before Bethesda successfully rebooted it in the 2010s, which at the very least must have made it easier for them to come up with a fresh start. Sadly, Doom didn't have the same freedom for a clean break.

Unlike its sister series, the demon-slaying shooter never really went out of fashion. After a bunch of amazing sequels, the developers switched gears with Doom 3, swapping out the heavy-metal violence for a more sombre, survival horror-inspired experience. It wasn't exactly Resident Evil, but it was was more atmospheric than the previous titles.

After that the series was set to diverge even more from the original formula, taking a page out of Call of Duty's book for a squad-based romp on Earth. Thankfully, that incarnation was cancelled, but it meant the series went dark for most of the 2000s and 2010s.

It wasn't until 2016 that it was reborn, this time simply as DOOM, shrugging the baggage off and returning to the tight, demon-killing glory of the first couple of releases, this time gloriously realised with cutting edge next-gen graphics.