10 Video Game Sequels That COMPLETELY Changed Genre

Clearly drawing inspiration from CDProjekt's The Witcher III, Ubisoft leaned into the open world genre and with 2017's Assassins Creed: Origins, and went all out in applying heavy RPG mechanics into the franchise.

Existing fans of the series were seemingly an afterthought by developer Ubisoft, as those who cut their teeth with Ezio Auditore's story were left wondering where eavesdropping and target-following main quests had gone.

The new assassin, Bayek, is not unlike the assassins of old and does well to keep the story intriguing with his unrelenting quest for revenge, but his playground of Egypt renders him a far smaller piece of the puzzle as the map is simply so large.

AAA games are undoubtedly shifting to more open-ended level structures (even a series as stubborn as Uncharted embraced non-linearity in places), so it was of little surprise that Ubisoft went down the well-trodden path, but for such a veteran franchise to lean into loot-based exploration and item management was a change that split audiences, despite doubling the sales of the previous entry: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.

2020's Assassins Creed: Valhalla was a return to form in places, but still boasted an immensely detailed and rich open world brimming with RPG elements.