11 Half-Baked Video Games That Totally Ruined Their Franchises

3. Mafia III

Another series that never quite found the mainstream success it deserved, the original two Mafia games were some of the most underrated releases of the last generation. Telling brilliant interconnected gangster tales, the titles were revered for their storytelling but failed to achieve mass appeal because of their relative lack of variety when compared to other sandbox releases at the time: namely two little games called Grand Theft Auto III and IV.

Taking the criticisms about their barren open worlds on the chin, Mafia III attempted to give players what the developers thought they wanted, implementing a whole host of side content, collectables and additional missions to complement the main narrative.

Sadly, by the time they got around to including these time-consuming distractions players had already gotten sick of this type of uninspired padding, and Mafia III was ripped apart when it released last year.

And it didn't help that the title felt like two completely different games smashed together, either. The narrative itself was excellent, but the open world activities the sequel had you completing might as well have been created by a different team, lacking the quality and the polish of the title's cutscenes and voice acting.