11 Half-Baked Video Games That Totally Ruined Their Franchises

9. Thief

A cult PC favourite, the Thief series and its hardcore stealth system never quite broke into the mainstream in the way many hoped it would. And although the first few releases became underground sensations, a couple of dodgy later titles ensured that the franchise was always going to be confined to its niche fandom.

But Thief 2014 was an attempt to right the sins of these later misfires and finally give the franchise the big push it deserved. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a grand return to form ended up as just another unremarkable drop in the gaming bucket as far as players were concerned.

Another case of a franchise losing its unique spark in the pursuit of mass appeal, even at a time when there wasn't much at all to play on next-gen consoles, nobody could bring themselves to sit down and trudge through Thief's incredibly lacklustre stealth gameplay.

A wonky map system and a mundane narrative didn't do much to entice players to hang around either, and as result the sequel was probably one of the first big regrets of early next-gen adopters.