8 Popular Video Games That Fell Apart After Incredible Openings

7. Assassin's Creed III

Back when Ubisoft knew what the living frog-f*cking christ they were doing with Assassin's Creed, this third instalment was set to wrap up - or at least meaningfully continue - the modern day story of Desmond Miles.

That, and we were getting a window into the American Civil War through the lens of native American Connor (or Ratonhnhaké:ton in his native tongue) - a setup that was throughly flipped on its head, thanks to AC III opening with you playing as Englishman, Haytham Kenway.

Brilliantly, Haytham was later revealed to be a Templar in a move that thoroughly made all of us go, "Okay, yup, they know exactly what they're doing" - only for his story to fade away, Connor's to be a rote revenge tale, and the Desmond stuff to end with him dead for no reason.

By the close of Assassin's Creed III, we'd had endless cutscenes about literal Gods discussing meteor collisions, genocidal previous civilisations and the idea of a vengeful deity being trapped unless Desmond touched an orb of power - which also killed him. Because reasons.

Needless to say, this marked the first game without Assassin's Creed's original Creative Director and visionary Patrice Desilets, and was the beginning of the bad times for the franchise overall.