8 Video Game Franchises That Ruined Their Identity

We're coming up on the tenth anniversary of Watch Dogs, and a decade on the franchise's squandered potential still stings.

The first game, famously, had its issues. The overly-serious revenge story starring Aiden Pearce - an incredibly generic video game protagonist - was a major dud, but the gritty Chicago open world it established had a lot to love. The hacking mechanics remained somewhat grounded, facilitating interesting storylines and gameplay possibilities that shook up the otherwise familiar open world structure.

In an attempt to sort out the tonal issues with the story, the second game focused on a new cast of characters and a more vibrant and personality-filled San Francisco setting. While the characters were strong here, they brought their own tonal problems. The freedom players had to gun down anyone they wanted during gameplay clashed with their depiction as anything but murderous psychopaths in the cutscenes.

Perhaps attempting to avoid this mistake again, Watch Dogs: Legion moved the action to cyberpunk London and had no main character, instead allowing players to jump into the shoes of any randomly generated NPC. Unsurprisingly this felt like the most incoherent game of the lot, with no creative throughline and stereotypical hacker visuals.

With three games, Watch Dogs tried to hit three identities. The first being a moody, superhero origin story. The second a funnier, character-driven crime caper. The third being classic cyberpunk.

If it had chosen one and ran with it, it might not be languishing in obscurity today.