8 Video Game Franchises That Ruined Their Identity

The Arkham Trilogy (and Origins) remains a hugely recommendable series of of games, but even in Arkham: Knight (an instalment I think is underrated), you can see the developers moving away from Asylum's defining identity.

While that first game had its fair share of gadgets and gizmos, it presented itself mostly as a classic, Gothic Batman tale in its visual presentation. By the time Knight came around though, that original aesthetic had given way to something more mainstream, less weird, and more indebted to sci-fi tropes.

That's evident not only in Gotham as a whole but Batman's suit, which functioned more like Iron Man's than The Dark Knight's. Of course, the shift in direction was summed up by the focus on the Batmobile, which meant a huge chunk of the gameplay was spent shooting down drones and other tech-focused enemies. A far cry from the mutated monsters and Gothic villains of Arkham's first title.

But it's with the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that the Arkhamverse has truly lost any originality. Not only is the visual design more generic, but the gameplay has shifted to a multiplayer loot-shooter closer to The Avengers than what made the developers famous.

And that might still make for a great game, but it's a shame it's come at the expense of what got people interested in this series to begin with.