8 Video Game Franchises That Ruined Their Identity

Ghost Recon made a name for itself as a tactical, near-future military shooter. While the series would swap between first-person and third-person combat, the focus was on getting through environments - usually as a squad - giving orders and using state-of-the-art weaponry to take out your targets.

Especially when it first launched, its focus on not-quite-sci-fi, not-quite-modern-day settings and stories made it stand out from other shooters, and even though it would push further into future technology with each game, this cohesion of presentation and game design remained at the heart of the experience.

... And then it became just another Ubisoft open world game.

With the release of the pretty good Ghost Recon: Wildlands, the franchise traded in regular levels for a huge sandbox. Taking inspiration from GTA and other open world titles, Wildlands still put you in charge of a squad, but suddenly you were able to commandeer vehicles, hunt down side missions and clear out enemy bandit camps.

And while that was still enjoyable to a degree, it was a formula barely different to the one found in Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and a whole bunch of other open world games.

Ubisoft tried to push this further in failed sequel Breakpoint, before then trying to reinvent Ghost Recon as a battle-royale style multiplayer shooter, an announcement that was so hated the project was cancelled before release.

Maybe the answer to the publisher's issues, then, is to just make a Ghost Recon game? Call me crazy...