15 Video Game Franchises That Tried Something Wildly Different (And Failed)

Hideo Kojima's infamous Metal Gear franchise is one of the most influential video game IPs of the 21st Century. Many modern stealth and action mechanics take their cues from the series in one way or another even to this day. After Kojima's much-publicised fall out with developer Konami in 2015, fans of the series were left wondering exactly what that meant for Metal Gear's future.

Konami's first foray into the series post-Kojima was a wildly different take that nobody saw coming. 2018 saw the release of Metal Gear Survive, a survival action adventure game that bears scarce few similarities with the other games in the series. Bland, uninteresting characters and a bizarre narrative, which sees a soldier travel to a parallel dimension where he encounters a strange virus that turns people into zombies, serve as the backdrop for the game which tasks players to spend the majority of their time scavenging for resources and fighting zombies.

Players have to manage their thirst and hunger as they explore the world, heal wounds using medical supplies, and even engage in tower defence segments in order to unlock fast travel points around the map. Doesn't exactly sound like vintage Metal Gear Solid does it? The bizarre shift in focus was jarring to say the least, and did little to quell fans' fears that Kojima's exit would damage the franchise's future. The game received a lukewarm reception, and was forgotten about almost as quickly as it appeared. It's rarely mentioned today at all.