Game franchises that rose from the dead, and those that should have been put down again
Being Halloween then it seemed fitting to discuss those game franchises which died, lay dormant, or maybe were kept on life support, for some years and then came back swinging. Not all manage such a feat and so should have been put down like the zombies they are. If you want to make it a bit harder we can probably all agree that the various classic games brought back as mobile phone games (looking at the likes of Dungeon Keeper mobile and Cannon Fodder 3) should not only have got both barrels but probably also have been seared from existence after that, give or take their value as a warning. On the flip side if we absolutely must then we also accept those times where the puppet masters move onto another host, or made a spiritual sequel if we are to use common parlance.
Taking an obvious example as a starter. Deus Ex from the year 2000. It started out as a work of some master devs and created what was then, and for some years afterwards, the pinnacle of PC gaming. Even today it is held as something of a high water mark, though some have started to debate whether it was a product of its time. Combined with the slow motion implosion of the developer also came the somewhat dumbed down and constrained sequel also available on consoles (even more of a bad sign back in 2003). The eventual owners of the IP tried a few more times (one attempt eventually becoming Project Snowblind) but it would be 2011 before we got Deus Ex: Human Revolution. While not maybe as great in scope as the first game it never the less managed to wrap a compelling and thought provoking story in a tight engine, and look good while doing it. Since then we have had a few sequels and side stories that also found themselves somewhat enjoyed, though speculation is that it might have entered into a second hibernation.
For the opposite then we have the Thief Franchise. The first two games plus expansions were legendary titles that in some ways were responsible for the glut of stealth sections in the years following them, to say nothing of many of the developers moving on to Deus Ex above. Ion Storm's decaying hand gave us the third game in the franchise a few years later as a parting gift to the world and it was not great. Some years later we saw Thief 4, at one point stylised as Thi4f but eventually becoming a "reboot" which probably tells you all you need to know there, though the uninspired levels, clunky mechanics, worse story and suspect graphics mean it probably should have been felled by a holy water arrow long before then. Fortunately around the same time we saw the first of the Dishonored games, and the modding community gave us both mods to take advantage of newer hardware, and something of a modder driven remake/spiritual sequel in The Dark Mod.
This is part of a series on GBAtemp where we discuss game culture, game mechanics, industry trends and similar such things. Last time we discussed things that were once quite radical but are now fairly commonplace, as well as things now missing in Back in my day we didn't have X but did have Y. Gaming edition.. We also have to thank Piotyr, one of our IRC channel ops, for the idea for this thread. If you have an idea then either make the thread yourself and it could get put on the portal, or get in contact to share some ideas.
what would $20 get you in your preferred gaming genre, games you play by your own rules., the state of VR and 3D and whether they had once more failed to take hold, the last game skill you unlearned, The game you invested the most money in, times where people said gameplay styles would not work for a platform, the value of online play, emulation vs hardware, a favoured game style that might have become less common in recent times, skills one might have learned or honed because of a game, games on the PS4 and Xbone that will stand the test of time, games that got better after launch, cancelled games and shuttered devs, and story canon in games.
So then what games rose from the dead to show us how it is done, and what ones should have stayed dead?
