Gaming Franchises you have checked out of

[MatParker116]

What a some major gaming franchises that for one reason or another you have just left? You tried but they are just not you for one reason or another? I have three I just can't play Assassin's Creed for some reason, played three Final Fantasy games and thought never again. Also I don't know why people subject themselves to Dark Souls.

What are yours?

 

[Saelune]

Assassin's Creed cause they ruined the plot.

Mass Effect cause it became a shooter.

Street Fighter cause they botched the gameplay.

Hitman cause of shitty business practices.

And well, Pokemon if next gen doesnt fix their shit.

 

[meiam]

Assassin's creed, after revelation which felt like a really lazy cash grab I dropped out, now there's like 50 bajillion and I don't know which one are worth playing, might pick up the pirate one since it seems good.

Pokemon, I can only replay the same game so many time

Fire emblem, it seems like every new version tries it's best to each remove one feature I liked and replace it by at least one I dislike

Mario/zelda, well I'd need to buy a nintendo console and I just don't see that happening until they stop making them gimmick hell

Kingdom heart (sorta), I just don't care about all the spin off and mobile/portable version, I only care about the console one

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Stopped playing Pokemon after... I think it was SoulSilver.
Nothin' personal really, just lost interest was all.

I'm an inch away from dropping out of Assassin's Creed, I still haven't finished Syndicate and I bought that on launch.

 

[Hawki]

There's a lot of wriggle room in what counts as checking out. For instance, some franchises I'm still interested in, but never got round to playing. But I guess I can nominate:

-Mass Effect: Only played the first. Wanted to play the second, but my 360 succumbed to the red ring of death, and it was years before I got another one. By this stage, I knew the storyline, and RPGs, by their nature, are huge time sinks. Coupled with how Mass Effect is meant to be replayed across an entire trilogy to account for various choices, and, yeah. I'm just wary of committing to such a time investment. It's kind of why Andromeda appeals to me, in that I can play it without having to worry about the previous games.

-Mortal Kombat: MK1-3 were "da shit" back in the day. However, I never followed the series after that. Just kinda lost interest.

-Pokemon: Never went beyond Gen 2. Similarly, just lost interest in the games/setting.

-Resident Evil: RE5 was the last game I played in the series. A good game, a bit too actiony, but I enjoyed it. That said, I didn't go beyond that. I felt that the storyline had been concluded satisfactorily, and seeing RE6, and other spinoffs, I could see that the series was moving away from the originals too much for me. RE7 looks interesting though.

-Sonic the Hedgehog: Last game I can recall finishing was Sonic Rush Adventure. But as I grew less interested in the comics, and how I got Shadow, then Sonic 06, then Unleashed...yeah, I'm not really a Sonic player anymore. To be honest, the Sonic Boom cartoon is the best thing to come out of Sonic for quite awhile for me.

-Star Fox: Coupled with Command being a piece of Tricky fodder, and Zero being on a console that I don't own, with motion control gimmicks, and rebooting the series AGAIN...yeah, I'm not onboard anymore.

-Warcraft: Well, sort of, in that I enjoy the RTS games (well, WC3 & 3 at least), but don't enjoy playing WoW. I do what I can to keep up with the lore, but wikis are only going to convey so much.

 

[sXeth]

Nintendo: With their on/off war with third party developers since the N64 days making their systems almost a first-party only affair. Don't get me wrong, their games are usually pretty good, but not necessarily something I want to play dozens of times in a row, or in slightly different iterations. Not enough to justify buying into the hardware anyways.

Assassin's Creed: I was getting weary by Revelations. #3 was probably the total check-out as the game drifted completely off course with not even bothering to have assassinations anymore (it has 2, 1 of which is a tutorial). Black Flag pulled me in with the pirate premise, but barely qualifies as the same series, and the return to the stale ideas after (along with major bugfest releases and haphazard multiplayer attempts) kept me away.

Arkham - If they try and put out another one, I'm certainly well off the train after the lacklustre borefest of non-originality that was Origins, and plodding mess of tangled ideas that was Knight.

Souls - Any appeal or freshness they had has been stretched thin over the five games. The cleverness of the level design in Dark Souls also vanished completely away for its sequels. With Bloodborne and 2 relying on hub designs, and 3 just having a linear slog. Bloodborne tried to inject some freshness with a new setting, but the sparsity of actual story and setting in Souls in favor of atmosphere doesn't play well with that, as the atmosphere remains the same and stops a sense of true distinction.

GTA - Though I was debatedly never its biggest fan to start with. The games have increasingly backed away from their sandbox mayhem appeal, and tried to rely on their writing to carry them. And their "satire" is pretty tired out, while their plots are by the book cliche fests. They seem mostly to have moved into the freemium model now anyways, with GTA online's free "updates" more often then not just being cosmetic upgrades to try and whittle people into buying their money cards. Their mechanics were always kind of shoddy, and trying to apply them into multiplayer environment only serves to highlight how shoddy they are.

 

[Hawki]

Got some more:

-Soul Calibur: Absolutely loved SC1-3, but 4...I dunno. It might be that I simply grew tired of the series, or maybe it's on 4's part. Strangely enough, it was partly due to the storyline, or lack thereoff. I know, the Soul games were never big on plot, and you needed to wait for the next game to find out what happened canonically in the preceeding game, but, yeah. Barely played SC4, never went on to 5.

-Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: As far as the RTS genre goes, StarCraft, Warcraft, and Command & Conquer form their own personal trifecta for me. Dawn of War is outside that trifecta. Still fun, but, yeah. Enjoyed the first game, played some of Winter Assault, but never completed it. Played some of Soulstorm, and soon gave up. Haven't continued on since then. I think it's partly because of the style of gameplay (which is fun, but I prefer the other games more), and that it's a case of stories told within the setting, rather than stories that drive the setting forward.

 

[Neverhoodian]

The Halo series. I had a blast playing the games and reading the books, but I decided to call it quits after Reach. I felt it was a good high note to end the series on. The story had closure, with all major loose ends properly tied in a bittersweet send-off at the very same spot that it all began. I also had a hunch that the franchise would take a hit in quality once Microsoft took the helm with their 343 Industries lapdogs. Based on tidbits I've seen and heard from others, I'd say my decision turned out to be a wise one.

What I didn't expect was the end of Bungie-era Halo titles doubling as a eulogy for Bungie themselves. Oh sure the studio's still around, but they're pretty much dead to me after the thoroughly uninteresting Destiny games and stabbing Marty O' Donnell in the back.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I echo Assassin's Creed. I actually jumped into the series when I heard that 3 was going to be about The American Revolution. So I tore through the previous games, borrowing them all from friends, until I was caught up on the storyline. And I liked what I was experiencing so far.
And then 3's ending showed that they have NO idea what to do with the storyline by writing themselves into a corner and then jumping off a cliff. Haven't picked up a game in the series since, because from what I've read, they still don't know what they're doing.

Kind of checked out of Gears of War too. Three sort of dropped the ball by not wrapping up all the lingering questions I had (I understand that books and online material have since answered questions such as Sires and Locust connection).
And I'm not really in a rush to play Halo 5 either, mainly because you don't get to play as Blue Team very much.

Final Fantasy seems to have lost its magic, and with XV being made up of an all-guy cast tells me that they haven't managed to get it back yet.

Infinite Warfare I think has finally taken me out of Call of Duty. Which is too bad, because it is much more fun to play (campaign-wise) than the past three games, but it just doesn't capture that feel of "boots-on-the-ground, part of an army" feeling that the earlier games had. It's not until the final missions that this feeling comes in, but it's too little too late I'm afraid. I'll probably pick up later installments eventually, but no longer at launch like I used to.

Mass Effect 3's ending really killed my interest in the series, and hearing that Loyalty missions in the new game will have no affect on the main story does nothing to inspire my hopes.


Dragon Age is still holding on, but Inquisition was a blow, no doubt. If the next game does not start answering some questions, or give us closure, or get back up to the level of Origins in terms of storytelling, sidequests, and just the general experience, I fear I might be done with it too.

 

[Fox12]

Most AAA games, honestly. There are some big ones that I used to love, though.

Final Fantasy: I pretty much dumped this franchise last generation. I said FF Versus 13 would be the last chance I give them, and I stuck to that. I didn't realize it would take them ten years to make it. So far I'm not too impressed, but maybe it will improve. Otherwise I'm pretty much done with Square Enix as a company. I think I've outgrown most of their titles anyway.

Mass Effect: I remember when Mass Effect was perhaps my favorite franchise. I loved those games to death. Then the third game dropped the ball, and I put the whole thing away. Now the franchise doesn't interest me anymore. It's become sort of boring, and I have no desire to play the games anymore. Even the old one.

Bethesda: I used to love large open world games. Now I sort of hate them. They feel very shallow, and I enjoy having a deep story and careful world design. Open world games just feel... Barren.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Halo, I've played every Halo game there is but after 4 and 5 I have no faith in the series anymore. If Halo 6 ends up on PC I'll still give it a try though.

Assassins Creed, I bought the first one but didn't finish it until 2 years after release, then I bought brotherhood that I never finished. Later I got Assassins Creed III with my new GPU but I never finished that either. I also got Unity with my GPU, I played it for a while then quit. Then I came back maybe a year afterwards and it turned out I quit at the last mission. By then I realized that they're all the same and it's not a fun formula so I've given up on it now.

 

[kilenem]

Cod and Battle field. Something about realistic military shooters with multiplayer make me want to strangle a puppy.
I don't get the same feeling from Over Watch and Spaltoon.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'll have to echo most of the people here with Assassin's Creed.

I was done with Gears of War after 2, when they completely fucked up the multiplayer by not anticipating lag switching, then banned from their forums who brought it up as a problem. I've never felt so personally disrespected by a company and will never buy another game from Epic.

I also have zero interest in Halo. I always loved the franchise, but now that couch multiplayer is dead in it I really don't see a reason to play it.

Seriously though, I don't think that any game series should go past 4 installments. At that point the developers are so far out of ideas that they really need to just stop.

Honestly though, I don't have a lot of franchises that I've checked out of because there aren't a lot of franchises that I checked into that are still around and kicking. I was never really big into fallout, elder scrolls, or mass effect in the first place, and I haven't exactly checked out of Call of Duty, I just take multi-year hiatuses from it until they come up with new ideas.

 

[jademunky]

Final Fantasy.

The last one I even bothered to try was XII and the last one that I actively enjoyed was X. This probably has more to do with me than it does with the franchise though. I changed, began to appreciate less....... cutscene driven games.

 

[MatParker116]

I'm pretty much glad even my favorite franchises are ending, let alone the ones I've already gotten tired of. I still want to play MGSV, Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, the new God of War, and finish the Souls series, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if this was it for all of them.

Basically, the entire industry is long overdue for a bit of an overhaul from the ground up.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I've slammed the door on Ubisoft and everything they make, and like someone else posted above, I'm one more disappointment away from giving up on Bioware. I've given up on shooters in general, although I do play a bit of Overwatch with some friends (just casual quick play). I think I'm pretty much over most AAA franchises to be honest.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm Waffling on Assassins Creed. I don't particularly care about the series anymore(and haven't since Black Flag) but I just picked up Syndicate for $20 on steam(because maybe it's worth $20?).

CoD I no longer feel the urge to purchase each game in the series, unlike back during the Modern Warfare era when I pre-ordered games. The last few games I did play I bought for like $20 on steam. I liked Advanced Warfare(apparently one of the few people who did) and will likely grab Infinite Warfare when it gets cheap enough. But MW3 was the last one I bought at launch...and is one of the reasons I no longer buy games at launch.

Final Fantasy is much the same boat. I mostly enjoyed the older games, all the way up to 9. 10 I really want to like and too many things(Tidus, the tube, blitzball) make it hard to do so. I haven't even bothered with any of the games after that because I don't like MMO's(thus 11,12 and 14 are out) and 13 is another tube with really unlikable characters. So 15 is the one that might turn it around for me.

GTA. Stopped playing San Andreas somewhere around the halfway point and haven't picked up a GTA game since. IV sounds interesting until I remember that half the game is apparently bailing out your idiot cousin(instead of doing the smart thing and just killing him or letting him deal with his own problems). V I was interested in, but then Rockstar pulled that shit when they offered a steam sale for like 30% off, but the price during the sale was the normal price, because they raised the price by the same amount the sale would have dropped it. So fuck you too Rockstar.

 

[Zhukov]

Basically everything from Ubisoft.

A lot of their IPs felt like they had potential in the past but in the last five years or so they seem to have forgotten how to make anything except soulless open-world collect-a-thons with repetitive gameplay and unengaging characters.

It's one thing for a series to start feeling samey, it's quite another for every series from a publisher to start feeling identical.

 

[Evonisia]

The title and the content of the OP seem to be suggesting two different things, at least to me. But I have one for both, I think.

Franchise I've checked out of/stopped with: Halo.

I'm fairly certain my first post on The Escapist was slagging off "Halo 4" and my posts have only went downhill quality wise since then, but honestly the real killer for me was "Halo 5". Not that it was the worst game ("4" still takes that honour), but it was a clear indicator that 343 Industries had finally created a style and identity for themselves, and I want nothing to do with that, and I don't want to see a franchise I love from their perspective. Even "Halo Wars 2" I'm more anxious than excited about at this point.

Franchise I've tried to get into but just couldn't and checked out from it: Grand Theft Auto.

I've played several of the games and while there's always at least some fun to be had from their writing or their side activities, I've always found the gameplay to be stiff and unpleasant to play, mostly in the shooting but sometimes the driving's an arse as well. As nice as some elements of the series are, and as much as I want to admire the series, there's just no appeal in putting up with something I fundamentally don't enjoy for the bits and pieces that I do.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Assassin's Creed: I've played the first and second game, but quickly decided it's not for me. I made an exception for Black Flag when I picked up on the cheap, but even there I only enjoy the naval bits. The regular AssCreed gameplay doesn't appeal to me.

Halo: I played and liked most of the games except ODST and Wars (never played) and 4 (disliked). I have some interest in 5, but not enough to convince myself to buy an Xbox1.

Blizzard & Valve: I used to be a huge fan of both of these developers, but I just can't bring up any enthusiasm for their newer games. Partly because I'm not into the direction both of them have taken, but also because most games in general just don't get me excited anymore.