Great Franchises that have made less than great games

[Pieturli]

I've been agonizing over the fact that no one has been able to create a truly great Conan or Warhammer fantasy game. Age of Conan was pretty fab for the first 20 levels or so, but petered out later on. Warhammer online was, for me at least, a massive disappointment, and none of the others have really set my world ablaze either. Both of these examples have great potential as far as setting and story goes, and it just makes me wonder why no one (to my mind) has succeeded in really utilizing them to their fullest.

What franchises/series/whatevers do you think have great, unrealized potential?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars. For every KOTOR, you've got a dozen Star Wars Kinects, or Super Bombad Racing.

 

[SonicWaffle]

I've been agonizing over the fact that no one has been able to create a truly great Conan or Warhammer fantasy game. Age of Conan was pretty fab for the first 20 levels or so, but petered out later on. Warhammer online was, for me at least, a massive disappointment, and none of the others have really set my world ablaze either. Both of these examples have great potential as far as setting and story goes, and it just makes me wonder why no one (to my mind) has succeeded in really utilizing them to their fullest.

Ye Olde Warhammer RTS games were fun, like the ones from the 90's or even Dawn of War.

What franchises/series/whatevers do you think have great, unrealized potential?

I have this idea for a game. I would play it so hard that my fingers bled, if only someone made it.

It's a Bioshock prequel, set during the slow fall of Rapture, following a hard-boiled Philip Marlowe style detective as he investigates a series of crimes. A mix between old-school point & click, and FPS. You play as the classic noir detective, cynical and hard-drinking, but a good heart underneath. The crimes you investigate at the behest of citizens are small at first, but gradually build into the overall plot as Rapture falls apart around your ears, culminating in a search for a bunch of missing young girls...

 

[Pink Gregory]

ALL OF THEM!

The best probably died on the vine before their inevitable disappointing game was released.

 

[daveman247]

Most movie franchises (still think bladerunner could work)

Also some 2000AD comics would make great games i think (Judge Dredd, another rogue trooper). Marvel and DC have had their cracks at it, why not 2000?

 

[Uriain]

while not a "series", I think both Jade Empire and Republic Commando have a lot of potential in them.

I also would like to see a Conan series (either game or movie) be properly done.

 

[Rawne1980]

Most movie franchises (still think bladerunner could work)

Also some 2000AD comics would make great games i think (Judge Dredd, another rogue trooper). Marvel and DC have had their cracks at it, why not 2000?

They tried 2000AD, specifically Judge Dredd.

Dredd V's Death.

It was shit.

 

[Therarchos]

Most movie franchises (still think bladerunner could work)

Also some 2000AD comics would make great games i think (Judge Dredd, another rogue trooper). Marvel and DC have had their cracks at it, why not 2000?

They did actually make an excellent Blade Runner game back in 97 I think it was. Point and click adventure with some hectic gunplay (in the point and click genre) That came out of nowhere. I'm afraid the aged graphics might pull it down today.

 

[Murrdox]

Aliens.

Alien vs. Predator (the 2003 version) was good, AvP 2 was incredible. Other than those two and possibly a small amount of love for the Alien3 Super Nintendo game, every other Alien game has been absolute shite.

 

[crazyrabbits]

Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars. For every KOTOR, you've got a dozen Star Wars Kinects, or Super Bombad Racing.

This. The days of X-Wing/TIE Fighter/Dark Forces/X-Wing Alliance still seem so far away.

Another couple franchises I've seen put out some mediocre stuff.

Robocop: Should be an awesome game licence, but has churned tons of forgettable side-scrollers (the exception being Robocop Vs. Terminator) and a horrible FPS a few years back. What I wouldn't give to see a next-gen Robocop game with all the gadgets and an 80's influenced storyline.

Back To The Future: Again, should be awesome. Yet, the only thing it`s resulted in are a ton of top-down and side-scroller adaptations of the original films, and the Telltale game (which, while good, wasn`t exactly the revelation everyone expected it to be).

 

[natster43]

Resident evil, While there are many really Great games in the series (The originals, 4, Revelations) there have been a lot of okay and even mediocre games as of late (Darkside Chronicles, Operation Raccoon City, 6)

Mario Kart, most are really good, but Wii was just shit, no multiplayer GP, karts were worthless, and the conditions for unlocking anything were retarded.

Mortal Kombat, anything after Trilogy and before the newest one were bad.

Dynasty Warriors, 3 was amazing, 4 was okay, never played 5, 6 was okay and killed my interest in the series, changing most of the characters weapons and making a bad combo system for the game, then 7 came out and it was the best.

Marvel VS Capcom, 3 is a terrible game compared to 1 and 2, had a small roster that you will unlock everyone in the game in a few hours at most, and became obsolete in less than a year.

Dead Rising, while not bad, Off The Record was really buggy compared to 2, and for it being 2 with one new area that is really bad that it was so much more buggy. Also I didn't like the checkpoint system that killed any worry of dying because you would just reload to when you entered that area, and the fact that they made the AI for survivors worse while making all the enemies AI a lot better to make it more difficult.

 

[MoreThanANoob]

Adapted games that turned out badly? Aside from the Walking Dead, the Arkham games and Star Wars KOTOR, we can probably just throw all of them into that category.

 

[TheDuckbunny]

Assassin's Creed. The potential is enormous but every entry so far has been plagued by awful design decisions.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Spoiler

OT:
I want to say RE. I was fine with Chronicles and RE5, but they kind of ruined it with RE6 and RE:ORC.
RE6 wasn't a bad game, but wasn't an RE game. I remember my first time through I kept think "Oh yeah, just like in RE#"

 

[DanielBrown]

Gonna go with Assassins Creed. Tons of stuff you could do with the franchise. Second game showed massive improvement and hype for the coming games...
Then we got stuck in Italy for way too long, which each Ezio game being duller than the previous. Haven't picked up ACIII yet, but the American revolution doesn't intrest me the least and the time setting is extremely dull compared to what we could've gotten. Gief ancient Egypt, Greece or even Japan!

Wasn't there a poll made by Ubisoft where they asked which setting we'd prefer, which some great choices, or is my brain making up stuff again?
Did the American revolution really win?!

 

[Glover09]

Burnout 3 was really good, and Paradise was great fun, but the filler between seemed to be just that.

Need For Speed: III hasn't aged well so that gets a pass for me, but everything after Most Wanted was a blatant step back, keeping up through Criterion's games, The Run(s) included.

Otherwise, I agree on AC and MK (god deception was awful). How about Kingdom Hearts? Chain of Memories for GBA specifically. And I know there has to be a Final Fantasy out there.

 

[Absolutionis]

To be honest, when I was younger, I really enjoyed the Magic: the Gathering novels. The Thran to the Weatherlight Saga up until the Phyrexian Invasion was really good storytelling. I've always hoped for an RPG in that setting with old favorites such as Urza and Gerrard and company.

However, with the new silliness with the Neoplaneswalkers and negligible storyline dashes those hopes. The storylines were great with the god-like Planeswalkers and the mortals' lives they affected. We didn't care much about the planeswalkers themselves, we cared about the characters.

Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic Online are "good" games, but I would rather just play the card game. Shandalar and the other forgettable game was acceptable only because they were ancient attempts at translating the card game. Magic Tactics was an awful game with an awful monetization model and glitchy gameplay (that ironically I ended up hating because it affected everyone except for me).

Magic the Gathering has/had a rich storyline; that's half the appeal of the game. It needs a proper RPG.

 

[Saregon]

Burnout 3 was really good, and Paradise was great fun, but the filler between seemed to be just that.

I haven't really played the ones between the original Burnout and Paradise, but when I played Paradise with a friend, I just kept thinking "Where is the damn crash score mode??" Ruined it a bit really.

Also, A Song of Ice and Fire. Fantastic books, fantastic TV-series, but the games really do look.. less than stellar. And with so much potential to work with.

 

[AldUK]

This works both ways, game franchises spawn terrible movies and merchandise. Resident Evil comes to mind.