Game Franchises that Became More Serious

[Drunken Cowboy]

Plenty of franchises have gone down the route of making their games more silly and arcadey in their sequels: Team Fortress, Saints Row, Call of Juarez, Far Cry, Borderlands, to name a few.

 

I found it particularly interesting and impressive that GTA IV was a mature "step down" from the theatrical San Andreas.

 

Had this happened in any other franchises? Do you think this is a good practice?

[Pavle]

I think that Driver:San Francisco was pretty "silly".

Much less serious than previous titles.

[Stormingz]

I don't think Far Cry should be up there, in what way is it silly or arcadey compared to its predecessors?

[KyojinEM]

well look at what happend from Grand Theft Auto 3 to Vice City or what happend from Grand Theft Auto 4 to Grand Theft Auto 5

[Shenmue18]

The Jak and Daxter series comes to mind, the first game was pretty kid friendly and cartoony while Jak 2 and 3 were much more dark and serious even if Daxter was there for the occasional comedic relief it was far more dark than the first game.

[Osho]

Far cry 2 over Far Cry 1.

[Drunken Cowboy]

The Jak and Daxter series comes to mind, the first game was pretty kid friendly and cartoony while Jak 2 and 3 were much more dark and serious even if Daxter was there for the occasional comedic relief it was far more dark than the first game.

Totally forgot about those! Great fun.

 

And I put Far Cry on that list because a lot of the realistic features like malaria and story were tossed out in favor of sandbox fun. Any trace of trying to be more than it was in FC3 was completely thrown out the window in FC4.

[Calhole]

The Tomb Raider reboot was a lot darker, gorier and more story driven than the games before it (To be honest I hardly remember the story from any of the others.)

[Mr. Scratch]

Splinter Cell, it just got sh*ttier after Chaos Theory.

[Stormingz]

Yeah, I hear you there about Far Cry.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Stormingz

[CarlitoDorito]

I think a lot of games tried this, Saints row is the worst.

 

GTA could go a bit more serious. Metal gear solid becomes comedy

Edited March 1, 2015 by CarlitoDorito

[MikeyBelic]

Amazingly COD campaigns when they went into that cold war doomday sh*t.

[B Dawg]

A franchise going more serious? Has that ever happened? I wish it did. Almost every single one f*cks ups! GTA IV and TLAD were exceptions, and pretty good ones.

[Aby]

Tomb Raider

 

Resident Evil (in lieu of very cheesy script and voice acting in earlier games)

 

Mortal Kombat

[WhiteLines]

The original Final Fantasy games were more light hearted and simple than any in the series since.

 

I haven't played any of the newer Ratchet & Clank games, but they seem much more serious than they used to be.

[El Tigre chino]

GTA

[Durden]

Judging by the unprecedented M-rating of Arkham Knight, probably that series.

[Drunken Cowboy]

GTA

Do you ever read any of the thread besides the title?

[thatstupidbug]

1) sport games - while those kind of games lack a proper storyline and story progression (beside "win win, win, repeat"), they surely became less crazy and arcadey with time. Formula one games went from having some crazy stuff on PSX (like racing on reverse tracks, or racing in monaco at night, or even the rome COLOSSEUM as an unlockable track ) to a more serious and realistic approach. Soccer games went trough the same route, and while you could play with a giant dog mask back on ps2, now it's all about fine pass and precise movement.

 

2) wrestling (wwe) games: while the CAW system has always allowed players to create some crazy wrestlers, they no longer can be put in excessive situations. yeah, there are still some cool and unrealistic moves you could pull off, but the days of fighting in new york launching yourself from an helicpopter are sadly over.

 

3) Metal gear (solid): apart from the series beoming crazyer, the first game was little more than a "standard" infiltration blockbuster in therm of storyline, but then more complex historical/phylosofical question added in every following iteration, with a fifth game ready to break the boundaries of taboo topics in videogame

 

4) Some adventure games, like prince of persia (from a faceless guy in white pajama to a tortured soul) or tomb raider (from cartoony boobs to a tortured and damaged soul) ..