Game franchises are tricky. Some of them seem to be going on for ages, with a yearly release schedule and no end in sight. Then there are those that are nothing but a blip on the grand gaming timeline, with only the most dedicated fans establishing a cult-like following for a particular title or series.
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But perhaps the most peculiar phenomenon of them all are games that used to be all the rage back in their day and seemed as though their respective franchises would continue indefinitely into the future, but, for one reason or another, have faded into irrelevance. There is no shortage of such titles, and many of them deserve sequels, or, at the very least, solid remakes.
10 Crysis
Released in 2007, Crysis used to be the ultimate benchmark for graphics cards and high-end PCs for quite a few years, until new releases have caught up with its ridiculously demanding graphics (at the time).
Aside from being the biggest graphical achievement of the 2000s, Crysis turned out to be an engaging single-player FPS that warranted two sequels, which, were very good titles in their own rights, despite never managing to reach the heights of the first game. A remastered version of the Crysis trilogy will hit next-gen consoles soon, but the series deserves a comeback in the form of another sequel or even a reboot.
9 Prince Of Persia (2008)
After the release of a mediocre movie based on the franchise in 2010, the Prince of Persia games have been completely pushed aside by Ubisoft in favor of newer IPs, including its spiritual successor, Assassin's Creed. While the move to focus on other franchises has definitely turned out to be a profitable one, the atmosphere and unique gameplay elements of Prince of Persia, especially the Sands trilogy, failed to get replicated in Ubisoft's recent games.
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Ironically, the critically acclaimed 2008 reboot of the franchise got forgotten soon after the disastrous release of Forgotten Sands. However, thanks to its timeless, cell-shaded graphics and smooth gameplay, the title hasn't lost its charm today. Any Prince of Persia fan, especially players who suffer from open-world fatigue induced by the increasingly massive Assassin's Creed titles should give it a shot.
8 Sid Meier's Pirates!
Nowadays, the Sid Meier signature is only associated with one game: Civilization. However, back in the 2000s, the iconic game designer was much more prolific and put out innovative simulation games with remarkable consistency.
One of the games released in that period was Sid Meier's Pirates!, an ambitious pirate sim that allowed players to roam all over the Caribbean, pledge allegiance to different colonial powers, trade, pillage, search for treasures, romance various governors' daughters, and much, much more. This 2004 game has managed to generate a cult following and would only benefit from graphics overhaul, as the gameplay still holds up to this day.
7 Gothic
Not a lot of people remember the Gothic series, and for a good reason. It wasn't very popular in the US and Canada but has turned out to be a bestseller in Europe. Piranha Bytes have tried to implement the Gothic formula in plenty of games since, most notably the Risen franchise, but never managed to capture the atmosphere and gameplay of the first two titles.
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To say that the Gothic games were ahead of their time would be an understatement. Many of its core gameplay elements (except the awkward and clunky combat) have been implemented in a lot of classic single-player RPG games throughout the 2000s. THQ Nordic has set out to release a remake of the first title, but they haven't disclosed much about it since releasing a playable demo in 2019, suggesting that the works aren't progressing all too well.
6 The Operative: No One Lives Forever
Back in the PS2 era, colorful, adventure-driven shooters were not an unusual occurrence. The best example of this trend is The Operative: No One Lives Forever, a quirky single-player FPS game with a unique sense of humor and exciting, multi-layered missions.
After its release, the title was hailed as the best FPS since Half-Life and got two sequels. Unfortunately, due to a complicated intellectual property rights status, it has been hanging in limbo for the past decade. Hopefully, the case will get resolved, as the first-person-shooter scene is in desperate need of a refreshing, funny spy game to counteract the swarm of battle royales and military games that the genre is associated with today.
5 Sunset Overdrive
According to a long-running meme, Xbox One had zero original exclusives to its name. Players who take that claim seriously have clearly forgotten about Sunset Overdrive. This 2014 open-world shooter was praised by critics for its originality and innovative traversal mechanics.
Although it was a blast to play, it didn't generate too much hype within the gaming community and became largely irrelevant soon after release, which is a shame. Developing a sequel for the Xbox Series X/S would definitely be risky, especially given that Insomniac Games now create Play Station exclusives, but it could prove to be worth the gamble on Microsoft's side if they approached it the right way.
4 Dead Space
The first Dead Space was hailed by many gamers and critics as one of the best survival horror games of the late 2000s, and rightly so. It was an expertly realized space opera with terrifying enemies and a sense of hopelessness that a few games managed to capture since.
Isaac Clarke's story has proven to be popular enough to justify two sequels, and why Dead Space 2 was a worthy successor to the first game, the third title was heavily action-focused and was the beginning of the end for the franchise. Recently, rumors began circulating about a potential reboot, but EA is yet to confirm them.
3 Splinter Cell: Conviction
The Splinter Cell franchise used to be the series that, alongside Metal Gear Solid, set the standard for the stealth genre. Sam Fisher's adventures were exhilarating, both in terms of story and combat, but unfortunately, Ubisoft has hit the pause button on Splinter Cell after Blacklist released in 2013.
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However, it was Conviction (released in 2010) that signaled the series' pivot toward a more action-centric approach, and despite not being a bad game at all, it was largely forgotten by the players due to how different it was from its prequels. Much like in the case of EA's Dead Space, the Splinter Cell games have steered too far away from their core stealth gameplay, which didn't sit too well with die-hard fans of the franchise.
2 The Witcher 2: Assassin's Of Kings
The Witcher series needs no introduction. However, this is mostly attributable to the success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Not many players remember or have ever played Assassins of Kings, the second entry into CDPR's hit franchise.
The second Witcher deserves to be revisited by all fans of the third game, as it laid down much of the foundations for Wild Hunt's award-winning gameplay. The plot focuses heavily on the freedom of choice, and the story branches out into many different directions, meaning that one playthrough would not be enough to witness everything this title has to offer.
1 Alpha Protocol
Back when it came out in 2010, Alpha Protocol had the potential to become another big-name franchise in Obsidian Entertainment's portfolio. It had it all: an exciting premise of an action RPG with a modern setting where players assume the role of a secret agent and develop their skillset in any way they see fit. Not to mention the initial backing of a massive publisher like SEGA.
Heavily inspired by classics of the spy thriller genre such as the Jason Bourne trilogy and the adventures of James Bond, Alpha Protocol was a breath of fresh air in the action-RPG niche that was getting a bit stale around the time of its release. It is a shame that legal and financial disputes between SEGA and Obsidian have prevented a potential sequel from seeing the light of day.