Summary
Some video game series seem like they will go on forever. They start like any other series with a single game. Then, more installments are released, and the next thing you know, they’ve stayed around through multiple console generations.
To do this, a series has to avoid getting stale. After all, you may want to play three versions of essentially the same game with a few alterations, but ten versions is pushing it. Plus, gaming as a whole changes, and series have to move with the times, or they’ll feel dated. So, some of the longest-running series have had to change over the years. The following ones have made the most alterations.
8Grand Theft Auto
From Simple Top-Down Carnage To Third-Person Cinematic Adventure
Crime and open worldshave always been a part of theGrand Theft Autoseries. Beyond those things, though, the first title is completely different from the more recent games.
The original instalment didn’t have much of a story or any cutscenes. It was also played from a top-down perspective, and much of the experience was about earning points. The newer games are third-person titles that put far more emphasis on narrative and dialogue. Also, there aren’t points to collect.
7Final Fantasy 7
From A 2D Turn-Based RPG To Lots Of Different Types Of RPGS
Any series that lasts as long and has as many entries as Final Fantasy is going to change quite a bit over the years. The first title was a fairly typical 2D turn-based RPG. While the series hasn’t strayed too far from RPGs in the main series, some entries are different types of role-playing games. For instance, there have been action RPGs and MMORPGs, and Final Fantasy 16 even leans toward being a soul-like game.
Even the entries that are turn-based aren’t all the same, as the series has opted for multiple different versions of turn-based combat over the years. As for the 2D aspect of the first game, that is rarely seen in the series anymore, as most are 3D and more cinematic in general.
6Call Of Duty
From Gritty Realism To Outlandish Multiplayer
Those who played the first few Call of Duty games will remember them as gritty, serious first-person shooters. They were set in World War 2, realistic, and did not have online multiplayer. The same can’t be said for most of the newer instalments.
In the recent Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone 2.0, you can see professional wrestler Cody Rhodes running around with a brightly colored gun, hitting his signature wrestling move on people. That didn’t happen in the original game, and not just because Cody Rhodes hadn’t made his wrestling debut yet. The tone was completely different.
5Resident Evil
From Fixed Camera Angle Horror To First-Person Wackiness
Resident Evil has undergone major changes on multiple occasions. The early games were pure survival horror titles with fixed camera angles and limited resources. Then, the series became more action-packed, opting for a third-person camera view and replacing a lot of scares with a lot of enemies.
Yet, things changed again with Resident Evil 7, which introduced a first-person view, brought back spooky moments, and toned down some of the outrageousness. The next game, Village, was similar to RE7 but re-introduced more wackiness. So, overall, the series has changed a lot since the original title.
4Prince Of Persia
From Platformer With Time Limits To Action-Adventure With Wallrunning
When people think of Prince of Persia, most think of a 3D action-adventure title with wall-running and swordplay. Much of that comes from Sands of Time, which was one ofthe best games in the series.
However, the more recently released, The Lost Crown, is a 2.5D side-scrolling action-adventure game. Plus, the first Prince of Persia was more of a platformer that forced you to deal with a time limit. So, the series has gone through a few changes over the years.
3Persona
From High School Heroes To High School Heroes With Social Lives
Revelations: Persona was the first entry in the Persona series. It revolved around a group of high school students who navigated dungeons and battled evil with the help of their Personas. Anyone who has played the later games will think that it sounds exactly like them and that the series hasn’t changed at all.
However, the early titles didn’t include social simulation elements. From Persona 3 onwards, your characters needed to balance both their regular daily lives as well as stop evil threats. Going about your day and making connections with people is such a big part of the later titles that they don’t feel like the early ones.
2Wolfenstein
From Escaping The Nazis To Killing All The Nazis
The original Castle Wolfenstein was released in 1981 and was a 2D stealth title. You did have a gun that you could use, but you were more encouraged to sneak through each procedurally generated room to escape Castle Wolfenstein.
It’s far less action-packed than the more recent first-person shooter entries in the series. Plus, there isn’t as much focus on storytelling as in Wolfenstein: The New Order and The New Colossus. The newer games do have some stealth and a lot of Nazis, like the original title, but it’s still a completely different experience.
1Warcraft
From A Real-Time Strategy Title To An Endless MMORPG
The early Warcraft games were real-time strategy titles where you controlled an army and battled other armies. Then, World of Warcraft was released, and the entire series changed. Wow isn’t a real-time strategy game, nor does it resemble one at all.
It’s an MMORPG and one of the most successful games of all time. So, naturally, the developers committed to the MMORPG genre by releasingmany expansion packs for World of Warcraft. Besides a remastered version of the third game, Warcraft has moved away from real-time strategy.
