Hey, so not every video game franchise magic lasts forever.
— Oh no. God forbid I take a break. —
Sometimes a game just loses steam over time, whether it’s just public perception, declining quality of further games, you know, diminishing returns. Either way, we got 10 games to talk about today that lost their magic in some way or another.
10. Assassin’s Creed
It’s the “Assassin’s Creed” series. Look, I’m not gonna list a specific game here because seemingly everyone has a different breaking point, that specific game where the magic and the “Assassin’s Creed” series is lost. For some people, it started when the modern day plot line started going off the rails when they killed Desmond Miles. For others, it’s the RPG trilogy where the magic was gone for them. For a small group, the magic was out as early as “Assassin’s Creed II”, when the series kind of kicked out one of its more experimental elements from the game, and then it just became a more traditional open world game.
Look, none of these things are necessarily bad on their own, but one or maybe all of them put together has led to a lot of burnout and resentment among former fans of the series. Even people who still mostly like these games, myself included, can’t help but be a little tired of the whole thing. It’s death by a thousand cuts kind of situations here with mediocre games and then just like overstuffed games, and some that felt like they just had a lack of ambition, making it hard to get all that excited about a new one, even when they’re not all technically that bad.
“Assassin’s Creed Shadows” was received pretty well. It sold a lot of copies. Hell, all the new modern RPG “Assassin’s Creed” games have sold a lot of copies. So, the magic might not be lost for the mainstream, but I think for some old fans, it certainly is. I personally think the series needs a new creative vision at this point, a creative direction. They need to make a sequel that feels like a proper new game and not really just a variation on what we’ve been doing for the past decade. And honestly, I think them running away from the modern day storytelling is actually hurting what could be one of the series’ greatest strengths, but that’s probably a whole other video.
And look, these games can still be fun to play, but it’s just hard to get like super excited about them. For me at least, that’s really what the term lost their magic kind of means. It’s not necessarily that a game or a series is now terrible or irredeemable. It can mean that, but it also just means it doesn’t hold a special place in your heart anymore. It’s not something you care about as much. Sometimes it happens naturally. I mean, we all grow up or grow out of things eventually, but there are plenty of instances where a game series gets run into the ground and doesn’t innovate and doesn’t really do much to get their player base excited anymore. And I think “Assassin’s Creed” is a really good example of that.
9. MultiVersus
You don’t always need a long running series to drain the magic out of everything. Sometimes all it takes is one game developer making a lot of bad decisions to take a game that was at first, fairly positively rated and widely popular, and then just kill it stone dead.
So, here during the beta, people generally liked “MultiVersus” here as one of the rare, actually decent alternatives to “Smash Bros”. People generally liked the way the game controlled and played, and I really had a good time with it in those early days. Although the microtransactions were an issue and the lack of game modes meant there wasn’t much to do beyond team fights, but all that could be improved and expanded upon in the future, right?
The game saw pretty big numbers back when the beta launched with around 150,000 concurrent players on Steam with 90% positive reviews. The game was set to be a bonafide smash hit, but instead of trying to ride the wave of popularity, they instead just continued to add in more microtransactions and DLC into just the beta of the game while doing little to actually fix a lot of the game’s problems, like bugs remained unaddressed, the net code continued to be rough for months after the beta period started.
The lack of substantial updates and improvements meant that the massive concurrent player base of 150K dropped to around just 9,000 after only a few months. It was a big decline. The possibility to turn things around was still there. People generally still had positive impressions of the game and games have had this trajectory before, but then the real bombshell dropped, man, the game was gonna go dark for more than a full year so that it would relaunch in 2024.
If that didn’t kill interest in the game, then the way they handled the relaunch was the final nail in the coffin. They slowed down the gameplay, made characters even harder to unlock, and actually removed features that were in the beta. And I don’t mean just minor things, I mean ranked matches. They removed those for the final release because apparently, switching engines meant they just didn’t have time for it. But you already sold a lot of people on things in the beta.
Look, a lot of the blame on the mismanagement of the game has to fall on Warner Bros. Games. These guys managed to completely botch their entire gaming division from top to bottom. I don’t know what the hell the executives were thinking with this one. “MultiVersus” was just another casualty of incompetent leadership. This was a game that had something, the magic was there at the start, but the whole free to play live service nature of it smothered all those good feelings, and all that was left by the end was indifference when the game was finally put out of its misery in early 2025.
In just three short years, what a fricking trajectory here, man, “MultiVersus” went from one of the more played games on Steam to a game with like 20 people playing it at its lowest end. It’s just a real sad fall for what could have been a decent game.
8. Deathloop
There’s yet another way a game can lose the magic, and that’s by having an awesome premise and a spectacular opening that the rest of the game kind of fails to deliver on. Some games make a really, really magical first impression that ends up getting soured by the end.
One example is “Mafia III”. It starts off really strong and then gets repetitive. “Deathloop” is another example of this type of thing. It’s a game with a brilliant concept, right? Your objective is to escape this island, trapped in this endless time loop, and the only way to do it is kill eight targets on the same day without dying yourself. There is no saving mid-run. So, you have to slowly explore this big world and figure out its many secrets in order to find the most efficient route to assassinating all these people.
It sounds like “Dishonored” crossed with “Outer Wilds”, and that sounds incredible. And to the game’s credit, it feels very incredible at first too. It’s just the more you play it, the more the cracks start to show. There’s a reason why the game’s overall, like user scores on like Metacritic and stuff have dropped. It’s a game that seems like it’s more than it is. And when you find out that it’s actually less, then all the magic is lost for some people.
It feels disappointing even when the game still isn’t actually all that bad. It’s still a good game. It’s just that you go in thinking it’s gonna be like revolutionary, only to find out that it’s actually pretty straightforward. The major problem with “Deathloop” is that while it seems like it’s all about figuring out the perfect route, there’s really only like one way to kill all eight monumentals in a single run. There is no need for real experimentation or creative planning. You just follow the guidelines provided by the game. And if you could do it like all in one run, then you win.
There’s only one route to completion in the game, and to do it, you just have to follow the objectives, which defeats the purpose of figuring everything out. Look, it’s a game where on paper, it seems magical, and then when you play it, it doesn’t quite feel like it really has that magic. Personally, like this stuff aside, I still really enjoyed “Deathloop” from beginning to end. I get it’s not as complicated as maybe I wanted it to be, but it’s a divisive one. But we figured it was still worth mentioning.
7. Star Wars Galaxies
For the people who were there, the OG version of the first and definitely weirdest “Star Wars” MMO, “Star Wars Galaxies”, this was like a special experience, man. It’s less an adventure in the “Star Wars” universe and more of like an online LARP with some combat mixed in. This game had more in common with something like “Ultima Online” than it did with like more modern streamlined MMOs like “World of Warcraft”.
So, rather than just being like the amusement park model that’s become the defacto MMO experience, it was more of a sandbox where it just kind of dropped you into the world and expected you to find your own fun. For some people, the directionless nature of the game was off-putting and frustrating. I mean, this was a “Star Wars” game where you couldn’t really play as a Jedi. Instead, you were stuck being like a merchant or a dancer, or one of the possible menial jobs that required endless grinding and not much else. Jedi were in the game, but becoming one was mysterious and extremely challenging of an endeavor that only like a rare, randomly selected few players could ever even attempt.
And that’s what made seeing a Jedi in this game so cool. It felt like being in the universe, seeing a lightsaber hilt and being like, oh my god, is that a Jedi? Look, “Galaxies” was more interested in being a “Star Wars” universe simulation. You weren’t always the hero or the main character here. Instead, you were just one of those background characters at the cantina. Some people loved that aspect of the game. I personally really did, the social part, the mystery of it all. This is the stuff that made the game feel unique.
But I guess for the money people behind the scenes, it wasn’t doing “World of Warcraft” numbers, so things inevitably ended up changing for the worst. First, there was a CU, or combat upgrade, which changed things, but mostly players came to accept it. It streamlined combat, but it didn’t fundamentally change the experience of the game.
The thing that did completely change the game and ultimately ruined the magic for a lot of its player base was the NGE, or new game experience, which completely reworked the old freeform job system to a standard wow-like level up mechanic. It brought in new instances and more theme park feeling zones, and dumbed down and simplified some of the other game systems. It was kind of messy.
Unlike something like “Final Fantasy XIV”, which did the smart thing and completely rebuilt the game from the ground up. “Galaxies'” NGE was like a half measure that didn’t really make anybody happy. People who wanted a theme park stuck with “World of Warcraft”, the hardcore base, just really liked the freeform experience of the original version, well, they ended up quitting.
It wasn’t one of those immediate day loses, like it just the players slowly kinda lost interest in the game overall over time. Future updates did improve things and there were players who actually preferred the new experience. But for anyone who was around in the early days, it felt like that magic was well and truly gone.
6. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
These days, we’re used to getting pretty faithful remakes of old classics, right? But that wasn’t always the case. It used to be that games like 2009’s “Turtles in Time Re-Shelled” was the norm when it came to bringing back the games of our childhood. And by that, I mean it mostly sucked.
All the charm and magic of the original “Turtles in Time” is gone here. The crisp and expressive pixel art has been replaced with these flat dull 3D models. Backgrounds feel empty. Movement is weirdly fast and awkward. It just doesn’t feel right for a beat ’em up. The opening movie is lame. Compare the fantastic art of the SNES game to this sloppy, sketchy stuff here. Most of the art just doesn’t really look that good, which would be easy to overlook if this was its own original game, but it’s not. It’s a remake of one of the best beat ’em ups of all time. And in pretty much every way, it comes up disappointing.
Like, why replace stuff like that? Why change that stuff? One of the most baffling decisions in the remake is that for some reason, they decided to stick to the arcade original rather than the enhanced SNES version that had additional levels and some altered bosses. Among fans, there’s some disagreement about which version is actually better. The arcade version allows for four players, for one thing. The animations were more detailed in the arcade too.
But this is a remake. They could have combined both versions into one to make this like the ultimate package. There’s no Technodrome level in “Re-Shelled”. That’s one of the best levels in the entire game. It is such a waste. The original game was so good. For a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” game, it was magical. But the Ubisoft remake was missing all that. And now, it’s nearly impossible to play anymore. It got delisted just two years later in 2011. So, even though it’s not very good, you can’t even play this one if you wanted to. And I think that says a lot.
5. Blasphemous II
Sometimes the sequel comes out that’s every bit as good as the first game, and in fact, better in a lot of ways. But for one reason or another, the magic just isn’t there anymore. For fans of the original Catholic guilt-ridden souls like “Blasphemous”, that is arguably what happened to the sequel.
Now, for an outside observer, it might be hard to pin down what exactly is missing here. They look pretty much the same. There’s still a lot of weird stuff and a whole lot of esoteric lore to get confused by and mildly disturbed by, but that’s part of the problem. The original game was such a unique piece of art, like with a such a specific vision that making a sequel is gonna need to justify itself somehow. They can’t just do the same thing again, you know?
Except they did with less grotesque bosses and missing the incredibly detailed and creepy cut scenes from the original, replaced with more traditional animated ones that were probably a lot easier and cheaper to make, but no way near as atmospheric and unsettling.
It’s a lot of like the little things that make “Blasphemous 2” feel a bit less magical than the first. The plot is basically just a first game again, but like the fact that most of the bosses are just knights, rather than the screen-filling freaks of the first game, the more straightforward way to get to the secret ending, it all comes together to make a game that feels better to play, but lost a little bit of its soul in the process. Still a good game, but worth pointing out.
4. EverQuest
The magic in a particular game isn’t always intentional. Sometimes it’s just the confluence of many sometimes contradictory factors. The currently available technology, combined with like the Wild West that was the online space in 1999, really meant that nobody really knew what the formula for online gaming was. There was no real template or rule book to follow. For the most part, the rules had yet to be set completely.
Of course, there were massive multiplayer online spaces before, but nothing was operating at the level “EverQuest” attempted, which led to a lot of weirdness, a lot of that special magic that made it such a mysterious, dangerous, and exciting game to play. It was also obtuse and frustrating as hell, sometimes blatantly unfair. But magic doesn’t always mean a game is objectively good. It just means that it has that special, almost impossible to describe something. It’s the vibes, man, and “EverQuest” had them in spades.
The world was massive and it wasn’t designed to be easily explored. Cities were sprawling, and key NPCs and vendors were spread out, not all set in like easy to access centralized locations. And oh yeah, there was no map. So, getting lost was pretty common. Dying was brutal and corpse runs could span entire continents if you’re not careful.
The game was undeniably a pain in the ass, but there was just something so enticing about its world. Go back and ask any older gamer, they’ll tell you, you can take a wrong turn and end up in some bottomless pit dungeon or find yourself in a haunted mansion. It felt like the possibilities were endless at first, which was good because the game gave you very little direction about what you’re actually supposed to be doing.
It was a special experience that only the most dedicated or hardcore we’re gonna get so much out of. So, when “Warcraft” came around and showed everyone that an MMO could bring in a more casual audience, which meant big money, then everyone wanted to try and copy Blizzard’s design, even when it was practically incompatible with the games they’ve already built.
It happened to “Star Wars”, like we said, and to a lesser extent, it happened to “EverQuest”. But while the game wasn’t exactly ruined, they didn’t completely upend the player experience like “Galaxies” did. “EverQuest” lost that special magic that made it such a special experience for the people who played it back in the day.
By rationalizing the design and doing things like getting rid of the objectively annoying stuff like class-based experience penalties, and then actually giving players a usable map, “EverQuest” lost what made it special. It was just a thing where it’s like you had to be there, and then as time went on and other games came out, things faded. Look, it’s magic. It doesn’t always have to make sense.
3. BioShock
Gamers can be a fickle bunch. Ask three different people where “BioShock” lost its magic, and you’ll get three different answers. Some will say like when a different team made “BioShock 2” and tacked on the unnecessary multiplayer mode on top of it, some might go as far as to say the magic was gone when they made the first “BioShock” because it was more casual compared to “System Shock 2”, its spiritual successor. While others will say that the cart left the station with “BioShock Infinite”.
Now, look, I cannot deny how magical a lot of “Infinite” is, especially that opening. They promise a real spectacle of a game. But the promise is never completely realized, or at least not as good as it could be. “Infinite” was a game that went through development hell, and it felt like it was like scrap rebooted, changed a million times in development and you can feel that struggle in the game itself because it’s a very lopsided experience where it feels like big chunks are missing.
It’s pretty obvious that the game was originally designed to have these massive open environments that you could move between quickly using the sky rails. But instead of that, what we got were a bunch of tiny shooting arenas and then mostly linear shooting gallery.
Almost any trace of the exploration and environmental storytelling from the original “BioShock” are not here. It’s closer to a slightly more over the top “Call of Duty” than “System Shock” at this point. It’s a game that I still really, really like. The art direction is incredible. The world building is interesting. Some of the character moments are awesome, but it’s definitely weaker than the original “BioShock”. And the way the game tries to connect back to that game, it’s divisive.
2. Halo
It’s easy to pinpoint the exact moment when the “Halo” franchise lost its magic, and it’s the very moment Bungie walked away from Microsoft to work on the first “Destiny” with Activision. Some people called it right away, but many of us remained hopeful that that newly formed 343 Studios would be able to continue this series without its creator.
Most franchises removed from their original developers crash and burn, but maybe this time it’ll be different? It wasn’t really different. Make no mistake, the post-Bungie games weren’t total disasters or anything. In isolation, there’s a lot that’s still great about some of them, but in a post-“Infinite” world, it’s pretty hard to deny, the magic has been gone from the series for quite some time now.
The plots of the 343 games are a mess. Their attempts to update “Halo’s” gameplay systems have been awkward, inconsistent. And while they are eventually capable of making a solid multiplayer experience, it’s still just not quite as good as the series’ heyday.
It used to be that “Halo” was synonymous with video games. It was one of the big names, but Microsoft and 343 haven’t been able to hold on to all that built in cultural cachet. Like “Halo” is becoming another also ran, a series that’s kind of a ghost of its former self. Right now, it’s hard to say what the future even holds for “Halo”, which even just saying that out loud just feels like an insane thing to say, like thinking back to the late 2000s, but that’s where we’re at now.
1. Mass Effect
It’s not that the magic is entirely gone from “Mass Effect”. There is still at least a possibility that BioWare could bring it back with “Mass Effect 4” if that ever ends up actually happening. But after the one-two punch of the infamously terrible ending to the trilogy, followed up with the pretty disappointing “Mass Effect: Andromeda”, it feels like a whole lot of the magic of the franchise is gone.
Have you ever watched a TV show that you followed religiously for years? Sure, it wasn’t as good as when it first started out, but there was still a lot to like there, and then the highly anticipated finale airs and everyone gathers around to see it. It’s like appointment television. Everyone has got to watch it. And then, you see it and it completely fails on every level.
A bad ending can really taint everything that came before it. Look at “Game of Thrones”. That’s really what happened with “Mass Effect”. It feels like the third game really impacted the goodwill of some players.
Still, I’m willing to give “Mass Effect” another shot because at the end of the day, those original three games, for the most part, are still really great. The re-released like HD collection are great. The games still hold up. So, while it feels like there’s no magic in the future, at least we could lean on the past a bit.
Final Thoughts
Anyway, those are 10 games or series that have lost their magic, or the magic is fading, whatever. This is a pretty divisive video, and even I disagreed with some of the stuff we came up with here on the team, but that’s how this goes. So, let’s talk about this stuff. It’s fun to talk about it.
Let me know what you think. Let me know of some other franchises or game series that you feel like lost the magic. Let’s talk in comment.
