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I know that a fair few people here at 4playernetwork aren’t the biggest fans of Hitman: Absolution, but I’ve recently finished it and, well, I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. It’s a shame that it isn’t the Hitman game that it could have been, sure, but I’ll still take it over the grey wash of carbon-copy multiplayer shooter bullshit any day of the week.
In fact, I felt some resentment towards people who had been so harsh on the game. Why be so negative about a generally entertaining experience because it doesn’t feel like a “true” Hitman game? Why be so down on a comparatively restrained, single-player focussed experience that allows for a degree of malleability in player approach (three things you won’t get from many contemporary releases) because previous Hitman games offered more freedom? Why let fond memories of previous games blind you to the good qualities of an experience?
But then I remembered Dead Space 3, a game I’ve done nothing but complain about from the announcement of its co-op feature to the game’s closing credits. Why was I complaining? Because it didn’t feel like a “true” Dead Space game. I will always have time for Dead Space and Dead Space 2. I enjoyed those games a lot, despite their flaws. The question is, would I have been so down on Dead Space 3 if I hadn’t had any attachment to the previous Dead Space games? I would still have probably come to the conclusion that Dead Space 3 was badly written, badly paced, overlong, devoid of tension and needlessly tainted by EA’s micro-transaction/social focus bollocks. Yet perhaps those issues would have bothered me less if I wasn’t already attached to the Dead Space franchise.
Was I in the wrong for hating on Dead Space 3 because of my prior attachment to the Dead Space franchise? Should I have been glad that a different audience might have played and enjoyed a Dead Space game in the same way I enjoyed Hitman: Absolution? Or is my disappointment justified? Should I just accept that Absolution is sub-par to fan’s standards and less than what they deserve, in the same way that I felt robbed of a decent sequel to Dead Space 2?
This all highlights an underlying danger of over-relying on established, well-loved franchises, and not investing creative energy in new IPs. The more loyal fans you attract to a brand, the more potential there is to disappoint. Every sequel is under the eyes of intense scrutiny. Every reboot is a backlash waiting to happen. The longer you go without shaking up a formula within a popular franchise, the greater the risk of two undesirable outcomes: creative stagnancy, or fan backlash.
From a business perspective, it makes sense to stick to what works and milk every last ounce of profit out of it as you can. From a creative perspective, however, it's in your best interest to curb a franchise when it's at its strongest, or at least get into the habit of making substantial, beneficial changes to each release. Once fans become attached to a franchise, it becomes harder and harder to make significant changes without pissing them off. Even small changes can cause large waves of dissent. Look at the outrage Devil May Cry fans expressed over a simple aesthetic change to the long-running series. Can you imagine Infinity Ward making the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game cel-shaded? No, of course you can't. It would probably cause Modern Warfare fan's heads to explode.
I suppose it's possible to moan about Dead Space 3 whilst accepting that other players enjoy it for the same reasons I don't. By the same token, while the resentment of Hitman fans won't stop me from enjoying Absolution, I can still appreciate that the game is a letdown for people who have come to expect better from the series. It would be nice, however, to see more instances of ideas that are controversial in established franchises being applied to new IPs, where they have more potential to thrive free of the shackles of series traditions and fan expectations.
Comments
11 years, 8 months ago
Fanboys are the kind of people I HAAATTTTEE. They suck all the fun you might have, even if it's a bad game. I mean, I love Absolution and prefer it over the older PS2 games because it's easier to be stealthy. In the older games, the sneaking controls made it impossible for me to quietly get behind someone and choke them. Absolution also feels more like the Batman: Arkham franchise's stealth mechanics with the instinct vison and better crouching. So yeah, Absolution is a Hitman game I can actually play, unlike Blood Money and Contracts.
11 years, 8 months ago
Maybe if the next CoD was cel-shaded I would actually want to play it. In any case, there has to be a balance innovation and of staying true the the franchises' roots. The Elder Scrolls franchise for instance reinvents itself with each new game in the series, but the core experience remains the same. I was less than happy about some of the new systems in Skyrim but it was still a terrific game and it still felt like an Elder Scrolls game. But then if you look at something like Halo ODST and even Reach to a lesser extent, these game were different, not better or worse but different, than the other entries in the Halo franchise and many of the hardcore Halo fans tend to dismiss them for that reason alone. Wether or not these games are good or bad is a matter of opinion , but it shows that if a entry in a franchise has striking differences from the previous entries then the hardcore fans will have a hard time accepting it.
Of course it's never as simple as that since how someone approaches a game depends on how it is marketed. From what I've seen, that seems to be one of the reasons many people here at 4playernetwork disliked the Hitman: Absolution as much as they did: we were promised a true, classic Hitman game and what we got wasn't very "Hitman" at all. Now I've only played Blood Money so I won't comment on Absolution's quality, but a developer promising that the new game will play just like the old games, which turns out to be a blatant lie when the game actually comes out, is not the best way to keep the hardcore fans onboard. Look at Tomb Raider, the developers never tried to say it was going to be like the older games but marketed it as a reboot of the story and the gameplay, and it seems to be a lot better received by the hardcore fans than Hitman was.
The moral is that a developer can, and may possibly need to makes significant changes to a franchise, but they need to tell us what those changes are, why they made them and most importantly, how they will affect gameplay.
11 years, 8 months ago
I was planning on asking this as a viewer question a while ago but never got around to it. I haven't played Dead Space 3 or Hitman: Absolution although I've played both of their prequels. I think it all has to do with the name. With the series branding, fans have a certain expectation for similarities throughout the series in terms of gameplay and/or story. I'd say, if you're planning on changing the game in a significant manner, best to call it a spin-off or a reboot, or call it a new game entirely. Otherwise, everyone will be comparing it with the rest of the series and THAT will determine the scores it gets.
Honestly, I would be fine with more spin-offs; I don't think the market has enough of them. The two most recent ones I remember are Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and Dead Space: Extraction. At least Extraction was met with favorable reviews despite being a completely different type of game. At least in my opinion, it would be better to release a poor spin-off than to release a poor sequel. As Nick had said before about the Resident Evil series, if it doesn't have a number, buyer beware. Poor spin-offs are then accepted by fans with mixed reviews while poor sequels threaten to burn them off of the series completely.
11 years, 8 months ago
Man, if that's all you found wrong with Dead Space 3, you should count yourself lucky.
11 years, 8 months ago
I think I stopped being loyal to franchises but still keep my mind open just in case they surprise me. I remember loving Resistance: FoM, hating Resistance 2, and feeling reluctant about Resistance 3 but then absolutely falling in love with it. It was one of my top games of 2011 (or was it 2010...? The date escapes me right now), so I'm glad I gave it a shot after all.
11 years, 8 months ago
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