Summary
Horror games are a main-stay in the gaming landscape, and many long-running franchises have spawned from the successes seen throughout the years. Many franchises take what succeeds in each game and simply improve upon it,such asThe Last of Us Part 2taking the well-crafted gameplay and storytelling style from the first game and just adding more. This tends to be received well by general audiences and has led to sequels likeThe Last of Us Part 2winning Game of the Year and other similar awards.
This list is focused, however, on games that chose not to do this, instead straying from the formula in one way or another to take the franchise in a completely new direction. Here are eight games that stand out within their respective franchises, for a variety of reasons, ranked by just how far they stray from their predecessors.
TheMetrofranchise thrusts the player into the cramped, claustrophobic post-apocalyptic world of Moscow’s metro system—or the first two games do. The third entry,Metro Exodus,pivoted away from this intense, linear survival game formula and instead took the systems established withinMetro 2033andMetro Last Lightand set the narrative in a collection of open-world sections.
Despite the change from cramped tunnels to open worlds,Metro Exodusis still clearly aMetrogame, with the same player character and the same base systems and world. There is just now more to explore, which is both a gift and a curse, depending on what a player is looking for in a sequel toMetro.
Similar toMetro Exodus,Bioshock Infinitetook the systems that were established in the submerged city of Rapture and shot them into the sky, placing the player in Columbia. Columbia is, essentially, Rapture in the sky, yet another city established by a religious figurehead with an ongoing class war that the player is thrust into.
Infiniteis a great game, improving on the concepts set up in the first two games and adding a collection of new ones, which allows Columbia to feel like a unique setting, andthe story is well-crafted enough to work as an entirely separate narrativefrom the previous games. However, this is part of what separatesInfinitefrom the franchise. What makes it work as a game is also what distances it from its siblings and makes it feel less like aBioshockgame than its own beast.
Dead Space 3is possibly the greatest example of the survival-horror game-to-action-shooter pipeline seen in other franchises likeResident Evil. While the first twoDead Spacegames are spectacular horror sci-fi experiences, they both have an air of cramped, dingy horror, with a coat of grotesque body horror.Dead Space 3is a cut-and-dry third-person shooter, with spectacle and action being the entire ethos of the game’s design.
Many fans of the franchise disliked this change to such a degree thatDead Space 3has been shunned from the canon for many, and is widely regarded as the worst entry in the series. The game has its own merits, and is fun, but does not feel like aDead Spacegame outside of the setting and visuals.
Another game from a survival horror franchise that takes on more of an action spin,Resident Evil 4is (while not as egregious asDead Space 3) aclear detraction from the methodical horror gameplay established in the first three games.Resident Evilis a franchise that is commonly thought of as the parent of survival horror, andResident Evil 4is still a survival horror game, however, it forgoes some of the previously established elements in favor of flashier fights and more intense action.
Another big change from the first three games to this fourth entry is that it no longer has the typical zombie enemies, but rather a horde of angry Spanish villagers protecting the game’s grotesque, monstrous bosses that bring it back to feeling like aResident Eviltitle. Despite these differences,Resident Evil 4is widely considered one of the strongest entries in the series, and one of the greatest games of all time, and with a well-received remake from 2023, it is easier than ever to access.
Doom 3is the inverse ofDead Space 3, taking a franchise well-known for intense, flashy fights full of gunfire and gore, and making a survival horror game. Unlike the previousDoomgames,Doom 3is much more focused on the story, which still includes the player slaying hordes of demons, yet with the added presence of NPCs, and much darker, linear corridors.
To any fan of the classic or modernDoomfranchises,Doom 3feels like a unique beast, yet is still clearly aDoomgame. The demons present in the game are recreations of those from the original games, even if they are intended to be scarier than ever before. The narrative is still very simple, revolving around demons on Mars, with a silent protagonist who scoffs in the face of demonic forces. However different it is,Doom 3is an important stepping stone between the classic and modernDoomgames, and has a unique charm to its different style.
Five Nights at Freddy’sis a franchise that is impossible to avoid, having taken over almost every form of media available. Since the release of the first point-and-click game, there have been books, an analog horror series, a movie, and many, many games.Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breachis a stand-out within the massive canon, taking the form of a game, yet unlike every other game in the franchise, it doesn’t lock the player in one room.
Security Breachlets the player freely roam the Pizzaplex, with a much greater focus on a clear linear narrative than previous entries in the series. Despite the differences,Security Breachis still very much aFNaFgame, with the animatronic mascots being the main antagonists, and the player having to survive the night. This game is somewhere between the formula set-up within the franchise and a mainstream survival horror game, making for a fun, unique addition to the franchise.
The final entry on this list is anotherResident Evilgame, yet it holds very little resemblance to its forefathers. WhileResident Evil 4took the game in a more action-centric direction,Resident Evil 7: Biohazardcompletely rebooted the series. What was once the champion of third-person campy horror, is now the leading franchise in first-person terror.Resident Evil 7got rid of the fun one-liner spitting protagonists like Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy and placed the player in the shoes and eyes of Ethan Winters, a man just as scared as the players themselves.
Resident Evil7completely reformed the franchise and entirely changed genres, doing so for the better, not only being very well-reviewed itself but also spawning a sequel that simply improved on all the new elements added in7.Resident Evil 7is the best example of a horror sequel that went in a completely different direction and did so in such a way that revived a horror franchise that had been shrugged off as overly spectacular action-horror.
