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[–] Namrok 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I feel like evolutionary, or even revolutionary sequels are another casualty to these longer development cycles, with higher costs. The incentive to play it safe and make your fucking money back is just too great.
I keep trying to think of games from the 80's and 90's that pulled it off. Ultima certainly did. But they also hammered out an Ultima game nearly every year. Between 1980 and 1994 they released 10 Ultima games. And a lot of changes were viewed as intrinsic improvements on Ultima's core philosophy. Origin's motto was "We Create Worlds" and Ultima constantly had game systems added which improved the feel of the world simulation. Then Ultima 8 added jumping and platforming and fans rebelled.
WIzardry ultimately floundered and failed because it was too stubborn about sticking to a formula. It wasn't until another designer took over with Wizardry V that the series began evolving somewhat. I remember loving the shit out of Wizardry 8 when it came out, and that was nothing at all like the other Wizardry games. Same thing goes for how much my mind was blown by Might & Magic VI. Huge departure from the rest of the series. Switched from grid based movement and turn based combat to free form movement with real time combat. And it was incredible.
I think in general you used to see sort of tick-tock cycle of evolutionary and revolutionary sequels. Fallout 1 to Fallout 2 was evolutionary. It took all the good parts of Fallout 1, made them better, while fixing the bad parts. Fallout 3 was revolutionary.
Fallout 4 devolved... however...
These days you see less revolutionary sequels, or even evolutionary sequels, and more devolving, cost cutting sequels. Oh they'll try to pass it off as "revolutionary". But we can all tell it's the same damned game we bought 5 years ago, except $20 more and with less content, simpler game mechanics, and a $20-50 season pass waiting in the wing.