It’s a common belief that the most popular games in a franchise are the best of the bunch, but that’s not always the case. You see, plenty of great games can get pushed under the rug due to a multitude of reasons, and that leads to criminally underrated games. To that end, here are 10 examples of such franchises where the least popular is actually one of our favorites.
Splinter Cell: Conviction – Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell: Conviction was released in 2010 to a divisive reception, and a lot of that can be associated with the radical changes that the game made with respect to franchise norms. It veered away from the tactical stealth action that made the original games popular in the first place, and introduced new elements like Mark and Execute which can be used to clear out rooms full of enemies in an instant alongside the inability to hide dead bodies among others. These changes were mostly made in an effort to make the game appeal to the masses.
Sure, it’s understandable why fans of older games didn’t gel with this formula – but we adore Splinter Cell: Conviction simply because these new mechanics enable a sense of flow to the gameplay proceedings. Sam Fisher moves at a brisk pace, dotting from cover to cover and clearing out huge hordes of enemies with relative ease – and that feels really empowering which is something that’s missing from other entries. And that’s also really fitting since you are racing against time to prevent a terrorist plot, so better to be quick and ruthless than clean and slow.
