Who doesn’t love a great comeback? A great return isn’t just about nostalgia — it’s about understanding what made something special in the first place and pushing it forward.

That moment where a franchise rises from the ashes with purpose, polish, and a point to prove? Priceless. Not every revival nails the landing, but the ones that do remind us that gaming’s greatest strength is how it reinvents without forgetting where it came from.

7 Fallout 3 revived and reinvented a lesser-known franchise

It took a decade for the third Fallout game to come out

The Fallout series never started out the way we perceive it today. It began as a top-down, 2.5D RPG that had an identity—but a muddled one. This made for a rather niche game, certainly appreciated by its player base, but far from the cultural juggernaut it would later become. Made for a very particular audience, the original Fallout games were remarkable experiences, but the third game never made it out of development hell in its original form. The franchise — as it had existed — was dead for all intents and purposes.

Interplay Productions, the original publisher, went bankrupt and eventually shut down. That opened the door for Bethesda, which was riding high off The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, to buy the IP. Bethesda gave Fallout the first-person RPG treatment, essentially remaking it in Oblivion’s image. Gone was the isometric format and turn-based combat.

Ten years after the last game, Fallout 3 launched in 2008 and wowed audiences — including me — with its visuals and addictive open-world gameplay. Running on the same engine as Oblivion, it even featured Hollywood bigwig Liam Neeson, proving Bethesda’s faith in the revival. Today, the franchise is stronger than ever, despite Fallout 76's disastrous launch, and I can’t wait for Season 2 of the Amazon Prime show.

6 Resident Evil 7 made a directionless franchise terrifying again

Go tell Aunt Rhody that we’re so back

Resident Evil 4, to this day, remains one of the most significant games in history. It truly pioneered the third-person, over-the-shoulder action-shooter genre, and brilliantly melded puzzle-solving, zombie-shooting, and cinematic story-telling. Cut to Resident Evil 6 in 2012, and it was clear that the once nail-biting franchise had lost its special sauce. It got a mixed reception, and rightly so, because the sixth installment was all action, no horror, and definitely no survival. This led to a bit of a limbo in development, and looking back, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Not having heard anything about the franchise for four years, players were elated to see a fantastic first-person horror game revealed in 2016. Furthermore, they were further shocked to see the Resident Evil logo show up at the end, as Capcom revealed the seventh mainline game in the franchise, which would be a complete reinvention of the RE formula. Set in a single house in the Louisiana swamps, Resident Evil VII gave us a new protagonist and brought back the horror, and became inarguably the scariest game in the franchise.

In fact, this reinvention worked so well that Capcom decided to stick with the same protagonist and the first-person view, making for two fantastic back-to-back games that breathed new life into this historic horror franchise.

5 God of War 2018 gave Kratos renewed purpose

God of War, meet dad of war

Sony Santa Monica’s God of War series debuted in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. Over the next five years, it cemented itself as one of the best gaming franchises we’d seen. But it was also clear the series was struggling to break new ground — something painfully evident in 2013’s Ascension, a prequel that went all the way back to the beginning.

After Ascension, the franchise went quiet. Sony shifted the spotlight to Uncharted and The Last of Us. Cut to 2016, when, in one of gaming’s greatest reveals, Kratos emerged from the shadows and the world erupted. He was back — but almost unrecognizable. Reinvented along with the world around him, 2018’s God of War traded Greek chaos for Norse mythology and gave Kratos an all-new pantheon to clash with.

His trademark aggression still simmered, but now it was buried beneath the weight of fatherhood. As Kratos and Atreus journeyed through the Norse realms, players discovered a deeper, more vulnerable side to a character once fueled only by rage. With reimagined gameplay and a narrative that matured alongside its fanbase, the rebooted God of War delivered some of the finest storytelling in gaming — made even better by its powerful sequel, God of War Ragnarok.

4 2013’s Tomb Raider transformed Lara Croft into a new-age hero

Croft had almost become a relic by then

Lara Croft first graced our screens in 1996, and over the years, became one of the most iconic female characters in gaming. Tomb Raider was once one of the most influential action-adventure franchises out there — but by the late 2000s, it had grown stale. Each new entry felt weaker than the last, and while other shooters and third-person adventures built on its formula to greater success, Tomb Raider risked fading into irrelevance.

Then came 2013. After a five-year gap, the devs decided to remake the series in the image of its time rather than cling to relics of the past. Lara got a gritty origin story and a full redefinition of her character. She was still the iconic game character — but now grounded, vulnerable, and human. Gone were the exaggerated heroics and outdated physical design; in their place was a young woman becoming a survivor through resilience and grit.

From rock-climbing to puzzle-solving, combat to exploration, 2013's Tomb Raider delivered a cinematic, intense experience. Croft was even extricated from her older, highly-sexualized physical appearance that had overshadowed all her other traits. The reboot was a massive success, birthing a fantastic trilogy of games that re-established Lara as a modern gaming legend. It even led to a new feature film, a Netflix animated show, and another movie on the way, with Sophie Turner set to don the sunglasses and gun holsters.

3 Wolfenstein: The New Order made BJ Blazko a modern legend

BJ Blazkowics is to Nazis what the Slayer is to demons… i.e., Nazis

BJ Blazkowicz used to be a pixelated gun floating in a maze of Nazi corridors. The original Wolfenstein 3D on MS-DOS was one of the greatest, most important games ever, but by 2009, the franchise was heading towards obscurity with poor reviews bringing the name down. Then, in 2014, came Wolfenstein: The New Order — a game that didn’t just revive a franchise, it reinvented its soul. MachineGames took what could’ve been another mindless shooter and gave us a brutal, deeply human, and often poetic alternate history where the Nazis won… and BJ refused to let them keep it.

This wasn’t the Doom Slayer — BJ bled. He broke. But he never stopped fighting. He was more than a symbol of resistance — he was resistance itself. And somehow, amidst all the explosions, dieselpunk weapons, and robot dogs, The New Order gave us one of the most memorable casts in modern gaming. Anya, Set, Max Hass, and Wyatt— they weren’t just side characters, they mattered.

The game balanced emotional weight with pure shooter chaos, never losing sight of its pulp-action roots. You’d mow down fascists in one scene and then be hit with quiet, tender dialogue the next — and it worked. It shouldn't have, but it did. Then, 2018’s New Colossus came, and it improved every single aspect of the first game, delivering a one-two punch that remains one of my favorite games ever. Hear, hear!

2 Devil May Cry 5 brought the mainline games out of a decade-long limbo

I know, but the 2013 game doesn’t count

Don’t hate me, but I actually loved 2013’s DmC: Devil May Cry. It was polarizing, yes, and well, it also happened to plunge the once-decorated DMC franchise into limbo. Devil May Cry 4 had come out all the way back in 2008, and it took a whole decade for Capcom to announce the next mainline game, Devil May Cry 5. By now, the red-clad, white-haired Dante we’d left in hell hadn't been heard from in a long time, but 2019’s Devil May Cry 5 brought him back with a vengeance, a full head of silver hair, and a stubble.

Still, people were cautiously optimistic. Could they really bring back Dante, Nero, and the over-the-top flair without it feeling dated? Turns out, they didn’t just bring it back — they turned the dial up to eleven. Devil May Cry 5 is a masterclass in action design. Every punch, slash, and aerial juggle oozes confidence. The combat is deep but accessible, the visuals are stylish as hell, and the soundtrack? Unbelievably hype.

Dante, in particular, is peak “cool uncle energy,” rocking a motorcycle that splits into twin swords while taunting enemies mid-fight. But beneath the style is a game that respects its legacy and its fans. It’s loud, it’s chaotic, it’s absurd — and that’s exactly the point.

Capcom didn’t just revive the series — they reminded us why Devil May Cry reigns supreme in the action game genre.

1 2016’s Doom took 12 years to come out

No fury like a Slayer scorned

Is it any secret that Doom 3 was not a good Doom game? 2004’s entry veered too far from the franchise’s simple demon-killing roots, opting for slow-paced sci-fi horror instead. It wasn’t well-received — and rightly so. Doom 4 had been in production over at id Software, but then Zenimax acquired the studio and the Doom IP. Doom 4 was shaping up to be an even bigger departure, with heavily scripted set-pieces and barely any demons in the first half.

That version was scrapped, and id rebooted development from the ground up. What came next was a soft reboot — a return to the original marine from Mars whose pet rabbit was killed, and who only spoke the language of shotgun shells. Twelve years after Doom 3, 2016’s Doom came out swinging — and it kicked the door off its hinges.

This was a full-blown resurrection — fast, vicious, gloriously self-aware. The Slayer was once again the king of momentum-based gunplay, sprinting head-first into Hell with a fury that’d shame a woman scorned. No speeches. No philosophy. You were angry. The demons were in your way. That was enough. It became one of the best modern game revivals — leading to Doom Eternal, one of the greatest FPS games ever, and The Dark Ages, the latest entry that I loved to death.

Second chances that led to a new lease on life

It’s sad that not every franchise gets a second chance, and even fewer get it right. But when a revival hits that perfect blend of respect for the past and fearless evolution, it’s something worth celebrating.

It isn't just about proving relevance — it’s about showing there’s still something meaningful to say. The best revivals don’t just bring a series back. They elevate it. And when that happens, it’s not just a return — it’s a reinvention. One we’re lucky to witness in real time.