Sacred 1 & 2 were excellent, loved them. 3 was garbage.

Just like Dungeon Siege 1 & 2 were amazing, 3 cured me of pre-ordering.

Civilization 1 began the 4X craze and 2 added to the fun, but 3 nearly destroyed the franchise.

Darksiders 1 was campy/cheesy God of War ripoff but fun, 2 changed styles and became a darker Zelda ripoff but still fun, and somehow 3 escaped the "curse of threes" by being decent. Of course they changed styles again and became a Dark Souls type game, but I quite like that the franchise feels like they are allowing the writers to tell a story that flows through different types/genres instead of being forced into a tight box of mechanics and structures.

Maybe that is the trick to surviving past 2 games: you need to subtly shift a major part/style/aspect of your game while keeping the core theme. That's probably why the Assassin's Creed franchise has done so well: they started to get stale, then they became a PIRATE game a la Black Flag. Then they started to get stale (again) and they doubled down on the HISTORY/EDUCATIONAL aspect of their games with Origins and Odyssey. My guess is their next AC vikings game after Odyssey will be poorly received -- assuming these gaming cycles repeat.

no problem