I agree 1 was GOAT. They nailed weaving the story line in a way that made a railroaded story feel natural. 2 might as well have been a rails shooter, part of the story was literally on a railroad. If that was satire by devs and writers being coerced then bravo, otherwise it was weak. Infinite bright back a lot of what made 1 awesome, mesmerizing even, but the extreme patriotism thing got old real quick. The dimensional jumping storyline was on the cusp of greatness, but would have needed a few more DLC style side adventures to better tell it from other POVs.

4 is too late and implies more that they have no idea what else to do so back to this well and hope it’s not still dry.