This year we’ve witnessed many popular video game titles. Some of them were really good, like the re-release of Dead Space 1 or the second sequel to Alan Wake. But some of the titles were simply bad for one reason or another.
Find out exactly what kind of games we mean and which games disappointed us the most in 2023 in the following article, ranked from the smallest to the biggest disappointment.
# 1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Although the Call of Duty franchise continues to be the golden hen for Activision, Modern Warfare 3 has stumbled quite a bit. Things didn’t go well after fans got early access to Modern Warfare 3’s campaign, which was announced way before launch promising a showdown between Task Force 141 and the return of Modern Warfare’s iconic villain Vladimir Makarov.
Sadly, a huge amount of the promotional material felt like it primarily depended on materials from Warzone, which dismayed a lot of fans. Furthermore, the campaign is brief, lasting slightly longer than four hours. Many others were also put off by the concept of Open Combat missions, which eliminated many of the energetic and tense sequences that made the Call of Duty effort famous.
Although the situation is slightly better in multiplayer modes, it wasn’t completely painless either. From errors when starting the game, which were especially noticeable in modes such as Hardpoint, and the lack of popular game modes, such as Gun Game and Gun Fight, even the multiplayer mode wasn’t protected from problems. The title employs 16 maps, however, they aren’t unique since they are modified and visually enhanced from Modern Warfare 2, released in 2011.
When all is said and done, it’s no wonder the MF3 is remembered as a colossal failure. In every sense of this game, it can be said that hope was greater than the result. And to make matters worse, the entire game felt more like an expansion than a full game, even though it was sold for the price of the full game.
# 2 The Last of Us Part 1
The Last of Us is a game that, since its original release in 2013, has been reissued and remastered. After its release, the game conquered a large number of players with a solid story, a very good way of playing the game, and characters, of which Ellie and Joel were, of course, and remain the most impressive.
Unfortunately, neither the reissue nor the remaster of the first game was released for Windows, that is, for Windows computers. This “injustice” wanted to be corrected in March of this year, when Naughty Dog released a reissue, i.e. The Last of Us Part 1 for Windows computers. But, as it usually happens with big companies that have learned how to make a lot of money in a simple way, the PC reissue of TLOU 1 was a fiasco. The reason? Graphical issues and errors that players were facing when trying to launch and play the game. The PS5 version is fine, but Naughty Dog didn’t seem to care about the PC version of the game.
From various graphical issues and glitches to erratic framerates that the game displays regardless of whether the game is set to low or high detail and regardless of whether the player has a powerful or not-so-powerful PC, TLOU 1 for PC has crashed and has a colossal failure. How much the game producer cares about the computer version is proven by the fact that even now, months after the game was released, many of the bugs and problems have not been resolved.
# 3 Forspoken
When it was first announced, Forspoken was heralded by Luminous Productions as something extraordinary. But here too, things didn’t go anywhere near as well as they should have. Of the many announcements, the game has fulfilled little. Add to that the numerous bugs that needed to be fixed with patches and we got a below-average game where the main character is a semi-identified playable character in a semi-identified playable world, with a half-told story.
All in all, the game disappointed all those who see beyond the political innuendos that are very visible in this game. Considering the announcements and the final product, Forspoken will end up where that game belongs: in the history of failed projects, which promised so much and delivered so little.
# 4 The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
While there was initially some excitement surrounding a game centered on Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, no one could’ve known or hoped how bad and unplayable this game would actually be. Part of the disappointment lies in the fact that it “abuses” one of the most famous IPs in Lord of the Rings, the series created by J.R.R. Tolkien, which has seen a lot of success through film adaptations, video games, and more.
Apart from that, another big problem lies in the fact that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has suffered from a large number of technical problems since its release, but looking at the graphics there shouldn’t be any problems, since the game looks worse than some of the PlayStation 2 titles.
A lot of technical problems, unstable fps, excessive and unreasonable requirements for playing the game, crashes, bad story, boring tasks, boring and non-innovative characters, all these were the reasons why The Lord of the Rings: Gollum became and remained one of the worst games that came out this year.
# 5 Redfall
Redfall is another one of those games that promised “bathing in gold” only to stumble into mediocrity. Following several delays, Redfall premiered to a terribly negative reception from reviewers and players alike. In fact, the game did so poorly at launch that even Phil Spencer spoke about the poor reception of Redfall and generally the things about the game that were anything but good.
Along with the many bugs that hindered the overall experience, players also encountered inconsistent AI behavior, shallow gameplay mechanics, and a very small number of weapons available to players. In addition to not being able to run the game at 60 fps at launch, players also had problems with loot-and-shoot elements, character abilities, and RPG mechanics that weren’t very interesting or rewarding to use. Despite this, fewer people are playing Redfall than when it was released. Arkane has been releasing fixes to make the game better, but the user base is still eroding.
# 6 Skull Island: Rise of Kong
While expectations were already pretty low for this game, when a game fails even those low expectations, it really means something special. Allowing players to take on the role of legendary character King Kong to explore Skull Island, Rise of Kong launched with very little marketing and advertising beforehand. Reviews of Rise of Kong were extremely poor. Reviewers, journalists, and players alike noted a large number of bugs, graphics problems, and ultimately boring gameplay.
Many even said that at the end of the year, this game could be rated as worse than Gollum, which is an epithet that no one wants. Skull Island: Rise of Kong’s most disappointing aspect is how heinously it utilizes a well-known name that has just received a lot of respect. Worse, the game not only tarnishes the popular name but is even worse than what previous King Kong games have set, such as the 2005 title based on the Peter Jackson film.
# 7 Starfield
Without a doubt, Starfield proves that a game may still be rather nice while falling well short of expectations.
When Bethesda’s much-anticipated sci-fi RPG debuted back in September, the entire gaming community was counting on it to demonstrate to the other major contenders for Game of the Year what’s really up to par. Even though Starfield was largely praised by critics, there was a persistent feeling among them that it was ultimately disappointing and didn’t live up to the high expectations of many who saw it as a masterpiece that would define a generation.
Starfield’s endearing characters, good gunplay, and general vibes carry the game over its rather dull first few hours, uninteresting plot, and uninspired objectives, as well as its generally subpar exploring possibilities. It was inevitable that many would be disappointed when Bethesda released what may have been their worst AAA title to date in a year full of excellent games. Although modders may change the conversation once they have their way with it, it’s amazing how quickly many people have forgotten about a game that was supposed to be Microsoft’s flagship product for the foreseeable future.
# 8 Payday 3
Since Payday, a popular co-op shooter series from Starbreeze, has been a staple of many gaming communities, it stands to reason that Payday 3, which promises a more intense heisting experience with friends, will be one of the most eagerly awaited titles of 2023. Starbreeze hasn’t been able to stay on the right track, and things don’t seem promising for this third attempt, as its predecessor Payday 2 had considerably more players on Steam compared to its sequel.
Even though Payday 3’s gameplay concepts and enhancements are highly praised by those who have actually played the game, the game’s introduction caused a great deal of hardship for the community due to matchmaking problems and always-only requirements. The first patch that was supposed to make things better was also repeatedly delayed, which finally strained the player base’s tolerance. But given that Payday 3’s sales figures surpassed all projections, 2024 will likely see Payday 3 emerge as one of the gaming industry’s success stories.
# 9 Counter-Strike 2
When Valve teased Counter-Strike 2 in September, everyone was thrilled that the venerable first-person shooter was finally receiving an upgrade. However, considering that CS2 ultimately failed to impress both casual and ardent gamers, the players’ reactions were horrified when they saw how Valve had destroyed their prized intellectual property.
While the game’s performance and shortage of launch content were praised by critics, fans took issue with Valve’s decision to remove Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the game’s predecessor – one of the most popular competitive video games and eSports disciplines in terms of betting of all time that opened up new opportunities to emerging sportsbooks such as Ethereum bookmakers and other crypto operators – from Steam completely. As a result, CS2 swiftly rose to the top of Valve’s all-time lowest rating on the platform, and nearly two months after its debut, it continues to suffer from issues with matchmaking and performance.
Even while fans aren’t always receptive to change, it seems like the general consensus that Valve issued this update too soon is spot on in this instance. Regardless of the high likelihood that CS2 will be in much better shape by the middle of 2024, the difficult launch has left it with a ton of unneeded reputational baggage.
# 10 The Walking Dead: Destinies
Although we may have listed Skull Island: Rise of Kong, a fellow GameMill title, as one of the most disastrous games of the year in the Starfield entry, it’s not the publisher’s sole foray into the world of trash (we’re not too harsh, trust us). Fans of The Walking Dead (more particularly, the TV show) may have hoped that The Walking Dead: Destinies wouldn’t be just another underperforming game in a franchise that has given rise to Survival Instinct and countless other mobile products, but those aspirations were immediately dashed.
The Walking Dead: Destinies, a video game that was marketed as letting users rewrite major TV show plot points to see how things will turn out, falls short of fully realizing its ambitious premise. As for the gameplay, it’s about as janky as you could expect from a GameMill game, but since the developers that work with GameMill are supposedly forced to work under pressure on titles like Rise of Kong, the publisher is primarily to blame.
Conclusion
What can cause a game to fail? There are several reasons. Sometimes a game simply hits the market at a bad moment, due to which other games overshadow it and its full potential can’t be shown. Often the cause is the greed of the development teams, who want to make money from the naivety of the players and who want to hide the inadequacy and the fact that their game is poorly designed and implemented with various tricks, such as micro-transactions and similar things.
Sometimes the cause is simply the incompetence of the developers, as was evident in the Gollum game. But anyway, these six worst gaming titles we had the chance to play this year should teach us some important lessons. The good thing is that this year we had the opportunity to play a lot of good titles, but also some great ones. But more about that next time.