With each recreation that launches and meets (or surpasses) expectations, there’ll all the time be a number of different titles that fall brief. They might have probably the most intensive advertising price range, the sharpest visuals or the largest IP behind them – issues simply don’t come collectively in a compelling, a lot much less satisfying method. In fact, different titles might disappoint merely as a result of developments and being within the unsuitable place on the unsuitable time. Regardless, listed here are our 15 picks for probably the most disappointing video games of 2024.
Star Wars Outlaws
As iffy as sure issues appeared earlier than launch, there was nonetheless some hope for Star Wars Outlaws from Huge Leisure’s involvement alone. The Popularity and Wished system, extra natural exploration, and deal with single-player had been all the appropriate strikes, nevertheless it didn’t land for customers. Those that took the plunge suffered quite a few bugs and points with motion, fight, AI, stealth, and so forth. It’s a greater recreation now, however Outlaws nonetheless wants work.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
Even with successes like Helldivers 2, this yr simply wasn’t it for live-service titles. Nonetheless, the unfavorable response to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League started effectively prior, with many criticizing the looter shooter’s format. The discharge sadly did nothing to rise to the event, that includes a horrendous story that falls off a cliff, unbearable characters, and the identical dreary games-as-a-service mission construction seen tons of of occasions earlier than. With a $200 million affect on Warner Bros. Discovery’s income, Suicide Squad clearly didn’t meet expectations.
Cranium and Bones
Alleged reboots, high-profile departures, fixed delays, and a ballooning price range – Ubisoft’s Cranium and Bones had all the important thing substances for a possible catastrophe. Including in all of the live-service staples like seasons, always-online gameplay, a deal with multiplayer, and whatnot hastened the sport’s doom (calling it a quadruple-A title additionally didn’t assist). With participant numbers reportedly coming in at lower than 1,000,000 round launch, it was a failure earlier than it even bought began.
Planet Coaster 2
Unimaginable visuals and the studio’s penchant for consideration to element did little to make a distinction for Planet Coaster 2, which is, by all accounts, a hotly awaited sequel, that rather more palatable. The terrible UI, pathing points, lackluster swimming pools, terrible characters and varied bugs had been simply too vital to disregard, even with the higher marketing campaign. Frontier has rolled out enhancements, and it’ll probably excel in the long term, however for now, Planet Coaster 2 is an underwhelming experience.
Farming Simulator 25
After the failure of Farming Simulator 23 (a minimum of on Nintendo Swap), Farming Simulator 25 marked a return for the franchise to consoles and PC. It shipped with intensive bugs, an annoying person interface, jarring physics, and multitudes of different points that stay. That’s on prime of the unoptimized efficiency on PC, which hinders the in any other case robust environmental results and textures. Mods will probably make it a greater expertise over time however at this level, followers would admire a robust title out of the gate (which actually applies to our subsequent alternative).
Starfield: Shattered Area
Starfield had its share of combined impressions after launching final yr and Shattered Area appeared like the right alternative to deal with many points whereas providing a contemporary slate. Nonetheless, the hand-crafted planet of Var’uun’kai delivered probably the most rudimentary content material and barren environment to go together with lackluster characters and story-telling. Even the intriguing gravity anomalies barely seem after a degree.
A Quiet Place: The Street Forward
I used to be enthusiastic about Stormind Video games’ first-person horror, particularly with the way it leveraged the movies and their mechanics. Sadly, A Quiet Place: The Street Forward is a massively linear, extremely scripted expertise with weird AI, questionable design choices, and a predictable story that fails to actually leverage its endearing characters.
Harmony
Sony’s largest first-party failure in years, Harmony was seemingly doomed from its first correct reveal, particularly when the hero shooter parts grew to become obvious. After a beta with abysmal numbers, it will launch to middling critiques and reportedly offered solely 25,000 copies. Sony initially pulled the title from sale and shut down servers earlier than ultimately shuttering it and Firewalk Studio.
Rise of the Ronin
Director Fumihiko Yasuda revealed round June that Rise of the Ronin was Koei Tecmo’s best-selling recreation up to now, with the writer even reporting increased gross sales than Nioh. That’s all nice, however the recreation itself fell wanting what we anticipated by way of open-world actions and storytelling. Not less than the fight stays satisfying, and Crew Ninja has offered some intensive post-launch content material without cost.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The primary Dragon Age title in ten years was sure to have astronomical expectations, particularly with all of the rumors and reviews of reboots. Fight was sharp regardless of pivoting to a real-time hack-and-slash method and the environments are attractive, no doubt. It’s the whole lot else that both whelmed or disenchanted, from the uneven characterization and writing to the mission construction. Although it wasn’t BioWare’s worst, it’s removed from being its greatest.
Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6
Important enhancements over final yr’s recreation don’t excuse Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6 from disappointing in different methods. Regardless of a superior marketing campaign, its story finally felt flat (and continued the identical cliffhanger method), whereas multiplayer fell brief with its map design. Zombies is surprisingly good regardless of some stability points, and whereas the general expertise classifies as “good,” it’s nowhere close to the collection’ heights.
Unknown 9: Awakening
There’s all the time some skepticism when a developer will get forward itself and plans out a complete universe for its IP earlier than the primary recreation even launches. Sadly, Unknown 9: Awakening loaded its bland premise with boring writing and boring fight, whereas varied bugs and efficiency points weighed even heavier. Suffice it to say that with an all-time peak concurrent participant depend of 285 on Steam at launch, Unknown 9: Awakening failed to satisfy any expectations heaped on it.
MultiVersus
From promising platform fighter to being pulled and relaunching earlier this yr in a worse kind, MultiVersus has had fairly the journey. It’s exhausting to pinpoint all the problems, be it the sheer lack of quality-of-life options at launch or how underwhelming Rifts felt after they lastly went reside, however above all else, the texture and fluidity from the open beta felt prefer it was lacking. And sadly, Participant First Video games hasn’t been in a position to seize the magic ever since.
XDefiant
Initially revealed as a part of the Tom Clancy collection, XDefiant would turn into a standalone entity whereas nonetheless crossing over with the writer’s varied different titles. Nonetheless, regardless of some responsive capturing, it couldn’t match the options and content material of different free-to-play shooters at launch. Numerous points like community efficiency additionally affected it, inflicting a pointy downturn. Perhaps there’s nonetheless time to proper the ship, however primarily based on the corporate’s different live-service endeavors, XDefiant’s days might be numbered.
Outcast: A New Starting
Growing a sequel to a distinct segment title from the late 90s is uncommon by itself, however maybe Outcast: The New Starting might cater to long-time followers. What it provided was a large world with nothing thrilling, loading up gamers with menial duties and terrible writing. Interesting as it might be for these in search of extra old-school-style titles, A New Starting felt extra like an ungainly continuation for a cult-classic collection.
