The past decade has seen incredible highs in video games. Breakthrough titles likeBaldur’s Gate 3andElden Ringrightfully rank among the best ever made.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis a technological achievement that shouldn’t be possible, especially on the outdated Nintendo Switch hardware.
10 Worst Games of the Last Decade (According to OpenCritic)
We don’t enjoy beating a dead horse, but it’s worth looking back every now to avoid repeating past mistakes.
Yet, for all these great games over the past ten years, there have been plenty of duds. Sometimes, developers can turn things around and deliver a feel-good comeback story. These games, however, aren’t necessarily deserving of a happy ending.
10Warcraft 3: Reforged
This city must be purged
Warcraft 3: Reforged
RemasteringWarcraft 3seems like a slam dunk decision. It’s one of the best RTS games ever made and one ofBlizzard’s best games. The promise of new HD cutscenes alone was worth the price of admission.
Instead,Warcraft 3 Reforgedwas an absolute disaster in every possible way. Substantial features promised by Blizzard, such as reworked cutscenes, were either underwhelming or not even present in the game. It was plagued by technical issues, bugs, and poor performance. The game also removed several features that made the original so beloved.
Worst of all, Blizzard removed the ability to play the originalWarcraft 3: Reign of ChaosandFrozen Throneexpansion. This was now the only way to playWarcraft 3.
The company would eventually offer full refunds for players and do what they could to make things right but inexplicably defended some of their design choices. And just like that, an important piece of video game history was gone.
Redfallwas the first Bethesda exclusive released on Xbox after Microsoftpurchasedthe company. As a result, it was under a lot of pressure. Would Microsoft’s investment be worth it?
We already had concerns given that developer Arkane Studios, best known forPreyand theDishonoredfranchise, was making a looter shooter devoid of the personality we had come to expect from their games.
Still, we were optimistic about the game’s release. Then we played it, and that optimism vanished.Redfallis as bland as they come. There’s nothing here that helped make Arkane such a special developer in the industry. Worst of all, the game was filled with bugs and didn’t work as intended.
Redfallquickly became a very datedexperience that would have fared better if it had been released alongsideBorderlandswhen the looter shooter craze first began.
8Balan Wonderworld
Disasterpiece
Balan Wonderworld
Where do we begin here?
First, the good: Yuji Naka, best known for his work onSonic the HedgehogandNights into Dreams, directed the game.
Next up, the bad: everything else.
Balan Wonderworldhas more in common with a PS2 platformer than the modern games we play today. Its control scheme is simplistic, the gameplay is repetitive, and there’s no comparison when you compare it to platformer masterpieces likeSuper Mario Odyssey.Wonderworldlacks the magic of a great platformer. There’s nothing redeeming about its gameplay or characters.
To make matters worse, it’s anunfortunate ending to Naka’s otherwise great career.
7The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Not so precious
The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum
I’m not sure who asked for a video game about Gollum, but I imagine even they would be disappointed with what we got. There have been so many greatLord of the Ringsgames over the years, fromThe Two TowerstoShadow of Mordor. This ain’t it, though.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollumis an unfinished, buggy mess plagued by so many issues that progressing through the game is nearly impossible. It’s not due to control or gameplay issues, of which there are plenty, but because the game just doesn’t function as it should.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Has One Redeeming Feature
The Sindarin DLC is a cool concept that more games should consider.
Daedalic Entertainment, who developed the game, would apologize to fans for disappointing them following release, admitting that their inexperience in making games outside point-and-click adventure games was their downfall. It didn’t help that the game’s budget was also extremely limited.
6Babylon’s Fall
How the mighty have fallen
Babylon’s Fall
PlatinumGames was once the premier developer in the industry when it came to action games. 2017’sNier: Automatais their magnum opus, which is now nearly eight years ago.
Their most recent high profile release,Babylon’s Fall, failed to meet player expectations.
This wasn’t the PlatinumGames we all know and love. This felt more like a third-rate developer releasing shovelware, cashing in on the popularity of theARPGgenre.
Once you get past the antiquated visuals, you’re met with poor pacing. If you’re patient enough to stick withBabylon’s Fall, the only thing waiting is confusing gameplay that failed to inspire us.
5Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5
I’ll stick with the classics
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5
After nearly twenty years, we were finally getting a properTony Hawk’s Pro Skatergame. There were no gimmicks, no over-the-top presentation, just a return to the basics.
Or so we thought.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5was quickly developed before Activision’s licensing deal with Tony Hawk would end. With the game being rushed out the door, there was no time to refine the its controls and gameplay to ensure the authentic skateboarding experience we knew and loved was still there.
Even if we could look past the game’s bugs and issues, this was in no way, shape, or form a legitimate skateboarding game. Contrast that to the development ofTony Hawks’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, where Vicarious Visions obtained the original coding from Neversoft, and it’s a night and day difference.
4Alone in the Dark: Illumination
Keep the lights on
Alone in the Dark: Illumination
Young gamers: I promise thatAlone in the Darkwas once a proud and acclaimed franchise. The 90ssurvival horror gamesare landmark games, revolutionizing the use of polygonal characters appearing on top of pre-rendered backgrounds. It was an immersive experience that aided the game’s horror elements.
Since the ’90s, though, the franchise has floundered, failing to realize what made these games so special. The most recent attempt, 2015’sAlone in the Dark: Illumination, is easily the worst of the bunch.
WhereasResident Evilwould realize it needs to reinvent itself withResident Evil 4,Alone in the Darkdidn’t get the memo, instead relying on the same old ideas that didn’t work before.
10 Terrible Horror Games That Just Aren’t Scary
Unfortunately, not all horror games can be masterpieces (or scary, for that matter).
3Umbrella Corps
Umbrella Corps
Resident Evilisn’t getting off the hook. Don’t worry.
The 2010s was an interesting time for the survival horror franchise. It adapted to more of an action-focused experience following the success ofResident Evil 4andResident Evil 5.
One way Capcom embraced this is with the 2016 spin-offUmbrella Corps, a multiplayer shooter that shares nothing in common withResident Evilother than its name and likeness.
The game screams, “We need to slap on a popular IP on this so it will sell.” Its gameplay is nothing like traditionalResident Evil, and it’s a subpar shooter outclassed by others in the genre.
2eFootball 2022
eFootball 2022
Do you see that soccer player above? That’s not Lionel Messi.eFootball 2022wants you to think it’s Messi, but I assure you, that’s not the case.
Konami used to publish a soccer game that arguably rivaled theFIFAseries at its peak:Pro Evolution Soccer(Winning Eleven). In 2021, though, Konami decided they had had enough of that and launched a new soccer franchise:eFootball.
Yes, that’s a real console game, not a cheap mobile spin-off, though you could have fooled me.
While the gameplay is subpar, the controls are unresponsive, and the content is thin, the biggest issue with the game is the graphics. Messi wasn’t the only one to be butchered on screen.
1The Day Before
The day before tomorrow
The Day Before
I still don’t think this is a real game. There’s no way. We should have known from the beginning thatit was a scam.
The Day Beforewas announced in 2021. From the start, gamers were skeptical about its legitimacy. Sure, the idea of a revolutionary open-world post-apocalyptic MMO sounded nice, but every piece of media for the game had us questioning whether or not an actual game would be released.
By the time it was released in 2023, all we got was a hollow, nonfunctioning, limited experience that would be quickly pulled from Steam. Remarkably, the game has a critical average of 12/100 onOpenCritic.
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From Concord to Anthem, these are the worst game launches of all time.
