With each sport that launches and meets (or surpasses) expectations, there’ll at all times be a number of different titles that fall brief. They might have essentially the most intensive advertising funds, the sharpest visuals or the most important IP behind them – issues simply don’t come collectively in a compelling, a lot much less fulfilling manner. In fact, different titles might disappoint merely as a consequence of tendencies and being within the unsuitable place on the unsuitable time. Regardless, listed here are our 15 picks for essentially the most disappointing video games of 2024.
Star Wars Outlaws
As iffy as sure issues regarded 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 give attention to single-player had been all the best strikes, nevertheless it didn’t land for shoppers. Those that took the plunge suffered quite a few bugs and points with motion, fight, AI, stealth, and so forth. It’s a greater sport 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. Nevertheless, the unfavourable response to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League started properly 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 lots of of instances 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 funds – Ubisoft’s Cranium and Bones had all the important thing components for a possible catastrophe. Including in all of the live-service staples like seasons, always-online gameplay, a give attention to 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 one million round launch, it was a failure earlier than it even obtained began.
Planet Coaster 2
Unbelievable 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 numerous bugs had been simply too important 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 trip.
Farming Simulator 25
After the failure of Farming Simulator 23 (at the very least on Nintendo Swap), Farming Simulator 25 marked a return for the franchise to consoles and PC. It shipped with intensive bugs, an annoying consumer 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 sturdy environmental results and textures. Mods will probably make it a greater expertise over time however at this level, followers would admire a powerful title out of the gate (which actually applies to our subsequent selection).
Starfield: Shattered House
Starfield had its share of blended impressions after launching final yr and Shattered House appeared like the right alternative to handle many points whereas providing a recent slate. Nevertheless, the hand-crafted planet of Var’uun’kai delivered essentially 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 vastly linear, extremely scripted expertise with weird AI, questionable design selections, and a predictable story that fails to actually leverage its endearing characters.
Harmony
Sony’s greatest first-party failure in years, Harmony was seemingly doomed from its first correct reveal, particularly when the hero shooter components turned obvious. After a beta with abysmal numbers, it could launch to middling evaluations and reportedly bought 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 sport thus far, with the writer even reporting increased gross sales than Nioh. That’s all nice, however the sport itself fell in need of what we anticipated when it comes to open-world actions and storytelling. No less than the fight stays fulfilling, and Workforce Ninja has offered some intensive post-launch content material free of charge.
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 stories of reboots. Fight was sharp regardless of pivoting to a real-time hack-and-slash strategy and the environments are attractive, certainly. It’s all the things else that both whelmed or dissatisfied, 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 Obligation: Black Ops 6
Vital enhancements over final yr’s sport don’t excuse Name of Obligation: Black Ops 6 from disappointing in different methods. Regardless of a superior marketing campaign, its story in the end felt flat (and continued the identical cliffhanger strategy), whereas multiplayer fell brief with its map design. Zombies is surprisingly good regardless of some steadiness points, and whereas the general expertise classifies as “good,” it’s nowhere close to the collection’ heights.
Unknown 9: Awakening
There’s at all times some skepticism when a developer will get forward itself and plans out a complete universe for its IP earlier than the primary sport even launches. Sadly, Unknown 9: Awakening loaded its bland premise with uninteresting writing and boring fight, whereas numerous bugs and efficiency points weighed even heavier. Suffice it to say that with an all-time peak concurrent participant rely 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 type, MultiVersus has had fairly the journey. It’s onerous 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 stay, 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 out to be a standalone entity whereas nonetheless crossing over with the writer’s numerous different titles. Nevertheless, regardless of some responsive taking pictures, it couldn’t match the options and content material of different free-to-play shooters at launch. Varied points like community efficiency additionally affected it, inflicting a pointy downturn. Possibly 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
Creating 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 supplied was a large world with nothing thrilling, loading up gamers with menial duties and terrible writing. Interesting as it might be for these searching for extra old-school-style titles, A New Starting felt extra like an ungainly continuation for a cult-classic collection.
