15 Most Disappointing Games of 2024

As someone who’s been gaming since the days of the Commodore 64, I must say that 2023 was a year filled with both joy and disappointment. The games released this year, some of which were highly anticipated, left me feeling a bit like a kid on Christmas morning, only to find socks in my stocking.

For each new game that lives up to or exceeds expectations, there’s usually a handful of others that underperform. Despite having massive marketing budgets, stunning graphics, or iconic franchises backing them, these games often fail to deliver an engaging and enjoyable experience. Some titles might disappoint simply because they followed unfavorable trends or were launched at the wrong time. Nonetheless, here are our top 15 choices for the most underwhelming games of 2024.

Star Wars Outlaws

Despite some doubts surrounding the game before its release, the participation of Massive Entertainment offered a glimmer of hope for “Star Wars Outlaws.” The Reputation and Wanted system, more immersive exploration, and emphasis on single-player were promising decisions. However, when it reached consumers, it fell flat. Those brave enough to try it encountered numerous bugs and problems with movement, combat, AI, stealth, and other aspects of the game. While improvements have been made, “Outlaws” is still in need of further refinement.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

2022 wasn’t particularly fruitful for live-service games, even with the successes like “Helldivers 2”. The issue with “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League”, though, predates its release. Many critics have been vocal about their dislike for the looter shooter format of the game. Unfortunately, the launch failed to address these concerns, delivering a disappointing storyline that crumbles, unbearable characters, and repetitive mission structures reminiscent of countless other games-as-a-service titles. With an estimated $200 million impact on Warner Bros. Discovery’s revenue, it’s clear that “Suicide Squad” fell short of expectations.

Skull and Bones

The game “Skull and Bones” by Ubisoft faced numerous challenges such as rumored restarts, high-profile resignations, persistent delays, and a rapidly growing budget – all signs that pointed towards a potential catastrophe. With the inclusion of standard live-service features like seasons, online play, multiplayer focus, and more, it seemed destined for failure (labeling it as a quadruple-A title didn’t exactly help). Despite launching with player numbers reportedly below a million, it was already considered a flop even before it began.

Planet Coaster 2

Despite its highly anticipated release and the stunning visuals accompanied by the studio’s meticulous attention to detail, the less-than-ideal aspects of Planet Coaster 2, such as a cumbersome user interface, problematic pathing, uninspiring pool designs, poorly crafted characters, and numerous bugs, have made it a rather lackluster sequel. Although Frontier has already addressed some of these issues, the game at present falls short of expectations, offering an underwhelming experience for now.

Farming Simulator 25

Following the disappointment of Farming Simulator 23, particularly on Nintendo Switch, Farming Simulator 25 signaled the franchise’s comeback to consoles and PC. However, it was plagued with numerous bugs, a frustrating user interface, inconsistent physics, and several other persistent problems. To add to this, its performance on PC was suboptimal, negatively impacting the otherwise impressive environmental effects and textures. Over time, mods may improve the experience, but at present, fans are yearning for a robust game right from the start (a sentiment that resonates with our next recommendation).

Starfield: Shattered Space

Starfield, released last year, garnered a mix of reactions, making Shattered Space an ideal platform for rectifying numerous issues and starting fresh. Unfortunately, the planet Var’uun’kai fell short in delivering substantial content, offering minimal elements and uninteresting settings to match its underdeveloped characters and narratives. The intriguing gravity anomalies were scarcely featured past a certain point as well.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead

I was thrilled about Stormind Games’ first-person horror title, given the way it incorporated elements from the movies and their mechanics. Unfortunately, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead turned out to be a highly linear, heavily scripted game with odd AI behavior, some puzzling design choices, and an unsurprising narrative that didn’t fully capitalize on its charming characters.

Concord

The game “Concord,” developed by Sony, faced significant challenges right from its initial reveal. When people learned it was a hero shooter, many were skeptical. After a beta with disappointing participation, it received average reviews upon release and reportedly sold just 25,000 copies. Initially, Sony took the game off the market and closed its servers. Eventually, they decided to close the game and Firewalk Studio as well.

Rise of the Ronin

According to Director Fumihiko Yasuda’s announcement around June, “Rise of the Ronin” has become Koei Tecmo’s top-selling game to date, even outperforming sales of “Nioh.” Despite this success, the game didn’t meet our expectations in regards to open-world activities and storytelling. However, the combat remains engaging, and Team Ninja has been generous enough to offer a considerable amount of post-launch content for free.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the last decade, the return of the “Dragon Age” series was certain to generate enormous anticipation, given all the whispers and news about possible remakes. The combat was impressively done, even though it switched to a real-time hack-and-slash style, and there’s no questioning the beauty of the settings. However, other aspects like character development and writing felt inconsistent, ranging from mediocre to disappointing. While it may not be BioWare’s most flawed work, it certainly doesn’t reach the heights of their best productions.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Although Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has made considerable advancements compared to last year’s game, it still fails to meet expectations in various aspects. The campaign, despite being more refined, lacked depth and left a rather unfulfilled feeling (maintaining the same cliffhanger style). The multiplayer mode fell short, particularly in map design, and the Zombies mode is surprisingly enjoyable, albeit with some balance issues. While the game overall can be classified as “good,” it pales in comparison to the series’ past achievements.

Unknown 9: Awakening

It’s often met with doubt when a developer creates a whole universe for their IP before the first game is even released. Unfortunately, Unknown 9: Awakening was criticized for its uninteresting premise, lackluster dialogue, and monotonous combat. To make matters worse, it was plagued by numerous bugs and performance issues. As a result, with only 285 simultaneous players on Steam at launch, Unknown 9: Awakening fell short of the high expectations placed upon it.

MultiVersus

MultiVersus, initially a highly anticipated platform fighter, has experienced quite an eventful journey this year, ending up in a form that fell short of expectations following its relaunch. It’s challenging to enumerate all the problems, whether it’s the dearth of quality-of-life features at launch or the disappointment felt when Rifts were finally introduced and lacked the expected excitement. However, what stood out most was the absence of the smooth, enjoyable gameplay that was present during the open beta. Regrettably, Player First Games hasn’t been able to recapture the charm since then.

XDefiant

Originally introduced within the Tom Clancy series, XDefiant subsequently established itself as a separate entity while maintaining connections with the publisher’s multiple titles. However, despite its responsive shooting mechanics, it failed to offer the same level of features and content as other free-to-play shooters at launch. Issues such as network performance also had a negative impact, leading to a significant drop in popularity. Although there may be an opportunity for improvement, given the company’s history with live-service projects, XDefiant’s future could be uncertain.

Outcast: A New Beginning

Creating a sequel to a lesser-known game from the late 90s is uncommon, but perhaps Outcast: The New Beginning could resonate with longtime fans. Instead of providing an engaging and thrilling world, it loaded players with mundane tasks and had poor writing quality. Despite its appeal to those who prefer classic gaming styles, A New Beginning seemed more like an awkward follow-up for a beloved cult series.

2024-12-21 20:13

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