Various games were released in the year 2023, however, not all could live up to the expectations or were down-right bad. A bad game can be defined as a title that has been developed inadequately or has nothing worth enjoying. With that said, this article is created based on public opinion and critics combined.
The year 2023 has been fruitful for the gaming industry and a lot of new titles performed exceptionally. On the flip side, there have also been releases that disappointed fans equally. Here is a list of ten games releases of 2023, that have been termed the worst and still has no redemption:
- Crime Boss: Rockay City
- The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
- Stray Blade
- Redfall
- Forspoken
- Quantum Error
- Greyhill Incident
- Cricket 24
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
- Skull Island: Rise of Kong
The above games are known to be the worst of this year and have their fair share of reasons. Thus, we have compiled this list with all the reasons for a game’s failure and portrayed them for the reader’s simplicity.
The top 10 worst games that got released in 2023
The ranking of the titles is not in order and is based on how it has performed globally. Some of these titles might get fixed in the future, until then the facts will remain. With that said, let us dive deeper to look at the worst games of 2023.
Crime Boss: Rockay City
Crime Boss: Rockay City is a new game that has been developed on the Unreal Engine 5, which was supposed to give a GTA-like experience. However, on release, all expectations were put to rest as players got their hands on the title. It was realized, that the game is exactly like Pay Day which has been poorly developed.
The gameplay of the title wasn’t that impressive and felt lackluster in many ways. Additionally, the celebrity voice acting of Crime Boss: Rockay City wasn’t good as well. While the game had its vision for a Mafia-like game, it couldn’t keep up its standards.
Crime Boss: Rockay City also turns out to be quite boring and doesn’t have much fun content. Not forgetting to say, the game even gets repetitive to some extent and doesn’t feel good. Both solo and multiplayer experience is fairly the same and it’s better to play other similar titles.
The game’s $40 pricing is also not that justified and it’s best if the publishers reduce its price. Furthermore, with the release of Pay Day 3, there are higher chances that players would choose PD3 over this game.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular book and movie franchises that is known for its lore. This game takes Gollum into focus, which is a beloved character in the story who’s in search of his precious (The Ring). While LOTR fans were hyped about it and its setting Mordor, everything died down after its full release.
During online showcases, the world of Mordor was shown to unforgiving and mesmerizing at the same time. However, the final product was not even close to what was advertised and killed every expectations. Even the model of Gollum saw a revamp and looked cartoonish compared to the environment.
However, visuals weren’t the real problem with the game as it had deeper issues. The game was full of bugs at release and almost unplayable for its interface. The game doesn’t give justice to its stealth mechanics and can be completed by just running through.
Additionally, the game also lacked content despite having a huge price of $50 on release. Moreover, the story of the game wasn’t that great when compared to other LOTR-based games like Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War, and more.
Stray Blade
With the popularisation of the Soul-like genre, many developers took their chances of developing their own Dark Souls-like game. Thus, Point Black Games created Stray Blade as an action-adventure title, which focuses on a souls-like combat system.
However, to build a proper souls-like title, the game has to have great combat balancing, good hit registration, and proper bosses that are difficult to beat. The game didn’t manage to check out these criteria and was released with clunky combat. Not only that, when an enemy is hit, the models do not react to it and feel artificial.
Technical problems also followed and many users faced problems when running the game. Even more, bugs were common in the game, where enemies would spawn from the ground which was annoying to many. These types of problems aren’t expected from games which are priced as high as $35.
Nonetheless, the game isn’t as bad as it seems and has been fun an experience for many. But the fact remains, that the game has been poorly made and not worth its price at all.
Redfall
Arkane Studios is well-known for its Dishonored franchise and more award-nominated titles. When the studio announced Redfall, fans were pretty pumped as vampire shooters with multiplayer sounded like a good idea. However, that didn’t go as planned and Redfall turned out to be one of the worst games of 2023.
The biggest problem of Redfall is the fact that it was completely unplayable and full of bugs. The optimization of the title was also terrible and made good system sweat for nothing. On top of it, the gunplay was not satisfactory at all and seemed completely bland.
Another big concern about the game was its AI system, which was poorly created and killed the immersion. Furthermore, the AI in the game would spawn under levels, or spawn with no hit-boxes which was annoying to face. Knowing the studio’s masterful works like Deadthloop, Prey, and more, Redfall seemed to be a result of bad development.
As of now, many fixes have been done to the game to improve its playability and Arkane is working hard on that. However, even after fixes the game still doesn’t feel fun enough and continues to disappoint fans to this date.
Forspoken
Forspoken developed by Square Enix was supposed to be a major Triple-A title, which captivated many people globally with its first look. The game was shown to be a fast-paced magical franchise which was also mesmerizing to look at. Interestingly, things looked great for the franchise when it was initially shown, but the final release of the title faced a lot of criticism.
Compared to the original showcase, the final release of the game was the exact opposite of what was shown. Trailers always showed the world of Forspoken was vivid, large, and traversable. In the final release, however, all these things key elements were thrown away. The parkour system was made worse and looked awful for its price.
The free roam around the world was extremely boring due to the half-baked parkour system. Additionally, the graphics of the game were downgraded a lot, yet it needed to be optimized to run smoothly.
Since the game was showcased with many high-standard features, the final release felt like a lie to the masses. Thus, Forspoken instantly became a meme on the internet and the tale was closed for the title. While updates did improve the experience a bit, they didn’t do enough to make the game fun to play again.
Quantum Error
Quantum Error is a new PS5-exclusive game that has performed terribly on the platform. Although the hardware PS5 is capable of handling next-gen titles, the game certainly doesn’t reach that mark. As a matter of fact, the game is over-ambitious and doesn’t fare well against modern releases on the platform.
The gameplay of Quantum Error can be compared to games from the PS2 era with just visual improvements. The gunplay of the title is not fun at all and barely acceptable for its pricing. Being a game that is priced at $60, there is hardly any content for players to enjoy.
Additionally, the animations in Quantum Error are clunky and don’t feel like a modern-day Triple-A title. The controls of the game are not good as well, which makes it almost unplayable.
The game is also compared to games like Skull Island: Rise of Kong and Gollum, which are the worst games of 2023. Furthermore, the game doesn’t fit any genre and fails to be a horror shooter. The lack of ambiance also counts for the game, which made it one of the worst games to be released in 2023.
Greyhill Incident
Greyhill Incident was supposed to be a horror game that implements Aliens and UFOs. However, the title turned out to be a failure for multiple reasons like bad stealth mechanics, expensive, and a very short storyline. Furthermore, the game is extremely easy and takes away the horror element of the title.
Additionally, the story and voice acting of the game are not good at all, and feel like an overpriced indie game. The gameplay is not that fun as well, and players have complained about the small stamina of the character multiple times. Due to its slow nature and lack of direction, the game often turns out to be annoying to many.
However, the game can be restored to its glory by working on various aspects like better melee, gunplay, movement revamp, and more. If these things are done, the game would be quite playable compared to the current version of the title. Nonetheless, as of now, the game is still bad for its $25 pricing.
The game models do not look great despite being a modern game release. With boring content and underwhelming horror content, Greyhill Incident is one of the worst games in 2023.
Cricket 24
Cricket is a worldwide sport that is celebrated globally and has a huge fanbase on digital media as well. The release of Cricket 24 on numerous platforms was celebrated as it returned after two years. However, the game was released as a bug fest and fans weren’t happy about it at all.
There have been reports that Cricket 24 didn’t even fix pre-existing problems from the two-year earlier version and is still unbalanced. The simulation in the game is still being judged by various users on the internet and the developers are yet to address them. Additionally, the graphics of the game are quite bad as well, despite being a next-generation title for various platforms.
The pricing of the game was quite high as well and set at $44.99 despite being similar to the previous title. Since the game was released right before the initiation of the Cricket World Cup 2023, many people bought it. However, with all the pre-existing issues and new ones in 2023, the game has gone down in history as one of the worst games out there.
Other sports titles like FC 24, Madden 24, and others did well on the Electronic Arts side and showcased a market for sports game fans. However, Big Ant Studios messed up quite a lot which bothers future customers.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
Activision has been consistent with releases of Call of Duty titles every year and released Modern Warfare 3. The Triple-A shooter franchise has a huge fanbase and is fun to play at the same time. What attracts players more to the franchise is its gunplay and campaign storyline which is intriguing.
However, with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, fans were quite disappointed despite getting a sequel. This happened because Activision released a COD game with a campaign that is only 3-4 hours long, and the gameplay is extremely similar to the previous iteration. Not only that the game is priced at $70 which is a lot for what it was providing.
As for the multiplayer experience, only a few things have been tweaked which could have been added to MW2 easily. This type of addition made the game look like a cash grab and fans were disappointed about that fact. Moreover, all the maps in the multiplayer are just remasters of the original MW2 game, and do not provide any new content.
At the moment Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (2023) is the lowest-rated game in COD release history. And it is not known whether the tarnished reputation would be restored any time soon.
Skull Island: Rise of Kong
Skull Island: Rise of Kong is a video game based on a comic book that is set in the King Kong Universe. Developed by IguanaBee, the title is quoted to be a joke to modern gaming and surpasses the Gollum in terms of hate. The game was showcased to be fun with a big explorable world, however, the traversal is terrible.
On first look, the game appears to be a game from 2003, which has been remastered for 2023. The gameplay mechanics are not so fun, and upgrading the character is a tedious project. Additionally, the game is priced at $40, which is close to modern-day Triple-A games. This pricing is not justified for the game at all and has nothing to provide in return.
While the size of Kong is supposed to be bigger than any animal around, he appears to be quite normal-sized. The environment design has been done terribly and appears to be a compilation of default assets. Not only that, the graphics of the title are not good as well, despite costing so much.
The developer company is working on a new project called The Walking Dead: Destinies, which also appears to be a lazy product. Hence, it might be possible that the developers are doing this willingly and creating games that are just parodies.
