This has been quite the year for gaming. There have been so many gems like the goliath of Baldur’s Gate 3, hotly anticipated sequels like Spider-Man 2 and Armored Core 6, and then, of course, there have been utter failures.
That is exactly where we’re picking up today by sharing some of the worst games that landed in stores during 2023. Whether they were doomed from the start, launched terribly, or simply attempted to milk already-established fan bases, this year saw some doozies.
While we could have missed some truly awful offerings from small developers, these are the seven games that spring to mind when thinking of what were the biggest failures in 2023.
Payday 3
Ok, so we’ll admit: Payday 3 isn’t a terrible game. But given the fact it basically didn’t work when people actually wanted to play it, and now, nobody is interested in playing, yeah, it makes our list.
Payday 3’s biggest problem is the fact it’s an online-only game that launched with servers that simply didn’t work. Even if you managed to get into a game, you would quickly suffer the wrath of unplayable lag issues. Furthermore, the game had terrible optimization for players on PC, so a lot of gamers were struggling on all fronts.
Luckily for fans, the state of the game has improved. But as the player base has reverted back to Payday 2, leaving the sequel in the dust, we’d argue this makes it one of the worst games of the year.
Forspoken
There’s nothing worse than a game that has all the potential to be great but just falls short on the delivery. That’s exactly what happened with Forspoken. While the gameplay is decent, the story is lackluster at best and the humor elements miss the mark on all fronts. The only saving grace of this game is its open world where you can avoid any story moments.
Given the amount of hype this PlayStation exclusive had before it landed, it was always going to fall short. But what players actually got on launch was far from what even the most leveled gamers had expected. If you can get this game on sale, maybe it’s worth a playthrough. But at its full price, there’s just no way to justify playing it.
Everybody 1-2 Switch!
It wouldn’t surprise me if some of you reading this didn’t even know a sequel to the hit 1-2 Switch! launched this year, but that’s by design. Even Nintendo seems embarrassed about this mess.
It’s hard to remember what was particularly bad about this sequel, but that’s probably the big issue itself. None of the party games this time around are especially challenging or memorable at all. When your franchise relies on players coming together and playing, you really need something that will stick in their minds—and this just ain’t that.
The Walking Dead: Destinies
When games don’t work, they’ve all but assured their place on lists like this. But when a game is so clearly a licensing play looking to capitalize on an already established franchise like The Walking Dead, they’re also probably going to end up here.
All that you need to do is check out 10 seconds of gameplay from The Walking Dead: Destinies to see just how poorly made this game is. From the static cutscenes, broken game mechanics that allow you to simply run away from enemy attacks, and graphics that feel like they’re from the early 2000s, we urge you, please, even if you’re a The Walking Dead fan, give this one a miss.
Skull Island: Rise of Kong
The rule of two doesn’t just apply to Sith in Star Wars. It’s also related to licensing plays in bad video games, though Rise of Kong is far worse than Destinies. Yes, this game is based on the iconic movie creature King Kong, but you might not realize that at first glance given the terrible graphics.
Bad graphics are something you can often look past. But when they’re paired with incredibly repetitive gameplay, noticeably incomplete cutscenes, and a price tag that’s insulting, we aren’t going to be looking the other way.
There’s absolutely no gamer who should waste their time playing Skull Island: Rise of Kong—that is unless you’re actively looking for a bad game to play. And if that’s you, then we wish you good luck.
Redfall
Gamers were expecting Redfall to be a co-op dream in the vein of Left 4 Dead, but with vampires. What they got was a buggy mess inside a thin world with static cutscenes, which appears to be a trend this year in bad games.
The state of Redfall was so bad its player base quickly fell off despite Bethesda’s attempts to keep the game alive by fixing issues and planning out new content. What makes this game one of the worst this year is the fact it was a full-price title, one of the most expensive on our list, and it failed to deliver on its potential at all.
Don’t buy Redfall unless any major developments are made, and there’s potential for this to be the case as Bethesda again says it’s committed to making things right. In the meantime, if you need to play this game, check it out for a subscription price on Game Pass.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Yes, we’re going to do it. Gollum is our worst game of 2023.
This shouldn’t be a shock to anybody since from the second it launched, the Lord of the Rings game was slaughtered online. But all criticisms can be justified if a game is bad—and yes, Gollum is bad.
The biggest sin this game commits is just being boring. It’s a glorified chore simulator and there’s really no payoff for doing what you’re asked. Visually, everything looks gloomy, and Gollum simply looks like he wants to be put out of his misery. Though there was that text mod that resulted in some good laughs, so, hey, you get us on that point Gollum.
At the end of the day, Gollum will live on in infamy as one of the most hated games in recent times, and with that, it will probably establish a fan base of stark defenders. Who knows, the notoriety might even be enough to greenlight a sequel. Our thoughts: This one should probably be left as a one-and-done.
