The 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2023
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” (2023)
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Oh, how the mighty have fallen. It would seem that the yearly release schedule has finally caught up with Activision and the clearly rushed development of Modern Warfare 3 is the clearest evidence yet that this was never a sustainable model. The Call of Duty brand had been receiving a mixed reaction for years, and while Modern Warfare still retains the series’ classic solid gunplay, corners were very obviously cut to meet a release date. The campaign, which has been the best part of the recent Modern Warfare titles, is ridiculously short at only 3-4 hours and features “free combat arenas” which are just recycled maps from Warzone patched in to save on development time. Although the devs claim this game was a “labor of love”, the passion is clearly missing from this latest entry and fans have finally had enough.
“Minecraft Legends” (2023)
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Minecraft has proven to be a very versatile license with numerous games branching out from the typical creative freedom of the base game. With Minecraft Legends, Minecraft dips their squared little toes in the realm of real time strategy with varying results. While the traditional elements of Minecraft translate well to this new genre (base building and resource gathering will be familiar to any longtime Minecrafter), the overall strategy gameplay may be a little too simplified for those looking for a deeper experience. This more basic approach does make the game more approachable for younger players, and with your player character being directly in the heat of battle with your forces and less of an omnipotent being dictating the action, the gameplay is much more action oriented and reactive than your typical RTS, but the new genre might be too different for longtime fans and too shallow for the RTS aficionado.
“Layers of Fear” (2023)
A remake of the original Layers of Fear now updated in the wildly powerful Unreal Engine 5 with meaningful updates to the gameplay to create a more cohesive experience sounds great on paper. Layers of Fear upscales the visuals and compiles the sequels and DLC into one package, but not much else. Fans of the original games will undoubtedly have a good time revisiting these games from Bloober Team and seeing the updates to the visuals of the original game, but the overuse of familiar horror tropes is unlikely to draw in any new fans and the fact that only the 2016 game seems to have been updated is disappointing. Coupled with numerous bugs and glitches that weren’t in any of the original incarnation’s releases, this overall compendium of Fear is far from the complete experience.
“Crash Team Rumble” (2023)
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Fans had high hopes for the Bandicoot’s return after the N’Sane Trilogy, CTR remake and even a fully-fledged sequel with It’s About Time, but Crash Team Rumble just might’ve stalled the Bandicoot’s comeback. Rather than remake the much beloved Crash Bash, Toys for Bob (or more likely Activision) opted for a MOBA-lite which was most likely more monetizable. The gameplay itself can be quite entertaining and the abilities of each class and characters control great but suffer from balancing issues as well as repetitive gameplay that can quickly grow stale even with the game’s admittedly well-crafted map designs. Another major pitfall is the lack of additional content in the base game, with Activision most likely withholding most of the more meaningful additions behind future paywalls. This one might be worth the wait for its eventual “free-to-play” model instead of paying for its admittedly budget retail price.
“Lego 2K Drive” (2023)
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Arcade racers seem to be a dying breed and while Lego 2K Drive is certainly a welcome throwback to the old arcade style racers and kart racers of a bygone era, there’s just not enough bricks to hold this creation together in the long run. The racing itself is quite solid and the transforming vehicles offer some nice variation adapting with the tracks, but the game suffers from the same troubled rubber banding AI of most racers as well as many of the races being over almost as quickly as they start with very little variation in between. The game itself is also relatively short with very little to do after completing the admittedly amusing campaign. Another major downside is of course, because this is modern gaming, this full priced game is loaded with microtransactions. Those unbothered by these shortcomings will have a great time but this is a poor follow-up to Lego Forza.
“Atomic Heart” (2023)
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With the last true Bioshock game releasing a decade ago, fans of the mind-bending shooter have long been waiting for either a return of the series or for someone to take up the mantle. With Atomic Heart, developer Mundfish was nearly there with its twisty sci-fi world full of interesting gadgets and deep world building lore, but some strange design decisions kept the title from reaching the same lofty heights of its inspiration. With a focus on first person melee combat which isn’t as polished as it needs to be, Atomic Heart also features probably one of the worst recent protagonists and his incessant cringey dialogue and terrible delivery make the game worse every time he opens his mouth. The world of Atomic Heart is incredibly well designed and some of the environments are truly awe inspiring, but for every jaw-dropping boss fight, there’s a moment that makes you want to turn the game off.
“Fire Emblem Engage” (2023)
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The Fire Emblem series has long been a benchmark for Nintendo even in its earliest days of the series. While the gameplay is as solid as ever (some would argue even the best the series has to offer), the conflict and characters, which the series is even more well known for, fell flat, especially when compared to the previous entry, Three Houses. In addition, the numerous mini-games and additional modes were undercooked or completely unnecessary with many grateful they were optional. Even callbacks to previous Fire Emblem titles fell flat with many of the interactions with past heroes feeling like an afterthought instead of paying them the respect they deserved. If players can overlook one of the weakest stories in the entire series and focus instead on the battles, they’ll have a good time, but for those expecting Fire Emblem’s usual high bar, they’ll be left completely underwhelmed.
“Wild Hearts” (2023)
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If you’re going to challenge the undisputed king of monster hunting, you’d better be able to back it up. While Wild Hearts gets off to a great start, it’s still a couple sequels away from hitting the same benchmark as Capcom’s Monster Hunter World. While all the classic tropes are present like hunting, gathering resources, crafting new and more powerful weapons, Wild Hearts attempts to add something new to the formula with its Karakuri mechanic in which players can instantly build structures or traps to better hunt their prey or even use in traversal. Overall, it does help shake up the tried-and-true formula Capcom has perfected. However, where the game stumbles is in its balance and overall performance. Players will frequently encounter difficulty spikes, not to mention a myriad of technical glitches hampered by poor optimization. Wild Hearts has heart but needs to slay a few more beasts to reach its potential.
“Wanted: Dead” (2023)
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Wanted: Dead is a game that seems to have come out in the wrong generation. When a game created by former Tecmo devs responsible for the brilliant hack and slash Ninja Gaiden series can’t even make the combat engaging, you know the rest of the game is going to be just as disappointing. The game does feature some great execution animations as well as dismemberment which can be entertaining, it's the rest of the game built around these features that drags it down. It clearly wants to be a more violent Yakuza-style game with strange ramen eating mini games and karaoke, but the game lacks that series’ charm and likable characters. From the nonsensical plot to some of the worst voice acting in video game history, everything about Wanted: Dead will make the player wish they were instead of playing this game.
“Redfall” (2023)
We love Arkane Studios, especially for the Dishonored series and their severely underrated 2017 Prey, so even though the game Redfall seemed to be ditching the stealth gameplay and intricately designed levels of their past successes for a multiplayer shooter, we still had hope it would be an authentic Arkane experience. Sadly, this wasn’t the case as not only was the game wildly unbalanced along with poor matchmaking, but it also had a litany of bugs and glitches that oftentimes made it unplayable. Not only that but the game itself was just mediocre at best. Dull characters, a lifeless world, and almost completely incompetent AI, many questioned if this was even the type of game the studio known best for its single player experiences wanted to make or if it was dictated by publisher Bethesda. We can only hope this failure doesn’t lead to yet another beloved studio being forced to shut down. What game let you down the most this year? Press F to pay your respects down in the comments.
