This year has been a good one for gaming after a long time with highly-awaited AAA releases that have impressed gamers and critics alike. From the start of 2023 to the imminent end, there have been some of the best game releases this year like never before.
From GOTY Baldur’s Gate 3 to Alan Wake, Super Mario Bros. Wonder to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any duds this year. We also got plenty of titles that just fell short of expectations and failed to live up to the hype they created, disappointing everyone. Below are the five worst games of 2023 that felt like an insult to gaming.
5. Crime Boss: Rockay City
Crime Boss: Rockay City is an open-world action-adventure title developed by Ingame Studios and at first glance seems like a decent game but it never ceases to amaze you with disappointment the further you play. The game has a stellar cast with some of the biggest Hollywood names from the 80s and 90s such as Michael Madsen, Chuck Norris, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, and Michael Rooker and even they did not seem heavily interested in voicing their characters.
Crime Boss: Rockay City currently sits at a Metascore of 52% on Metacritic and I’d add it is still generous because the game lets you down in every aspect. The game seems inspired by Payday or GTA but fails to impress gamers as the story is bad, the dialogues are poorly written and voiced, boring and lackluster gameplay, several bugs and glitches, sloppy mechanics, and whatnot.
The game is such that even if you with minimal expectations, you will have the biggest disappointment on your hands. Crime Boss: Rockay City has a good concept and great potential but has only touched upon it, lacking originality. The character missions and mini-campaigns seem a bit interesting but they too just feel boring and repetitive after you spend a while in the game.
4. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
When it comes to the worst games of 2023, how can one forget to mention the highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings title The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. The game was supposed to be another major LotR game that would allow players to experience the events in between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring but it all came crashing down when the game was released and for a large number of reasons.
The game was supposed to be the successor of Shadow of Mordor games but it just let down every LotR fan and not slowly. The game has several game-breaking bugs and glitches that one can’t even play the first chapter without being frustrated or wanting to destroy their console or PC. The animation, graphics, voice acting, controls, underutilized stealth, and writing all feel uninspired and do not interest or excite players.
The concept of Gollum is not bad but the execution from Daedalic turned it into a waste of popular IP. Although Daedalic is an indie developer and some of the issues could have been forgiven, the game’s price tag and overwhelming flaws made players bash the developer. The game has a Metacritic rating of 34 and the response was so bad that Daedalic had to shut down its development arm.
3. Skull Island: Rise of Kong
Skull Island: Rise of Kong is an action-adventure game based on the King Kong novels but misses those very two things, action and adventure, and more. The game lets players play as Kong on Skull Island as he looks for Gaw to avenge the death of his parents. There weren’t many expectations from this game but it still managed to hugely disappoint everyone playing.
Rise of Kong has plenty of technical issues and bugs, terrible graphics, and it is as uninspired as it is boring. The games that are released in these times take at least 2-3 years in development but Rise of Kong was developed in just one year and it is all evident when one plays the game. The graphics are similar to games of the PS1 era and even they looked better than this.
The game has a Metacritic rating of 23 and felt like it was just a try at cashing in on the Kong IP, ultimately wasting it. Skull Island: Rise of Kong when released was competing with Gollum for sharing the top spot for the worst games of the year but it has surely dethroned Gollum.
2. The Walking Dead: Destinies
The Walking Dead: Destinies is an action-adventure title by Flux Games and is based on the early seasons of the popular TV show The Walking Dead. The game has an interesting concept that allows players to decide on the destiny of characters such as who dies or who allies with whom but the concept is useless if execution is poor as that gave us another one of the worst games of 2023.
The Walking Dead: Destinies features characters such as Rick Grimes and Darryl Dixon and retells the iconic moments from the television series but even they couldn’t save the game from its game-breaking bugs, dated graphics, repetitive mission designs, frustrating combat, poor storytelling, making the overall game feel rushed and unfinished.
The game claims to allow players to change outcomes but their decisions barely make any difference to the narrative. The Walking Dead: Destinies currently has a Metacritic rating of 29 and is one of the worst and most disappointing gaming experiences for players who played it this year and those who did not play are recommended to steer clear.
1. The Day Before
The Day Before, the promised open-world MMO game turned extraction shooter sits at the throne of the worst games of 2023. The Day Before from Fntastic was one of the most highly-anticipated games of the year and was on top of the charts of the wishlisted games on Steam. However, the aphorism, “all that glitters is not gold” is apt here since the game turned out to be a massive failure and I wouldn’t be wrong calling it an outright scam.
The game was already surrounded by controversy ever since its announcement as many accused it of stealing and copying names, font, and gameplay, and after several delays, players too felt like the game was a scam but the developer kept issuing clarifications about how it was not. However, it was all over on D-day as the game was released in early access and players found out that it was not an MMO but an extraction shooter, and that too a bad one.
The game has no open-world survival elements, baggy gameplay, server crashes, terrible combat mechanics, and many more missing features of an open-world game. There are no enemies in the game, barely one or two open buildings in a small city instead of an open world, little to no loot, and no melee weapons. The game had players requesting refunds with just one hour in the game.
The reception was so bad that developer Fntastic announced that all future development had been stopped and it was shutting down due to lack of funds. The Day Before is the worst game of 2023 and for those who still need convincing; Steam changed its refund policy to issue refunds to the players who played the game. This game will go down as the biggest disaster in the gaming industry.
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