It is not often that I will flat out hate a game. Often, I will find something decent about it, or at the very least, appreciate what the developer tried to do. Then, there are games that I wish just wouldn’t exist. While there are some redeemable qualities on a few of the titles on this list, the following 10 games are still what I consider the worst games of 2018.
Here we go…
While I haven’t put a lot of time into Just Cause 4, I know right now that I probably won’t revisit it anytime soon. While trailers and screenshots show a visually impressive action shooter, this 4th entry in the series is anything but. Featuring shockingly bad visuals and several convoluted systems, Just Cause 4 is painful to play and is rarely fun. I may end up saving my completion of Just Cause 4 for a slow gaming week, but frankly, even the time I put into the game felt like I was forcing myself to enjoy it. Where I though Just Cause 3 was a fun time, this follow up felt rushed and produced with a far smaller budget. Just Cause 4 is, and was, a massive disappointment.
I’ve been a somewhat engaged fan of Sword Art Online. I’ve watched a good portion of the anime, own well over a dozen of the individual manga volumes, and have played several games based upon the anime which is based upon a game. Not one game in the series, however; has come close to matching the intensity to which the game they are playing is what we are playing. While this is yet another entry in the series where the group has moved on to a new game, Fatal Bullet is flat out boring and something I wasted far too much time on.
Based upon what I’ve seen via some Youtube walkthroughs, I’m about 6-7 hours away from completing the game, a timed amount that probably won’t ever change. You create a new avatar, who is a friend of a character already in the game, and suddenly are cast into stardom as you’re apparently the best player the game has ever seen. You’ll team up with Sword Art veterans and take a few of those characters with you as you blast through bland environments collecting new loot and items and repeating the loop again. The problem is that the story is largely predictable and is never once enjoyable, even when you have personal story missions with the established core characters. The combat can sometimes be ok and there are moments where the game can be fun, but so much of this title is just doing the same few minutes of gameplay over and over again.
While die hard fans grasping for some more SAO may enjoy what this title attempts to offer, anyone who is not familiar with the series will be bored out of their minds. This is a game I had planned on reviewing but just couldn’t bring myself to finish it, and I probably won’t.
I expected a lot more from Kirby Star Allies given what sorts of adventures the pink wonder had been up to via his past adventures. While I wasn’t expecting a Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey level of quality, I was expecting more than just a longer version of what normally has been offered as several of the tacked-on mini-games of Kirby’s past. Star Allies rarely has anything here that feels exciting or worthy of crafting an entire game around. The gimmick of recruiting friends and using their powers is weak at best and rarely justifies the game’s existence.
For my entire review of , check it out here!
State of Decay 2 had a lot of promise given it introduced online co-op to a series that already felt like it should of had it. While there are aspects to the game that are enjoyable, the survival aspects of babysitting meters makes the game feel more like a chore than anything resembling fun. There are some new systems and mechanics that attempt to give the title variety, but when you feel like you are never making any real progress, since there really isn’t “much” of a story, State of Decay 2 feel largely boring and far too repetitive, even with friends.
For my entire review of , check it out here!
Where Warhammer: Vermintide and its recent sequel at least looked to build upon the Left 4 Dead formula with their progression system and fantasy setting, Earthfall simply tries to exist by running around in the skin of Left 4 Dead, expecting different results with what can feel like a bare minimum effort. At no point does Earthfall validate why it should exist when it doesn’t attempt to tread new ground or offer us up a gameplay experience we haven’t already played before.
No matter which way you look at it, Earthfall fails to remain interesting. The 10 available levels lack a single set piece that remains memorable and its cast of characters fare no better, with character models themselves that feel ripped out of a decade old game. In fact, the entirety of Earthfall just lacks any visual punch and does not measure up to the quality usually expected of a modern release.
Earthfall, for all it tries to do, is a very average experience that is largely boring and unoriginal. It’s not the first game to use the Left 4 Dead formula, but so many other titles have at least attempted to build upon it. None of the objectives you are doing in any of the available levels are fun, the locations are largely boring, and despite some cool enemy designs and some late game changes to the environment, Earthfall is a very forgettable and bland experience that is only made fun if you are playing with a group of friends, and even then, its matchmaking systems are garbage.
For my entire review of , check it out here!
I have been a huge fan and supporter of the Senran Kagura series; a straight-to-the-point fan service game that is as much about the ninja arts as it is about its use of cleavage and upskirt camera shots. The series has always been this and doesn’t try to be anything it’s not, which is something a lot of other games cannot say about themselves. Now, despite that, Reflexions is pushing it.
In each of the recent Senran Kagura games, you can play around with the girls and touch and poke them, which is often met with them backing away shy or being uncomfortable with your advances. It has been a feature of the series that has felt at odds with the humor and playfulness the series has been known for; it’s also very creepy and distasteful.
Reflexions is a game built around that very mode, but used in a way where you act out “fantasies” through a dreamworld you enter when you get close enough to Asuka. The game has a story mode where you will massage her hand until she enters the dreamworld, which then creates a situation where you can massage her further. It’s a process that continues for maybe a few hours and then you get a mostly disappointing ending and that’s it.
Reflexions is a big waste of time and a poor way to introduce the series to Switch owners.
For my entire review of Senran Kagura: Reflexions, check it out here!
When it was announced that we would be getting an SNK fighting game that featured an entirely all female cast, I was intrigued. I watched a few clips here and there and didn’t think much of it until it released. After starting up the game and taking in the story mode provided, which is utterly forgettable, I was shocked at how it had been priced as high as your typical AAA game.
I didn’t review SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy as I spent maybe 2 or 3 hours with it, and frankly, it was 2 or 3 hours too much. The game is often blurry, at least on the Nintendo Switch, and the colors used just didn’t look great and gave the game a washed out look, most of the time. Combine that with a clunky combat system and a poor selection of fighters, and you have one of the worst fighting games I’ve ever played.
Despite this being a fan service cash-in, I truly hated my time here and it is best to be avoided.
Where Supermassive Games delivered a polished and incredible VR experience with Rush of Blood, the Inpatient feels lacking in nearly every aspect of narrative, game design, and function. While the appeal of a game like The Inpatient is built around a choose-your-own-adventure hook, you'll struggle to want to replay it due to its painful controls and motion tracking systems.
During your time walking the grounds of the Sanitarium, attempting to find a way out, you will be confined to very few locations as nearly everything around you is off limits or locked up, forcing you down copy and pasted hallways talking to uninteresting characters who are only there to fill their cliche roles. Where Until Dawn entertained us with a solid cast of memorable characters, nearly everyone here is forgettable the moment the credits rolled.
While you can play with either the Dual Shock 4 or a set of Move Controllers, neither setup seemed ideal to track my movements and had me re-sync my entire setup a few times during each playthrough. This was mainly due to the character’s hands holding the flashlight as if their wrists suddenlu snapped off, or the one time where my character’s body was permanently to the left, forcing me to reset my entire PSVR setup.
The game gets to a point where the story starts to get somewhat interesting and then it just ends, a bit too abruptly for my tastes. On my first playthrough, I sat there in disbelief as the credits rolled, wondering what the hell had just happened. It didn't feel like an ending and even my "good" ending didn't feel satisfying. The Inpatient is largely that, unsatisfying.
For my entire review of The Inpatient, check it out here!
You’d be forgiven if you assumed that Extinction looked like an enjoyable game, it certainly has a fun and colorful art style of one, but playing it; however, is something right out of a nightmare.
Extinction is a game built around stopping giant Ogre’s from destroying nearby villages and wiping out its population with smaller creatures that attempt to harm those who inhabit these environments. You will slash away at the smaller enemies to save who you can, teleporting them to safety, and then focusing the rest of your time on the Ravenii, the large lumbering Ogre race that you will need to climb, hack, and kill before they can succeed in their mission.
While the setup of the gameplay is a simple one, there’s a lot that goes wrong here that makes Extinction almost unplayable. It’s best to check out my full review as there is a massive list of issues here, but they mostly consist of cheap deaths, awful voice acting, and a camera that is more interested in showing you the Ogre’s armpit that anything even remotely helpful. There is also the fact that each level is procedurally generated and creates a vast unfairness in how random the game can be. You’ll be on the other side of a map only to have an Ogre spawn right next to your last remaining tower, with 15 seconds left in the round, only to have him one shot it and end your game.
Extinction is one of the few games in recent memory that hordes every issue that can be wrong with a game; half-effort visuals, horrendous controls, cheap instant deaths, awful voice acting, a forgettable story, and a camera that can't make up its mind where it wants to go. This is a game that should be avoided at all costs, no matter what bargain bin you'll eventually find it in.
For my entire review of Extinction, check it out here!
Intense firefights, a captivating and gripping story, and incredibly detailed environments are three things that one does not associate with Bravo Team, a VR shooter from Supermassive Games, the studio behind the fantastic Until Dawn series. What Bravo Team is; however, is a complete and utter disappointment.
Bravo Team failings are all across the board. The shooting, which should be the highlight of a shooter, is painfully boring and never once feels engaging. The cover system is finicky at best and given that the AI will simply run past you or stand next to you, wondering where you are, basically means your game is broken. The controls are awful, no matter which of the multiple setups that you opt into as the animations given to your character will almost always have the gun just not held right or even facing in the direction it should be, you know, directly in front of you.
Bravo Team was talked up to be the next big thing in VR and frankly, it’s just plain awful. The best quality about this VR experience is that you can turn it off, trade the game in, and go on to play anything else.
For my entire review of Bravo Team, check it out here!
See something not on the list? Feel free to comment below.