The title is also getting delisted and unavailable to purchase going forward. Those who own the base game and DLC can still experience it solo. The downside is the lack of AI companions, which makes for a lesser experience. There isn’t even any local co-op support.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. It launched to negative reviews, with many criticizing the bugs, lackluster story, and repetitive combat. You can check out ours here – we gave it a three out of 10.

Though it received several updates over the years, the player base has effectively died off, making it impossible to experience co-op even before servers shut down.

Before starting with the list, it’s important to acknowledge that our opinion of these games is subjective – so while we may find them to be disappointing, you could have had a great time with them regardless. And if that’s the case, more power to you!

With that out of the way, let’s begin:

Godfall

When Counterplay Games showcased Godfall for the first time, it seemed like a great RPG with spectacular visuals and addictive combat. But when it was finally released, it turned out to be a disappointing experience that was rife with apparent flaws all around. The game is plagued with repetitive gameplay and uninteresting loot mechanics – all of which result in an experience that’s not worth sinking your teeth into.

Rustler

Jutsu Games tried to mix medieval elements with the chaotic top-down action of the original Grand Theft Auto games with Rustler, and while that combination certainly sounds enchanting – the end result is anything but. Rustler suffers from all kinds of issues ranging from poor game design to bland missions to technical issues and so much more. There are some cool ideas here, but they crumble under the weight of the shoddy moment-to-moment gameplay which makes the entire package a big disappointment.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition aims to bring the experience of the PS2 era GTA games to a modern gaming landscape, and it could have been so much better if the developers put a little bit of effort towards it all. What fans got was an underwhelming package filled to the brim with bugs, glitches, and improvements that felt more like downgrades from the original experience. It’s easily one of the biggest disappointments of recent memory, and Rockstar’s conscious decision to keep vital information hidden from the public up until launch also made the whole situation so much worse.

In Nightmare

Maximum Games’ In Nightmare tries to instill the same feelings of distress and constant tension as Little Nightmares, but it fails to achieve that design goal by a significant margin. And that can largely be attributed to poor puzzle design that hinges on being frustrating throughout the entire experience, and a narrative that doesn’t have much in terms of interesting plot revelations or twists or really anything doesn’t help the game’s case either.

Balan Wonderworld

While post-release reports have shed more light on the disastrous development cycle that Balan Wonderworld had to endure, that doesn’t really soften the blow that fans received when they booted up the game for the first time. Balan Wonderworld had some interesting concepts going for it, but they were surrounded by a poor technical framework and half-baked mechanics that made playing through the game an exercise in pain.

eFootball 2022

Konami’s attempt at rebranding its Pro Evolution Soccer series has started off on a pretty bad note with eFootball 2022. This free-to-play soccer sim is plagued with game-breaking bugs at launch, and while post-launch patches have alleviated some of those issues – other prominent criticisms such as the lack of varied game modes and general polish within gameplay mechanics haunt the game’s fates to this date.

LEGO Brawls

LEGO Brawls fared as a mostly fine fighting game when it was released on mobile platforms as a part of a subscription service, but in a console landscape where there are so many better options available – some even free to play – it ends up being one of the worst ones of the bunch. LEGO Brawls has a super thin gameplay loop that goes along with an uninteresting progression system and little variety in game modes that makes it suitable only for infants and younger audiences.

MX vs ATV Legends

THQ Nordic’s MX vs ATV Legends could have had a strong run if it had spent some more time in the making, but as it stands now – it’s a game that has some neat ideas at its epicenter, but they get muddled up in a buffet of technical and game design problems that make the whole ordeal a lot more frustrating than it needs to be.

Werewolf – The Apocalypse Earthblood

Developer Cyanide’s latest Werewolf – The Apocalypse Earthblood is a game that should by all means have been a smash hit. Hell, it’s a game where you can turn into a werewolf and wreak havoc upon your adversaries with your bare hands. But in practice, Werewolf – The Apocalypse is plagued with an overwhelming amount of game design problems ranging from poor combat design to sloppy narrative and dull visuals makes this adventure a pure disappointment on so many levels.

Zorro The Chronicles

It’s not everyday that we get linear adventure games that mix stealth and action elements together, so when Zorro The Chronicles was released – it certainly piqued the interest of many fans. But that feeling of ecstasy was rather short-lived, as Zorro The Chronicles constantly bombards the player with one frustration after another. And even as a game meant for younger audiences, Zorro The Chronicles fails on more fronts than it succeeds.

Dragon Ball The Breakers

At first, Dragon Ball The Breakers seemed like a fun concept with its asymmetric multiplayer gameplay putting a fresh twist on the standard video game adaptation of this classic anime. But when the game was released, fans realized how shallow the game actually is. Dragon Ball: The Breakers is riddled with prominent issues ranging from a finicky camera system, ill-designed gameplay mechanics, and plenty of microtransactions to go along with it.

The Last Oricru

Soulslike games are dime a dozen these days, and while some are excellent takes on this newfound genre – others are anything but. As you might have already guessed, The Last Oricru finds itself in the latter category, mostly thanks to uninteresting writing and a wonky combat system. Story choices in The Last Oricru do hold interesting ramifications for the plot, but that doesn’t really amount to much in the face of other prominent problems with the moment-to-moment experience.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance

A co-op action RPG set against the backdrop of one of the most recognizable tabletop games of all time should be a surefire hit, right? Well, countless fans thought so – but Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance laid waste on those expectations with a bland product that’s rife with issues both technical and otherwise. The visuals are impressive to some degree, but taken as a whole – it’s a disappointing product that doesn’t stand up to the sheer potential of its source material.

Matchpoint Tennis Championship

Torus Games’ Matchpoint Tennis Championships might not be the worst game on the list, but it’s not a game that’s going to hold your attention for more than a couple of hours at best. The actual gameplay mechanics are fine if simplistic enough for the most part, but everything surrounding that is underwhelming – and that includes a barebones career mode with little personality and bland visual presentation among other issues.

Tennis World Tour 2

While Tennis World Tour 2 is a game that delves into the more technical aspects of the sport, Big Ant Studios’ latest finds itself on the receiving end of most of the criticisms that were addressed with Matchpoint Tennis Championships a while before. Tennis World Tour 2 could have been something great, but for that to happen – it really needed some more time in the oven.

Dimitrescu’s Daughters – Resident Evil Village

In the lead-up to Resident Evil Village, Dimitrescu and her daughters – Bela, Cassandra and Daniela – seemed like they’d be a major part of the game. While that proved false, Lady Alcina still managed to provide a memorable fight. The same can’t be said for her daughters though. After effortlessly stalking Ethan throughout the castle, being invulnerable to all kinds of damage and seemingly being unkillable, they were undone by…a gust of cold wind? It’s like killing if the T-1000 was killed after being frozen and didn’t reassemble itself (but on three separate occasions so you got the point).

Balan Wonderworld

When most of the context for your game’s story is explained in a separate, near-200 page book, there are bound to be problems. But Balan Wonderworld’s ending is just so many kinds of bullshit that it’s actually hilarious. Lance is defeated and subsequently dragged off by the Negati. Balan reveals himself to be a similar being to Lance and…nothing more? What was his relation to Lance, aside from their names sounding like Balance when combined together?

As for Leo, he finally fulfills his dream of being able to dance while Emma realizes that her servants were actually planning a birthday party (as opposed to gossiping rudely). What the point of it all was – the Tims, Balan’s theater and the truth behind Balan and Lance – is never revealed. Good riddance.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance

Much has been said about Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance, from its dull combat and story to the multitude of bugs. Even if it didn’t have a huge marketing push leading up to release, it was receiving more than its fair share of hype (not to mention that the Dark Alliance and Dungeons and Dragons names had recognition). Predictably though, its sales were nothing to write home about. It debuted in 23^rd place on Gfk Chart-Track’s UK boxed charts but didn’t even receive a mention in The NPD Group’s June 2021 report, failing to even crack the top 20. Whatever deal was made for its Xbox Game Pass release may have helped recoup some revenue. But the sheer lack of sales data from publisher Wizards of the Coast seemingly points to it wanting to forget about this disaster as much as everyone else did.

As I said, it sounds good on paper. The unfortunate reality, dear reader, is that Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is a mind-numbing slog of a game with a shockingly bad story, repetitive gameplay, poor enemy variety, rote level design, and a truly staggering number of bugs. It is not only by far the worst game I’ve been unlucky enough to play this year, it is also one of the worst games I have ever played, period.

"The playable characters have some dialogue at the start of each level and can banter with each other, but beyond that, they never actually appear in the story."

What little story there is revolves around the Crystal Shard, a powerful, evil artifact that a lot of really bad dudes are after. Naturally, your job is to stop them from getting it. And that’s about all there is to the story. Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance lets you play as some really iconic DnD characters – even I know who Drizzt Do’Urden is – but it doesn’t do anything with them. The playable characters have some dialogue at the start of each level and can banter with each other, but beyond that, they never actually appear in the story. That’s right – not one of these characters appear in a single one of the game’s cutscenes beyond the opening and ending, nor is any time spent fleshing out their backstory, what they’re doing here, or what they want.

Instead, you’re dropped into levels with little context as to why what you’re doing matters, you go kill the bad guys you’re told to, and then you go home. Things happen as a result of your actions, but because the story never actually bothers to acknowledge the main characters, there’s a huge disconnect between what the player does in-game and what happens in the narrative. As a result, it’s hard to care about anyone or anything beyond the next name you need to check off your list of targets.

The gameplay isn’t much better. While the game may carry the Dark Alliance moniker, it has little in common with the Baldur’s Gate titles of yesteryear. Instead, Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is most comparable to the Warhammer: Vermintide games. After choosing your character, you’re dropped into a hub area with a map that allows you to select your missions, some training dummies, a trophy area, and one of the most annoying merchant characters in recent memory. His sole purpose seems to be to constantly ask why you’re wasting his time and not queuing up the next level.

"You fight the same group of enemies over and over again across the game’s 21 levels; you’ll do the same optional objectives over and over again – breaking so many of X things, collecting so many of Y things, killing the odd named enemy, and so on."

Things don’t get better once you get into a level. The entire campaign is a slog. Tuque has done a nice job of making the levels look visually distinct and giving each one a sense of place, but almost all of them play the same way. You fight the same group of enemies over and over again across the game’s 21 levels; you’ll do the same optional objectives over and over again – breaking so many of X things, collecting so many of Y things, killing the odd named enemy, and so on.

Occasionally, you’ll solve basic puzzles, like collecting explosives to seal tunnels or items to open a door. When it’s really feeling frisky, it will ask you to solve a “step on these glowing tiles in the right order” “puzzle” or stand near a torch so you can be warm enough to run over ice without taking damage. Neither are great mechanics, but they really lose their luster after you do them fifty times.

Combat is probably the game’s best aspect. Each of the characters feels different – Drizzt is fast, Catti-brie works best at range, Wulfgar is a bruiser, and Bruenor is a tank – and it’s a lot of fun figuring out their moves and how best to build them, especially as you level them up and unlock new techniques. Each character has two special moves that recharge, as well as an ultimate technique, and you can mix and match the former once you level up to suit your purposes.

"There are good ideas here – the issue is there isn’t enough enemy variety to keep encounters varied enough to be interesting. You feel like you’re playing the same three waves of enemies over and over again for most of the game."

Combat itself is the standard light attack/heavy attack affair that seems to find its way into almost every modern action game, but you can chain the most together in enough interesting ways so that it’s never boring. Throw in a stamina meter that keeps you from blindly attacking and a fairly robust parry system, and Dark Alliance’s combat actually has promise.

The problem is, of course, the enemy variety, which is never challenging enough to force the player to experiment or try new things. This even extends to the boss fights, who are almost universally just regular enemies with names and bigger health bars. Worse still, several of them require you to fight a mini-boss (who might also be the same as the boss) or are surrounded by regular enemies who pop in during combat to annoy you. Boss encounters should feel unique and challenge the player in unique ways, but Dark Alliance’s almost never do.

It’s a shame because like the environments, Tuque has done a really nice job of bringing your enemies to life. They’re well-acted, have detailed animations, and generally look quite good. Some even have attacks that will challenge the way you approach them, such as shields that must be bypassed or spears that can drag you into bigger enemies. Other enemies can cast area-of-effect attacks to limit player movement or shield their allies. There are good ideas here – the issue is there isn’t enough enemy variety to keep encounters varied enough to be interesting. You feel like you’re playing the same three waves of enemies over and over again for most of the game.

"A game like this should be functional solo, and Dark Alliance just isn’t fun alone. Dark Alliance does have good ideas, but it often doesn’t do enough with them to succeed."

Even if you don’t, combat still has annoyances. It takes a long time to get up should you be knocked down, and you’re completely open to free hits until you get up. If you get knocked over at low health, you’re probably just dead. The game also has a lock-on system, but it puts the camera directly behind you, completely limiting your vision of anything that isn’t the guy you’re locked on to, which makes the feature almost useless unless you’re fighting just one or two enemies. You also can’t see what moves you’ve unlocked, change your equipment, or access your character sheet in any way during a level, so if you’ve just unlocked a move and have forgotten the input, you’re out of luck until you get back to the hub.

As you play, you’ll amass loot, money, and special attribute upgrades that can be spent once you return to the hub. There’s actually quite a bit of skills, abilities, and upgrades for weapons and armor to unlock, and you can spend a lot of time chasing down sets, upgrading your favorite pieces, and building a version of a character that fits your playstyle. As you gain more levels and get better armor, you’ll be able to access higher difficulties, which reward more and better loot, including special sets that offer buffs or resistances in combat. You can even improve the loot available in levels, sacrificing opportunities for a Short Rest, which restores health, potions, and so on, to better the loot you’ll get.

Dark Alliance is meant to be a co-op game, but I wasn’t able to test its co-op functionality pre-release. The game also doesn’t support local co-op. While I have no doubt that playing with your friends dramatically improves the experience because co-op makes almost everything better, a game like this should be functional solo, and Dark Alliance just isn’t fun alone. Dark Alliance does have good ideas, but it often doesn’t do enough with them to succeed.

"What really kills the game, however, is the bugs, and when I say Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance has a lot of bugs, I mean it’s one of the buggiest video games I have ever played. Everything about this game is broken in some way."

What really kills the game, however, is the bugs, and when I say Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance has a lot of bugs, I mean it’s one of the buggiest video games I have ever played. Everything about this game is broken in some way. Enemies often don’t react to your presence in combat or randomly disappear. Should you move even the slightest distance away from them, they’ll simply return to where they were and ignore you even if you begin attacking them again. Environmental traps and attacks hit you when you’re nowhere near them and certain environmental traps aren’t rendered at all. I was standing on what looked like a normal pile of corpses wondering why I was on fire when I realized the pile itself was on fire; the game just wasn’t rendering it.

It’s also possible to get stuck while climbing, which results in a character repeatedly climbing, falling, and climbing again until you manage to work them off the object. Entire moves are bugged, too. I know Drizzt’s forward dash is supposed to be a dash, but it looks like he’s swimming in molasses whenever I do it. Sometimes, my character’s abilities wouldn’t recharge properly, showing that they were still on cooldown when they were in fact fully charged. Other times, tooltips showing me I could execute enemies refused to appear. Trophies gained from defeating bosses often refused to appear at the hub, and when they did, the game would tell me I didn’t have any.

Sometimes, the game would randomly drop frames for seemingly no reason when it otherwise ran fine. Once the game just didn’t spawn a boss, requiring me to restart an entire level from scratch, losing all my gear and progress. Another time, it crashed as soon as I finished a level, though it thankfully remembered what I’d done. My favorite bug, however, was when the game’s physics would glitch out and enemies would fly hundreds of feet into the air after I killed them, or glitch through the floor, or… well, you get the idea. Some of these bugs are funny and others are infuriating, but I never played a single level where I didn’t run into several of them.

" I came out of Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance having experienced a game so flawed, so rote, and so buggy that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, no matter how big of a DnD fan they are."

It’s a shame, really. Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance has some truly gorgeous visual and audio touches, and the combat can be enjoyable in spots. But the story is incredibly poorly told, everything about playing it feels either repetitive or half-baked, and it’s riddled with bugs. It’s hard to imagine even the most diehard DnD fans finding enough here to enjoy, even if they have friends to play it with, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend playing it alone. The game simply isn’t designed for it, especially on higher difficulties, which crank up enemy health and damage to the point that enemies can and will one-shot you while you try to chip away at their mammoth life pool.

I went into Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance hoping for a fun game that might recapture the experience of the old Dark Alliance games and something I could play with friends. I came out of it having experienced a game so flawed, so rote, and so buggy that I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, no matter how big of a DnD fan they are. Drizzt, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, and Bruenor Battlehammer deserved better, and life’s too short to play bad licensed games.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

The game, based on R.A. Salvatore’s Icewind Dale trilogy, specifically The Crystal Shard, tasks players with controlling one of the four playaber heroes to “explore the frigid world of Icewind Dale as you vanquish unstoppable bosses, earn powerful gear, and unlock new abilities to take on even bigger challenges.” While it is primarily a co-op title, it will not feature local co-op support at launch.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance will release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam on June 22nd. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass for console, cloud, and PC players at launch.

You can watch the cinematic launch trailer for the game below:

Jean-François confirmed 4K/60 FPS on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC, though whether it would actually hit that on Xbox Series S remains to be seen. As for what’s coming after launch, there will be “one playable magic-user.” The first free DLC, out this Summer, isn’t confirmed to include that but fans can expect two-player couch co-op to be added. Cross-platform play is unfortunately not on the table.

Furthermore, if you’re planning on playing online co-op, then voice chat is the only available option. Jean-François didn’t confirm whether text chat would be implemented later.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is out on June 22nd for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4 and PC. It sees a band of heroes coming together to stop a dark alliance of monsters from stealing a powerful crystal. Each character has their own unique abilities and roles while everyone can access Ultimates for powerful techniques.

A party of four can clear a mission in 20 minutes (on the lowest difficulty) but those with lower level items and abilities may take up to 40 minutes on Challenge Rating 2. “It depends on the challenge rating, what gear you have equipped, how many special moves you’ve unlocked, and how many people are in your party,” said Jean-François. From that perspective, “Gathering loot and collecting the right gear is important for advancing and progressing through the harder difficulty levels.”

Players can upgrade items at a merchant in the base camp between mission by using different quality crystals, which are acquired either through the environment or as rewards. Higher Challenge Ratings provide better quality crystals. As for whether enemy behavior changes at higher difficulties, Jean-François said, “Their direct AI behaviors won’t change, but more enemies will be able to attack you at once, making the fights feel more aggressive. The Elite System will generate unique abilities for them that will force you to adapt to each encounter a little bit differently.”

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is out on June 22nd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. For more details on the different classes, head here.

Four characters unite to stop them – Drizzt, who uses dual knives and can summon a spectral big cat; Catti-Brie the ranger who fights from and deflect attacks up-close; Wulfgar, the brute with a big hammer; Bruenor the protector who has high defense. Each has 50 moves and abilities to unlock throughout their journey. Combat consists of Light, Heavy and Special attacks that can be chained together into combos.

Dodges, parries and counters also exist, though they deplete stamina. Players also have Ultimates and Empowered Strikes that deal critical damage. More than 30 different enemy types await along with several big bosses (with more coming throughout the year). As you quest, you’ll earn loot that ranges from Common to Legendary. All of it must be earned from gameplay since there are no microtransactions.

Finally there’s co-op which offers quick play and custom games. Players can utilize team-up attacks to gain an advantage though beware because the higher the party size, the tougher the monsters become. Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is out on June 22nd for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. It will launch day one on Xbox Game Pass.