Well, we’re still seeing new ideas in games today, but what’s perhaps more common are promising ideas that end up flopping. Whether it’s overpromising, poor execution, or trends chasing monetization, these games prove that a great idea alone isn’t enough.

Here are 15 revolutionary gaming concepts that sounded incredible on paper but then folded like a deck of cards with its execution.

Exploring A Full-Sized Galaxy – Starfield

Everything that Todd Howard presented to us about the then-upcoming open-galaxy Bethesda RPG seemed too good to be true. Skyrim in space was enough to get most of us in pre-order lines, but the promises went much further than that. There’s the hundreds of explorable solar systems with thousands of planets, sure, but the customizable space ship and ability to fly your ship and recruit crew members excited me the most. Unfortunately, when the game released, it was apparent that Todd’s promises really were too good to be true. There were practically no memorable characters, nearly every planet was devoid of interesting content, and ship navigation was frustrating and under-utilized. The game sold well enough due to initial hype, but a 97% player drop-off after six months and the broader damage to Bethesda’s reputation paint a clear picture of Starfield’s shortcomings..

Pirate Live Service – Skull and Bones

Just about everybody wanted a large open-seas pirate game where filled to the brim with tense ship battles and sea shanties, but the developer somehow managed to screw that up completely. The biggest failing with Skull and Bones was that it was a $70 title with a predatory live service model tacked on top of that. You had to grind for what seemed like hundreds of hours obtaining the ‘pieces of eight’ just to upgrade your hard-sought pirate ship equipment. The whole experience was just so bogged down in incremental monetization that even the few fans that were left had a hard time sticking with it for long. So much for the first ever AAAA game.

Hunters vs Hunted Multiplayer – Evolve

I wasn’t exactly the biggest Left 4 Dead fan in the world and even I was pretty excited about Evolve in the 2010s. Evolve pitted a group of hunters against a horrific Godzilla-like human-controlled opponent, differentiating Valve’s team-based shooter with an asynchronized matchup. The big distinction with Evolve is the colossal prey is just one human-controlled creature, resulting in a lopsided 4 versus 1 scenario. Matches were novel and hilariously fun … for the first couple hours. Running around as a hulking horror monster in search of four helpless little humans makes it hard to frown. But the novelty wore off pretty quick. The balance issues, very thin post-game offerings, and hefty price tag for what was essentially a repetitive game loop contributed to Evolve devolving to the husk it is today.

Open World Parkour – Forspoken

I remember being pretty hyped for Forspoken right before its demo released. It was made by the Final Fantasy XV studio using their in-house engine, all of which I’d been a big fan of. And the open-world parkouring just looked absolutely mesmerizing to top it off. Well, after playing the demo, I found myself frankly appalled. The best thing I can say about Forspoken is that it looks nice and has a serviceable soundtrack. The dialogue is perhaps the biggest culprit behind it’s failure, but the repetitive enemy encounters and throwaway isekai story don’t help sell the game either.

Your Choices (Don’t) Change Everything – Mass Effect 3

A lot of gamers want a good choice-driven narrative and plenty of games have attempted it over the years. Yet, carrying over those choices for a meaningful endgame remains an elusive accomplishment for many titles. Mass Effect 3 is perhaps the best example of this. Mass Effect 2 was noteworthy for carrying over key decisions made from the first game and branching those off into even more scenarios into the third game. Yet, Mass Effect 3 ended on a whimper with originally only three endings. The worst part about the narrow endgame funnel was just how paper-thin the different endings were. It’s like all the player-driven choices throughout the three games came to the same uninspired conclusion, albeit with a different color tacked on.

Mandatory Crafting – Metal Gear Survive, Fallout 4

I’m all for looting abandoned houses in open-world games, especially when paired with a robust crafting system. Yet, some games rely a bit too much on crafting to advance the main story. In the case of Fallout 4, crafting is absolutely essential no matter what you plan on doing in the game. The game’s big draw, other than being another Fallout, was its settlement creation system. Yet, to properly build up your settlement, you had to grind for loot and craft like crazy. And then on the extreme spectrum, you have Metal Gear Survive, which made crafting the core gameplay loop, and by extension, the only loop the game had to offer. Crafting is a fun aspect of gameplay, but there’s such a thing as too much of it, as is the case with these two games.

Detective Vision – Batman: Arkham Series, The Last of Us Part 1

Batman: Arkham Asylum made many of us fall in love with detective vision gameplay. Turning on the infrared goggles and snooping the environment for clues just added so much to the setting and gameplay. But then, it seemed like every other game out there started implementing it, and the novelty didn’t quite stick. The Witcher 3 had Geralt investigating hundreds of trails using his witcher sense, but fans generally like it there because of his fun banter. But the later Arkham games and The Last of Us Part 1 tended to overuse detective vision to the point where it slowed down not just the gameplay but story as well.

Procedural “Infinite Story” Generation – No Man’s Sky Launch, Daggerfall

I remember how skeptical a majority of gamers were when Sean Murray talked up his infinite galaxy filled with procedural generation in No Man’s Sky. The game released and, well, a majority of gamers felt correct in their initial skepticism. No Man Sky’s launch lacked the touted multiplayer component that it now enjoys, but it also felt barren and void of meaningful content, something procedural generation often struggles with. An earlier example of empty fields of infinite procedural generated content was Bethesda’s Daggerfall. Daggerfall boasts a staggering 62,000 to 80,000 square miles of traversable land with well over 10,000 towns. It was simply the largest game at the time of release, dwarfing most modern open-worlds today. Yet, the dungeon design was … well, absent. And the actual content within such mammoth maps were repetitive and shallow, even if other systems were novel and fun at the time.

Memory Editing — Remember Me

On paper, Remember Me’s mix of third-person action combat, platforming, and puzzles in the form of Memory Remixing should’ve been the beginning of a new hit franchise. DontNod had the budget and concept for a longlasting series and rewriting people’s past to influence an outcome in the plot was the big selling point. And you don’t just rewrite memories in cutscenes, you actively re-arrange objects called glitches in the subject’s mind like a puzzle. It’s a truly terrifying ability, and one that would’ve rivaled the Animus from Assassin’s Creed if it was used more fully in the game. In the end, Remember Me was known for its subpar combat encounters and underbaked story. If only Remember Me could’ve remembered the Memory Remix mechanic enough for gamers to remember it.

Possess Enemies On-the-Fly — Mindjack

Who remembers the Japanese cover shooter game from the early 2010s, Mindjack? Yeah, probably not many. Besides the generic third-person shooting mechanics and forgettable sci-fi story, it had an innovative mind-hacking mechanic thrown into the mix. Being able to possess enemies and convert them to your side on-the-fly sounds pretty dang fun, until you realize the AI is awful in Mindjack. The repetitive level design and bland missions didn’t help the promising mind-jacking concept either.

Open-World Live Service Campaign — Anthem

Bioware is still chugging along today even after lukewarm releases like Dragon Age The Veilguard and Mass Effect Andromeda, but Anthem was the signal that the  studio just wasn’t the same anymore. Despite building a reputation for rich storytelling and immersive character interactions, EA made Bioware go the live service multiplayer route with Anthem. That decision didn’t go well with longtime fans or newcomers. The launch was plagued by glitches, bugs, and crashes galore. And the long-term looter-shooter loop didn’t do enough to keep players around. This is alll despite a genuinely fun jetpack system that allowed players to fly around with their mechanized soldier through the environment with ease. It’s a fun game to fly around in, but was a chore to actually do anything else.

Superhero Looter-Brawler – Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers was another game that cashed in on the live service looter band-wagon, with the advantage of having the Marvel IP tied to it. There was actually quite a bit of hype building up for Crystal Dynamics’ huge new AAA superhero game. It came out during a time of Avengers high and within a game industry that hadn’t capitalized on it yet. Needless to say, many gamers desperately wanted to pick their favorite Avenger and fight some baddies in a high quality action game. But the aggressive repetition within the mission design and lack of a post-game severely hindered what was supposed to be an ever-evolving game. If you’re going to make a game with the kind of structure of Marvel’s Avengers, at least build it around a compelling story and interesting gameplay.

AAA Episodic Storytelling – Telltale Games

Where’s Telltale Games been, by the way? Episodic interactive game dramas just aren’t the same since Telltale’s reign in the 2010s. Telltale’s The Walking Dead fomented a revolution in the episodic potential for smaller-scale video games. But it seems that ever since Telltale’s Game of Thrones, the formula just hasn’t seen the same kind of success. The stagnant cell-shaded art style contributed to gamers just getting tired of Telltale games, but the realization that choices were largely illusory or at least highly bottlenecked also likely played a role in the genre’s decline.

Time-Manipulation Shooter — TimeShift

Everyone loves a good bullet-time Matrix moment in movies or TV, especially so when we get to control it. TimeShift leaned into the slow-motion cool factor and then cranked it up a notch with full control over time itself. Centering a first-person shooter on time manipulation abilities just seems limitless in its potential. But despite the ability to freeze time in the middle of firefights, the game just felt lackluster to play. Like Anthem, the game had one cool thing going for it: the time-bending abilities, with nothing else to compliment that. The story, while told within a cool dieselpunk setting, was awkwardly paced and surrounded by forgettable characters. And the enemies were bullet-sponges without much thought put into their encounter design. We all love a good time-bending mechanic, but TimeShift just didn’t make a good game around it.

Cloud-Powered, Fully Destructible Cities — Crackdown 3

Gamers were surprisingly delighted by the chaotic sandbox that Crackdown 2 provided and hyped up the next game beyond what it was capable to deliver. The third game executed on the sandbox action hero concept about as well as MindEye did the GTA formula (okay, maybe not quite that bad). Where the second Crackdown delivered on laughs and mindless fun, the third drilled repetitive urban landscapes and bland mission design into our tired hands. Even the advertised cloud-powered destructible environments didn’t make the final cut into the game, except for the now-dead multiplayer mode that nobody played. Crackdown 3 failed to iterate or improve on the chaotic sandbox formula that fans loved about the second one, so much so that even Terry Crews couldn’t save it.

“We would definitely be open to it,” said Russo when asked if his studio, AGBO, would be open to a game based on Avengers or Amazon series Citadel.

“Right now, what we’re doing is creating new IP,” he continued. “At AGBO, we want to tell new stories. We want to tell new stories with new characters and new worlds that people haven’t seen before. So Anthony and I and Donald are working together to build out new worlds.

“And we have three that we’re currently working on that the intention is, for every world we build to have the scale and depth of a ‘Star Wars‘ universe, but in a different genre. And then we’ll build materials around those new worlds. We’ll tell stories in different ways using different media in those worlds.”

When asked about how the Russo brothers would continue to build out the gaming business at AGBO, especially with the upcoming release of Citadel.

“We have a new partner at the company who is one of the greatest game developers in history, Donald Mustard, he’s the creator of Fortnite, and he’s come in now to work with us on building out what we think the future of storytelling could be, which is, some hybrid between linear and virtual and gaming,” he said. “And we’re really interested in new ways to tell stories using technology.”

“And so the three of us together are trying to explore and ideate around what opportunities there could be over the next decade using new tools and new technology to tell stories and can we make it true transmedia, where the same assets that we’re using for CG in movies are also the same assets that are in the game, that are also the same assets in a virtual experience. And that’s the mission of AGBO currently, at the moment.”

Responding to a question about the platforms the studio would focus on for its games, Anthony Russo said that its approach to development would be similar to how the brothers approach filmmaking.

“We always call ourselves sort of film agnostic, which is, basically, we value all the different forms you can express yourself in linear cinema storytelling,” he said. “The same is true with games. Every idea has a different way that it can best be explored and best be brought to audiences or gamers for an experience. So we really like to tailor everything to the creative idea that we’re exploring, evolving and building upon in terms of how we find an expression for it.”

The first game developed by AGBO will be based on Netflix’s The Electric State, which will be coming to Android and iOS on March 18.

The last major title based on the franchise was Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel’s Avengers. It featured a single-player story mode but also placed quite a bit of emphasis on its co-op multiplayer mode that was structured to be a live-service game.

After a rocky launch and a series of patches that tried to alleviate problems while also bringing new content to the game, Marvel’s Avengers was ultimately delisted back in 2023. Check out our review for the launch version.

LAIR

An obvious pick for a list such as this one, Lair is forever going to hold the dubious crown of being one of the most bitter disappointments in gaming. Factor 5’s excellent track record and promising pre-launch showings suggested that Lair was going to be a huge early PS3 hit, but upon its release, the game turned out to be sort of a broken mess, thanks in large part to its frustrating motion-heavy controls. Even now, close to two decades later, it’s hard to get over the disappointment that was Lair.

30. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

The fact that the world of Mirror’s Edge had such untapped potential, to the point that many desired a sequel years after its launch, is a testament to its impact. The first-person parkour model would be in other titles, most notably Dying Light, but the focus on platforming and skill-based jumping, not to mention the gorgeous dystopian world, helped it stand out.

So when DICE finally announced Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, which offered a more open world, the excitement was palpable, even if it was revealed to be a reboot. While it retained the fluid movement and responsive controls, the world felt barren, the story rudimentary and the ending inane. DICE has no plans to return to the franchise, and for all its appealing aspects, Mirror’s Edge is pretty much dead.

29. Rise of the Ronin

As a fan of Team Ninja’s Nioh series and even finding some enjoyment in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, it’s sad to see how Rise of the Ronin turned out. On the one hand, it’s earned some praise for its combat and even the directions you can take the story. On the other hand, critics have expressed disappointment with its open world, English voice acting, story and visuals.

While there were plenty of comparisons to Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, I feel that they’re both distinct enough and trying to do their own thing. So why is Rise of the Ronin so underwhelming? Well, for starters, it’s a PS5 exclusive in development for seven years, with Sony’s support, which lends certain expectations. This isn’t to say that all reviews were equally hard on the game, as indicated by the 76 Metascore, but ranking fifth in physical sales for the UK at launch and dropping to 14th place the next week is nothing short of disappointing.

28. Need for Speed (2015)

Years of requests for a new Need for Speed Underground title and Electronic Arts delivered…sort of. Employing real-world legends like Ken Block, it was ultimately about a cast of street racers struggling to get noticed. While the customization and visuals received praise, the uninteresting story, AI prone to rubberbanding, multiplayer and lack of certain features (including drag racing) soured fans. There was also the always-online requirement with no option to pause. It would have qualified as one of the weaker games in the franchise, but then Payback happened and drastically lowered the bar.

27. Biomutant

When a game like Biomutant promises a massive world with choices and consequences, extensive character customization, vehicles, deep combat mechanics and much more, it’s hard to not get hyped. The fact that it was five years in the making, with Experiment 101 consisting of former Just Cause developers, further contributed to this. However, all those intriguing bits turned out to be incredibly shallow, from the story and combat to the mission design and annoying narrator. An update helped improve things, and with a million units sold in a few months, it was far from a flop, but it still has a ways to go.

26. The Order: 1886

Ready at Dawn’s The Order: 1886 received extensive attention for its graphics, with gorgeous facial animation and lighting. The presentation also received significant praise, but everything else left much to be desired. The campaign was ephemeral, with the disappointing story (despite such an intriguing setting and premise) and over-reliance on quick-time events bogging down the overall gameplay. Ending on a cliffhanger with no prospects for a sequel didn’t help either.

25. Exoprimal

Piloting exosuits to battle hordes of dinosaurs sounds like a good idea in theory, but what is live service? The developer’s to join the trend resulted in Exoprimal, which featured a story focused on time traveling, simulations run by a rogue AI called Leviathan, and so much dino slaying. The story felt disjointed, with the characters getting little development, and the lackluster map variety and repetitive objectives brought the experience down. The developer has expanded on the different modes at least while also adding new Alpha variants of Exosuits (Beta variants are coming soon), but its launch state was just so underwhelming.

24. Star Fox Zero

Not that Star Fox had the best run since peaking with Star Fox 64, but Zero had PlatinumGames involved. Surely, the Wii U controls would allow for a compelling shoot-’em-up experience. As you’ve probably guessed, that isn’t the case, as the controls were criticized for their unwieldiness. It also didn’t help that the experience heavily mirrored Star Fox 64, though some critics enjoyed the approach. With less than 500,000 copies sold, it flopped hard, and there hasn’t been a follow-up ever since.

23. Thief (2014)

One of the most beloved cult classic stealth series of all time, Thief was considered as revolutionary for PC players as Metal Gear Solid for consoles. So when Eidos Montreal announced a reboot, there was excitement and perhaps a little trepidation, especially after Garrett’s old voice actor was replaced. A dull performance was the least of the game’s problems, with the level design, AI and story all feeling out of sorts. While opinions settled more on the slightly above side, Thief (2014) couldn’t match up to the original games in player freedom and choice.

22. Days Gone

The praise for Days Gone, Bend Studio’s open-world zombie survival title, cropped up most when it was free on PlayStation Plus. Full credit to the team for sticking with it and adding sizable new content and features, but that’s not the launch version. The latter was roundly criticized for its excessive bugs, performance issues and loading screens (that too after delays for more polish), to say nothing of the bland story and awful dialogue. The open world, the motorcycle maintenance mechanics, the shooting – nearly everything had its downsides.

Make no mistake – there were some positives, from the immense undead hordes to the progression, and it notched up some impressive sales numbers, topping the UK physical charts for three weeks in a row and outselling the combined total of Bend’s previous games. However, it was nowhere near the high bar set by first-party Sony titles. Perhaps for this reason, the publisher didn’t greenlight a sequel and directors John Garvin and Jeff Ross subsequently left the studio. As beloved as it is now, there’s no denying that Days Gone underwhelmed at launch.

21. RAGE 2

For its time, RAGE was trying to do something technologically ahead of its time courtesy of id Tech 5. However, it faced criticism for its overall story and forgettable characters, not to mention the aggravating cliffhanger at the end. The fact that it launched after the more successful Borderlands, which captured the Mad Max feel of a post-apocalyptic wasteland far better, also didn’t help. Nevertheless, it did receive some praise for its visuals, combat, side missions and AI.

With RAGE 2, Avalanche Studios decided to go for a more traditional open-world first-person shooter with vehicles. You had the usual enemy camps to clear, some points of interest and enemy convoys to assault, while the story was a paint-by-numbers “gather the MacGuffins” before a showdown with the big bad. The combat and visuals were still worthy of praise, but everything else felt further downgraded over the original, and it had microtransactions.

20. Immortals of Aveum

Coming from a new team with a five-year development cycle and emphasis on a single-player campaign with no microtransactions, Immortals of Aveum was a noble endeavor. Problems arose with the overall story, graphical issues on consoles, iffy dialogue (with the cast trying its very best to elevate it), and controls. With the emphasis on fast-paced mage combat, encounters could feel repetitive, ultimately underwhelming despite some impressive set pieces. Again, it received updates and new content while attracting a following, but Immortals of Aveum failed to leave a mark.

19. Shenmue 3

A sequel that fans (and creator Yu Suzuki) craved since the second game’s release in 2001. An announcement years in the making with $6 million in crowd-funding. A launch finally happening four years later, mired in controversy due to Epic Games Store exclusivity and a publishing deal with Deep Silver. Shenmue 3 finally arrived in 2015 and was panned for its outdated mechanics and storyline that ended on yet another cliffhanger. While some found the antiquated mechanics to be the appeal, it ended up feeling inconsequential and just another chapter in the ongoing story which would likely end.

18. The Callisto Protocol

Spiritual successors to classics from the original creators never fail to generate attention, as seen with Striking Distance’s The Callisto Protocol. This Dead Space tribute sported gorgeous visuals punctuated by over-the-top and grotesque death sequences. Delays and declarations of crunch didn’t help, nor did the performance issues at launch. Of course, despite all that, the experience was dragged for being overtly linear with shoddy melee combat, no option to skip the death scenes, a short playtime, heaps of unrealized potential and ultimately, not measuring up to the legacy of Dead Space.

17. Rainbow Six Extraction

After the success of the limited-time mode Outbreak in Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft did what any self-serving publisher would do – spin it off into a new game and monetize it. Extraction would take a while to launch, initially announced as Rainbow Six Quarantine in 2019 (and eventually abandoning the name for obvious reasons).

It would finally arrive in January 2022 after multiple delays and revealed itself as a session of interconnected areas with procedurally generated objectives and enemies. The sparse content, terrible objectives, bad AI, laughable story and repetition sadly made for a dull experience. While the developer would tout three million players in the first week (likely in no small part thanks to Game Pass), you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who remembered it past the first month.

16. Crackdown 3

Before Microsoft pushed cloud gaming via Game Pass, it hyped the computational powers of the same and how they would revolutionize gaming. Crackdown 3 was an example, touted as having a fully destructible open world. It eventually relegated into a separate mode, which quickly died out, while the base campaign launched after years of delay and generated ire for its archaic, repetitive design. Could you have some mindless fun? Sure, but it was a far cry from what Microsoft hyped the project to be and far from the next big leap for the franchise.

15. Resident Evil 3 (2020)

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has always occupied a weird place due to its shorter length and unorthodox features (like the titular villain). Releasing in the shadow of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 didn’t help – unfortunately, that same fate awaited Resident Evil 3 remake. Despite some fantastic visuals and combat, it was more notable for omitting areas (city hall, the clock tower and more were nowhere to be seen) or changing some of the original’s most iconic moments.

Barring the final sequence, none of them felt like an improvement. The fact that Mercenaries wasn’t included, but we got Resistance, a terrible asymmetrical multiplayer mode, didn’t help. Even with sales at 8.4 million, Resident Evil 3 is considered the weakest of the modern remakes.

14. Wolfenstein Youngblood

MachineGames delivered not one but two excellent Wolfenstein titles, reviving the franchise for a new generation with some incredibly cinematic storytelling that remains impressive to this day. How did it follow these up? Why, with a co-op title focusing on B.J. Blazkowicz’s daughters, Jessie and Zofia. The initial gameplay showings weren’t terrible, and the prospect of venturing to Paris to take out Nazis was appealing.

Unfortunately, Wolfenstein Youngblood fundamentally failed to capture what made the previous games so successful. Enemies were bullet sponges, causing players to constantly run out of ammo, and the missions were forgettable, with bizarre hub-like stages that felt utterly unnecessary to the campaign’s flow. Throw in terrible AI when playing solo and microtransactions, and it felt like a poorly conceived side story rather than a proper follow-up to MachineGames’ hits.

13. Forspoken

You want to believe that Luminous Productions had good intentions when designing Forspoken, first announced as Project Athia. Boasting a premier writing staff and billed as a two-year PS5 exclusive, it could have been the developer’s next big thing. While the combat wasn’t terrible, it did little to uplift the barren open world and dull activities.

The initially awful dialogue and plot also weighed it down, but even as things improved over time, the story was over quickly. It wasn’t long before the developer declared that Forspoken’s sales were “lackluster” and by May, Luminous was reorganized and merged into the publisher.

12. Mighty No. 9

Also considered one of the worst games ever made, Mighty No. 9’s development history would have suggested otherwise. It was helmed by a new team at Comcept who promised a spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise when the developer had effectively kept the series on the back burner.

Then the delays happened, and that whole second Kickstarter campaign to fund a completely different project. By the time Mighty No. 9 launched, it was beset by performance issues, terrible voice acting, lack of content and an overall feel that screamed “cheap imitation” rather than spiritual successor.

11. Skull and Bones

Before its multitude of delays that whittled any faith that anyone had in the developer to deliver a competent pirate game, Skull and Bones had some potential. Its first announcement trailer gave the vibe of an Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag but a stronger focus on naval combat that fans had demanded for years. Of course, then the delays happened, followed by reports of reboots, behind-the-scenes issues, incompetent upper management, leadership departures, etc. When Skull and Bones was close to launching – for real this time – Yves Guillemot made the baffling decision to call it a quadruple-A game instead of the tried and true “triple-A.”

Upon launch, and to no one’s surprise, Skull and Bones was a live service grind for “loot”, punctuated by increasingly dull missions and tedious back and forth. Good thing it sold for $70 and included microtransactions. The results were telling – less than one-fourth of Sea of Thieves’ launch sales in the UK and allegedly 850,000 players, including those who played the free trial.

10. Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers didn’t have the best of reveals, competing against the first-ever gameplay of Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the same E3 showcase. Nevertheless, despite how many felt about the lack of resemblance to the Marvel Cinematic Universe actors, it didn’t look terrible either. Live service was seeing a downturn, but with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal at the helm, how could it go wrong?

Cut to the underwhelming beta and full release, and the distinction between Marvel’s Avengers and a title like Marvel’s Spider-Man became clearer. Despite unique kits for its heroes and some decent visuals, the mission design, objectives and loot were subpar. Post-launch support added some new heroes and content, which did little to raise the player count, and it was subsequently delisted from storefronts in September 2023.

9. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3

While one may joke that Call of Duty is a disappointment year in and year out, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 felt especially egregious. Reports indicated that it was to be an expansion to Modern Warfare 2 focusing on the Mexican cartel that underwent a reboot into a full-fledged game. Calling it that feels dirty due to the painfully short campaign with its lackluster and ultimately inconsequential story that sets up yet another sequel.

Perhaps even worse is the Open Combat Missions, promising sandbox-style action but coming off as lazy with simplistic objectives. Multiplayer was knee-capped out of the gate with the focus on remastered maps for its core 6v6 modes, and despite some solid gameplay, the age-old issues of skill-based matchmaking (or at least how COD approaches it) and connection issues still cropped up. Zombies was the only good thing about this release, but that’s been abandoned after some lackluster updates. At least the microtransactions continue to roll in.

8. Anthem

After the mess of Mass Effect Andromeda, it was the turn of the main BioWare team to produce something special. It was…a live service looter shooter, which emphasized co-op over the developer’s tried and true single-player story-driven approach. As impressive as the initial gameplay reveal seemed, it was reportedly fake – Anthem’s development period was plagued with issues, from crunch to terrible management.

The result is a mess, with poor characterization and dialogue, bad mission design and objectives, a baffling lack of quality of life, performance issues, bugs, glitches, unimaginative loot and a barren endgame. Despite changes and updates, Anthem’s attempt at a do-over was ultimately rejected by EA, and support is effectively dead (though servers remain available).

7. Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Speaking of an underwhelming launch, we have the developer going from Ghost Recon Wildlands, which grew into something great to Ghost Recon Breakpoint and its removal of AI teammates, looter shooter elements, bland open world, bullet sponge drones, bugs, glitches, the list goes on. Why did the developer suddenly want to adopt a shared world shooter approach with the franchise (besides live service revenue)? No one knows, but it was disastrous. The developer would eventually claw a good game out of it, one that still fell short of Wildlands, but at least offered a more tactical experience without worrying about gear scores.

6. Resident Evil 6

After Resident Evil 5, impressions of the franchise weren’t exactly the most positive, with many feeling it veered too much into a more action-heavy approach. Even if Resident Evil 6’s trailers were full of action, there was still the hype behind seeing so many fan favorite characters (and Jake) tearing it up together. The result offered some pretty good combat but flopped in multiple ways. The characters felt off, and the overall pacing of walk a few feet, cutscene, rinse, repeat was a killer. While Resident Evil 6 saw decent sales, its critical reception was in the gutter, but thankfully, it led to the rebooting in Resident Evil 7: biohazard.

5. Payday 3

Considering the ups and downs that Payday 2 saw, it was in a pretty good spot by the time Starbreeze stopped producing new content. Payday 3 would have been the perfect opportunity to start over with a fresh new slate, avoiding its predecessor’s mistakes while ushering in a new age of heist-focused co-op gameplay. Of course, it wasn’t to be with the always-online requirement and lack of an offline mode souring fans early.

This would come back to bite the development team when server and matchmaking issues ensured fans couldn’t play for days. Even after their resolution, the sequel faced heavy criticism for removing features present in Payday 2, whether it was the pre-heist planning map, text chat, or just the option to unready. Sales were below expectations, and given the poor reception, Starbreeze has replaced its CEO to try and turn the ship around. Thus far, it doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.

4. Redfall

Arkane Austin, which specialized in immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey – didn’t inspire too much confidence when it was revealed to be working on a co-op looter shooter. The lack of an offline mode or progress for other players except the host in co-op also didn’t help. On the bright side, the state of Redfall made both issues feel like water under the bridge.

Horrendous AI, performance issues, bugs galore (including catchy music playing during serious scenes), horrible bosses, a dull story, lackluster characterization, bad mission design – everything went wrong. You may argue that expectations were low, but Redfall sunk lower, and still flounders despite some major updates.

3. Battlefield 2042

This one hurt for longtime fans of the franchise, especially coming off of a relatively disappointing Battlefield 5. With no campaign, Battlefield 2042 promised a return to everything that made the series great, wrapped in the veneer of modern combat and massive 128-player battles. Reports emerged of troubled development, and the beta earned some ire, but fans were still hopeful.

Cue the disappointment and savage response on Steam, with the sequel becoming one of the lowest-rated games in the platform’s history overnight. From the removal of the class system to the visuals, destructibility, map design and the scoreboard – that damned scoreboard – Battlefield 2042 was a letdown in every way. It’s improved over the years but is still a far cry from the series’ peak.

2. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Before it was revealed as a live service looter shooter with a boring mission design, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a suitable amount of hype. How could fans not be excited when it was Rocksteady’s first new game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight? After its disastrous showing last year, it was delayed almost a year from its original release. Maybe it would add an offline mode and tone down its live service elements, including but not limited to microtransactions and a battle pass.

As it turns out, none of these things happened, and when Suicide Squad launched, it was begrudged for its terrible mission design, repetitive gameplay and boring endgame. After Warner Bros. admitted that it fell short of expectations, Rocksteady would focus on fixing the plethora of network issues and bugs while prepping the first post-launch season. Unsurprisingly, Season of the Joker was another miserable disappointment with its utter lack of story content, boring “new” missions, annoying grind to unlock the Joker as a playable character and audacity to charge for immediate access.

1. Mass Effect Andromeda

Of all the games to disappoint over the years, this one probably hurt the most. It’s not like Mass Effect Andromeda was the next mainline title in the franchise or one that had the budget and resources of Mass Effect 2 and 3. However, as the first new entry in five years, fans looked forward to it all the same. The potential for a new story and setting with an open-world twist also sparked interest. When Andromeda launched, it was quickly clowned for its bugs, facial animation and dialogue.

Those who dived deeper discovered barren planets, uninteresting characters who couldn’t hold a candle to the original heroes and a low-stakes plot. The underwhelming critical reception and sales wouldn’t outright kill the franchise entirely (as evidenced by the recent Legendary Edition and upcoming sequel), but it was the first time that fans began to question BioWare. Of course, Anthem happened, and the rest is history, but Mass Effect Andromeda hurt more.

Anthem

Following the underwhelming release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, fans were expecting a redemption arc from developer Bioware with Anthem. The game looked really promising with all the markings of a great action-adventure game, but the final product was anything but. A rushed development cycle and poor management from higher-ups meant that much of the game’s creative parts were crushed under the weight of business decisions, and Anthem ultimately became a massive flop. There were plans to revive the game under the Anthem NEXT banner, but those efforts were also canned due to growing costs.

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones was the developer’s effort to translate its adrenaline-pumping naval combat gameplay mechanics into a live service format. The game spent years and years in development hell, surviving multiple changes and differing creative directions before finally releasing just a few days ago. And suffice to say, the reception has been poor. It might be too early to call the verdict on this one, but the chance of Skulls and Bones’ sinking ship reaching the shores of live service success is looking pretty slim at the moment.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

When Rocksteady announced Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, it felt like a natural evolution of the ideas we saw in the Batman: Arkham games. The prospect of playing as the anti-villains and engaging with the game over the long term was pretty tantalizing, but the first look at the uninspired gameplay more or less set the course for what was ultimately going to be a trainwreck. And to not much surprise, Suicide Squad also launched recently, and most fans have already lost interest in the game just a couple of weeks after launch.

Marvel’s Avengers

A live service game that lets you play as some of the most famous superheroes on the planet would be a formula ripe for success, right? Well, that’s what the developer thought when it laid down the blueprint for what would ultimately become Marvel’s Avengers. The live service elements felt shoehorned into the final product, and a lack of engaging endgame portion and grindy progression mechanics didn’t really help either. And to top it all off, the game released in an extremely buggy state making it one of the biggest flops in recent memory. While the developer did make some effort in turning it around into a success with post-launch DLC, it eventually became clear that many of its biggest problems were rooted in the foundational elements of the game and that wasn’t really something they could repair with a finished product.

Knockout City

Knockout City was a really fun multiplayer game with an interesting art direction and unique mechanics, and developer Velan Studios was able to accrue a sizable player base through those aspects. But player interest, unfortunately, waned over time due to a variety of reasons, and the developer started to withdraw support with falling player counts – resulting in a slow death of this once-promising multiplayer IP.

Hyper Scape

Yet another developer trying to capitalize on the battle royale hype train with Hyper Scape, a game that combines fast and fluid movement mechanics with unique features that were specifically catered towards streamers. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with Hyper Scape’s set of mechanics, and it did gain some success on an initial level but the game just wasn’t able to sustain that success in the long run.

Evolve

Evolve was one of the first games in the asymmetrical multiplayer space, and developer Turtle Rock Studios’ title had quite a number of fans waiting with bated breath for its release. It had some fun ideas going for it, but the developer failed to capitalize on the potential with underwhelming DLC content. The idea of killing fantastically designed monsters in a eerie atmosphere certainly was a great idea on paper but the execution left much to be desired.

Foamstars

Foamstars was a decent attempt at cashing on the popularity of Splatoon’s gooey splatterfest mechanics and taking those concepts to a new platform, but a rough execution meant that much of the potential therein was put to waste. Foamstars does have a few good things going for it, but the lack of engaging content and uninteresting progression mechanics give players more than enough reason to not be in it for the long run. Player counts haven’t been the best as of late, and Foamstars is looking to be on a downward spiral just a couple of weeks after launch.

Lawbreakers

Lawbreakers was an interesting attempt at creating a hero-based first-person shooter, and while some of its ideas could be traced back to Overwatch – Lawbreakers was anything but a ripoff. There were plenty of reasons why Lawbreakers never got the love that it deserves which range from poor marketing to uninspired art direction and high skill requirements among others. There was a dedicated group of players who enjoyed what Lawbreakers had to offer, but that group wasn’t nearly enough to sustain the game’s continuous development and maintenance costs – eventually leading to servers being shut down.

Radical Heights

The insane success of Fortnite caused a lot of developers to quickly rush into the battle royale genre and grab a piece of this newly discovered pie, and developer Boss Key Productions’ Radical Heights was one of those shameless attempts. It was a game that could barely pass off as a minimum viable product, and the fact that it lacked any sort of creativity meant that it was dead as soon as it launched.

Paragon

Epic Games tried to capture the lucrative MOBA market with Paragon, but failed to create much impact in the long term. The game managed to earn some faithful players when its early access version was first released in 2016, but complaints regarding its mechanics and quirks weren’t addressed in a feasible manner. There was a very clear distinction between the direction that the developers took with Paragon and what players wanted out of it, and with no common ground achieved – player counts trickled down and developers started to withdraw support, eventually causing servers to shut down.

Red Dead Online

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an undisputed masterpiece, and it continues to stand as a towering achievement for storytelling in video games. It’s pretty sad then that the online component of the game can’t be praised on a similar level, and a lot of that could be blamed on the developer’s inability to drop meaningful content updates to keep players hooked in the long run. The runaway success of Grand Theft Auto 5’s online component meant that RDO was mostly kept on life support, and that eventually led to player counts dropping and it ultimately turned out to be a failure.

Rocket Arena

Rocket Arena was yet another attempt by EA to cash in on the popularity of gaming trends, and the developer tried to take on the team-based mayhem of Overwatch with a few tricks up its own sleeve. Rocket Arena had somewhat of an interesting art style and compelling mechanics, but it also had an equal share of glaring issues ranging from game balance to progression and lack of content among others. Players quickly lost interest in the game soon after its release, causing a premature end to what could have been a promising IP.

Battlefield 2042

Battlefield 2042 was an ambitious project that tried to turn its multiplayer model into a live service format, but a less-than-stellar execution plan made it one of the biggest failures that the long-running genre has seen to date. A missing single-player campaign, basic communication features, and a general lack of content are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Battlefield 2042’s buffet of problems – and players quickly took note. Sales were obviously much lower than projected numbers, and those who did get into the game didn’t stick around for much longer.

The Culling

The Culling is yet another attempt by a developer to capitalize on the battle royale hype, but developer Xaviant Games clearly put out the game well before it was even ready. It suffered from a bevy of issues ranging from technical inefficiencies to half-baked mechanics and much more. It was a laughing stock of a game, and it continues to serve as an example for developers to not blindly rush towards hot trends.

In spite of those pretty significant stumbles, however, Marvel’s parent company Disney wouldn’t have any issues with working with the two aforementioned studios again. Speaking in a recent interview with Axios, Disney’s head of gaming, Sean Shoptaw, said that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal are both “great studios”, and that Disney would be happy to work with them again.

“We would go back and work with those studios again,” Shoptaw said when the aforementioned question was posed to him. “They’re great studios, great partners.”

“Games are really hard to make,” he added. “If you’ve got great IP. If you’ve got a great story. You know, it’s still a challenge.”

Last year, it was reported that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s Avengers had collectively resulted in a $200 million loss for Square Enix, which had been the parent company of the two studios when those games were published.

Specifically where Marvel’s Avengers was concerned, Square Enix said following its launch that its live service structure had been a mismatch for Crystal Dynamics, a studio that has generally been known for its narrative-driven single player experiences. Meanwhile, in November last year, it was announced that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy had crossed 8 million players.

Crystal Dynamics is currently developing the next Tomb Raider game, and co-developing Xbox and The Initiative’s Perfect Dark reboot. Eidos Montreal’s next projects haven’t been officially announced, but leaks have claimed the studio is working on a new Deus Ex game, and providing development support on Xbox and Playground Games’ Fable.

Sounds excellent, right? Now open your eyes and come back to reality, because that world is very much not the one we live in. It’s been over three years since the launch of Marvel’s Avengers, and the game has now officially come to the end of the line, because not only has Crystal Dynamics ended all support for it, it can also no longer be purchased anywhere (unless you’re looking to buy a used physical copy, maybe). And even though all of that has happened, even now, it’s hard not to feel a sharp pang of disappointment whenever you think about Marvel’s Avengers- and, more specifically, about what it could (and should) have been.

Coming not long after Insomniac too the industry by storm with Marvel’s Spider-Man, Marvel’s Avengers should have been a single player game focused on narrative and handcrafted action. Instead, thanks to Square Enix’s misguided attempts at chasing the live service trends, it turned out to be a loot-driven multiplayer experience that, worst of all, wasn’t even good at what it was trying to do. Not only did it fail to deliver a standout single player experience, it was also a less-than-stellar multiplayer game.

Yes, the campaign was a fairly solid one, for the most part, and was perhaps even one of the game’s redeeming qualities (which it didn’t have too many of)- but it was significantly hampered by the fact that it was in a game that clearly wasn’t designed to deliver a memorable story. Not only did Marvel’s Avengers waste an incredibly popular IP and an incredibly beloved cast of characters on a game that was designed as an infinitely repeatable multiplayer experience (at least on paper), in trying to ensure that the balance of multiplayer gameplay remained intact, it couldn’t even do everything it could have with its characters from a gameplay perspective. Why, for instance, does it take so many hits for someone like the Hulk to take down an enemy? Why does swinging around like Spider-Man feel hardly any different from using Black Widow’s traversal mechanics? Why doesn’t the game take full advantage of its roster of iconic characters, and deliver an experience where it doesn’t feel like you’re going through the same underwhelming motions regardless of which superhero you’re playing as?

As soon as Marvel’s Avengers was out, it was clear for everyone to see that the game was deeply flawed. A lot of those issues came from the game’s technical deficiencies, many of which were addressed by post-launch updates, but even on a core design level, there was plenty that needed significant reworking. Short of a major overhaul similar to what we’ve seen for, say, Cyberpunk 2077, to name a recent example, Marvel’s Avengers was never going to come even close to fulfilling its potential.

To its credit, Crystal Dynamics didn’t instantly drop the game and move on from it after its unsatisfactory launch. Following its release, over the course of the next couple of years, the developer released a number of new expansions and updates for the game, adding new story content, new playable characters, new side activities, and more. But though it wouldn’t be fair to say that Marvel’s Avengers wasn’t supported after its release, it would be fair to say that it probably wasn’t supported the way it could have. This was a game that needed gripping narrative content and significant gameplay reworks, but what it got instead was new content that was, by and large, mostly cut from the same cloth as the base experience.

Obviously, that’s what you usually expect to see in most post-launch updates and content additions, but for a game that launched with as many issues as Marvel’s Avengers did, “more of the same” isn’t exactly a marketing pitch that’s going to get a lot of people excited for new post-launch content. When the game came out, it drew criticism for a number of issues- its open maps were criticized for being bland and empty, its combat was critcized for being too button mash-y, its loot mechanics were criticized for being plain and all too granular, its side content was criticized for being so uninteresting and generic it almost felt procedurally generated- and yet, almost none of these issues were addressed by any of the game’s post-launch updates in any meaningful way. Yes, we got more content for a couple of years after the game’s launch- but more often than not, that new content had so many of the issues the game had always been riddled with.

Before its release, not many would have guessed that a big-budget AAA experience based on Avengers would go on to be mentioned alongside some of the biggest and most high-profile gaming disappointments in recent memory, but sadly, that’s what the game ended up being. Not only was Marvel’s Avengers widely criticized by critics and audiences, it couldn’t even rely on its big license to rake in the sales that Square Enix was hoping it would. Back when Crystal Dynamics was still owned by the Japanese company and hadn’t been acquired by Embracer Group, it was reported multiple times that its commercial performance had fallen way below expectations, and driven significant losses for Square Enix as a result.

Now, three years on from its launch, Marvel’s Avengers has failed to turn the ship around, to the point where it’s officially been laid to rest. Its player base never really saw anything close to a resurgence, since its volumes of new content didn’t do much to address the experience’s biggest issues, which means it’s sadly forever going to be remembered as the game that completely squandered the potential of a AAA Avengers game.

Crystal Dynamics has clearly learned some lessons from the Avengers fiasco though- with its crack at live service and multiplayer clearly not having worked out the way it would have hoped, the studio is going back to what it knows best, with its next game set to be a new Tomb Raider instalment, which, presumably, will be focused on delivering a narrative-driven action-adventure experience. Of course, under the ownership of Embracer Group, the studio has been hit with fresh troubles in the form of recent layoffs, but hopefully, Crystal Dynamics will be able to recover and get back to form with its next outing- because now that we can look back on its last one in full, it’s fair to say that it has left a horrible taste.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Released in September 2020 for PS4, Xbox One and PC before coming to Xbox Series X/S and PS5 in March 2021, Marvel’s Avengers faced scrutiny for its combat, numerous bugs, poor design choices, monetization and much more. It would receive free updates, including new heroes like Hawkeye and Black Panther, but failed to make an impact.

Such was its poor performance that it and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy reportedly resulted in $200 million in losses for Square Enix in two years. The latter would sell Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal to the Embracer Group, with the end of support announced shortly after.

Check out our initial review of the game here. You can also read up on its final major patch, which unlocked the Marketplace and provided permanent bonuses to XP.

https://twitter.com/PlayAvengers/status/1707726954265276518

It addresses several issues arising from Update 2.8, including an issue that prevented players from receiving Iron Man’s Variable Threat Response Battle Suit. This is a reward for founders – or any player who unlocked a single Achievement/Trophy before April 1st.

Those who went from PS4 to PS5 may still face issues, though. They’re advised to load the PS4 version, equip the suit, migrate the save to PS5, and log in, where it should be unlocked. Check out the full update notes below for more details.

Marvel’s Avengers is available for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It will be removed from storefronts on September 30th, but still playable for current owners and available on PlayStation Plus and Game Pass.

Patch Notes v2.8.2

Reassemble Campaign & Avengers Initiative

• Update 2.8.2 addresses the issue preventing founders – any player who has earned an Achievement/Trophy prior to April 1 – from receiving Iron Man’s ‘Variable Threat Response Battle Suit.’
• Some players aren’t able to receive this Founders’ Gift if they migrated from PS4 to PS5 and didn’t earn any Trophies before April 1. Update 2.8.2 offers this workaround:
  – Load the PS4 version of Marvel’s Avengers, and equip the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit. Then, migrate your PS4 save to PS5. If you do this, the next time you log in on the PS5 version, the Outfit will be unlocked.
• On other platforms, the Founders’ Gift may appear as locked for players who deleted their original save file and are playing on a new save file. Restarting the game will unlock the Founders’ Gift for these players.
• We have removed all Hero Card-related objectives to fix the issue where Update 2.8’s removal of Hero Cards prevented the completion of certain mission chains.

Long-time players who toughed it out also get Iron Man’s Variable Threat Response Battle Suit. You need to have at least one Trophy/Achievement earned before April 1st, though. Heroes reportedly are more powerful thanks to some buffs and a 1.5x multiplier on Fragments and XP is now permanently active, with Hero’s Catalysts and Fragment Extractors gone from the game.

As for the endgame, you can new earn Superior Gear from every completion of raids and OLTs instead of weekly. Events and the Cloning Lab also provide Power Level 175 gear. Check out the full patch notes below for more details.

Marvel’s Avengers is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. Check out our review for the base version here.

Patch Notes v2.8

NEW FEATURES

• The Marketplace has been unlocked! What does this mean?
• Nearly all MCU- and non-MCU-inspired Outfits, Emotes, Takedowns, and Nameplates are now automatically available on your Hero Card.
• Items that are earned through the campaign, however, or purchased through the Cosmetic Vendor must be earned or purchased, respectively, as they always have been.
• Both the Shipments system and Hero Challenge Cards have both been completely removed from the game. Items that were previously earnable from Shipments and Hero Challenge Cards are included in the hundreds of Marketplace items that are automatically granted when you update to v2.8.
• You do not need to be connected to the internet to be able to access all of the unlocked Marketplace content after updating to v2.8.
• As a thank-you to players who’ve been with us on the journey, we’re granting a special Founder’s Gift – Iron Man’s ‘Variable Threat Response Battle Suit.’ This Outfit will be automatically granted to any player who has earned at least one Trophy/Achievement before April 1.
• Owned Hero’s Catalysts and Fragment Extractors have been completely removed from the game. In their place, there is now a permanent 1.5x multiplier on Fragments earned and XP gained.

There will be a small hotfix, Update 2.8.1, that goes live on April 4 to address a Known Issue. (This issue is detailed in the Patch Notes.)

REASSEMBLE CAMPAIGN & AVENGERS INITIATIVE

• Friendly fire! AI Companions will no longer target Kate Bishop’s Decoy when it is deployed during certain boss encounters.
• We fixed an exploit where the Winter Soldier could activate the heavy intrinsic attack ‘Blast Zone’ as a heavy dodge attack if ‘Vengeful Ghost’ was not a purchased skill.
• Banter between Jane and Bucky, which wasn’t activating for some players, now triggers when intended.

COMBAT

• We fixed an issue where Black Panther’s ‘Kinetic Boom’ skill was not increasing the damage of ‘Panther’s Dive.’
• Thor’s ‘Rampant Supercharge’ perk now functions properly when ‘Warrior’s Fury’ is activated.
  Hawkeye’s ‘Rocket Arrow’ wasn’t initiating for some players when the ‘Volatile Rockets’ skill was activated, but the ‘Rocket Arrow’ now activates, as intended.
• Switching gun types at the start of a charge animation no longer prevents the Winter Soldier from executing ranged power attacks.
• You are no longer able to use the Winter Soldier’s ‘Press the Charge’ skill without having first acquired it.
• The Mighty Thor’s gear perk ‘Divine Blast Assistance’ now applies intrinsic overload to teammates, as intended.
• The Winter Soldier’s ‘Lethal Rampant Plasma Boost’ perk now grants nanites when intended.
• Ms. Marvel’s ‘Ultimate Lethal Cryo Administrator’ gear perk now applies the correct number of Cryo charges to allies.
• The Ultimate Lethal Plasma Administrator gear perk now grants charges when defeating an enemy on the initial hit.
• The Winter Soldier’s ‘Reactive Gamma Administrator’ gear perk now grants the correct number of charges to allies when using ‘Soldier’s Generosity.’
• Similarly, we fixed the Winter Soldier’s ‘Reactive Gamma Administrator’ perk so that it grants charges, as intended, to allies for hitting enemies with ‘Bloodletting.’
• Both the Winter Soldier’s ‘Cryo-’ and ‘Plasma Administrator’ perks now grant charges to allies.
• Ms. Marvel’s ‘Polymorph Counter Spike’ perk now increases Critical Attack Damage, as intended.
• Kate Bishop’s ‘Explosive Blast Frenzy’ perk now increases the firing speed of explosive arrows, as intended.
• We fixed an issue with Heroes and invisibility where completing a takedown would enable enemy attacks on the player while the invisibility effect was active. That’s not how invisibility works!

GEAR & REWARDS

• Endgame Mission Rewards (Both OLTs and Raid)
• Superior gear can now be obtained from every completion, not just the weekly rotation.
• Family Reunion and both versions of the Discordant Sound raid now grant up to PL 165 gear.
• Events and Cloning Lab now provide a path to PL 175 gear.

Gear Upgrading – PL 165 to PL 175

• Resources required to bring a piece of gear from the old PL cap to the new PL cap has been reduced.
• Upgrade module cost is now capped at 150 per upgrade within this range.
• Dismantling exotic gear returns 100 upgrade modules. 50 are returned from legendary gear.

Gear

• Nanite charges from Cloning Lab gear now apply status damage via heavy melee attacks. Status build-up has been increased.
• Cooldowns reduced for major artifact active effects.
• Exotic artifact stat scaling improved.

USER INTERFACE

• The Winter Soldier’s skill icons now display properly in the Hero Terminal.
• JARVIS is back online! The Cloning Lab gear reward charges were not always appearing on the HUD when defeating enemies, but charges now display properly.
• Lorem oop-sum! We replaced the placeholder text that appears in Captain America’s ‘Vanguard Charge’ skill with the correct description.
• We repositioned Hawkeye’s Heroic Mission Chain reward icon to appear in the correct place.

ART & ANIMATION

• When wearing his “Wasteland Warrior” Outfit, Hulk’s right shoulder no longer tears during gameplay.
• The Winter Soldier’s gun no longer clips through his armor during gameplay.
• The Winter Soldier’s muzzle flash VFX now display properly when executing takedowns on dreadbots during multiplayer sessions.
• There’s a glitch in the multiverse! The Mighty Thor now uses the correct Mjolnir when activating her Ultimate while wearing her MCU-inspired Outfit.
• Cap’s shield can do many things, but invisibility is not one of them! We fixed an issue where Captain America’s shield would disappear momentarily when using the ‘Looking Sharp’ emote.
• We fixed an issue where the Winter Soldier’s rifle would appear, stuck to his hand, during several interactions on the Helicarrier (including the interaction with Mjolnir).
• Similarly, the Winter Soldier’s rifle no longer attaches to random props when performing various emotes.
• We adjusted The Mighty Thor’s ‘Unhelmed’ Outfit mesh so that the Outfit displays the correct hair color.
• Bucky’s legs no longer distort or experience clipping with Cap’s shield when using the ‘Passing the Mantle’ emote.
• Captain America’s shield now reseats on his arm properly when activating his intrinsic ability while vaulting.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Faction Terminal Missions and Assignments will not be completable from 12 p.m. UTC to 5 p.m. local time. This will be fixed in an upcoming hotfix, Update 2.8.1, which launches on April 4.