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.

CrossfireX

Based on Smilegate’s super-popular free-to-play shooter, CrossfireX garnered attention because Remedy was behind its campaign. However, this was little more than two short “Operations” with bad writing, cliched and boring gameplay, and terrible AI. The studio’s trademark panache was missing here, though the Northlight Engine looked decent, and the “revamped” multiplayer didn’t offer much either.

Gungrave G.O.R.E

Some games are developed for years, and you hate to see them launch as Gungrave G.O.R.E has. Any notions of style that Overdose may have had all those years ago are overridden by an ugly visual style, from the characters to the levels. The story sounds like it could make for some B-movie-level fun but ends up confusing and outright time-wasting. Gameplay-wise, the sheer amount of jank in animations, movement, and combat are just awful all around.

Source of Madness

In theory, Source of Madness sounds cool. It uses procedural generation to create its Lovecraftian-esque nightmares and neural network AI to animate them. Unfortunately, this results in unpredictable enemies, further adding to the brutal difficulty alongside the shoddy controls. Even if you can appreciate the aesthetic, the sheer lack of strategy that enemies display, horrible bosses, and lackluster progression ensures little payoff for surviving this nightmare.

Winter Ember

As a dark fantasy stealth title, Winter Ember felt pretty ambitious with its 30 arrow types, 70 passive and active skills, and open-ended gameplay. The interesting aesthetic and setting are hampered by poor combat, awful enemy AI, shoddy cover while sneaking, and the same repetitive gameplay loop. Even the audio design, an essential part of a stealth experience, is not good, executing any hope one could have for this mess.

XEL

A sci-fi adventure inspired by Zelda with an appealing art style – what could go wrong? As XEL proves, quite a lot. The sheer number of bugs and lack of polish will put you off immediately. Once you make it further in, the combat and visuals can be somewhat satisfying, but the awful story undercuts them. Too much repetition and some baffling design decisions will further kill your interest if you’re still somehow playing.

The Last Oricru

Serving as one of the poster games for the new Prime Matter label, The Last Oricru takes clear inspiration from other Souls-like titles. But that’s all it is – a shallow inspiration where everything sticks out for all the wrong reasons. It may be the annoying main character, user interface, controls or how clunky everything looks. Whatever it may be, The Last Oricru doesn’t feel good to play, look at or think about.

Dolmen

Like The Last Oricru, Dolmen is a Souls-like but sci-fi with cosmic horror. It’s also terrible, with combat missing many key features and melee combat feeling janky and poorly tuned overall. Despite how interesting the sci-fi premise looks, it’s all fluff with no real purpose or sense that fails to hook you.

MX vs ATV Legends

MX vs ATV Legends isn’t bad enough to be truly awful, but it’s enough to be annoyingly mediocre. Multiple types of vehicles to race with? Good. The slippery controls and haphazard AI? Bad, though the former has reportedly improved. The open world aspect? Good. The lack of anything to do in it? Bad. We could go on with the physics, sound design, polish, and so on. While the new Trails mode and regular tracks are decent, it’s not enough when everything else is undercooked.

The House of the Dead: Remake

With all the remakes we’ve seen in the past few years, The House of the Dead: Remake could have been something good. Maybe not great, but still good. Developer MegaPixel Studio kept almost everything as is, but the visual upgrades look too dark and ugly. The remixed soundtrack comes across as bland, and the lack of much new content (save for the missable horde mode) makes it feel overpriced. The less said about the controls and performance issues, the better.

Diablo Immortal

Maybe it’s fun on mobile, but Diablo Immortal on PC is a travesty. Its user interface is horrid, with annoying pop-ups – especially during gameplay, resulting in misclicks – and the combat is an even more dumbed-down version of Diablo 3. The campaign is there, but any interesting plot is offset by the stupid progression blockers and grinding required. The sheer scale of monetization is also appalling, to the extent that certain end-game activities are just locked off to free players. Even without it, Diablo Immortal would still be a mess as opposed to the ongoing trainwreck.

Monark

Lancarse’s track record has been a bit spotty this year, as anyone who played The DioField Chronicle will attest. There was some hope for Monark, developed by a few former Shin Megami Tensei series members. It has a school setting, Egos, and an Otherworld to explore, just like SMT and Persona. It differs, however, in the awful pacing, repetitive gameplay, and troubling characterization, to say nothing of the shallow visuals and environments. With so many other great RPG efforts this year, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Trails from Zero, and so on, Monark hardly warrants a look.

LEGO Brawls

A platform fighter based on LEGO sets sounds appealing in theory. The execution leaves a lot to be desired. Originally released for iOS in 2019, LEGO Brawls made its way to consoles and PC this past September. Despite its looks, the gameplay quickly becomes boring (with little difference between characters), and the sheer grind required to unlock things is a chore. The lack of stuff to do doesn’t help either.

ELEX 2

I found ELEX to be a drag, but Piranhabytes’ sci-fi action RPG garnered a dedicated cult following after its release. ELEX 2 seemed a good time to capitalize on this and deliver something better. Sadly, it’s also full of clunky combat, dull writing, boring open-world design, monotonous side quests, and an underwhelming presentation. Being able to fly with a jetpack doesn’t count for much when there are so many bugs, and the DirectX 12 rollout is a whole other rigmarole on its own.

IKAI

Despite its low production values, IKAI could have been a nice little horror title, weaving in Japanese folklore in unique ways. Alas, it falls flat. It’s very short, the plot makes little sense, and it abruptly ends with almost no payoff. This wouldn’t be too terrible if the gameplay and horror were up to par, but the former is too restrictive and lackluster, while the latter offers bland jumpscares.

Blackwind

In some alternate universe, Blackwind would have been a decent twin-stick shooter/action RPG hybrid. Unfortunately in this timeline, its premise can’t withstand the horrible story, mind-numbingly dull exploration and progression, and awful combat. The glitches and poor controls further hamper your attempts to squeeze any enjoyment out of the experience.

For better and for worse, The Last Oricru is a large and open-ended game in a lot of ways. The freedom to run around, explore, battle with different enemies and unlock new areas at your own pace can feel liberating at times, but it’s when you try to make any sense of it that the seams begin to show. Characters that you come across and interact with often spend far too much time talking for how little they actually have to say, and your many redundant battles with folks from both sides of the conflict leave you feeling unattached and indifferent about how their war plays out. Mindless objectives also feeling disconnected from the broader story more often than not only detach you from the story even more.

"The Last Oricru can, at times, deliver some moderate fun within its combat and RPG mechanics when it’s not struggling to be interesting with its story and characters."

The tale of Silver trying to understand the world around him and his role within it felt relatable to me as the player only in that I had no idea what sort of story the game was trying to tell for most of my playtime. The setting is also hard to pin down in any logical way, as the medieval elements like candles and stone castles are so forcibly combined with mystical science fiction that it feels more like a clashing of ideas competing with each other than any sort of graceful melding. Some interesting agency is introduced with choices about who’s side you want to favor at important moments, but it’s too little too late to save a story that refuses to be compelling in just about every other way. Some decent voice acting throughout is also nice, but doesn’t make up for stiff animations, non-existent expressions, and the stuffy, bloated writing. The game does very little to create an enticing story or compelling characters, so it’s a shame to see the relatively good voice acting go to such a waste. To say The Last Oricru is some sort of substance-over-style game is not really the impression I’m trying to give though, as it has problems in nearly every area.

Combat itself can be satisfying when landing a final blow on an enemy after some carefully executed blocks and dodges, and the fairly steady pace at which you come across new weapons and armor feeds nicely into the gameplay cycle. Even though some of them require you to personally level up to be able to use them so they just kind of sit in your inventory for a while. This only seems to get better with time though, as more sorts of weapons and abilities become available as more enemies that require more skill on your part are presented.

This is dragged down a fair amount by a handful of shortcomings, though. Of them, the most prominent are the camera lock-on, which, when used, often presents more issues than it solves by making the camera angle tilt in an extremely unhelpful way that limits your view, and the fact that combos nonsensically trigger at times even if you’ve only clicked the attack button once, making the sort of kinetic rhythm that a game like this needs for combat to feel fun and responsive, nearly impossible. Combat is hampered further by enemies that are often extremely dumb and attack in the completely wrong direction and take such gratuitously long time to wind up an attack that it can almost feel insulting. Whatever bit of this that was supposed to feel like a souls-borne game is almost entirely overwhelmed by the distracting lack of cohesion or meaningful challenge in its combat.

That’s not to say the gameplay of The Last Oricru is without any bright spots, though. Local split-screen co-op is certainly one of them worth mentioning. It doesn’t change much about the core experience, but if you’re fine with not caring about what’s going on, and don’t mind the mediocre combat, some cheap fun can be had with a friend as with basically any other co-op game.

"The Last Oricru is not a game I would generally recommend. For everything I really liked, there were at least 2 or 3 adjacent blunders making my eyes roll into the back of my skull."

One thing I did consistently enjoy about The Last Oricru was the artistic acumen with which the game was designed. Putting aside the many unexceptional elements of the game, the sheer skill of the actual artists who designed the characters and levels is indisputable. While the clashing ideas do their best to distract from it, the detail, environmental effects, and flashy general presentation are on point. Seeing what the next area would look like quickly became my primary motivation to keep going in The Last Oricru, which perhaps says more about the rest of the game than it does about the art, but still, credit where it’s due. Also, while it certainly could still benefit from some optimization, I feel like it was running reasonably well for me all things considered.

The Last Oricru is not a game I would generally recommend. For everything I really liked, there were at least 2 or 3 adjacent blunders making my eyes roll into the back of my skull. While the negatives and positives do end up mostly canceling each other out for me, I’m not going to sit here and say it’s a complete failure or does nothing well. But given that it exists in a sea of other similar games where it so often fails to keep its head above the water let alone compete with the bigger successes of the genre, it’s a pretty tough sell. Hardcore souls-borne fans that consume every game that comes their way might enjoy its distinct art direction and steady progression, but upon comparing it to any other similar game they will likely walk away feeling neutral about it at best. To me, The Last Oricru basically embodies mediocrity. It’s not strikingly bad, nor is it what I would call good. It mostly lives on a very fine line between the two, only occasionally leaning towards one side or the other.

This game was reviewed on PC.

The Last Oricru is out now for PC and consoles, and Prime Matter has released a launch trailer to commemorate its release, showing a glimpse of what lies in store if you dive into the full offerings.

The Last Oricru is set on an isolated and partially terraformed planet, a setting that blends medieval and sci-fi aesthetics, where two races are locked in an ongoing conflict. Promising brutal melee combat, deep progression and customization mechanics, and a story that is driven heavily by choice and consequence mechanics, the game certainly doesn’t lack for ambition in premise.

The Last Oricru is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

ANGER FOOT

There might be plenty of first person shooters coming out in the near future, but we doubt many of them will be as gleefully weird as Free Lives and Devolver Digital’s Anger Foot. There’s a lot of fast-paced running and gunning here, of course, and that’s looking suitably exciting, but Anger Foot’s USP is the fact that kicking enemies is just as central to the gameplay. Combining your movement, fast-paced shooting, and kicking action might come together very well in what’s looking like a very intriguing game.

The Last Oricru will be out in October, and Prime Matter has also released a new trailer to offer another glimpse at the upcoming action RPG. The game places an emphasis on choice and consequence mechanics that will supposedly have an impact not only on the story and the way things unfold, but also visual elements within the world itself. According to the developers, players can also expect a deep customization system, challenging and rewarding combat, couch co-op, and more. Check out the trailer below.

The Last Oricru will launch on October 13 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

The Last Oricru is an action RPG set in the medieval age, with an interesting spin of sci-fi elements thrown into the mix. As the player, you are put directly in the center of a raging war between factions. Not a lot of plot details have been revealed just yet, but choice and consequence mechanics seem to be an integral part of the game. The game draws heavy inspiration from the Souls games, with similar progression and skill-based combat.

The visuals and animations do still look janky though, which might be improved further down the line, as the game is still in alpha. The Last Oricru releases for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022.

Along with “hundreds” of fights throughout a world where medieval meets sci-fi, there are various decisions to be made. Each decision can affect the story and ending while also affect one’s reputation with different factions. In some cases, you may see huge battles breaking and choose a side to fight for.

Along with melee combat, there are ranged attacks and magic to utilize. Interestingly, The Last Oricru supports couch co-op which brings a new dimension to boss fights and exploration when two players enter the mix. In a press release, GoldKnights executive producer Vladimir Gersl was excited to work with Prime Matter. “It’s an exciting opportunity for The Last Oricru to be part of the starting portfolio of a brand new Koch Media label. We are looking forward to a fruitful and bright future of our new game IP and the entire collaboration!”

The Last Oricru is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. It will release sometime in 2022.