With 2020 more than halfway over, we have seen some amazing games get released. From Final Fantasy 7 Remake to The Last of Us Part 2 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, this year has not failed in giving us some incredible experiences. But we have also seen some titles disappoint that we expected more from. With that being said, here are the 10 most disappointing games of 2020 so far that we expected more from.
Predator: Hunting Grounds
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
When a monstrously-sized franchise gets a video game adaptation most people tend to get excited and filled with the wonder of what their favorite series’ could look like in video game form.
Predator is one of the most highly-regarded 80s action flicks and has spawned several video games over the past 40 years —probably most notably the Alien vs. Predator titles on the PC.
Following the success of Alien: Isolation, it makes perfect sense that a Predator-centric title would be on its heels. And coming from Illfonic, with a pedigree as a support studio on Evolve as well as its work on its own release, Friday the 13th: The Game, it seemed like a good match.
Pair that with the backing of Sony publishing and the hire of former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive, Gio Corsi, and you would’ve thought this title couldn’t fail. But with one of the lowest Metacritic scores of the year, and our own review calling it “ugly” and “repetitive”, it seems Alien is still better than Predator.
Bleeding Edge
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
It’s rarely a negative thing for a developer to branch out into a new genre or type of game for its own sake, but sometimes those results simply don’t pan out into a game that matches the expectation of the studio.
Ninja Theory, most recently known for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which lead to their subsequent sale to Microsoft’s growing list of development teams, has a rich history in stylish, action-focused titles.
Bleeding Edge being developed as a 4 vs. 4 action brawler was a bit of a surprise for this studio, but why the heck not? What could go wrong?
Unfortunately, though the game isn’t necessarily bad, a lack of a solo or role queues and slim pickings in terms of modes and maps to work with lead to lower review scores and a peak player base on Steam that never exceeded 1,000 concurrent players.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Following suit with Predator: Hunting Grounds, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot takes on an uber successful franchise, but takes things a step further in an attempt to enter a new genre for the series.
Usually known for its fighting titles, Dragon Ball Z has produced bangers regularly, from Dragon Ball FighterZ to Budokai.
Kakarot is an action-RPG, touting an open world and an all-new way to move through the Dragon Ball Z story. While it achieved those things, and isn’t necessarily bad, it just didn’t reach the mark as a follow-up to FighterZ or compared to the hype in the community pre-launch.
With mixed reviews, where we said its open-world felt “empty” and wondered about the serious lack of Goku himself, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot released with little fanfare and low chances for future accolades.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Considered one of the hidden gems of the early 2000s’ Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube generation, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom defied the odds in becoming an actual good video game adaptation of a popular TV series.
Today, fans were offered a totally remade version of this SpongeBob classic, boasting a really incredible change to its art style.
Beyond hyped by this, people jumped in to find the two-decade-old controls have barely been touched, leaving a string of issues present from the original with little to no thought put into how to improve the title for modern-day players.
THQ Nordic earned serious kudos announcing this remake —based on the history behind their name— but have taken a step back following the disappointment with this release.
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Deadly Premonition was originally released in 2010 on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC and came out to historically mixed reviews, with a 2/10 from one major outlet to a perfect 10/10 from another.
Based on this, there was doubt this game would ever get a sequel, but to the amazement of fans it was announced for the Nintendo Switch last year.
You could argue the disappointment behind Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise’s release was destined to happen, but the back and forth talks from this game following the release has certainly brought on mixed feelings.
From the discussion about the possibility of a post-release patch to fix some horrendous frame rate issues to an apology and promise of a re-write from creator Hidetaka (Swery65) Suehiro following offensive transgender content in the game, we can easily say this title makes the list.
The Outer Worlds (Nintendo Switch)
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Even though The Outer Worlds received glowing reviews on other platforms, the Nintendo Switch port was extremely disappointing.
Starting off with the announcement of a sizable download necessary to play, followed by a delay and change to fit the entire experience on the cartridge, The Outer Worlds Switch release was tumultuous from the start this year.
There was hope, however, after games like The Witcher 3 made their way successfully onto the platform, and based on port developer Virtuos’ work on the Nintendo Switch Dark Souls Remastered port, there was little doubt this could work.
Unfortunately, major performance and visual downgrades mean this port fails to live up to the high expectations, regardless of the system’s limited capabilities. A patch is on the way, but until then, this one is disappointing, for sure.
Cooking Mama: Cookstar
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Cooking Mama has been regarded as one of the better cooking sims on the market, from its journey on the DS to the Wii and 3DS, this IP has been closely tied to Nintendo systems since creation.
Now with the Nintendo Switch on the market—garnering incredible success—fans everywhere wondered when we would see Mama back this time around.
The announcement came with excitement and happiness, but following one of the most bizarre launches in gaming history, the game itself ended up reviewing as one of the worst games of the year thus far.
Putting the whole breach of contract, developer vs. publisher vs. IP holder dispute aside, it was disappointing to see this once graceful chef fall so far from grace, and just when we needed her most.
Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Wolcen: Lord of Mayhem’s story is one of poor early access implementation and potentially flying a bit too close to the sun.
In its alpha stages, Wolcen looked to have all the promise in the world and gained a sizable following because of it. Looking like it could be the next great ARPG in the same vein as Diablo, the player base sat back and waited patiently for the full release.
When that day came, a string of bugs and major changes to the game brought this game back to earth, with numerous mixed and negative reviews.
Following several years of development and a number of delays, it was extremely disappointing to see Wolcen come out in the state it was in, but hopefully the developers keep trucking along so that their original vision can be realized.
Resident Evil 3
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
After the incredible success of Capcom’s 2019 remake, Resident Evil 2, our Game of the Year for 2019, the stakes were high and expectations were out of this world.
Resident Evil 3 was announced and people expected the same amount of content and polish from the original to make its way into this title as well, which sadly was not the case.
Panned for its surprisingly short length, cut content from the original title, and an underwhelming multiplayer mode, Resident Evil 3 fell short of the respect Resident Evil 2 has earned these remade titles.
Following up just one year after Resident Evil 2, you have to ask if there just wasn’t enough time given for Resident Evil 3 to really shine, but I know I speak for all the fans out there when I say I hope Capcom figures out what went wrong before they announce a remake of the legendary Resident Evil 4.
Crucible
Most Disappointing Games of 2020
Following up with Cooking Mama’s weird launch and post-launch shenanigans, Amazon Game Studios’ Crucible had people interested in what the retail juggernaut could bring to the games space.
As their first proper title released, this free-to-play shooter might not have had high expectations per se, but should have had the money and support to surprise audiences.
After an unsuccessful launch and almost no marketing from Amazon-proper, modes from the game began to get retired, with the title finally being pushed back (un-launched?) in one of the weirdest shifts in recent memory.
A game lacking so much polish and being so bad that it gets taken offline completely, and the fact that it comes from a company that’s been discussed as a major future player in the space for some time, sure is a disappointing start for Amazon.
Published: Jul 17, 2020 02:51 pm