2023 was admittedly a pretty good time for gaming, but not all of this year’s triple-A titles were worth their price tags. Grab your popcorn and power up your consoles as we embark on a journey through the pixelated pitfalls of the most overrated games of 2023!
Forspoken
Welcome to the enchanting world of Forspoken, where the only magical thing about it is the sheer amount of dedication it must’ve taken to turn all of the most cliché fantasy tropes into a “choose your own adventure” eye-roll. After the first few admittedly entertaining hours of this game, it’s like the developers just gave up and threw in some fancy fireworks to distract you from the fact that the story is as about as exciting as a wizard’s grocery list.
This game plays like a terrible self-insert Wattpad fanfiction. Forspoken boldly goes where every young adult fantasy book has gone before, with a storyline so generic you’ll wonder if they used a Mad Libs template. Its flashy combat and parkour system only just barely make it worth playing, but even they can’t save it from being one of the most overrated games of 2023.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Why, in an ever-expanding universe teeming with iconic characters, did someone ever think that playing an entire game as Gollum would be a good idea? Who is this game for? What is it even meant to achieve?? Literally who even asked for this game??? I feel like this game might have had some potential if there was any actual demand for it, or if the developers had even tried to take their jobs seriously.
Forget the solid action of previous Middle-earth games, as Gollum invites you to revel in thrilling activities like brutal busywork, uninspired and hair-pulling platforming, and a masterclass in bad stealth mechanics that even Sauron would cringe at. Honestly, I’m baffled that they even felt confident enough to release this bad excuse for a game; the only people I would recommend this game to are the most die-hard, tunnel-vision eccentric Lord of the Rings fans — or maybe Gollum’s therapist.
Redfall
Step into the nightmarish world of Redfall, where even the undead might rise from their graves to ask for a refund! This game, though labeled as a co-op shooter, is more like a haunted house of glitches, awkward AI, and pop-in nightmares that not even garlic could ward off. It’s not just the vampires that suck here — button commands vanish like ghostly apparitions, random NPCs pull their best Houdini acts at the worst of times, and the story scenes are so cheap and overused, they make thrift stores look like luxury boutiques.
Redfall is, without a doubt, one of the most depressingly overhyped games to come out in recent years; plagued with insurmountable glitches, constant bugs, and tired gameplay mechanics, Redfall didn’t stand a chance against the rest of 2023’s major game releases. Not only was Redfall not worth its price tag, it wasn’t worth playing at all.
Final Fantasy XVI
Now this one might be a bit of a controversial choice for this list, but hear me out here. Final Fantasy XVI has absolutely no personality whatsoever; its side quests are unbelievably uninspired, the loot is even worse, and its world exploration is the most unrewarding waste of time I’ve ever seen in an RPG. Not to mention the fact that this game is unbelievably easy to play; the only people who might like this game are kids because it literally takes almost no brainpower to play.
After all, who needs challenging quests and immersive storylines when you can have the thrill of pressing the same buttons repeatedly over and over again without ever breaking a sweat? This game is a fantasy alright, but not the kind you’d ever want to write home about. Final Fantasy XVI — where the only thing that’s final is your patience with uninspiring sidequests and brainless gameplay. If you’ve played the last few entries in the Final Fantasy series, then congratulations, you may as well have already played this one.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is, without a doubt, one of the most overhyped and overpriced games of 2023. Anyone who tries to defend this game is either in complete denial, has never played any other Star Wars game before, or is just super embarrassed about the fat wad of cash they had to hand over just to play it.
Survivor’s PC port especially suffered from numerous technical glitches, rendering the gaming experience near-broken and far from seamless, while the overhyped performance mode failed to impress even the most indifferent of players; it’s even been labeled by many as possibly the worst of its generation. The game’s narrative and NPCs were unimaginative at best and completely uninspired at worst, and its outdoor exploration, puzzles, and combat (all pivotal aspects of any action-adventure title) were deemed similarly lacking.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Speaking of games that fell far short of the mark, Return to Moria is easily considered by many to be one of the most overhyped, overrated games of 2023 by far. It’s not quite as bad as Gollum, but come on; it’s a barely passable title within the Lord of the Rings franchise, and honestly, I can’t even believe that anyone thought this game was a good idea.
What many LOTR fans might be surprised to know about Return to Moria is that it’s actually barely even a Lord of the Rings game at all; Return to Moria is more like a random survival game that just so happens to take place in a world that’s very loosely based off of J.R.R Tolkien’s works. If you’ve played literally any fantasy survival game within the last decade, then congratulations, you’ve essentially already played Return to Moria.
Crime Boss: Rockay City
Welcome to Crime Boss: Rockay City, where decades-old nostalgia meets present-day regret, and the in-game 90s backdrop feels less like a golden era and more like a cautionary tale of what we all collectively chose to forget. Despite a commendable level of earnestness in its creation, Rockay City’s charm just couldn’t quite mask the overall sloppiness of its design.
Crime Boss: Rockay City just couldn’t quite manage to do itself any justice, no matter how hard it tried. Its outright atrocious voice acting and frustratingly repetitive mission design were enough to scare most of its potential player base away, and its unoriginal single-player storyline and unnecessarily complex co-op mode were enough to drive away the rest. In the end, Crime Boss: Rockay City was its own worst enemy; maybe if the developers had spent a little more time on it and hadn’t hyped it up so much prior to its release, it would have been met with more positive reviews.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Despite high expectations for a next-gen leap into the friendly neighborhood Spiderverse, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 seems to have fallen short of the mark quite spectacularly. For starters, the game’s overall lack of environmental realism is honestly embarrassing for a game made in the 21st century; the game’s “interactable” environments lack any form of destructible elements, hindering player immersion to an unforgivable degree.
Furthermore, its combat, a long-established staple of the Spider-Man experience, has consistently been described as overly repetitive, leaving players longing for a more dynamic and engaging system. Perhaps the most stinging blow of all, however, comes in the form of the game’s narrative, which easily stands as the weakest of Insomniac’s roster of Spider-Man games. In the end, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, while delivering on the web-slinging spectacle, falls short of the expectations set by its predecessors and its promise of next-gen innovation, earning it a top spot among the year’s most overrated releases.
Everybody 1-2-Switch
Have you ever wanted to play a game so devoid of any and all emotion and personality that it legitimately fills you with rage? Well then congratulations, you’ve found your match with Everybody 1-2-Switch! Prepare for the party game apocalypse with this sorry excuse for an entertainment elevator; this game somehow manages to suck any and all joy out of gaming faster than a vacuum in zero gravity.
Everybody 1-2-Switch boasts a tedious catalog of unoriginal party games that are, surprisingly, meant to entertain friends and families. It’s the kind of experience that makes you long for a simpler time when the biggest party game dilemma was choosing Mario Kart characters, not enduring a digital gathering that feels more like purgatory than a celebration.
Diablo IV
Last but not least, we come to Diablo IV, arguably one of the most highly anticipated game releases of 2023. Diablo IV just feels like a slightly worse, reskinned version of Diablo III, and I can’t even believe that the developers at Blizzard can sleep at night with how much they’re charging for it.
Any self-respecting, long-time Diablo fan would agree that Diablo IV’s uninventive gameplay is way too easy, especially when compared to the previous entries in the Diablo game series. The boss battles feel tedious at best, the world bosses are far too easy, and its dungeons are so repetitive and undifferentiated that they all begin to blur together after only a few runs. Overall, it’s an okay game for newcomers to the series, but for veterans of the franchise, it just feels like one big disappointment.
And that’s it for our curated list of all of the most overrated games of 2023! From soulless storylines to maddening mechanics, this year’s disappointments have proven that even in the realm of pixels and polygons, not all that glitters is gold. If you want to take a peek at what 2024 has in store for the gaming community, be sure to check out Twinfinite’s list of the “Most Anticipated Games of 2024“!
