While 2017 has been a banner year for video games of this generation, there have also been more than fair few embarrassments. Over 5,000 games were released this year, and the worst of those games are barely worth mentioning. One could even say with this many major releases, disappointments and failures were inevitable.
Most of the games on this list are far from the worst games of 2017. Rather, this list focuses on the games that had promise and hope, but for one reason or another, ended up leaving players filled with regret and remorse.
8. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite
When you start up Marvel vs. how ugly it is. With questionable character design and a user interface that looks like an in-house placeholder, Infinite does its best to conceal what a great fighting game it actually is. The game seems dead set on appealing solely to professional level players, with few modes and characters for casuals to play with. I guess Capcom hates money.
7. NBA Playgrounds
NBA Playgrounds was supposed to be a return to the thrilling arcade sports of yester-decade, rather than the fiddly simulationist / light action of most sports games today. Unfortunately, the game was released an unreliable shot meter and multiple patches have tried to remedy this to no avail. Matches were also repetitive with many of the same plays coming up. NBA Playgrounds is a missed opportunity.
6. Friday the 13th: The Game
In this game, you and your friends battle for survival against one player controlling Jason. The studio behind the game, Illfonic, show genuine love for the movies. Unfortunately, the game released with a myriad of bugs and server problems. Also, playing as one of the teen counselors is tedious, which means the game is only fun for the fraction of a time you get to play Jason.
5. For Honor
For Honor is one of the most unique games this year, built on a unique melee combat system that is simple to learn but difficult to master. Timing your attacks, reading enemy moves, countering them feels fantastic. Everything else is a bummer. Players with minimal gear often get matched with players dressed like Dark Souls bosses. Talk about a great idea undone by Ubisoft’s avarice.
4. LawBreakers
LawBreakers was a good game and is often misunderstood when comparisons are made to shooters like Overwatch and Destiny 2. Focusing on high-speed movement, quick reactions and gravity-defying leaps, it failed to reach a bigger audience. That lack of an audience is where the disappointment lies, for without a sizeable community, a multiplayer shooter might as well be dead.
Some people attribute lack of sufficient marketing and a crowded online shooter marketplace for this. But whatever the reasons, in mere months the number of active players dwindled to historic lows that beat other shooter also-rans like Battleborn and Evolve. Studio Boss Key Productions claims that they haven’t given up, but with numbers that low, this shooter faces an uphill battle it very likely will lose.
3. Yooka-Laylee
This was a game that everyone with a love for old school 3D platformers wanted to like. Created by the same developers who worked on Banjo-Kazooie, this spiritual successor was crowdfunded and built on nostalgia. Unfortunately, Yooka-Laylee ultimately turned out to be a disappointment and a reminder of the rose-tinted glasses we all wear.
Major design issues such as a cumbersome camera, clunky controls and unforgiving checkpoints make Yooka-Laylee feel even more stuck in the past than intended. The visual design is certainly lush and enhanced by touches of modern graphical fidelity, but some of the maps are unnecessarily large. Overall, Yooka-Laylee is a painful lesson on how recreating past joys is never easy.
2. Mass Effect Andromeda
The original Mass Effect trilogy remains highly regarded despite its controversial ending, which is why the hype was strong for Mass Effect Andromeda. But when the game was released, inconsistent facial animations led to the launch of a thousand GIFs and memes. It was a bad look for a game that relied so heavily on digital acting to carry its characters and story.
A breaking report from Kotaku revealed the Andromeda’s troubled development history, which helps to account for many of its problems. And while several patches have brought facial animations up to par, sales of the game were effectively torpedoed. Andromeda ended up being such a disappointment that DLC plans have been canceled and the Montreal branch of Bioware that made it has been downsized.
1. Star Wars Battlefront II
Star Wars Battlefront II was supposed to be the chosen one: No more season passes, more maps, more modes and more characters and a single-player story mode. Everything looked good until the open beta when players realized Battlefront II would be a microtransaction super weapon, with an obfuscating progression system that encouraged you to spend lots of money.
The backlash was so intense publisher EA suspended all real money transactions, and now governments are threatening to regulate loot boxes in similar games like Overwatch and Destiny 2. Disney has reportedly stepped into micromanage the controversy as well. Battlefront II was such a profound disappointment, it shit the bed not just for microtransactions, but for Star Wars games as well.
What was the most disappointing to you? Tell us about it below!
