10 Most Disappointing Video Games of The Decade (So Far)

Top 10 Disappointing Video Games of the Decade So Far

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks of the top 10 most disappointing video games to have launched since 2020.

#10: “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” (2024)

No one truly had much hope for “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League”, but there was a small bit of hope in our hearts. This was a new game from Rocksteady, the groundbreaking studio that showed how to properly approach licensed games with the “Batman: Arkham” series. Perhaps they had something to revolutionize the live service market? Nope. While “Suicide Squad” does have some exceptional gunplay and controls, the level design and mission structure create an annoying and repetitive experience, particularly the ones that restrict you to one method in damaging enemies. Good ideas are here, but when they’re muddled this badly with awful restrictions, how do you expect players to have any amount of fun?

#9: “Skull and Bones” (2024)

At one point, “Skull and Bones” did look like a worthy competitor to Microsoft and Rare’s own pirate-themed live service game, “Sea of Thieves”. But that was back when Ubisoft revealed it in 2018. Then, the delays started coming. And they didn’t stop coming. “Skull and Bones” spent a tumultuous decade in development before it finally launched in February 2024, and what did we get? An open world with survival and crafting mechanics where our ships had stamina bars. The combat is fun for about five minutes, and then, it's nothing but open world fatigue from there. Go talk to this captain, go to this location, go blow up this one ship, go collect twenty pieces of wood to craft a hat. There is simply nothing here that justified our seventy bucks, and it certainly didn’t justify a decade of development hell.

#8: “Lego 2K Drive” (2023)

LEGO and racing go hand in hand like peanut butter and honey; it’s a delicious snack of a sandwich that can be enjoyable but is not ideal to eat if you want a full meal or stay awake for the rest of the day. “Lego 2K Drive” had the potential to be on par with “Forza Horizon” or “The Crew”. Thing is that it doesn’t do much with the LEGO IP outside of visuals. Sure, you can build your own vehicles, and you can plow through the destructible environments. But that’s kind of it. The missions don’t do anything interesting either; it’s your run-of-the-mill grand prixs, time trials, collectathons, and what have you. And that’s all without mentioning the awful monetization for season passes and currency.

#7: “Battletoads” (2020)

Microsoft knows they’re sitting on a bed of beloved Rare IP, but after the failure of “Battletoads”, we have to wonder what’s going on with Xbox. To its credit, “Battletoads” does match the look and feel of what the original games were going for. So, what’s the problem? Well, it doesn’t take any cues from modern beat ‘em ups. None of your attacks pack enough “oomph” to feel satisfying to pull off, and the game simply wasn’t difficult enough to live up to the “Battletoads” name. It's one thing to make a game accessible to younger or inexperienced players. It’s another to just make it so comically easy that it’s boring to play.

#6: “Gotham Knights” (2022)

With “Batman: Arkham Origins” being the last game they developed, many were wondering what WB Games Montreal was capable of. “Gotham Knights” sounded like a good direction for the studio. Learn what Rocksteady did, get started on a successor to the “Arkham” games, make it a live service online co-op game–no, no, NO! This was nothing like what we wanted from a new “Batman” game! Grinding for a currency of “evidence” to unlock story missions? Mindless melee combat that doesn’t make any of the four playable characters feel different? And why are Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood all so stupid in tracking down villains? And don’t even get us started on some of the awful writing we had to suffer through.

#5: “Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II” (2024)

Back in 2017, the first “Hellblade” game was a solid outing from Ninja Theory. The combat could have used some tweaking, but the puzzles, visuals, story, enemy variety, and sound design were top-notch. Fast-forward seven years later for the sequel, and just what in the heck happened? “Hellblade II” is a step backwards in how every combat encounter feels the same, while most of the game is spent pushing forward on super linear paths. Sure, the game looks great, but graphics only take you so far when the player gets such little interaction with the world. In other words, “Hellblade II” is a prime example of the phrase, “All that glitters is not gold.” Seriously, five years of development? Five years!?

#4: “Atomic Heart” (2023)

“Atomic Heart” was one of 2023’s biggest ball drops. Here we had a game that was clearly inspired by games like “System Shock” and “BioShock” and presented the topic of robots overthrowing the human race. Sadly, it missed the mark in understanding what made its inspirations so great. “System Shock” and “BioShock” weren’t just loved for their aesthetics. They had something interesting to say through their worlds. “Atomic Heart” simply wound up becoming Narcissus, admiring its own aesthetic so much that it forgot to do anything else to survive in a super competitive market. And thus, it died as quickly as it arrived. Perhaps we’d be singing a different tune if there was more refinement in the combat and less focus on running around rummaging through cabinets for stuff.

#3: “Redfall” (2023)

While many groaned over another AAA studio making yet another online co-op game, “Redfall” did have something to catch eyes: vampires and kickass powers. But the more Xbox showed off Arkane Austin’s new toy, the worse it looked, and it got even worse than that at launch. “Redfall” was released with a myriad of bugs ranging from AI failing to properly detect players to parts of the environment not even loading in. It wasn’t awful enough to render it unplayable, but it was abysmal enough for the game to be the butt of so many jokes, especially jabs made at Xbox. Arkane Austin would be one of four studios Xbox would shut down in May 2024. “Redfall” got its final update shortly after, adding in offline support.

#2: “Overwatch 2” (2022)

“Overwatch 2” may have a playerbase today, but Blizzard burned many, many players just by developing it. The original “Overwatch” was already considered by many to be perfect the way it was. The only problem was Blizzard quitting on it after adding one final character in April 2020. So, if “Overwatch 2” is a necessary push forward, it’s gotta have new maps and game modes, right? Nope. It’s the exact same game save for teams consisting of five players instead of six, some character redesigns, and maps taking place at different times of the day than they did before. Cool, so in other words, we killed the original game just to move the light source, apply different filters, and take a player away from both teams. Makes sense.

#1: “Marvel’s Avengers” (2020)

Much like “Redfall”, “Avengers” looked worse and worse the more Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix showed the game. Unlike “Redfall”, the waft of “Avengers” was a lot more present in the months leading up to launch. All they had to do was make an exciting game starring Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, and whoever else they wanted to add in. What they gave us was a live service game with a horrible monetization scheme, a bland story, mundane combat, and a total lack of enemy variety. Throw in arbitrary RPG mechanics like “power levels” and gear, and what you were left with was a game that wanted more money from you for very little effort. Square Enix would eat a sixty-million-dollar loss from this game and would sell off Crystal Dynamics to Embracer Group in 2022. “Marvel’s Avengers” was marked down to five bucks several times after launch before getting delisted from digital storefronts in September 2023.

Which video game disappointed you the most? Let us know down in the comments!