The 10 Most Disappointing Video Games Of 2022
“Trek to Yomi” (2022)
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If you’ve been wanting more games set in the era of feudal Japan, well, there is certainly no shortage of them at the time of this video. Unfortunately, “Trek to Yomi” is one of those rarities where we would have preferred playing anything else. Sure, it has a solid art style, but that only takes you so far. The narrative is uninspiring, the combat presents nothing we haven’t already seen before, and the exploration doesn’t make finding hidden items feel as exciting as it could. It might be fine to play in short bursts, but we didn’t feel all that compelled to keep going after the first hour.
“Nintendo Switch Sports” (2022)
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In the era of live service games, even Nintendo has been ensnared in the habit of launching half-baked games and adding in a few extra goodies later. Either that or abandoning the games entirely. Case in point, “Nintendo Switch Sports”, a long-awaited successor of the era of “Wii Sports”. Unlike its predecessor, “Nintendo Switch Sports” does not fully embrace the wide world of sports due to its incomplete collection. Considering how many sports were included in previous titles like “Wii Sports Resort” (not including the handfuls of modes featured in each sport), why do we only have six to choose from? Don’t get us wrong - the game is still fun to play with friends. However, we feel more could have been added in here. If you still have a working Wii, well, there’s not much reason to play this over “Wii Sports”.
“Dying Light 2: Stay Human” (2022)
This one hurt to see. With February shaping up to be such a banger of a month for games, “Dying Light 2” was set to shatter expectations with its refined controls and expansion on the first game’s parkour and combat. Well, the only thing that shattered was our dreams. Basically, developer Techland repeated the same mistakes it faced with the first “Dying Light” when that launched in 2014. Yes, there was a fleshed out game, but it was difficult to see with all of the horrendous technical problems plaguing AI, missions, and overall performance. At the time of this video, the game is still considered “unsafe to play” by various players, and with the game almost being a year old, that’s simply unacceptable.
“New Tales from the Borderlands” (2022)
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When Gearbox announced it was continuing “Tales from the Borderlands” with their own team, there was much reason to be alarmed. Gearbox isn’t exactly known for games outside of shooters and RPGs, let alone games with compelling stories (“Borderlands 2” being their best outing, of course). Lo and behold, “New Tales from the Borderlands” is a cringe-fest of quips and clumsy writing, lacking any of the emotional weight and stakes of the first game. Nothing feels thought out here, and the focus on laughs-per-minute makes the experience painful. Perhaps if you’re a die-hard “Borderlands” fan, you’ll enjoy this. Just don’t expect the same level of quality as the original work from the late Telltale Games.
“Ghostwire: Tokyo” (2022)
While Tango Gameworks would find some success with the “Evil Within” games, it has yet to produce a blowout title to attach its name to. We had a feeling “Ghostwire: Tokyo” would be the one, yet it delivered an experience that felt tired. We aren’t even talking about the open world format either. “Ghostwire: Tokyo” had some expert talent behind it, one key developer being the combat director of the 2016 reboot of “DOOM”. Sadly, the combat here doesn’t evolve past mindlessly firing at enemies until their cores are exposed. To make things more monotonous, the game is littered with collectibles all over the map, which makes it feel far more bloated than it should have been. You’ll probably get a kick out of the story, but as far as completing the entire game, there are other titles more respectful of your time.
“The Quarry” (2022)
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Now, we’ll admit we jumped the gun on this one. We had actually named this one of the best horror games of 2022 so far and even one of the best games of the year back in July. So, why the change of heart? Well, upon experiencing the game a second time, it was much more rough than we remembered. “The Quarry” takes ages to get you to the horror, making the story feel like a real slog to sit through. The dialogue, on the other hand, holy crap - who talks like this!? Who was this written for?? It is such a shame that Supermassive Games continues to squander its potential in its post “Until Dawn” years, and if we’re going to keep seeing games like “The Quarry”, we fear for the studio’s future. We can’t even confidently say this is one of those “so bad it's good” games either.
“Mario Strikers: Battle League” (2022)
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We promise we aren’t here to pummel Nintendo. They really had a solid year with games like “Pokemon Legends: Arceus”, “Kirby and the Forgotten Land”, and “Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes”. But if they were going to bring back “Mario Strikers”, why not go all out? “Mario Strikers: Battle League” fell to the same issue as “Nintendo Switch Sports”; there just wasn’t enough content to justify the price tag. None of the extra modes from the previous games are present, the gear barely changes any stats in your character, and single-player content is virtually non-existent. Plus, only ten playable characters? We know four have been added since launch, but these all should have been there from the start.
“Overwatch 2” (2022)
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One of the biggest mysteries of 2022 will be “Why did we need an ‘Overwatch 2’?” Really, why did we? Was it just to force the whole playerbase to move over and have them give Blizzard their phone numbers? Was there a shift in game engines to keep things operable? Was there a plethora of new content that would have broken the original “Overwatch”? Was it because there was too much personality with its font, UI, and character design, and we couldn’t allow that to continue? What reason could there possibly be in scrapping an entire game just to repackage it and act as if it was a whole new thing? Money. Money was the reason. Just look at the Battle Pass and the in-game shop.
“The Last of Us: Part I” (2022)
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Speaking of things done only for the sake of money, the supposed remake of “The Last of Us” felt especially egregious. Sure, we can all say, “oh, but it was built from the ground up”. Was it, though? Was it worth spending all that cash and all those resources to “rebuild” a game that already played great on PS4 with its remaster? What was wrong with leaving well enough alone and making a PS5 update for the remaster? This was just a seventy-dollar cash grab that will forever be marred with the question of, “What other opportunities could have been chosen over this? How necessary was this really to have Naughty Dog do this over anything else?” Sure, “The Last of Us” is still great here, but it was also great on PS3, even better on PS4. Why was this a thing?
“Gotham Knights” (2022)
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This is honestly the biggest disappointment of the year. There weren’t a lot of hopes riding on “Gotham Knights” to begin with, but there was a tiny voice in the back of our heads saying, “Maybe it will turn out better than we think.” True, a tiny voice. True. But it didn’t. Even though it doesn’t have the hundreds of ridiculous Riddler trophies like the “Arkham” games did, “Gotham Knights” still litters its world with a bunch of meaningless collectibles. Combat, on the other hand, is…it’s okay, but nothing super satisfying. But what really kills it for us is the story and writing. There is not an ounce of character development, none of the heroes seem to have a single clue what’s going on and lack any competence in their own detective skills, and what in the hell is the enemy dialogue supposed to be? If there were two quotes to summarize “Gotham Knights”, it’s “I’m the professor of burning stuff” and “Die, fire alarm. Die. Die Die.”
