As the world is slowly transitioning towards the brand-new PlayStation 5, it doesn’t mean PlayStation 4 will simply be forgotten into the dust. Especially in its last year as Sony’s main system, the console had the pleasure of many great exclusive releases, such as The Last Of Us Part II, and will therefore always remain iconic.
That being said, 2020 wasn’t all dancing on roses for PlayStation 4 releases. Some of the games really did end up scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to ratings, and their quality often speaks for them. Here’s what the worst of the worst for this already crazy year look like, ranked by their Metascores.
Disclaimer: Only games that received enough reviews to appear on Metacritic’s PlayStation 4 2020 releases page will be considered.
10 Rugby 20 – 49
Rugby 20 showcases perfectly some of the main issues with long-standing sports game franchises like FIFA. The games, which are released yearly with only minimal changes to the actual content, tend to end up as simple ways to cash out more money from players wanting to have the latest version.
Rugby 20 isn’t all bad, however. It’s still a fairly decent game for any big fans of the sport, despite being a bit clunky and predictable. The number of bugs and issues this game has definitely left fans with a sense of frustration rather than serious enjoyment.
9 Element Space – 48
Playing on the nostalgia factor is a risky choice that can easily fail. That’s exactly why Element Space is so incredibly bad. It tries to deliver something akin to a Mass Effect-style sci-fi space RPG but misses the mark almost completely. With elements of strategic turn-based combat popularized by Baldur’s Gate and XCOM, Element Space fails to deliver anything worthwhile.
Some of the main complaints pertain to the actual gameplay, which is full of issues. It’s a great example of why a game needs to be polished well before its release so that it doesn’t totally crash at launch like Element Space.
8 Arc Of Alchemist – 46
Fans of JRPGs looking for a new title to get absorbed into should avoid Arc of Alchemist at all cost. It’s another game that didn’t receive the love and care it probably needed to become a noteworthy title. Instead, it was rushed and ended up as a surface-level, boring experience.
The main issues in the game are in how absolutely predictable the story and all of its features are. Arc of Alchemist lacks any surprises. And yet, the full game takes about ten hours to play through, which sounds like an agonizingly long time to be stuck with these overly tropey characters.
7 XIII (Remake) – 44
The main job of remakes is to bring back games that have long outlived their initial time by giving them a fresh coat of paint. However, with XIII (Remake), it seems to do the complete opposite. For a remake, it does an incredibly poor job at restoring glory to an iconic original game.
XIII is the classic tale of a gunslinger waking up with no memory, having to discover the truth about himself, and the assassination of no one else by the President of the United States. That being said, the controls and lack of quality in game design made this game a huge disappointment. For an FPS, the controls have to be especially on point to deliver a smooth experience, but due to the number of bugs it has, XIII isn’t an enjoyable experience at any point.
6 Remothered: Broken Porcelain – 44
Anyone who enjoys classic survival horror stories in the vein of Clock Tower will surely see the potential that this game series holds. While its predecessor, Remothered: Tormented Fathers, scored decently well, Remothered: Broken Porcelain has received some criticism for not being as solid of an experience.
The story of Remothered: Broken Porcelain focuses on Ashman Inn and the main character, Jennifer, who attempts to escape from the place. Through stealth, solving puzzles, and evading her enemies with jukes and hiding, Jennifer tries to survive while uncovering the truth. Although the story is fine, the game was released in a state that could be classified as unpolished. Moreover, the actual stealth and evasion gameplay is clunky, which is a shame given it’s the main attraction of the title.
5 Spuds Unearthed – 43
The problem with a game like Spuds Unearthed is probably the fact that it should have been a mobile game rather than a full-on PlayStation 4 title. The concept of creating a Spud tribe and watching them survive and grow on a planet sounds fun at first, but it ends up being incredibly basic.
Although the concept of the game is simple enough to understand, the controls and user interface are a bit too complex and clunky. Gameplay just isn’t fluid or rewarding, which is why few would want to spend longer than an hour on this title.
4 Street Power Soccer – 41
Nostalgia can be a great selling point, but it usually means an attractive retro game and not something embarrassingly last season. The latter definitely describes the appearance of Street Power Soccer, which looks like it should have been released in 2010.
The visuals aside, the gameplay tends to be pretty repetitive, despite introducing some cool tricks the player can pull off. The content isn’t there either, and the game gets rather boring, especially after co-op modes have been explored.
3 Tamarin – 40
Tamarin is yet another attempt at cashing in on nostalgia’s charm. Sadly, it’s nostalgic in all of the wrong ways. The graphics look horrible, and the controls are so stiff that it feels like a chore to play this game.
The point of Tamarin is to play as this cute monkey in a platforming adventure to explore and hopefully save the game’s world. That is, if the gameplay doesn’t put someone to sleep within the first thirty minutes after launching the game.
2 Fast & Furious Crossroads – 35
To make an excellent racing game, the driving mechanic needs to be absolutely flawless. After all, it’s the main selling point of such games; unfortunately, this is the biggest flaw in Fast & Furious Crossroads. The graphics are also important, but in this game, they really do look at least a decade old.
The actual driving isn’t a smooth experience at all, and to make matters worse, the story is extremely short and unenjoyable. For a game that dares to put Fast & Furious in its title, it delivers nothing that can be described as either “fast” or “furious.”
1 Dawn Of Fear – 33
Dawn of Fear was once hyped as the brand-new major survival horror title, but it died a quick death at the hands of critics. The game sought to create an old school survival horror experience, but it delivered a sloppy end product instead.
At the end of the day, this game ends up looking like a cheaply made copy of the first Resident Evil. Even the plot resembles the first one, with a young man returning to a house that is now overrun with horrors and in which he must survive by not wasting his ammo and solving various puzzles. Dawn of Fear just ends up being an insult to the survival horror genre.
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