How these games even pass a playtest is beyond comprehension. Supposedly forms of art, some games out there are simply just fruit duct-taped to a wall. From horrendous gameplay, bugs and glitches, to cringe-worthy acting, these games define the essence of ‘rip-off.’
However, to award, or in this case, lambaste the absolute ‘Worst Game Ever’ would be difficult. Every bad game is horrible in its own way. With that being said, here are the worst-rated games by Metacritic for each major category of gaming.
10 Action | Orc Slayer (Metascore: 15; User Score: 2.1)
Orc Slayer is a poorly designed slasher game where players, as the name suggests, slay orcs. For a fantasy cartoon-style shooter, the game lacks personality. The special effects such as blood, smoke, and fire are unconvincingly rendered, the sound orcs make when killed are repetitive, resulting in killing a horde sounding like Chewbacca, and the gameplay is very bland. There’s nothing to do except mindlessly slaying orcs in repetitive levels. Seeing that this is the only thing to do, Orc Slayer could’ve made it more varied and challenging. On top of that, the game is poorly optimized with framerate drops, along with some bugs and glitches.
9 Adventure | The Letter (Metascore: 14; User Score: 1.9)
Not the horror game developed by Philippine developer Yangyang in 2017. That one was great. The other horror game bearing the name ‘The Letter‘ is by Treefall Studios and was developed in 2014. That one, on the other hand, was bad. A game that prides itself as a “horror adventure” falls short and ends up as a walking simulator in the dark instead. The player tries to find clues about the death of the protagonist’s father. With nothing more than a flashlight, all players do is walk around a dimly-lit environment, interacting with items of interest. There is no interesting story to uncover, no suspense, and no scares.
8 Open-World | Raven’s Cry (Metascore: 27; User Score: 3.3)
Raven’s Cry is a cluster of bugs with a game thrown somewhere in there. The story is non-existent, the voice acting is horrendous, and the combat is pretty generic. That’s not to say Raven’s Cry doesn’t have its uses.
There are a few gameplay videos where players are having the time of their life, not because the gameplay is fun, but because the glitches, the motion-capture, and the acting in the game is amusingly bad that it creates hilarious gaming content. Raven’s Cry is the result of taking Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag’s setting, and mixing it together with all sorts of bugs.
7 Family | Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade (Metascore: 11; User Score: 1.9)
Fun for the family? Not with this game. The whole game contains 30 mini-games bearing an overly simplistic nature. Lock-picking in Fallout 4 is better than any single game in this collection. They’re non-competitive and are incredibly bland. Just like pressing a bunch of buttons on queue. Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade has a colorful style that even mom would approve of, but don’t expect much from the gameplay. Adding to this, a name like that is not a household phrase like Overcooked or Super Mario.
6 Fighting | Fighter Within (Metascore: 23; User Score: 2.8)
2013’s Fighter Within is a graphically optimized game for its time. Unfortunately, it seems as though graphics is the only thing this game can boast. Fighter Within is the best example of why motion capture controls like that of Just Dance and Wii Sports are so hard to implement into a fighting game. For one, navigating the menus of Fighter Within is already a battle in itself. Once the actual matches start, players are greeted with the most basic-looking attacks ever in a fighting game. When players perform combos, they trigger an engine-generated flurry of attacks that in no way, the players feel in control of. Though the idea of a motion-controlled fighting game is interesting, the Fighter Within was just too ambitious.
5 Multiplayer | Infestation: Survivor Stories (Metascore: 20; User Score: 1.7)
Released in 2012, the formerly known The War Z is just another post-apocalyptic zombie survival game. The game has an open-world mode, a survival mode, a competitive team v team mode, and even a battle royale. However, it takes everything from DayZ that was bad and made it worse. Bugs and glitches are everywhere, graphics are dated, and the gameplay is subpar.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the developers seem to have an extreme disconnect with their community; as some Steam users reported players being banned at random, and some critical reviews being removed by the developers.
4 Role-Playing | Realms Of Arkania: Blade Of Destiny Revised (Metascore: 18; User Score: 3)
The game looks like one of those mobile ads for RPG games that turn out to be huge let downs. Except, this game is made for the PC platform. Though the 1992 original was okay, the remake is just bad. For one, Realms of Arkania is extremely unintuitive. A graphic novel has better engagement than this game. The user interface feels like an airplane cockpit, and text is used to contextualize everything. Though this is reminiscent of old-school RPG games, you’d expect with ‘Revised’ in the title, it would at least try to adhere to 2013’s standards. In addition, the world of Realms of Arkania feels like one big set-piece. There is very little interaction in the world, and the only thing it’s good for is walking around in.
3 Sports | Elf Bowling 1 & 2 (Metascore: 12; User Score 2.6)
They’re not two separate games in one package. The game’s literal name is ‘Elf Bowling 1 & 2.’ Released in 2005 for the Nintendo DS, this bowling game features Santa decimating his elves in a series of lifestyle sports. For a bowling game, however, it has no 3D physics engine whatsoever. Players just roll a ball down the lane and are greeted with a predetermined animation for whatever direction they roll in. This makes the game very bland and uninteresting, offering zero replay value. This 2D game also features a shuffleboard mode that offers no collision mechanics at all. It’s no surprise that even for its time, Elf Bowling 1 & 2 is the worst sports game ever.
2 Racing | Ride To Hell: Retribution (Metascore: 16; User Score: 1.3)
This story about bikers is one of the most cringe-worthy things ever published. The developers have indeed ridden this game all the way to hell. Ride To Hell: Retribution has one of the most frustrating mechanics in a racing game. What’s supposed to be a high-octane adrenaline rush of a game possesses the sloppiest quick-time fight scenes ever, along with some unintuitive controls. For a game centered around ruthless chaos, everything feels janky and awkward from the gameplay to the cutscenes with atrocious voice acting.
This leaves a bad story to be tainted even more by a complete lack of engagement with the player. Graphics-wise, it’s also not that good for a game in 2013. However, despite all this, there is some fun in watching the cutscenes play out awkwardly.
1 Strategy | Citadels (Metascore: 20; User Score: 1.2)
There are some games just better off as board games. At first glance, Citadels seems like a fully functioning game that belongs with the likes of Age Of Empires. However, underneath these pretty 2013 graphics are a lot of bugs that make skirmishes almost impossible. Even basic mechanics such as gathering units and having them walk to an area is a chore. As a strategy game, if players find trouble even with harvesting resources or placing troops in vantage points, then that’s a huge blow to the output. Citadels has such huge potential. Unfortunately, as close as it gets, it’s still miles away from being a decent game.
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