2021 is considered one of the worst years for the gaming industry. The projects came out one worse than the other. Sometimes, the developers are intentionally fighting for a place in the Failures Museum. But we shouldn't be in despair. Nevertheless, some of the few titles were released. We'll tell you about them but in another top list. Now, we will share the five "jewels" of 2021, which are the worst of the worst. We've been waiting for projects, but unfortunately, they've been released. The top-5 list of the worst games is opened by the least disappointing project of the year.
BIOMUTANT
A kung fu RPG in a post-apocalyptic world sounds strange, bright, and intriguing. The furry action game has been in development for six years. The first announcements from Experiment 101 seemed so tempting that audiences agreed to wait with patience. That is why we were waiting...
Biomutant experienced freezing periods, several reschedules, and script changes. According to the plot, another environmental disaster finally wiped out humanity. The Earth became populated by mutant animals. They became erect-walking, wore armor, and took arms in their paws.
In the center of the plot, there is a small animal with amnesia. He will have to save the sacred relic of the animal world, stop the civil war, and regain his memory. Therefore, the user will have to master time management along with the combat system. The overloaded plot will overwhelm the player from the first minutes of switching on.
The biggest part of the story is revealed through the voice-over narration. Combined with the fantasy nature of the lore and vivid character designs, it is possible to perceive the game as an unusual fairy tale. The world of Biomutant seems bright and fascinating from the very start of the game. But already in the first ten minutes of the game, it becomes clear that appearances are deceptive.
The inside of Biomutant is completely static. There is nothing random in the predictable universe. The same inhabitants of the forest wait in the same places. Trophies also lie under the same rocks. To acquire a new resource, all you have to do is repeat the route you have already taken, with no suspense, no random perks, and vivid emotions.
The weapons crafting is among the game's pluses, which is worth mentioning. The guns are assembled with the help of stones and sticks. But the users will face restrictions on the loot usage too. Many resources for some unknown reason are available after reaching a certain level. Weapons improvements should be paid for as well. Fortunately, the resources in Biomutant are scattered everywhere.
The roleplay component of the game is reduced to a minimum. The user can choose which of the fighting parties to join. The freedom of action ends here. Then, the game turns into a typical slasher with poor animation. Opponents meet the hero's attacks lazily. Moreover, the spectacular combos with twenty moves do not have the desired effect.
Because of that, the vitality of the enemies was affected too. The vitality of your opponents turns exciting battles into a monotonous slaughter. You don't need to worry about the main character either. All of his problems could be successfully resolved with firearms.
As a result, the game received mixed reviews. It is impossible to ignore the bright, colorful visuals of Biomutant. But there is no interesting content under the beautiful cover. The claimed roleplay does not work in reality.
The monotonous combat, boring voice-overs, and an underdeveloped world became a total disappointment. Cute drawing is quickly replaced by failing textures and bugs. Moreover, the most disappointing thing is the price which equals forty-seven USD.
Biomutant could have been buried and forgotten, but people waited for them for several years. The developers had enough time to develop a worthy project during the six years. The devoted fan community gave the studio the necessary support. Why did the final product come out so depressing and empty? This question is rhetorical. Biomutant is not recommended for purchase at all.
Evil Inside
If the game could be described as a meme, the Evil Inside would be a "can I copy your homework?" "Yeah, just change it up a bit, so it doesn't look obvious you copied". The developers didn't manage to copy without being caught. This year in spring, JanduSoft released a horror game that was painfully similar to Kojima's P.T. An empty room, a half-dark corridor, a father who is a killer, and the spirit of his mother... This description equally fits P.T. and Evil Inside.
An orphan boy named Mark is in the center of the plot of the JanduSoft game. His mother is murdered, and his father is in jail as a suspect. The teenager decides to contact his mother with the help of the Ouija board. But the artefact suddenly splits into pieces, and ghosts invade the real world. The player must put the board pieces together to restore what happened. The pieces are hidden in different parts of the house.
This is where the hour-long journey through the corridor begins. The gameplay, without exaggeration, lasts only sixty minutes. The story only gets more confusing during that time, with no clues, no answers, and no unexpected plot twists. You are just wandering around and collecting pieces of the Ouija board.
There are no opponents in the game. The quality soundtrack and gloomy design create a tense atmosphere. The old-fashioned screamers are popping up a few times on the screen. But fairly quickly, they no longer frighten the sophisticated audience. The scaring faces cause only vicarious embarrassment. Aside from the cool graphics, Evil Inside has nothing to show.
JanduSoft just released a one hour demo instead of a full game. The product did not even justify the low price of 4 USD. Some of the users encountered more serious problems. The game does not respond to either the mouse or the joystick. The bright, atmospheric trailer hid the most trivial scare game. The developers get a huge dislike for that.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Earthblood
From the very beginning, the project's authors bet on emotional content and old-school style. The plot gathered all the old-fashioned clichés: the lone wolf, the young lady waiting for a handsome rescuer, and exaggerated mythology. Garou's werewolves protect the goddess Gaia from enemies. Many pseudo epic definitions are injected into the narrative: the Black Spiral Dancer, the War of Wrath, and many others. At the end of 2021, such an attitude brings an ironic smile only. The smile fades when it becomes clear that the game has only a title from the mythology.
You can't expect a detailed story in Werewolf. Lore is presented in fragments, and the desire to explore the characters' background does not even arise. In the center of the narrative, there is a particular environmental agenda. A werewolf with the nickname Cahal fights the power company that sold the workers' souls to the Serpent of Destruction. It even sounds comical. It turns out to be even worse than it might seem. It is funny to look at the dialogue between the tattooed, pelt-wearing hero and the businessman in the suit. But as soon as the laughter stops, it gets really sad.
The grotesque plot got the most boring realization possible. The conditionally open world turned out to be empty. All side quests are done as if they are just copied from one another. Even the transformation into a furious wolf does not save the narrative.
Initially, jumping around the rooms and tearing up enemies' throats is fun for players. But all the fights follow the same algorithm. After some time, it becomes boring to see the same.
The enemies in Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood are miserable consumables. They will timidly watch as their teammates are slaughtered and wait for their turn. The snipers are an exception as they have enough intellect to escape. But that is not always the case.
The main diagnosis of the game is complete boredom. Nothing in the game is polished to perfection. Interesting characters and scenery appear only during the important moments of the plot. You can forget about the destructibility of the environment, as well as about the spectacular combats. Killed enemies fall to the ground, unharmed, like tin soldiers. Logic also decided to leave the room. A huge wolf can go through the spots where no man can get through. Somehow Cahal's hands are stronger than Garou's clawed paws.
The lore turns to be grotesque instead of mythological pathos because of the complete absence of the same development. The monotonous environment, enemies in suits and warrior spirits, are mediocre and boring. The old-school orientation could have played well against the cyberpunk universes. But a bad idea with a bad execution breeds only a disgusting and boring game.
eFootball 2022
There are many ways to make history. It can be even more difficult to embarrass yourself than to produce a quality project. To become the worst of the worst, you have to try harder. Especially considering how many bad games come out every month. Konami did their best to break every Steam anti-record.
The official eFootball 2022 website should have been a screaming warning as well. The monstrous blue writings on the grotesque yellow background destroy your brain in a split of a second. Only a crazy maniac would want to turn on the game with such a design.
But then it gets worse. Over 90% of the negative reviews on Steam confirm that. You will cry with tears immediately after the launch of the game. The graphics of the soccer simulator are so miserable that the screenshots immediately became memes. It seems like the crowd of fans was pulled through a meat grinder. The situation is a little better with the players. Their faces are animated so badly as if demons are leaving the athletes.
There are plenty of examples in history where weak graphics are compensated for by powerful content. But eFootball 2022 failed here as well. There is a very small amount of content there. To be more precise, the gameplay has only a single mode which is a friendly match. You can play it in multiplayer mode against a live opponent or alone with the AI. The competition includes several tournaments. Do not expect to win. Almost always, the game crashes. The conditional reason is the "bad connection with the opponent's service" error. It occurs regularly. Because of that, there are doubts about whether the connection is real...
There is no training mode in the game either. There is only an introductory movie with a list of hotkeys. We should mention the cost if we try to find any advantages of eFootball 2022. This FIFA parody is distributed for free. You can laugh with your friends once because of the disgusting animation. The project is not worth more. Konami apologized to gamers and promised to fix the bugs with a big patch. The update was postponed several times already. The nearest possible date of release is next spring.
But who will wait for such a bad game to be fixed? It's easier to forget eFootball 2022 like a nightmare and pretend we didn't notice anything.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition
How could the top failures of the year be without the phenomenal trilogy from Rockstar? The release was so miserable that the developers still had to apologize to the fans. The studio is distributing the game for free to seek forgiveness. But the Internet doesn't forget anything. We remember the sensation that GTA The Trilogy caused upon release. A sensation in the worst sense of the word.
The remastered version appeared in the majority of the anti-top 2021 lists, including Metacritic. It's hard to choose where to start listing the collection's disadvantages. There are so many bugs in the game that you can make an hour-long video. The corresponding video has been posted on the catlarious Youtube channel. Unfortunately, at the moment, the video was removed.
Developers' mistakes do not just affect the game's visuals. The remastered version looks disgusting. But the worst thing is that you cannot finish the game at all. In some missions, Vice City crashes without saving. Unpleasant gift for fifty-four USD.
As a result, most bugs had to be fixed by enthusiastic gamers. Rockstar began to hustle and produced patches too. They came up with the idea of removing the rain in the rooms and turning on the cinematic camera module.
It seems like the trilogy was released solely for the sake of memes. Some of the bugs were funny. One of them is the destructibility of the environment in San Andreas. By getting on his bike, CJ gains superpowers. For some unknown reason, he gains the power to ram the walls.
The big corporations cannot forgive the things that frustrate us in indie games. Rockstar stabbed the entire fanbase. The disgusting GTA The Trilogy gets first place in the top of the worst games of 2021.
The biggest disappointments of the passing year will stay in the public's memory for a long time. There's nothing more frustrating than watching a potentially good title perish. When a huge, world-renowned company fails, the frustration turns into rage. The titles in this top deserve to be branded as shameful. They are to be remembered as the worst releases of 2021.
