Though 2024 was a quieter yr for main releases, it nonetheless had some improbable video games. However, on the opposite facet of the spectrum, it additionally had its share of stinkers. In fact, opinions are and at all times have been goal criticism and no matter chances are you’ll consider a recreation is your opinion. You will have even performed and loved among the video games on this record – all of us have responsible pleasures, proper? However truthfully, there have been some actually dangerous video games launched in 2024 that we undoubtedly advocate you keep away from…
5 – Mediocre
IGN’s official evaluation scale, all 5 are thought-about ‘Mediocre’ video games – “the type of bland, unremarkable video games we have largely forgotten concerning the day after we’re carried out enjoying them.” They’re removed from the worst video games on the record, they usually’re not essentially “dangerous” (that is 4s and underneath), however you will need to work exhausting to get any actual enjoyable out of them.
As the preferred outcome on this record, you’ll discover a wide range of completely different video games. There are video games like Slitterhead, an absurdist action-horror recreation from a crew of former Silent Hill veterans the place individuals should keep away from parasitic monsters. It sounds enjoyable, however sadly it is simply boring. Equally, Terminator: Darkish Destiny – Defiance takes the struggle in opposition to Skynet (nice!) and turns it right into a mediocre RTS (not so nice).
There was additionally a string of soppy technique video games like Millennia, which our reviewer referred to as “Civilization at house” after the McDonald’s at house meme; Sins of a Photo voltaic Empire 2, which is a weak sequel to the 2008 4x house recreation; and Homeworld: Huge Reaches. To not be confused with Homeworld 3, Huge Reaches is as an alternative a method recreation constructed for VR, however it feels extra like a tech demo than a full recreation.
There have been additionally some disappointments that obtained 5. Video games many people have been trying ahead to solely to be disenchanted by the ultimate product. The First Descendant is a great-looking direct-shooter that’s sadly extra seems than substance, and the Till Daybreak remake barely justified its existence over the superb choose-your-own-adventure horror recreation.
Developer Supermassive Video games had no higher luck with The Casting of Frank Stone, a Lifeless by Daylight spinoff primarily based round one of many killers from the favored on-line horror recreation. The sub-six hour horror journey is not scary and provides nothing to Lifeless by Daylight’s story in keeping with our reviewer.
Viral hit Bodycam – which captivated audiences due to a trailer with super-realistic graphics that appeared like footage from a police physique cam – was additionally extra hype than steak because the precise recreation was nowhere close to what we noticed within the trailer.
Maybe probably the most notable is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was additionally one of many first IGN releases of the yr. We waited practically a decade for a brand new recreation from Batman Arkham builders Rocksteady, and sadly the wait wasn’t price it. Lots of people have been already upset after they heard that Rocksteady wasn’t growing a brand new Batman recreation, however quite a Suicide Squad recreation, however that might have had potential given how enjoyable and loopy these characters are. It may need been Rocksteady’s probability to unfold its wings and transfer away from the darkish Arkham streak and onto a extra vibrant path. However in the long run what we bought was type of a disappointment, let’s be sincere.
Ditching the goodness of the single-player Batman video games, Rocksteady ventured into the live-action world with a squad-based heist through which gamers and mates crew up as members of the Suicide Squad like Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang , and King Shark. Sadly, there wasn’t sufficient of it to make Suicide Squad satisfying. The beloved fight from the Arkham video games was utterly absent, changing the crunchy brawls with run-fly-shoot gameplay that felt okay, nothing extra. Even sniper-shooter followers would discover the missions in Suicide Squad repetitive and bland. An unforgettable expertise from the embellished builders at Rocksteady.
One other massive miss was Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood. The most recent entry within the Mario & Luigi sequence developed particularly for the Nintendo Swap “misunderstands what made the Mario & Luigi sequence nice,” in keeping with IGN’s reviewer. The primary unique Mario RPG to be launched this yr alongside the remakes of Tremendous Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door, Brotherhood has none of their appeal and lots of flaws, equivalent to “ridiculous chatty dialogue, extreme hand-holding and boring, filling-in-the-working-time-loading quests.” Boomer.
Rounding out the remainder of the 5 is Check Drive Limitless Photo voltaic Crown, whose unique pioneered the idea of on-line MMO racing video games, however this sequel utterly ignores any single-player content material in favor of an annoying online-only technique. There’s additionally SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Sport, which tries to revive the basic mascot platformer to mediocre impact, whereas Unknown 9: Awakening was a “routine action-adventure recreation that in all probability will not blow me away even when was nicely executed. ,” in keeping with our evaluation And let’s not neglect Kong: Survivor Intuition, a unusual Metroidvania recreation the place you play as a human making an attempt to outlive in a metropolis that Kong it’s destroying
One recreation that was a private disappointment was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, a brand new recreation primarily based on the animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Given the standard of previous TMNT video games and the standard of the animated movie it is primarily based on, the ensuing recreation sadly fell far wanting both.
4 – Unhealthy
With the 5s out of the best way, let’s make our method to the actually dangerous video games. Actually, our evaluation scale qualifies video games that get a 4 as “dangerous”. There are solely three that obtained this distinction this yr, so let’s take our time going by way of every of them.
Damaged Roads was the primary recreation in 2024 to obtain a 4. This turn-based RPG set in post-apocalyptic Australia tried to supply a extra critical RPG expertise full with an formidable morality system the place gamers resolve who lives and who dies. . As an alternative of selecting one of many normal ethical alignments like Lawful Good or Impartial Evil, Damaged Roads offers gamers a full questionnaire that determines your beliefs in very particular methods. However the issue is that exterior of the questionnaire, the system hardly issues.
In response to our evaluation, “There are only a few conversations that contain an ethical selection within the first place, and also you’re locked out of virtually all different conversations as soon as you have began on a sure growth path, leaving no alternative to strive one thing utterly completely different later.”
As attention-grabbing as a really particular morality system is, what good is it if the sport would not use it in any means? Even worse, the extra you play, the earlier you understand that Damaged Roads is generally crammed with a bunch of foolish quests punctuated by tedious dialogue. No thanks.
One other recreation that obtained a 4 is Countless Ocean Luminous, a remake of the unique Countless Ocean first launched on the Nintendo Wii. It’s a scuba diving journey recreation through which every mission entails diving right into a procedurally generated space of the ocean to catalog its varied sea creatures and landmarks. Sadly, this all will get very repetitive in a short time and, frankly, boring.
The procedurally generated maps begin to look remarkably related to one another nearly instantly, and with out an enormous number of missions or targets, you are successfully shifting from one a part of the ocean to a different, cataloging creatures till you attain the objective yours and proceed to the subsequent map. Then you definitely repeat for hours. Our reviewer performed round 26 hours of the sport and nonetheless wasn’t near beating it – possibly that is why it is referred to as Infinite Ocean – and the underside line is that it was boring for many of that point.
The final recreation to get a 4 was the one you have little question seen the trailer for. I am speaking about Funko Fusion, an journey recreation the place you journey by way of some of popular culture’s largest films and TV reveals, besides you are enjoying as Funko Pops from these completely different worlds.
Funko Fusion is finest in comparison with the LEGO video games, that are easy however fulfilling 3D platformers primarily based on the favored bricks. However Funkos haven’t got the identical appeal as LEGO, and Funko Fusion is not nearly as good as even among the worst LEGO video games. The story is pointless, the mission design is repetitive, and you’ll’t ignore the game-breaking bugs that may cease your progress as an alternative.
Three – Horrible
The excellent news is that IGN did not give out any 2’s or 1’s this yr. The truth is, we’ve not given him a Sport 1 since 2009, however that is neither right here nor there. The dangerous information is that there are three video games that we have given a 3, which on our scale means they’re “Horrible.”
First up is Atomic Coronary heart’s Trapped in Limbo DLC. It’s the second of two Atomic Coronary heart DLCs and takes place after the occasions of the principle recreation, and is suffering from two wonderful gameplay mechanics.
The primary requires gamers to slip for actually lengthy durations of time, avoiding obstacles and leaping when required. Our reviewer described this explicit phase as “like enjoying Tony Hawk with a damaged ollie button and half the pipe is mined.”
The DLC then launched segments of first-person platforming, however sadly Atomic Coronary heart simply wasn’t designed for exact, first-person jumps, making them a painful slog to the tip that does not require loads of time contemplating how brief this DLC is.
Do you do not forget that there was a brand new South Park recreation this yr? Me neither, however possibly it is for one of the best. South Park: Snow Day is the third South Park recreation in a sequence that features Obsidian’s wonderful South Park: Stick of Reality and the equally wonderful South Park: The Fractured however Entire, each of which have been enjoyable RPG-based within the in style cartoon.
Snow Day abandons the RPG style and is as an alternative a 3D hack-and-slash, which would not be so problematic if it weren’t for the way awkward and clumsy the controls are. Even worse, Snow Day additionally ditches the one factor the animated sequence holds pricey: humor.
In response to our evaluation, South Park: Snow Day options “terribly flat writing (that) makes an already dangerous recreation not even price pushing for laughs.”
Our ultimate 3 of the yr goes to Empire of the Ants’ single participant marketing campaign. An actual-time technique recreation the place gamers management a colony of ants, this 12-hour journey sadly falls far wanting its potential.
Whereas the trailer featured hyper-realistic ants shifting in real-time, it is clear that much more time was spent on the look of it than the texture of the sport. With a problem curve that goes from simple to unimaginable within the blink of an eye fixed, the marketing campaign is an train in ache tolerance, as one second you get bored preventing simple enemies earlier than you immediately end up defending your nest in opposition to the seemingly unimaginable. wave of enemy ants. And with out the flexibility to save lots of mid-mission, failure means you are beginning over. No thanks.
And there you have got it – these are the worst reviewed video games of the yr in keeping with. Remember to take a look at our record of one of the best reviewed video games right here as a palette cleanser and tell us in case you’ve performed any of the video games on this record and the way you’re feeling about them.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Options Editor. You’ll be able to obtain it @lawoftd.
