Most Disappointing Game of 2019

VGChartz's Craig Snow: "Sometimes it's a case of genuine disappointment, other times it's a feeling of just schadenfreude, but each year there are several games that fail miserably to meet expectations. This year's shortlist is a fitting mix of the two. From Kojima's latest mega high profile release - and first project post-Konami - to Sumo Digital finally managing to push out Crackdown 3 (although whether they should have bothered at all was quickly brought into question). If you're only ever happy when it rains then this award is for you. Enjoy!"

[gangsta_red]

I'm one of the people that was actually excited for Anthem. It looked great when it was first shown off.

I didn't pick it up even when I said I would. And I'm glad I didn't.

Death Stranding on another disappointing list, has to be one of the most polarizing games of this gen.

Crackdown 3, yeah, I defended the tech and it turned out to be one of the most disappointing games to come out for Xbox. They definitely need a do over with that game.

[MasterCornholio]

"They definitely need a do over with that game."

And certainly don't let Sumo Digital make it.

[Babadook7]

Death stranding most disappointing? lol. Seems fishy. It’s also won the most game of the year awards.

[JackBNimble]

Death Stranding even made Jim Sterling's top 10 shittiest games of the year.
Angry Joe didn't even fall for the hype and rated it 7/10.

[mikeslemonade]

Sekiro is the most dissapointing game because it’s all about parrying and it’s not better than Bloodborne or DS3.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Jack - A 7 from Joe ain't bad, and Jim is an eclectic cat - I'll leave it at that.

But remember they are only opinions, not facts.

[Dragonscale]

@mikes, but you said action rpg's send you to sleep lol.

[MasterCornholio]

@Above

It seems like you are all replying to the wrong person.

LOL

[coolbeans]

-"I'm one of the people that was actually excited for Anthem. It looked great when it was first shown off."

Yeah, XBL friend convinced me to jump on that train early and our collective enthusiasm fizzled out at roughly the same time (~3-4 hours of play).

[DaDrunkenJester]

I still enjoyed CD3 for it basically being an updated version of the first game, but the cloud destruction being scaled back so much was a big disappointment.

[isarai]

Wasn't even as good as the first one

[Kribwalker]

yeah i had fun co-op’ing the campaign, the multiplayer was fun for the first dozen games then the lack of progression and maps and game modes really killed it.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

It still had cloud destruction? Either it was woeful in presentation and execution.

"Crackdown 3 is coming along nicely"

Straight from the forked tongue of Phil Spencer himself, he actually said that with a straight face.

[DaDrunkenJester]

@oldboy

Yes the MP still had the destruction, but it was scaled back a lot

[Godmars290]

"Crackdown 3, yeah, I defended the tech"

Because it actually use the tech it promoted?

[gangsta_red]

Because it was exciting to see something new in games that could potentially be used more.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Now being lied to is exciting - call'em out mate, they peddled that tech demo for years.

Building hype within their customer base, knowing full well they couldn't deliver.

[victorMaje]

I remember Anthem’s announcement trailer, it got me very excited & intrigued. My hype for this game was constantly growing as time went on.
Then I played the open beta, never bought the game.

[Kubark]

I followed Death Stranding for years. No matter how times people said "It's a walking simulator", I told myself there's more to it and that Kojima must be hiding something. Turns out they were right and I was engaging in wishful thinking.

[coolbeans]

Thank you! Your case is something I'm often reminding people of, because you certainly weren't the only one. Several prominent users here framed DS's previews as "Kojima keeping things so close to his chest" and went on to praise him.

[Godmars290]

"Because it was exciting to see something new in games that could potentially be used more."

Only it was too much. Was obviously too ambitious from a company known for showing off tech too early. Cloud tech wasn't going to be a key feature for CD3, CD3 was going to be a showcase game from cloud tech. Only the tech wasn't ready then, its still not ready, yet MS was showing off CD3 as if the tech was going to be ready to do what it needed to do on the original announced date CD3 was going to launch.

[CrimsonWing69]

Geezus Death Stranding isn’t a bad game...

[-Foxtrot]

It's not a "Bad Game" list though, it's a disappointing one

Disappointing games can still be good, however with hype or if someone big is attached to it people might have expectations that just don't get met when they finally play it. Some might just find it an average game, not amazing or terrible.

So yeah the list isn't saying it's a Bad Game.

[Fluttershy77]

Agree is not a list about bad games. That said... it is a bad game

[RememberThe357]

But how could anyone really be disappointed when we had no idea what the damn game was and the showed us exactly what we were getting before hand?

[averagejoe26]

It's one of my favorite game of all time and it received more perfect scores in 2019 than any other game released.

I wouldnt say that's disappointing for me or most critics.

@flutter

How does a bad game receive more perfect scores than every other game?

[-Foxtrot]

Jesus

People need to stop the whole “it got more perfect scores” etc

Metacritic and user scores aren’t the best.

I hate people trashing the game, no joke but I also hate people pretending it’s absolutely perfect

[Rachel_Alucard]

That just shows how terrible 2019 is for games if you have to break it down to a game got more perfect scores then the others, yet still reached the lower bottom of an 80 on Metacritic.

[DaDrunkenJester]

Not a bad game, just a really disappointing one.

[Ricegum]

You didn't play it though. And you've literally just said you enjoyed Crackdown. Noone will take your biased opinion seriously.

[generic-user-name]

It had a huge impact on you in 2019.

[DaDrunkenJester]

@rice

But I have played Death Stranding. And CD3 campaign was fun, I enjoyed CD1 as well and 3 was basically a prettier bigger version of that.

I wouldn't put it in any best of lists though for sure.

[DaDrunkenJester]

@generic

It did have a big impact on me. It made me realize that Kojima isnt perfect. I was hoping he would come back strong after the disappointing MGSV and kill it with DS, but dang this game was not for me. I would have rather played MGSV again...

[TheGamez100]

Right its not bad, its just disappointing because of how overly hyped the game was because of of the overly hyped Kojima.

[MadLad]

It's a Divisive game. Some love it. Some hate it. I'm sure there were many Kojima fans that it didn't click with, thus disappointment ensued. Doesn't have to be a bad game in order to not be your sort of experience.

[UltraNova]

I was sucked in Death Stranding, especially from chapter 3. The best story I've experienced in 2019. The gameplay was ok once I learned everything. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Kornholic]

I've played the game for 30 hours now and it's still as tedious and onerous as it was in the beginning. Am I still supposed to assume that the gameplay will magically get good and satisfying to play at some point?

[RememberThe357]

Sounds like you put 30 hours into a game you fundamentally don't like.

[DaDrunkenJester]

It doesn't get any better. It only gets slightly less annoying as you build and unlock better transportation.

[Knushwood Butt]

If you don't like it now that's not going to change unless some boss fights with weapons are all it takes, or using a vehicle to deliver instead of going on foot.

I'm currently about 165 hours in, player level 315.

[Kornholic]

The vehicles make the game even worse since the physics are ridiculous.

[bluefox755]

Game is awesome. What else can you say? This is obviously nonsense.

[timotim]

Which game are you referring to?

[SyntheticForm]

I wasn't disappointed in Crackdown 3 because it was exactly as I expected. I wasn't at all disappointed in Death Stranding - was pleasantly surprised.

I was quite disappointed in Days Gone. I love post-apocalyptic games (especially in idyllic settings) and this was coming from a Sony first party studio. Recipe for greatness, I thought. Boy was I wrong.

I had already grown weary of games such as Destiny, so Anthem never really sparked my interest but I admit that I was a bit curious, it being from Bioware and such. Glad I stepped back from that ledge.

Rage was also disappointing to me. Yes, the game play was smooth and solid, but it felt so uninspired. I actually enjoyed Mad Max more.

[Brave_Losers_Unite]

Rage was so bad.

[isarai]

I thought it was fun as hell, not really sure what people were expecting from it to find it so disappointing

[snoopgg]

I read so many bad reviews of Days gone. I put this game in and loved it. The graphics were beautiful on the pro. The gameplay was solid and story was just like any other zombie game released in 2019. I hated how so called gamers who like state of decay 2 , suddenly had a negative opinion about a sony game in the same genre.

[DaDrunkenJester]

State of Decay and Days Gone are very different.

[CaptainHenry916]

I actually thought Death Stranding was great. I put in over 50 hours even though it started off slow I still liked it especially the story. Crackdown 3 was disappointing. The power of the cloud was power of lies from Microsoft and power of 💩💩

[Thundercat77]

Death Stranding is leading on the GOTY Awards. You may not like the game but is obviously not a disappointment. It has received a lot of praise and awards that no other on that list has received.

[leoms]

The disappointment was in htemselves not the game lmao.

[SyntheticForm]

People are talking about what disappointed them personally. To some, Death Stranding was disappointing. I really enjoyed it, but feel no need to go to war.

[isarai]

I'll never get why people find Death Stranding disappointing. Wouldn't disappointment imply it didn't live up to what was shown/promised? What exactly did Death Stranding show that the final game didn't deliver? I feel like people are getting disappointment mixed up with just not liking it.

Anywho my biggest disappointment was Crackdown 3. Ipicked up it wasnt going to be very good WELL before release but i still gave it a shot in hopes it would deliver on at leastysome of the things i loved in the original game. It couldn't even manage to be half as good as the original, only thing i found was good was the addition of air dashes and double jumps.

[ApocalypseShadow]

If you boil it all down and remove the fat, basically, they were looking for a dude bro shooter. But Kojima gave them something else.

And because it didn't meet their dude bro fantasies, since we know it wasn't a sneaking game like Metal Gear, they thought of it being some type of shooter.

Result from their own hype? Disappointment. Example would be like they were expecting the game Inside to play like Contra. They expected DS to play like Gears or some futuristic shooter.

Those who played the game for what it was had no problem with it. And why it garnered awards from the majority.

[DaDrunkenJester]

Oh stop, no one is expecting a dude bro shooter from Kojima.

[SyntheticForm]

This is so disingenuous and I think you know it.

Please - are you actually suggesting that all detractors of Death Stranding desired or predicted a conventional, shooter-centric game with science fiction elements? Any snippets of Death Stranding we were given before release suggested quite the contrary.

Many people who "played the game for what it was" had a problem with it. How can you not play a game for what it is? If you play it, you play within the constraints of its design, or you don't/can't play it.

You just threw fat at the situation instead of rendering it away to obtain clarity.

[coolbeans]

You literally harm your pathetic defense in your 1st sentence with what you imply in your 2nd. As you noted with Metal Gear, Kojima isn't mistaken for Cliffy B. He emphasizes intricate game systems in either stealth games or adventure one-offs like Snatcher. You would have to scrape incredibly hard, and ignore so much counter-evidence, to find comments that satisfy your theory.

It shows a unique level of desperation in defending this title when you have to create an entire alternate reality like this for the people who "just don't get it." You're free to like the game, and that should be enough. No need to drag in such insufferable arguments.

[coolbeans]

-"Wouldn't disappointment imply it didn't live up to what was shown/promised?"

There's always the pitfall of what you, the audience, were hoping it would accomplish as well based on someone's reputation or past history. Generally, what you're going for would be the case.

-"What exactly did Death Stranding show that the final game didn't deliver?"

Well, that's kinda the funny thing about it: earlier previews released this year emphasizing the bumbling Amazon delivery sim systems were met with such TEPID enthusiasm, some literally rationalized this as Kojima just keeping his best stuff close to his chest until it releases.

With that anecdotal consideration out of the way though, let's go to your question. For the sake of argument, lets include "show/promise" like in your previous sentence. With that: we do get gems like Kojima stating Death Stranding will get 'really fun when you've completed 50% of the game." Although "fun" is an incredibly subjective term, I'm in the group that finds such a promise to be laughable. Sure, it gets more mechanically dense and there's more shooting moments...but it felt as engaging as the drawn-out beginning.

I'd also include the story there as well. It holds the promise of Kojima's weirdness, epic scale, and whatnot, but the execution is downright terrible in some respects. For someone who can indulge on long-winded Coded conversations to drive a story, Kojima's gotten worse in respect to exposition and pacing.

-"I feel like people are getting disappointment mixed up with just not liking it."

I mean...it seems like you're setting up an arbitrary delineation here. If someone comes in genuinely thinking they'll really like this game and come away not liking it...isn't that what the word "disappointment" is there for?

[DaDrunkenJester]

Nailed it my guy

[Kubark]

I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you don't tire of trying to get through to these people who seem immune to all assaults of reason.

[specialguest]

Some people wanted Death Stranding to be more than what it was. It's in no way a bad game, but I could understand why people were disappointed.

[TheGamez100]

Kh3, death stranding and anthem here.

[chiefJohn117]

Been a looooong time since I played a game I was disappointment in. Most of the games that would've been I never bought and/or backed out and only "tried them" free. Something like anthem I was hyped for but after the ton of bad reviews, I never bought it. Or CD3 after the 2nd delay I lost all interest in the game and haven't played it. Other games I didn't have much hype for and played on games and lived up to my little hype expectations. Last game that disappointed me that I spent money on was Fable 3.

[Saijahn]

I’m going with the division 2 or death stranding.

DS is enjoyed by some people at least but division 2 was just an utter failure compared to the first game. Never seen a dev wet the bed that bad before

[SyntheticForm]

I'm sensing a weariness of games like Destiny and its ilk from the gaming community. I think "Breakpoint" was the literal breaking point for many.

These games aren't getting better - they're getting worse. I think developers and publishers (especially publishers) are slowly starting to take notice.

Let it be so.

[MadLad]

It's sad, because I liked what I saw of the original Destiny, once all the content was out. Same with the Division series, being an actual favorite of mine.

[Saijahn]

I like looter shooters if they’re done right. The first destiny had so much meaty content I could play it all the time. Same with the first division. The problem is this new slow drip of content and in the case of destiny most of their ‘new’ content is rehashed old stuff

[MadLad]

Divison 2 was a lot better than the original was out of the gate though. The sales just weren't there. All around, it's actually a solid experience.

[SyntheticForm]

I can appreciate Destiny and people enjoying it, but the developers have to find clever ways to make these games more interesting. Also, laying off the microtransactions like buying "silver" and what have you wouldn't hurt.

I'm not calling for the abolition of these games, but their improvement.

[Chocoburger]

I've played Death Stranding for over 112 hours now. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I'm on Episode 10 and I still don't understand the story at all! But its one of my favorite games of this generation. Not disappointed in the least.

Kojima never tricked anyone into thinking the game was something else, everything that was shown prior to release represented the game accurately.
So what are people disappointed with?
The fantastic visuals and animations?
The great indie folk music that hits at just the right time?
The unique feeling of haunting loneliness that washes over you as you climb a snowy mountain all alone with no one to speak to for hours?
The ability to positively affect other players game worlds with traversal items, and them assist you in return?

Are people disappointed because its not another overly simplistic lowest-common-denominator shooting game? Even though there is plenty of opportunities to shoot enemies if you go looking for it.

[SyntheticForm]

No, he definitely didn't try to deceive anyone. Some footage was shown, the game was released, and the chips fell where they did and I really like that. No hubris or arrogance by Kojima at all. He knew there would be a crowd that wouldn't appreciate it, but I also think that he thought that he would hit a home run with many. The gamble worked.

I loved the game play "loop" - it was addictive. It was really a journey - a beautiful journey with a great OST and the indie folk music ranged from depressing to rhythmic, and it played at all the right moments.

Stroke of genius.

[Elda]

Agreed.

[LoveSpuds]

I completed the story tonight and utterly loved it, I am now grinding away towards the platinum trophy so I figure another 8 - 12 hours or so. What a great game, can't say I have been disappointed in the slightest to be honest.

[MadLad]

Death Stranding is divisive. Very much a love it/hate it game. Bought it during the Redbox purge, but haven't yet sat down with it. Trying to withhold judgement, but when I'm hearing people say you need to put dozens of hours in before the game clicks, that's a pretty asking slow burn. Time will tell.

The writing was on the wall with Anthem. Wasn't surprised when it came out lackluster. Same with Crackdown.
I can pretty much say the same for Shenmue 3, though I was holding a little optimism for that one.

[TheHateTheyGive]

Im usually 100% pro anything sony made, but death stranding was a steaming pile of goat sh*t that avgn will be reviewing in 10 years or less. What a lousy turd that game turned out to be, im sure ill be downvoted to hell by the kojima bots. No bulls#it to me crackdown 3 is more fun to play than death stranding.

[nucky64]

DS was made my kojima productions - it was released by sony.

[LoveSpuds]

Hmm, so I am not allowed to enjoy the game without being labelled a 'Kojima bot', whatever the heck that is. Different people like different games chief, no need to be so angry or childish about it.

You could try some constructive critism, I'd love the opportunity to have an adult conversation about the game.

[Larrysweet]

Bet every dollar I have every ds comment here comes from someone who never touched it or xbox fanboy....well see how awesome it becomes when pc gets it...its by far best game story etc of 2019 and releasing on pc itll best of 2020 as well....please dont let fanboyism or trying follow cool critics and miss best thing in gaming in a damn decade

[lociefer]

Pre-ordered it when it was 20 bucks off, got it, finished it, and hated every second of it. The game is trash, and that's coming from a sony/kojima fanboy, i'll take those 10 dollars now thank you very much.

[MadLad]

I'm far from an Xbox fanboy since the original, which I thought was a freaking amazing system.
I'm pretty much a very Sony friendly PC gamer. I bought the game out of morbid curiosity during the Redbox Purge of 2019, knowing, from what I've seen and heard, it probably wouldn't be my thing. I still haven't thrown it in, being I'm tied up with other games. I, personally, can't speak on the game; but to say it's only haters and fanboys is so disengenuous.
Reviews, while majority positive, are divisive as hell. Some praise the game's elements, others see nothing more than a drawn out, glorified walking simulator and got nothing out of the experience.

I don't really put stock in a lot of the outlets you tend to see on Metacritic, honestly. With the amount of quality personalities making personal, video based content, I've accumulated a pretty good circle of creators who I tend to agree with their personal tastes.

And, weirdly enough, some loved it. Some absolutely hated it. That's the real point here; the game is Divisive as all hell.

[Jsm89k]

I hope kojimas next game will be more like mgs4 and mgo2. God I miss that. Ofcourse that game has to have the world's worst publisher so no remaster

[Nacho_Z]

Groundhog Day on here with these most disappointing of 2019 articles and the same points about Death Stranding being made over and over.

Just need that guy to comment with his essay about how the Resi 2 Remake isn't a remake it's a reimagining and the circle of repetition will be complete.

[Elda]

I enjoyed Death Stranding immensely.

[Vega75]

Death stranding was definitely a disappointment.

[bluefox755]

"Disappointing"
GOTY awards of 2019:
Death Stranding - 62

The Critics' Picks - 44
The Readers' Picks - 18

Resident Evil 2 - 51

The Critics' Picks - 41
The Readers' Picks - 10

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 42

The Critics' Picks - 39
The Readers' Picks - 3

Control - 21

The Critics' Picks - 21
The Readers' Picks - 0

[Doink]

Death Stranding's awards is because the game is a Sony exclusive at the moment, but the game is just good not amazing

[coolbeans]

"Other people liked this game therefore YOU can't even consider it among the most disappointing of the year."

[waverider]

Death Stranding. Lol, one of the biggest hits of the year and full of awards in this list.... So millions got the game and its winning awards after awards. So, who doenst like, beside the ones that cant play it? Some «Press» and the thousands that went to the metacritic put fake reviews when it was available.... Some cant accept that this game isnt for everybody, but that doesnt mean its a disappoiting of the year. Its a question of diferent taste. Hype? this game suffers one of the biggest attack in some press the moment it was annouced on the PS4....

[ifrit_caress]

Anthem should be on everyone's disappointing games list.

[MadLad]

I knew that one was going to be a dumpster fire. The months leading up to the release, I felt the writing was on the wall.

I just didn't think it would be nearly as incomplete as it was.

[TheColbertinator]

Anthem. Bioware is on thin ice.

[Profchaos]

my biggest disappointment this year was far cry new dawn. It was just so boring and played like a free to play micro transaction machine with a very poor story and bad villans. But after suffering through the cringe that was the twins dialogue ubi had the balls to charge for bullets.

Also rage 2 had such fun combat but what the hell happened with the driving it brought down a game that would of been 9/10 to a 4/10 because it's so boring and pointless if they made it linear and just level based it would have been critically acclaimed

[averagejoe26]

Imagine trying to say that the game that received the most perfect scores in 2019 is a disappointing game LOL

[Nicknasty]

Death stranding was a little disappointing, because nobody was expecting it to be a mail simulator i think. Very little on action, but i still kinda like it. Sekiro was disappointing to me because of its brutally harder than hard difficulty. Im all for a challenge, but Sekiro was just ridiculous. Made it not fun and made souls games look like a walk in the park.

Code vein on the other hand took me a little by surprise. I thought it was boring from the demo, but gave it a chance and picked it up. Its been a pretty enjoyable game. Guess you cant always go by the hype.

[MetroidFREAK21]

Wolfenstein Youngblood was very disappointing

[Mithan]

Death Stranding was my "best game" of 2019 actually, I had a total blast playing that game.

I am gleefully looking forward to Elden Ring, Doom Eternal, Dying Light 2, Ghosts of Tsushima, Cyberpunk 2077 and whatever the 2020 Assassin's Creed game will be for this year. Obviously, we will probably see some other games that get announced as well.

System Shock, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Beyond Good and Evil could also all be on my radar, but we will see. Time is limited when you have kids.

[TheRacingX]

Maybe I didnt mind CD3 because I didnt buy into the hype they were peddling and just took it for what it was , a soft reboot of the franchise, same kind of play mechanics nothing revolutionary or evolutionary, just like watching a fast and the furious movie, couple bigger explosions, a different coat of paint, but its the same movie from 20 yrs ago....have your popcorn and enjoy the nostalgic ride and move on.

[rataranian]

How about more like games that were way over hyped?

[coolbeans]

Isn't that synonymous with "most disappointing" already?

[LucidIllusion]

Trying very hard