2024 was a year stacked with great games from all genres, like Black Myth Wukong, Astro Bot, Balatro, and Helldivers 2. However, it was also a year with some exceptionally bad titles, the worst ones coming from big-name studios with strong IPs. With so many games thrown into the mix, you’d be confused as to which is what. Well, we were in a mood and decided to round up the worst games of 2024 in a handy ranked list. So with that, let’s talk about them all.
7. Star Wars: Outlaws
Starting the list is Star Wars: Outlaws, one of Ubisoft’s biggest installments this year. As it would turn out it also ended up becoming one of the biggest failures of 2024. Star Wars: Outlaws takes the crown of being an open-world game for the sake of being open-world.
The game has a massive world to ‘explore’ only to find nothing worthwhile to do. It has extremely repetitive gameplay and features some of the worst NPC AIs ever witnessed in a Ubisoft game. The game brings nothing new to the table, and the main storyline is lackluster at best. Overall, this was one of the biggest disappointments of 2024, failing to cross even a 2.5k peak player count on Steam.
6. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is the perfect example of why live service games have been failing miserably. It is an amalgamation of the worst features despised by gamers in life service games with nothing new to offer. The game is extremely repetitive, and the main story is boring and incomplete.
Kill the Justice League also isolated the DC fanbase by changing key details about their favorite characters, making the villains as heroes while ridiculing the beloved ‘heroes’ of the franchise. When it came to gamers other than DC fans, the game never offered anything worthwhile for them to stick to, which is why the game has less than 2k peak player count in the last 24 hours on Steam at the point of writing this piece.
5. A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
A Quite Place: The Road Ahead was another indie title I was looking forward to in 2024 with a very interesting theme. Sadly, the game was in a bad state at release, with a ton of bugs and terribly designed NPC AIs. The game does feature some good soundtrack and decent scare jumps, but overall, it’s not a great experience. The most fun you would have in this game is the first two hours, which is not great for a game that’s at least 8 hours long.
This title might be one of the biggest disappointments in 2024, as it featured some great elements at the core that could have made it a known name for years to come.
4. Dustborn
2024 was a great year for indie games, but not all of them succeeded. Dustborn was an optimistic addition with a great-sounding game pitch. All of that was thrown out of the window as the game turned out to be extremely boring, with one of the worst stories of this year.
The characters in this game are simply miserable to interact with. They force-feed the players their worldview and prevent them from retorting or disagreeing with anyone they dislike. The game also features very repetitive gameplay, with the combat being well below average. Barely anyone played this game, with an all-time peak player count of 83 on Steam.
3. Concord
Let’s not forget about this one. Concord is the $400 million disaster and Sony’s biggest mistake when it comes to games. The game broke most records when it came to failing. Before release, it was coined as Sony’s Overwatch, only for players to realize that it, in actuality, has nothing new to offer over Overwatch.
Pair that with the extremely bland and unimaginative character designs, the hero shooter became an instant flop on release. The game performed so badly in the market that Sony decided to shut down the game only weeks after its release. I don’t know about you, but it sure earns the game one of the worst titles in 2024.
2. Skull and Bones
Another Ubisoft disaster of 2024 is Skull and Bones, the game coined as the first ‘Quadruple-A‘ title. It turns out that Quadruple-A is going to be the new term for extremely generic games with mechanics inspired by the biggest cash-grab mobile games. Skull and Bones was expected to be the multiplayer Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. Still, it ended up as a ship-driving simulator with first-person shooter mechanics and no sense of exploration or storytelling.
The game doesn’t even have a boarding mechanic, which is arguably the best part of Black Flag that inspired this game. What’s worse is the same mechanics players wanted in Skull and Bones are already implemented in Sea of Thieves, a 4-year-old Pirate game, so the excuse of difficulty in developing should not apply here, especially for the first ‘Quadruple-A’ title. After all is said and done, what are you doing Ubisoft?
1. Unknown 9: Awakening
Unknown 9: Awakening was undoubtedly the worst game I played in 2024. This game had close to no redeeming qualities, featuring an awful storyline filled with plot holes, terrible graphics, and character designs, and so many bugs on release.
The combat of this game was the only decent part, introducing something new, but the overall clunkiness of the gameplay completely overshadowed it. The game was also supposed to be the entryway to an entire franchise of the Unknown 9 universe, and I can safely say that after finishing it, I have lost all interest in learning more about this universe.
As you can tell, 2024 has been up to the brim with some of the worst titles we have witnessed. Nonetheless, with so many developers thrown into the mix, I am holding out hope for 2025. That said, do you agree with this list? Tell us in the comments below!
