Listen, we're all here because we absolutely love videogames. But that doesn't mean they always turn out for the best, and sometimes they can be downright dreadful for a wide variety of reasons.
No developer sets out to make a bad game, but there are a lot of factors that can hinder their potential, and we've seen some infamous examples of this over the past 20 years of Xbox, including from major franchises.
With that in mind, what would you class as the worst Xbox game you've ever played, and which console was it for? Additionally, what game have you been most disappointed with? Give us your examples in the comments.
Comments 60
Not worse, but Bioshock 2 was not a patch on the Original.
@Medic_Alert I enjoyed crackdown 3 for what is was. Anyone who paid over $10 could probably make a case for being robbed tho.
Hard for me to think of a totally terrible game. I think Woodle 2 was a recent one that stunk. Bugs are one thing but when I game randomly deletes it's autosave as well then I lose my cool.
In terms of just absolutely atrocious experiences: Mafia 1 on OG Xbox and King Kong on 360 (bought it for the easy 1000 G).
Mafia 1 on OG Xbox just has terrible controls and very annoying missions. That's why I stopped playing it as soon as I heard that a remake would be coming out on Xbox One. I'll just play that version instead.
King Kong just was uninteresting and like I said, I only played it for the easy achievements, lol.
No contest, Drake of the 99 Dragons
State Of Decay 2, although IMO it’s better then Sonys Days Gone. I played it single player, had a cracking team with great skills, and my base was attacked by a horde one night and it was a bridge with two levels, I couldn’t get up the level because of the attack and was killed as my other characters did NOTHING, totally failing to come down to the lower level to help. And in you didn’t know in that game it’s perma death, I tired with changing to the other characters to help but nope, still died, so I had to start all....over....again.... and this was a fair few hours of gameplay I’d put in! Probably THE worst game AI I’ve ever seen.
This is hard for me because of a game is bad I move on before letting it stick with me. I honestly can’t think of one.
Dark Void, easily one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever played.
This is probably going to be a unpopular opinion but for me it was Stardew Valley.. I remember everyone highly praising it so i caved in and bought it.. I turned the game on and i was like WTF is this, Are people serious about this game.. I played it for 15 mins and never touched it ever again..
Most buggy: Wasteland 3
Worst optimization: Subnautica
Most underdeveloped: Anthem (effectively released in alpha)
The arena multiplayer Conker spinoff, on OG Xbox, I don't remember the name... A bit bad in every part, graphics, controls, menus... But it runs very good on One S emulated so that's the good news, at least ^^"
I played Drake of the 99 Dragons at a friend’s house. That’s an absolute stinker.
So far it’s halo 2. But I’ve only played rare replay and halo reach and combat evolved.
@StrangeBit Live and Reloaded? It’s not that bad. The graphics look pretty for an OG Xbox game imo.
Crazy Ball Deluxe. DO NOT BUY IT. I know it’s on the creators collection but wow was it boring.
OG Xbox: Counter-Strike, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, Sonic Heroes, Turok Evolution
Xbox 360: The Incredible Hulk, Superman Returns
Crackdown 3 no question
Red Ninja on Xbox.
Truck Driver, simply awful.
Not worse ever exactly...but Space Giraffe.
I tried a demo recently on Xbox 360 and it's pretty bad.
I like Tempest-style games, but you can barely see what's going on.
Also, Too Human. The game so bad that "it had to be free" per Phil.
Possibly, Lost: Via Domus? Come to think of it, that games crappiness foreshadowed the unsatisfying ending of the TV show.
@tobsesta99 oh yes, I mean the 3d models of Conker and co. are cool but I didn't like the rest, to be honest... Maps, menu, etc..
I enjoyed Crackdown 3 and I literally only just played bioshock 2 and enjoyed that aswell lol
I haven’t played anything on an Xbox console I’d consider to be horrible, but the worst game I’ve ever played is definitely Nights Journey of Dreams on Wii. Worst $0.99 I ever spent at GameStop haha...
@StrangeBit That’s fair. The colors there are too desaturated for my liking.
50/50 between crackdown 3 and morrowind. The latter was an unplayably broken mess of a port. The former was simply the antithesis of fun.
@AnthonyStark86 "Hey, over here! In the Banyan trees!"
I'm old, so expect an oldie from me:
Back To The Future on the NES might be the worst game I have ever played. I'm sure there are worse, but this is games I have played.
Most disappointing game? I got to say... Assassins Creed Unity, not for the buggy launch, but due to how horrible progression is, as it was the first, and worst, attempt from UBisoft to monetize micro-transactions, and the worst (and thankfully last) attempt at pushing MultiPlayer modes into the series.
I got to say, though, after spending decades playing the worst of the worst of Atari, NES and SNEs games, I feel there is no modern game that can ever be as bad as 80s video game bad.
The worst games I have played and throughly hated to trudge through would easily be Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Dark World Cave?) and Tell Me Why. Chapter 3)I have yet to finish them both, yet been attempting to force myself to 100% for the past two months. In my honest opinion, these titles were just unbearably dull and lackluster, but to each his own.
I just picked up Crackdown 3 on game pass, loved the 1st two games and this is better still, good sandbox to play around in over this weekend.
King skull island is probably up,there, easiest 1000 points in the business back then... Also two worlds was just garbage after oblivion and Skyrim.
@Bloodborne75 I played through both of those games very recently, and felt compelled to respond.
Are you trying to beat them, or 100% them? 100%ing either one sounds like a pretty awful prospect if that's your goal. If you're not having fun, my advice is to just move on - especially if you didn't pay for them.
Hellblade is definitely more dull than I was expecting, but I would never have brought it up as a contender for worst Xbox game. It's more monotonous than bad, but it's also pretty short. I wish the puzzles would have been more interesting and less repetitive. Also, 3-4 more bosses would have done wonders.
Also Tell Me Why isn't too bad either - certainly not as good as Life is Strange or it's sequel, but there's nothing really terrible about it (outside of the ending, hahaha...). It's honestly weird to me that TMW wasn't part of the LiS series, as it shares literally every single mechanic that those games have. I did feel that the twins' power wasn't nearly as cool as time-warping or telekinesis, but it was still an interesting approach to alter/interact with the narrative. How did you like the Life is Strange games by comparison?
@everynowandben......
As for 100% Gamerscore, I'm just OCD about it, although I've never been a fan of achievements/ trophies. I play the game for its story/ game play aspects and because Ilove gaming.
I guess I was ultimately hoping for a spiritual successor to Heavenly Sword. Enslaved had promise but failed in my honest opinion. As for Life is Strange (prequel and main game) I just, akin to you, found them more fulfilling. My choices, in hindsight, may not be 100% accurate per se as I was comparing them to titles I deem far superior. I just expected more. I had the same comparison concerning Until Dawn when I began playing Man of Medan (which I enjoyed) although just a miss there. No matter our disagreements concerning these titles, we both can agree, I'm assuming, that there is always room for improvement. Also, I have yet to play LiS 2, but looking forward to it in the future.
Drake of the 99 Dragons. It looked cool in screenshots, but there was no form of control at all in the game.
@Bloodborne75 If we’re talking disappointments vs bad games, then I am with you on both.
I haven’t played Heavenly Sword, and I’m only about 1/3 of the way through Enslaved, so I don’t have much of a reference there, but my fondness for LiS probably did get my hopes up a bit too high for TMW - although I still enjoyed it overall.
I also agree that Man of Medan didn’t quite live up to Until Dawn, but I’m looking forward to Little Hope regardless. Hopefully it comes out with a bit more polish than MoM.
Sounds like we agree in general, just to different degrees.
It’s kinda too bad LiS2 is no longer on Game Pass though - that’s my favorite from Dontnod - I’m sure you’ll like that one when you get to it.
@LtSarge a lot of the issues that were present in the PS2 and Xbox versions: crappy controls, cheap deaths, and some real horrendous missions.
Been a while since have played a genuinely terrible game, but the 360 he a few stinkers such as Bullet Witch, Overlord 2, Alone in the Dark, Legendary, and Jumper spring to mind!
Yeah, I can't recall any truly bad games that I've played on any Xbox platform. I mean, I'm sure there've been some but I've forgotten them. Not much point in dwelling on the bad ones. As far as disappointments, Crackdown 3 is still fresh for being a recent one. The original was so much fun. I never played the second one though I'd heard not much had changed. Three was just no fun at all, but at least the fact I didn't pay any extra for it took away some of the sting. Just Cause 4 which I bought on PS4 was similarly disappointing, but unfortunately I paid full price for that one. B as d move on my part, but I'd enjoyed the previous two well enouhh.
Probably Too Human. They had that for free recently and I thought it was just awful, then again that wasn't a surprise.
@redd214 Anyone who thinks Crackdown 3 is the worst must have never played Crackdown 2. As disappointing as 3 is it's still better than 2. It's a real shame how bad the sequels have been considering how the original is a total classic.
Brink! I got sucked in by the flashy trailers and bought it day one..played for an hour...yawned and traded in same day.
@JayJ Agreed! At least I managed to finish Crackdown 3 campaign, which is more than I could with the second one. Very, very poor.
@graysoncharles I loved ReCore! 🙊
It's a multiplatform game, but the Silent Hill HD Collection is really quite something. It exemplifies just how little Konami care for their tentpole franchises. Such a shame.
People listing Nintendo and PlayStation games when it says “worst Xbox games”
For me there is a few,
Watch Dogs when it released because it was riddled with bugs, not sure how it plays now though,
I’m not a fan of online games so for current games I’d say Call of Duty and Fortnite
Recently I would say Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It’s was awful when it was released and still awful now. Had a lot of potential but unfortunately let down by a lack of direction
@Olliemar28 I only recently played that collection for the first time and by golly, that was an awful experience.
It's not the worst game I've played, but possibly my biggest disappointment: Resident Evil 5. What a massive turd after the magnificent 4.
@JayJ you're right, never played 2. Based on your glowing review I guess it's for the best lol! But yes CD3 is the worst Xbox game I've personally played.
Clearly none of you played LocoCycle....
@everynowandben After your replies, I have deemed that perhaps I jumped the gun on the question. Not something I normally do and I allowed my disappointment in those titles to become hatred for them both.
Both games, however I feel about them personally, showed promise and maybe I will give them another chance. Thank you for instilling/ challenging this in my mind. I'm going to approach them differently with optimism. Who knows, maybe I'll learn to love them. Not the first time I've been proven wrong; probably not the last. Then again, opinions are personal insights and therefore cannot be deemed inaccurate in that sense hehe
Looking forward to Life is Strange 2 and believe that I will love it as well.
A last remark, as a Bloodborne veteran, I did love the fight vs. Valravyn in Hellblade and the Norse lorestones. I also was not loving the new God of War (despite the setting) but loved all the others. Atreus annoys me to no end!! Maybe give it another shot sometime in the future before the new release: if I even decide to get a PS5 when they release the superior version.
Game on, everynowandben!! Great name by the way
@Bloodborne75 I hope you do end up finding some enjoyment in those games, as I believe they are both at least worth the minimal time it'd take to finish them off. Of course, there are obviously better games out there, so maybe it does make more sense to just move on if you're not enjoying them.
Speaking of better games, GoW (2018) was 10/10 easily one of the best games I've ever played, and I highly recommend going back to it. Atreus can be a bit annoying sometimes, sure, but that's just part of his character arc. Invest in his abilities, as he will become amazingly helpful, and you'll love him for that alone. If there is any game worth finishing, it's that one, my friend 😀
Aye. I'll finish Hellblade and TMW and afterwards God of War, then continue my level and start grind on my Bloodborne characters
Thank ye again
Don't even get me started.
fable 3 was pretty terrible I wont say why so to not spoil it but mostly do to the story and some mechanics in it. It was just awful to play as well.
It has to be 50 Cent Bulletproof for the OG Xbox for me. The controls were just terrible. In contrast 50 Cent Blood on the Sand for 360 was actually a pretty fun game with an absolutely absurd story.
All time worst video game I've ever played goes to E.T. for the Atari 2600. Yes, I still own a copy of it. I remember buying it at a flea market when I was a kid.
@VisitingComet1 yep, was about to post the same. That games ending was a limp dic...
Rocket Knight (2010). As one of the 10 people on the planet that ever gave a stuff about more sparkster games, this was just a nasty let down. No heart or soul, no awesome music of old (save one redone track), lazy level design, stupid character redesigns ugh! Then again it was made by the Konami that was soon to abandon most game development as opposed to the 90's Konami that loved making hit games, so in hindsight it explains a lot.
Aliens: Colonial Marines still hurts to this day.
@TimG13 I was so excited for that game hoping it would be like the Atari jaguar game but ya it wasn't
Sonic 06 for me. How Sega greenlighted that was beyond me.
It must be anything that has to do with Sonic in 3D, I guess. The first level is fairly decent... and theeeeen it's all gone. I don't know why Sega keeps getting away with it.
Another title that pops up is Need for Speed Heat. The drifting, the cringy setting and missions... sure, it's aimed at teenagers, but my oh my, it has nothing to do with driving and drifting at all.
Ride to Hell Retribution for sure, I've never seen such a dumpster fire
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