The 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2023
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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today, we were hoping for the best, but even with our lowered
00:04 expectations, these games still managed to let us down.
00:18 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
00:32 It would seem that the yearly release schedule has finally caught up with Activision, and
00:37 the clearly rushed development of Modern Warfare 3 is the clearest evidence yet that this was
00:42 never a sustainable model.
00:44 The Call of Duty brand has been receiving a mixed reaction for years, and while Modern
00:49 Warfare still retains the series' classic solid gunplay, corners were very obviously
00:54 cut to meet a release date.
00:56 The campaign, which has been the best part of the recent Modern Warfare titles, is ridiculously
01:01 short at only 3 to 4 hours, and features "free combat arenas" which are just recycled maps
01:08 from Warzone patched in to save on development time.
01:12 Although the devs claim this game was a "labor of love", the passion is clearly missing from
01:17 this latest entry, and fans have finally had enough.
01:28 Minecraft Legends Minecraft has proved to be a very versatile
01:40 license with numerous games branching out from the typical creative freedom of the base
01:45 game, and with Minecraft Legends, Minecraft dips their squared little toes into the realm
01:50 of real-time strategy to varying results.
01:54 While the traditional elements of Minecraft translate well to this new genre, base building
01:58 and resource gathering will be familiar to any long-time Minecrafter, the overall strategy
02:03 gameplay may be a little too simplified for those looking for a deeper experience.
02:09 This more basic approach does make the game more approachable for younger players, and
02:13 with your player character being directly in the heat of battle with your forces, and
02:17 less of an omnipotent being dictating the action, the gameplay is much more action-oriented
02:23 and reactive than your typical real-time strategy, but the new genre might be too different for
02:28 long-time fans, and too shallow for the RTS aficionado.
02:41 Layers of Fear A remake of the original Layers of Fear,
02:52 now updated with the wildly powerful Unreal Engine 5, while also making meaningful updates
02:57 to the gameplay to create a more cohesive experience, Layers of Fear upscales the visuals
03:02 and compiles the sequels and DLC into one package, but not much else.
03:07 Fans of the original games will undoubtedly have a good time revisiting these titles from
03:11 Bloober Team and seeing the updates to the visuals of the original game, but the overuse
03:16 of familiar horror tropes is unlikely to draw in any new fans, and the fact that only the
03:22 2016 game seems to have been updated is disappointing.
03:26 Coupled with numerous bugs and glitches that weren't in any of the original Incarnation's
03:30 releases, and this overall compendium of fear is far from the complete experience.
03:43 Crash Team Rumble Fans had high hopes for the Bandicoot's return
03:47 after the Insane Trilogy, CTR remake, and even a fully-fledged sequel with It's About
03:53 Time, but Crash Team Rumble just might have stalled the Bandicoot's comeback.
03:57 Rather than remake the much-beloved Crash Bash, Toys for Bob, or more likely Activision,
04:03 opted for a MOBA-lite which was most likely more monetizable.
04:08 The gameplay itself can be quite entertaining, and the abilities of each class and characters
04:13 control great, but suffer from balancing issues as well as repetitive gameplay that can quickly
04:19 grow stale even with the game's admittedly well-crafted map designs.
04:24 Another major pitfall is the lack of additional content in the base game, with Activision
04:29 most likely withholding most of the more meaningful additions behind future paywalls.
04:34 This one might be worth the wait for its eventual free-to-play model instead of paying for its
04:38 admittedly budget retail price.
04:41 LEGO 2K Drive
04:53 Arcade racers seem to be a dying breed, and while LEGO 2K Drive is certainly a welcome
04:58 throwback to the old arcade-style racers and kart racers of a bygone era, there's just
05:03 not enough bricks to hold this creation together in the long run.
05:07 The racing itself is quite solid, and the transforming vehicles offer some nice variation
05:12 adapting well with the tracks, but the game suffers from the same troubled rubber-banding
05:17 AI of most racers as well as many of the races being over almost as quickly as they started
05:23 with very little variation in between.
05:25 The game itself is also relatively short, with very little to do after completing the
05:30 admittedly amusing campaign.
05:33 Another major downside is of course, because this is modern gaming, this full-priced game
05:38 is loaded with microtransactions.
05:41 Those unbothered by these shortcomings will have a great time, but this is a poor follow-up
05:46 to LEGO Forza.
05:56 Atomic Heart
06:04 With the last true Bioshock game releasing a decade ago, fans of the mind-bending shooter
06:09 have long been waiting for either a return of the series or for someone to take up the
06:14 mantle.
06:15 With Atomic Heart, developer Mundfish was nearly there with its twisty sci-fi world
06:20 full of interesting gadgets and deep world-building lore, but some strange design decisions came
06:26 to keep the title from reaching the same lofty heights of its inspirations.
06:30 With a focus on first-person melee combat, which isn't as polished as it needs to be,
06:35 Atomic Heart also features probably one of the worst recent protagonists, and his incessant
06:41 cringey dialogue and terrible delivery make the game worse every time he opens his mouth.
06:47 The world of Atomic Heart is incredibly well-designed, and some of the environments are truly awe-inspiring,
06:53 but for every jaw-dropping boss fight, there's a moment that makes you want to turn the game
06:58 off.
07:06 Fire Emblem Engage
07:08 The Fire Emblem series has long been a benchmark for Nintendo even in its earliest days of
07:13 the series.
07:14 While the gameplay is as solid as ever, some would argue even the best the series has to
07:18 offer, the conflict and characters, which the series is even more well-known for, fell
07:24 flat, especially when compared to the previous entry Three Houses.
07:28 In addition, the numerous minigames and additional modes were undercooked or completely unnecessary,
07:35 with many grateful they were optional.
07:37 Even callbacks to previous Fire Emblem titles fell flat with many of the interactions with
07:42 past heroes feeling like an afterthought instead of paying them the respect they deserved.
07:48 If players can overlook one of the weakest stories in the entire series and focus instead
07:52 on the battles, they'll have a good time, but for those expecting Fire Emblem's usual
07:57 high bar, they'll be left completely underwhelmed.
08:01 Wild Hearts
08:07 If you're going to challenge the undisputed king of monster hunting, you'd better be
08:12 able to back it up.
08:13 And while Wild Hearts gets off to a great start, it's still a couple sequels away from
08:18 hitting the same benchmark as Capcom's Monster Hunter World.
08:22 While all the classic tropes are present, hunting, gathering resources, crafting new
08:27 and more powerful weapons, Wild Hearts attempts to add something new to the formula with its
08:31 Karakuri mechanic in which players can instantly build structures or traps to better hunt their
08:36 prey or even use in traversal.
08:39 And overall, it does help shake up the tried and true formula Capcom has perfected.
08:44 However, where the game stumbles is in its balance and overall performance.
08:50 Players will frequently encounter difficulty spikes, not to mention a myriad of technical
08:55 glitches hampered by poor optimization.
08:58 Wild Hearts has heart, but needs to slay a few more beasts to reach its potential.
09:10 Wanted Dead
09:19 Wanted Dead is a game that seems to have come out in the wrong generation.
09:23 When a game created by former Tecmo devs responsible for the brilliant Hack 'n Slash Ninja Gaiden
09:28 series can't even make the combat engaging, you know the rest of the game is going to
09:33 be just as disappointing.
09:35 The game does feature some great execution animations as well as dismemberment which
09:40 can be entertaining.
09:41 It's the rest of the game built around these features that drags it down.
09:45 The game clearly wants to be a more violent Yakuza style game with strange ramen eating
09:50 mini games and karaoke, but the game lacks that series' charm and likable characters.
09:56 From the nonsensical plot to some of the worst voice acting in video game history, everything
10:02 about Wanted Dead will make the player wish they were instead of playing this game.
10:15 Redfall
10:23 We love Arkane Studios, especially for the Dishonored series and their severely underrated
10:29 2017 Prey.
10:31 So even though the game Redfall seemed to be ditching the stealth gameplay and intricately
10:35 designed levels of their past successes for a multiplayer shooter, we still had hope it
10:40 would be an authentic Arkane experience.
10:43 Sadly, this wasn't the case as not only was the game wildly unbalanced along with poor
10:49 matchmaking, but the game was also a litany of bugs and glitches that often times made
10:54 the game unplayable.
10:56 Not only that, but the game itself was just mediocre at best.
11:00 Dull characters, a lifeless world, and almost completely incompetent AI, many questioned
11:06 if this was even the type of game the studio known best for its single player experiences
11:11 wanted to make or if it was dictated by publisher Bethesda, which did turn out to be true.
11:17 We can only hope this failure doesn't lead to yet another beloved studio being forced
11:22 to shut down.
11:30 What game let you down the most this year?
11:32 Press F to pay your respects down in the comments.
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11:44 -END TRANSCRIPT-