Many gamers complained in 2022 that so few games would come out. Well, what was definitely not lacking last year was bad games. Rarely before has every Gameswelt editor suddenly had something very important to do somewhere when it came to assigning new game tests. Whether it's sloppy Baller groats, failed Games-as-a-Service rubbish, or unfinished bug construction sites - let the show of games' failures begin!
10th place: CrossfireX
Crossfire has been one of the most successful computer games ever for years. Still, never heard of it? No wonder, since the rather bold Counter-Strike imitation is played almost exclusively in China. To change that, the operators commissioned a next-gen single-player offshoot for PC and Xbox under the name CrossfireX, even from none other than developer Remedy, who with Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Control are some of the best action games of all time - hard to believe given the sub-par quality of this hodgepodge. The real-time strategy spin-off Crossfire: Legion, which was also released in 2023, was more like that... so-so.
Crossfire is one of the most successful PC multiplayer shooters in Asia. With CrossfireX, the Xbox version has now been released. It even offers a single-player campaign from the renowned studio Remedy, the makers of Alan Wake and Control. But unfortunately, CrossfireX is very far from the quality of these games...
9th place: The Chant
When The Chant was first announced with a trailer, we were immediately curious. It looked like a Supermassive Games game, just a bit cheaper: a mysterious horror story about a group of kids in a New Age commune being possessed by a demon or something, all by real actors embodied – always gladly. But when we were allowed to lend a hand for the first time at Gamescom and had to realize that the game had absolutely nothing to do with our ideas, we suspected nothing good - and were right: As it turned out, The Chant is a sloppy resident -Evil blend with an embarrassingly clumsy combat system, confusing level design, and stupid puzzles. Even the trashy scary story doesn't save much anymore.
8th place: Sonic Frontiers
Ah, Sonic, you run and run and run, but somehow only from one blunder to the next. Sonic Frontiers had such high hopes for the first good Sonic game in ages. But it is precisely the flagship of the promising open-world approach that turns into a stumbling block for the raging hedgehog: its game world. "The tracks and loops scattered everywhere look like an unfinished project in Rollercoaster Tycoon, but not like a well-thought-out jump 'n' run," said colleague Sascha in his test. Insignificant tasks, sprawling grind, and finally also quirks in control and technology do the rest that we prefer to run away from this Sonic game.
7th place: Dolmen and The Last Oricru
While the developers at From Software took the Souls-like genre to a whole new level with Elden Ring in 2022, a number of imitators once again flouted trying to reach their knees in the first place. The developers of Dolmen relocate the game concept into a dark sci-fi scenario but seem to have understood little of what makes the original so appealing. The Last Oricru can at least come up with a story full of branching plots and nested level layout, but apart from that it looks like an amateurish fan project. Opinions are divided on Thymesia: While colleague Felix described it with the words: "As if you order Dark Souls from Wish", Bloodborne fan Dennis even voted it one of his top 10 favorite games of 2022.
6th place: Highway Police Simulator 3
The fact that simulator games aren't always technically on the most stable footing is a given. An accurately working physics engine is also only necessary to a limited extent in an event that consists primarily of passport control and checking that a warning triangle is being carried properly. But the multitude of insane bugs in Autobahn Police Simulator 2 added such a high, involuntary entertainment value to the otherwise rather dull title that the game became cult trash in memes and on YouTube - and prompted the developers to deliberately include it in the third part to fuel. Well, not taking yourself so deadly seriously is good for the series. But simply selling bugs as a feature and presenting sloppy programming as a satire on German narrow-mindedness unfortunately doesn't make it any better.
5th place: Lego Brawls
Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been a staple on Switch for years. But of course, the game principle can also be transferred to pretty much any other brand universe apart from family-friendly Nintendo cuteness. PlayStation All-Stars took this step more or less successfully a good ten years ago, and Warner Bros. also unleashed its cult figures from Batman to Bugs Bunny to Arya Stark in the enjoyable MultiVersus this year. The same in a charming Lego look - what can possibly go wrong? Quite a bit if you neglect the playful core of a good fighting game and only deliver the bare minimum in terms of content. It's a shame for Lego Brawls, especially since 2022 was actually an excellent year for block games with Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Lego Bricktales.
4th place: Zoro: The Chronicles
Zorror, the elders will remember: before there were vibranium shields and the Batmobile, this was the masked hero who administered justice on horseback with a sword. The younger ones, on the other hand, may be familiar with the animated series that the game Zorro: The Chronicles is based on. And you probably have to be of an age where you've never played a video game before to get excited about it: the whole game is so simple you can probably beat it before you even walk, and the combat system is like that as complex as that of a rattle, and the presentation can probably only be appreciated by someone who scrawls three colored lines on a piece of paper and proudly announces to mom that a car has been drawn.
3rd place: XEL
We're a bit sorry about the small indie developer Tiny Roar from Hamburg, but we really didn't like their game XEL. And that wasn't just due to the indisputably unfinished state in which it was delivered. At first glance, the mixture of hack-n-slash action-adventure, platformer, and puzzle-solving seems like a safe bet for creative game design and varied fun. But now imagine the exact opposite of what you are imagining right now. um, what? Yes, exactly ...
2nd place: Babylon's fall
With games like Bayonetta, Vanquish, or Nier Automata, Platinum Games is responsible for some of the best action titles of recent years. A four-player co-op game from such a developer studio - bring it on, we thought when we announced it. But then Babylon's case turned out to be Babylon's big failure in the test. Old-fashioned graphics, always the same loot, extremely monotonous fights, and no ideas for the endgame reminded of the EA flop Anthem. By May, the number of players on Steam even fell into the single-digit (!) range. In November, publisher Square Enix finally announced that it would stop developing new content and shut down the servers again on February 28, 2023 – less than a year after the release …
Places of honor: Saints Row and Gotham Knights
No, Saints Row and Gotham Knights certainly weren't that bad. Nevertheless, the two open-world games in the 2022 blockbuster environment were particularly noticeable due to their lack of courage and imagination. Saints Row is playfully dated as if it stems from a time that has stood still since GTA San Andreas, and the superhero trainees of Gotham Knights seem to be a little too big in the dark knight's footsteps. Interchangeable missions, lifeless game world, technical problems, moderately entertaining story - which of the two games are we talking about now? From both.
1st place: Postal 4: No Regerts
Games in the Postal series have always been known for their gritty mallet humor, but Postal 4 "is as subtle as a monkey throwing its feces around the zoo enclosure while pressing its genitals against the glass," wrote colleague Dennis in his test. The fact that the game throws infantile Pippi-Kacka jokes around every second may still be seen as an unsuccessful attempt to emulate successful series such as South Park or Family Guy. But throwing Mexican immigrants over a wall with a slingshot or senselessly killing passers-by is already beyond the realm of satire or even just pure tastelessness and is highly questionable. Since the gameplay is also dull and dull,
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