The Biggest Gaming Flops Of 2022

2022 was a great year for gamers. From the beginning to the end, there was a little something for every style of gamer. Players could defeat challenging bosses in "Elden Ring," or ride a mechanical animal in "Horizon Forbidden West." They could capture adorable monsters in "Pokemon Legends Arceus," or continue the heartwrenching story of Kratos in "God of War Ragnarok" – the latter of which dominated nominations at the Game Awards. Yes, 2022 was a standout year in gaming. Even older titles got a facelift, and "The Last of Us Part 1" now has a fan favorite looking better than ever.

But every video game isn't destined to be great, and some are downright flops. The games on this list aren't going to win any awards, but they'll definitely stand out in gamers' memories for how downright terrible they are. While the games mentioned here weren't all financial failures, they have one terrible detail or another that will make them stand out to gamers for years to come. Whether it's crippling microtransactions, unfortunate timing, or simple, unimaginative gameplay, these games are undeniably the biggest gaming flops of 2022.

"Babylon's Fall" was supposed to have it all. It was developed by action experts Platinum Games and backed by a major publisher, Square Enix. It seemed, cool, too, designed to have engaging action RPG gameplay. Like a fantasy-flavored "Nier Automata," players could run around the map with their trusty weapons floating alongside them, encountering any number of magical creatures along the way. "Babylon's Fall" was designed to be played in small parties of 4, so gamers could meet up for regular raids with their friends. However, all of the excitement that fans might have felt before the game's release quickly dissipated after critics had a turn with "Babylon's Fall."

Critics explained that "Babylon's Fall" was simply not fun to play, full of grinding at the beginning with action that couldn't live up to other Platinum Games titles, like "Bayonetta." The game also simply looked bad. The graphics were poorly animated, according to reviewers, and the painting-esque style that developers were going for didn't translate to the final product. In other words, the game was a mess. By September 2022, not even a year after its release, gamers said RIP to "Babylon's Fall," marking it a disappointment to both Platinum Games and the community at large. Though the game will continue to be supported through February 2023, it's no longer available for sale in digital storefronts.

"Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines" is considered an RPG classic by both gamers and general fans of the macabre. The game dips into the mysterious underbelly of the world, exploring the lore of the "Vampire: The Masquerade" tabletop RPG and translating it into a gaming experience. For years, players have yearned for a "Bloodlines 2," eager to experience what a vampire-themed RPG would be like on the most contemporary hardware. In 2022, gamers got a new "Vampire: The Masquerade" video game, but it wasn't "Bloodlines 2." Not by a mile.

"Vampire: The Masquerade: Swansong" was initially set to release in 2021, but it wouldn't come out until 2022. Even then, fans weren't happy with the final product. Critics said that "Swansong" was, on one hand, a great peek into the World of Darkness setting that the "Vampire" games are known for. On the other hand, the game adopted that lore so deeply that players were often tasked with delving into an in-game codex to parse through the terminology characters used, which ultimately took gamers out of the story and made the game feel like homework. Perhaps the harshest critique issued by critics was that "Swansong" was boring, and even with the layers of World of Darkness lore and a wide cast of characters, it just couldn't do enough to keep players' attention.

Unlike some games on this list, "Dolmen" isn't a completely terrible game, per se. Instead, it's a victim of an unfortunate set of circumstances. First, it was announced and released at a time when there was a wide variety of sci-fi horror games in development, many of which had bigger budgets and more impressive pedigrees. "Dolmen" looked less promising when put up against other games like "The Callisto Protocol." It also released around the same time that a little title named "Elden Ring" came out, giving it little chance of entering into the gaming discourse for months. As a Soulslike game, "Dolmen" had stiff competition in the form of FromSoftware's greatest achievement.

Then, there was the quality of the game. NME explained that the combat system for "Dolmen" felt unbalanced, with many attacks having a weightless quality to them. The game was punishingly difficult, but not in a fun way, with many enemies seeming to have faulty hitboxes and one-hit kill attacks. Unlike many Soulslike games, which offer players moments of mercy through I-frames, "Dolmen" only seems interested in beating players to a pulp repeatedly, with no chance to perfect one's strategy. Learning a boss's moveset is often futile if they can kill you in one hit.

Daily Emerald gave a harsh, in-depth review of "Dolmen" as well, commenting that unlike many Souls games, multiplayer in "Dolmen" is completely disconnected from the single-player mode. Players can summon another player character to help them defeat a particularly challenging boss, but when they return to their own single-player campaign that boss will still be alive and well. That sort of isolation didn't sit well with many gamers, and "Dolmen" faded into the distance as 2022 progressed.

The "Postal" series has a reputation for being an over the top ride where gamers essentially get to send a community into chaos by killing everyone in sight. Players act as a man suffering a mental breakdown, who thinks everyone in his town is out to get him. The goal is straightforward: Kill them before they can kill you.

That premise might be fine for a game or two, but four entries in and the "Postal" series has gotten tired. Reviewers were brutal when discussing "Postal 4: No Regerts," and many didn't find the humor or absurdity in the satirical series' latest installment. IGN's review explained that almost everything about "Postal 4" was awful, from its shooting mechanics, to its story, to its graphics, to its performance. The game frequently crashed, forcing players to start and restart their game in the middle of the action. Aside from its mechanics, IGN noted that "Postal 4" delivered a sloppy narrative, which was difficult to parse until the end of the game, which had an underwhelming conclusion.

"Postal 4" attempted to take on heavy political issues, but ultimately failed to do that as well. As IGN's review argued, "Unlike the generally excellent commentary found in Grand Theft Auto 5, Postal 4 left me wincing for hours as it takes on heavy issues with the finesse and grace of a grease fire." Unfortunately, there's almost nothing to love about "Postal 4," although its reviews on Steam remain mostly positive.

The "Shadow Warrior" series debuted all the way back in 1997, and it's changed a lot over the years – for the worse. The series follows the hero Lo Wang, who blasts his way through hordes of demons in an effort to save the world. However, "Shadow Warrior 3" seems to be a game no one really asked for, and reviews showed that it might have been better off remaining in the shadows after all.

IGN's review of "Shadow Warrior 3" explained that the gameplay itself was very simple, and that its combat didn't add anything new or interesting to gaming at large. It wasn't bad gameplay, per se, but it certainly wasn't groundbreaking. Even more unfortunate, the plot of "Shadow Warrior 3" didn't really line up with the previous installment in the series. PC Gamer took things a step farther, arguing that Lo Wang wasn't a character at all, but an East Asian caricature that constantly makes inappropriate jokes. Being such a miserable character makes for a long, tiring game, leading PC Gamer to award "Shadow Warrior 3" 52 points out of 100.

Sony made "Shadow Warrior 3" available to PS Plus subscribers as soon as it released, which was a mistake according to Game Rant, Many players don't know the "Shadow Warrior" franchise in the same way they would other series, and worse yet the game had performance issues that made the act of, well, playing it downright impossible.