 Alright everyone, this video is a little late because I was building a new PC and I just could not get it working and just did not think to possibly check the new power supply unit until I did and discovered that it was bad, which I can't believe I've never had that happen but that was it. And here we are. So let's get to the video that is actually the last of 2022, the most disappointing games of last year. Now, I was actually pretty disappointed with Horizon Forbidden West and while Elden Ring was my game of the year, that one also disappointed me more than a little. But the games that were good or great but not as great as I was hoping aren't what this video is about. This one is about games that legit disappointed me. Not all the following games are terrible, although a couple of them are, but none of them are all that good. There's a couple on here that I'm sure people will disagree with but these were all games that I was very excited for this year. There's a big difference between terrible and disappointing. A game can only be disappointing if it's one I had high hopes for. AC Valhalla did not disappoint me because it was pretty much exactly what I expected. The games on this list range from pretty good to just terrible, but all of them were games that I was super eager to play and then, well, was disappointed Alright, let's get to it. Number 7 The Callisto Protocol There were very few games I was looking forward to more than the Callisto Protocol this year. This might be the best game on this list and is one of only two that I still think are pretty decent games worth playing, but I was hoping for this one to be an all-time classic. Dead Space 1 and 2 are easily amongst my very favorite games ever. Playing the first two Dead Space titles on harder difficulties not only had the almost perfect blend of survival horror and action gameplay, they also had amazing worlds, excellent stories, and pretty much perfect pacing. With several of the devs from Dead Space in the studio, I was looking forward to a game that struck that perfect balance again. Instead, the Callisto Protocol simply fails at its story in worldbuilding. The game is almost entirely focused on combat, but the combat isn't as dynamic or interesting as Dead Space. The game actually finally starts to be a bit more enjoyable more than halfway through when it finally gives you a few guns and you can kinda disregard the boring melee combat, but by that point you are many hours in. A beautiful game that looks truly next generation, but that comes at the price of having to spend a few hours watching Jacob slowly crawl through vents or shimmy between walls while those next-gen textures load. There's enough good about the Callisto Protocol to make me think a sequel can be the game I was hoping for, but this game was just a tremendous letdown. 6. Thymesia Thymesia isn't a particularly good game. It's only on this list because I had pretty high hopes for it after following it through development. There still are very few good indie or AA souls likes out there, and the early looks at Thymesia had me thinking we were about to get another one, but the devs of the game made a few pretty big mistakes. Thymesia tries to synthesize a bunch of stuff that doesn't need it, and tries to innovate in places it should not. There's really no reason to reimagine progression in a souls like. Instead, a studio should spend its time making sure its progression is fun instead of totally revamping mechanics. Another classic mistake that seems to happen all the time is cramming a ton of different mechanics in. Thymesia looks like Bloodborne, but it has a deflection system like Sekiro, then it has an odd system where enemies can heal themselves if you back off. The game crams a ton of mechanics from across the genre instead of tightening its focus to make sure what it has is well done. For instance, that Sekiro deflection mechanic, that works amazing in Sekiro because it's a parry and a block combined. If you miss the deflection, you still block, so you're not terribly punished for missing them. Thymesia, the deflection is actually a parry, it's just needlessly punishing against bosses, but all that probably could have been overcome if the core of the game was better. Thymesia has very bland level design, enemies are uninspired, the regular mobs are so simple and easy that like the levels themselves are just mindless until you come up against many bosses or bosses, it's the only things that can possibly threaten you, and then those bosses and mini bosses are extremely frustrating. Worst of all, Thymesia commits the cardinal sin of a soul's like, it just feels bad. This is basically the difference between Lords of the Fallen, which is a bad game, and the Surge games which are great games. Same developer, but in Lords of the Fallen, everything feels stiff and clunky, and in the Surge, movement is snappy and responsive. You move very fast in Thymesia, but it feels like you're floating. Weapons don't feel like they have any real impact, the game just feels kind of amateurish in a way that dooms it. I only made it through the first three levels before I'd had enough. A big disappointment, because there's almost nothing good about the game at all. I was hoping for at least something as good as Ashen, instead I got the Bloodborne version of Lords of the Fallen. Number 5. Strangers of Paradise Okay, this one confused me. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the very worst games I had ever played. It is just absolutely terrible. Level design, terrible. Story, terrible. Combat is terrible. The progression is, you know, below average. It's just awful, top to bottom. And I was like super pumped for this game when I first saw that Team Ninja was behind it, as Neo and Neo2 are among the best games the last 10 years. Then there was like almost no marketing for the game, which seemed odd for a game in the Final Fantasy universe with souls-like combat made by one of the best action game studios in the world. It made me a little suspicious that this game wasn't being marketed like a huge AAA release. I mean, Neo plus Final Fantasy doesn't sound like a game that should quietly release in the summer. Still, after Neo and Neo2, my trust in Team Ninja was sky high. But it didn't take long to realize that Strangers of Paradise was a slap together cash grab. Maybe at one point this was envisioned to be a real game, but what was actually released is something that feels like a GameStop bargain game from 2007. Graphics were like, I mean, just downright awful. With textures that look like you're playing on a PS3, everything is shimmery and just awful. And the HDR is broken. Level design in Neo isn't amazing, although it gets quite a bit better in Neo2. But in Strangers, it feels like something an intern put together. Combat is both boring and frustrating, as it sort of has souls-like combat, but enemies that have no tells and the screen is loaded with so many particle effects you can barely see what the hell is going on. The fact that there were not only reviews that said this game was decent, but even some that said it was actually good, blows my mind. Strangers of Paradise is a dreadful game. Absolutely terrible. It is not even worth $10, much less 30 hours of your time. One of the very worst games released last year and all the more disappointing because Team Ninja does a souls-like Final Fantasy game sounded so very promising. I mean, I don't know. I guess like the D team worked on this while they're working on their new China souls-like game, which is actually pretty awesome from the demo. Man, terrible. Number four, Steel Rising. Yet another double A souls-like that I was really looking forward to. Steel Rising isn't a bad game. It's got some interesting characters and an interesting premise, but it's just so janky everywhere in the design, which means it's simply not a very good game. Combat is fine, but boring. Animations are kind of weightless. Movement feels really slippery. The story is pretty bad, even though the world is really, really cool. Enemy variety is abysmal and the design of the enemies is quite annoying. Almost every enemy has a ton of health, so the game devolves into every fight being a slog against one of two different enemy types. And they all have these like crazy hyper armor moves. It just does not feel carefully designed. Bosses are interesting looking sometimes, but they're far too easy, even though many of their attack animations are not readable. Level design is actually one of the game's great strengths. And the game features proper side quests that send you back to previous maps to find an item or investigate a crime scene or talk to the marquee Lafayette. But because the combat is such a slog, making your way back through the maps is kind of tedious. Here's how you know this game was a huge disappointment. I stopped playing right before the final boss. Like, I just lost interest and like, you know, a few weeks ago I was like, oh yeah, that's right, that game. The story was not good enough to heat my interest. The progression is extremely shallow and the combat just isn't good enough to stand on its own. Steel Rising is very close to being a good game and I was looking forward to it a lot. But when all is said and done, you're left with something that's pretty forgettable. I was hoping for something that wowed me, but I ended up playing a game that had me thinking, yep, that sure is a video game. Now for the top three most disappointing games of the year. Number three, Bayonetta 3. Okay, to all you Bayonetta stands, hear me out. I love Bayonetta. I mean, I love, love, love Bayonetta 2. So other than Elden Ring and God of War, there were no other games I was more looking forward to than Bayo 3. Bayo 1 was a long time ago and going back to it now, it feels its age. But Bayonetta 2 is a timeless classic. The combat is amazing. Level design is simple, but pretty much perfect for the type of game you're playing. The characters in Bayonetta 2 are fun and interesting. And while the story is, you know, Bayonetta, it's somehow so charming and fun that the terrible fake British accents of Loki or the over the top melodrama of the plot all still works. Bayonetta 2 has really great progression with a ton of versatility in how you equip your weapons. Enemy and boss attacks are extremely readable. Everything works perfectly. You rarely get attacked from behind. The combat is challenging and precise, but forgiving enough that deaths are almost always your own fault. And when you fail to get platinum scores, it feels like you played bad rather than that the game can't handle its own mechanics. And Bayonetta 2 is a beautiful game even today. Art design is second to none. The cut scenes are just over the top ridiculous fun. Bayonetta 2 is one of my very favorite games of all time, because it feels so well designed and almost all of its compromises are so obviously related to the budget and are not designed flaws. I knew I was going on a two-week cruise this year and I kept Bayonetta 3 waiting on my switch so I could have time to savor it out in the ocean on vacation. And holy cow is Bayonetta 3 disappointing. Now listen, this is not a terrible game. It still has all the things you associate with a Bayonetta game, but none of it actually feels like a Bayonetta game. You've still got a ton of combos and different weapons, but you can only use one at a time. Bayonetta no longer has weapons strapped to her feet. That's fine. The weapons in this game are pretty cool and the animations are excellent of course, but everything outside of those weapons and animations are a big step down from the last game. Cut scenes are way less fun and are just significantly worse. The direction is worse, all of it just worse than the last game. Bayonetta feels like an entirely different person. She seems to not care about anyone or anything and that's not what she was like in the previous games. And I mean I hate to say this, but she also simply has less sex appeal in this game. The first two games were sexy, man. Somehow Bayonetta 3 feels strangely toned down in many ways. Combat is deeply frustrating as the enemy design is bad. The enemies have very poor attack tells and you're attacked from off screen constantly as new enemies spawn in with almost no warning. Bosses are massive slogs as opposed to Bayonetta 2 when they are awesome, but those are just a moment to moment issues. Bayonetta's real problem is the story is terrible and the level design is a mess. Bayo 1 and 2 were relatively linear with occasional open areas. Bayo 3 feels like it started development as an open world game and got trimmed down in production as they went over budget. Most levels are big open maps and you spend way more time doing mini games, platforming, and puzzles than you did in the earlier games, probably more than the first two games combined. Don't get me wrong, that stuff has always been in the Bayo games, but it's right up in your face this time. Every time I started to really enjoy something the game would ruin it by having me do a bunch of shitty traversal challenges or escape sequences. The combat trials in Bayo 3 are so much more frustrating than they are in Bayo 1 or Bayo 2. And having Bayonetta, who kind of became a bit of an LGBT icon, end up somehow in love with Luca, who's entire character was that he is a well-meaning idiot, is so amazingly stupid, it kind of made me angry. I don't see how anyone could have played Bayo 1 and 2 and not ended up thinking that Jean and Bayonetta were a couple and a super cool couple at that. I have so many issues with this game, man, I will do a whole video on it. Suffice it to say, Bayo 3 is easily the worst game in the series. Every single thing about it is worse than Bayonetta 2. From art design, to story, to graphics, to combat, to level design, it's just worse in every way. That's pretty damn disappointing. Number 2, Shadow Warrior 3. Many, many years ago, I played Shadow Warrior and I liked it. I didn't think it was the best shooter in the world or anything, but it was one of the better early 3D linear shooter campaigns and one of the better 3D realms games. I played the reboot in 2013 and I recall thinking it was a pretty good game, but it didn't stick in my mind all that much, but I did really love Shadow Warrior 2. Somehow, the procedural mission generation and loot in that game just worked and the combat was both quite challenging and fast-paced. The seamless mixing of melee and ranged combat and the need to switch elements to deal with different enemy weaknesses made it a totally unique game, almost like a low-budget mixture of Doom 2016 and the first Borderlands. Now, it had a bunch of issues and it's very clearly a double A game. There probably was too much loot that was the same and the story was absurd and Wang could get a little tiring after a while, but the formula itself works and wouldn't have taken much to make a better version of that game. Simply having a bit more weight to the combat, making loot a bit less overwhelming and having more handmade levels in addition to the procedural missions would have been another great game. So when I saw the trailer for Shadow Warrior 3, I was very pumped. I even went and told my son like, dude, Shadow Warrior 3. The enemy design looked great and the gore was over the top, improved graphics, a grappling hook, better animations. What more could you want? When I found out the game was ditching the procedural missions, I was a little saddened, but I was still on board. When I heard there would be no loot aspect to the game, I did get a bit nervous, but I loved the game so much and I am such a huge fan of linear FPS campaigns, so this was still one of my most highly anticipated games of the year. But when I finally got my hands on it, what we're left with is one of the most low effort shooter campaigns I have played in a long, long time. Evil West turned out to be an excellent little game and after playing them both, I am now quite convinced that Shadow Warrior 3 was released to grab some money to keep developing the game they were actually interested in making, which was Evil West. Shadow Warrior 3 is so basic and average. The levels are just like a linear stretch of one combat arena after another. It feels like something made in another game's map editor by like an amateur like me. It feels like a mod, man. And those arenas are a problem because the combat itself has all the issues of the last two games with none of the charm. It still has that problem where animations feel weightless, arenas are boring and enemies aren't interesting to fight. This might be one of the least interesting uses of a grappling hook in gaming history. Weapons are fine, but there's barely any progression at all. Shadow Warrior has never had a good story, so it needs to rely on its gameplay. Shadow Warrior 3 feels like a tiny team threw together some assets and then just stitched tiles together to make a long series of arenas without any effort to have a well-paced gameplay experience. Nothing changes. From the first arena to the end of the game, it's just the same. It's fine if you're like shooters. It's not a disaster or anything. It's worse than that. It's boring. And boring is exactly the opposite of what made the Shadow Warrior games interesting. It is also simply not funny at all. I think I have heard pretty much every dick joke that is possible in the English language, man. No amount of dick jokes can make up for boring level and combat design. What a hugely disappointing game. But hey, Evil West is really good and has all the charm and spark that the Shadow Warrior games used to have. We'd all have been better off if this game had never been made. I hope they at least made some money. 1. Salt and Sanctuary Salt and Sanctuary is one of my very favorite Souls-likes. And one of my favorite Metrobanias. In fact, it is one of the very earliest Souls-like Metroidvanias made. I think it might be the first. So when the trailer for the sequel released, I was super excited. I mean, how can you fuck it up? All that's required was remaking the first game with some quality of life improvements, maybe clean up the skill tree, add an in-game map, new levels and gear, new bosses, boom. What are the best games of the year? That's all it takes. That's all the dev had to do to be assured of making one of the year's best games. Instead, Salt and Sacrifice simultaneously changes too much while also not changing nearly enough. None of the things I wanted to see improved made it into this game. The sequel lacks all of the quality of life features I thought desperately needed to be in the game. There's still no map. Why? It's a Metroidvania. Metroidvanias have maps. It's like half the game in a Metroidvania. Oh my god. The skill tree is still amazingly awful. Just amazingly awful. So not only did the things I wanted improved not happen, many things got considerably worse. There's no map still, but the levels are even more annoying to navigate because the sequel is designed around a hub and spoke system. You're supposed to revisit levels multiple times as you unlock traversal tools, but you have no map to know where you have and have not been. I will never understand making a Metroidvania without a map. The map is a core mechanic of the genre and has been all the way back to what was that game called? Right. Metroid. And Castlevania. Both of which have maps. But the first game still worked without the map because it's relatively linear how you move through the world. You go one way, you reach the end, you go back through. It's pretty simple to know kind of which direction you've gone and which you haven't. But when you change things to have a hub world and spokes that come off it and in order to get to the next level you have to like hunt down different things, this all falls apart, man. How are you supposed to remember what area of which map had grapple points? You can't. It's just ridiculous. So what you end up doing is just wandering around the levels looking for places you didn't find sucks. And that's only the start of why I actually dislike the sequel, not just be disappointed. I don't like it. If there's one thing I don't need in my soul's likes or my Metroidvania's it is Monster Hunter. Having to chase a boss all over a level and kill it over and over and over to not only craft new gear but to actually unlock the next levels is just awful. The entire core of this game is extremely unfun. Stamina now regens even slower than the first game. The enemies have gotten faster and more frustrating while the player has gotten slower. In the first game getting juggled was a rare and very annoying thing. In the sequel, the sheer amount of time you are juggled from 100 to death is mind blowing. You will occasionally have multiple bosses on the screen juggling you from one boss to the other until you die without being able to do anything. It is terrible. Not only is the actual core of the design of the game not any fun, the combat has seemingly been surgically balanced around not being fun. Salt and Sacrifice might be the most disappointed I have ever been with the game to go from one of my favorite games of all time to a game I stopped playing four levels in is a tremendous failure. It turned out that 2022 was a year of disappointments for me. Even the games I loved disappointed me like Elden Ring and God of War. And then a bunch of games I was really looking forward to ended up being mediocre or bad. And then the very best games of the year all had extremely frustrating design elements that prevented them from being the all time classics they could have been. And 2022 had a bunch of other real life stuff that sucked. So here's to hoping 2023 has some pleasant surprises for once. Man 2022, bury it dude. Alright, that's it. Thanks for coming. I'll see you next time. Bye.