What’s the Worst Game of 2022?

Not every game released is going to set the world on fire. Some will be more disappointing than expected. Others could be downright unplayable. So, as we wrap up our game of the year talks for 2022 at Siliconera, we decided to each reveal what the worst games we played were.

It is fresh in my mind, because I just had to play it, but Samurai Maiden. D3 Publisher titles are a guilty pleasure for me, and this one left me disappointed in so many ways. The script is terrible. The controls weren’t precise enough. I didn’t like how combo and special attack unlocking worked. The enemies were incredibly generic. It felt like a genuine chore to play. If it had been a $20 title, I could have lived with it. But it being a $60 really bothered me too. — Jenni

I feel like as I continue to review games, there’s always that one that either absolutely destroys my PC, is just middling, flat out awful, or all three. And The Callisto Protocol is that.

Not only did it absolutely destroy my PC resolution after several crashes, which forced me to hard restart my PC, but the combat is a slog and the story is unmemorable. The enemy designs are blasé and totally forgettable, and it feels like a clunky retread of PS3-era horror games like Silent Hill: Homecoming. It’s just not great from the foundation upward, technical issues aside. — Kazuma

All of the games that came out in 2022 that I personally played had some charm or otherwise redeeming factor to it, except for one game that I would have forgotten about if not for its mention at The Game Awards: Tower of Fantasy. I’m not sure how the game is now after most people abandoned it in favor of the major Sumeru update in Genshin Impact, but when I played it, Tower of Fantasy was an ugly and boring mess. On paper, the story could have been interesting, but in practice, it was impossible to sit through.

Granted, a lot of my ire towards Tower of Fantasy had a lot to do with things outside of the game as well. Some of the things that the development team did (from the Chinese ID controversy to stealing reviews) left a bad taste in my mouth, and the general discussion around it online gave it a fairly bad reputation. Perhaps Tower of Fantasy isn’t doing too bad for itself right now, but as it stands, I personally consider it to be the worst game I played in 2022. — Stephanie

It’s in my nature to try to find something to like about anything I play, and I’m pretty forgiving of almost any game I’m not professionally obligated to review. I also don’t enjoy “hate-playing,” which means I usually have little to say when the time comes to throw shade at our least favorite titles. That said, it was more challenging to find that grace for Babylon’s Fall, a game that, on most levels, seemed like a bad idea PlatinumGames just couldn’t abandon in the womb. The game’s inability to muster that sense of motivation and bald-faced chase of live service design trends reminded me of the bad old days of the PS3 era, when global developers aped cover-based shooting games like Gears of War in an attempt to come to grips with era’s market-leading designs. The results often felt like inept facsimiles that lacked understanding of why things work the way they do.

Perhaps given more time, Babylon’s Fall could’ve been dragged into the realm of being competent enough to attract a lasting player base. Service games tend to be given many such chances. Unfortunately, Square Enix didn’t seem willing to wait, and the game is now due to shut down in February. I’m not so cold as to say “good riddance”, but I’d be lying if I said I’d regret seeing it gone. Platinum hasn’t given up on the prospects of service games, so I’ll leave things on the note that I hope that they take away some positive lessons for the next go-around. — Josh

Related: Worst Games of 2022 According to Metacritic on Destructoid