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15 Video Games That Nobody Defends Anymore

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

Gaming - August 4th 2026, 22:00 GMT+2

15. Haze (2008)

Before release, *Haze* was saddled with the unenviable job of becoming the PlayStation 3’s answer to *Halo*. Free Radical had a genuinely sharp hook: corporate soldiers use Nectar to enhance their abilities while the drug literally hides the human cost of their violence. Then the campaign switched allegiances and did remarkably little with it. Muddy visuals, dim enemy AI, weightless shooting, and dialogue resembling a military-shooter parody left a fascinating premise trapped inside a thoroughly forgettable FPS. | © Ubisoft

Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe — 14. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe (2008)

Putting Sub-Zero across from Superman sounded like playground perfection, but the licensing compromise drained much of the mischief from both sides. A Teen rating meant restrained Fatalities, DC heroes received bloodless “Heroic Brutalities,” and the story welded Darkseid to Shao Kahn to create the magnificently silly Dark Kahn. Freefall Kombat and Klose Kombat supplied novelty without much depth. Its DNA later resurfaced in far better NetherRealm fighters, leaving this crossover remembered mostly as an awkward rehearsal for *Mortal Kombat* and *Injustice*. | © Midway Games

Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5 — 13. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (2015)

The “5” in the title invited direct comparison with one of gaming’s most dependable arcade series, which was bold considering the state of the finished product. Skaters fell through levels, physics launched them into the scenery, and the new slam mechanic shared a button with grinding—an astonishing way to sabotage years of muscle memory. Even its enormous launch update could not disguise barren parks and recycled objectives. Rather than reviving Tony Hawk, this broken sequel briefly made the entire franchise feel unsafe to touch. | © Activision

God of war ascension appreciation v0 amr5905jhbke1 — 12. God Of War: Ascension (2013)

Calling *God of War: Ascension* a bad action game would be dishonest; its opening battle across the living Hecatonchires still embarrasses productions made on newer hardware. The trouble is that Kratos had already completed a thunderous Greek trilogy, and this prequel supplied weaker villains, a tangled story, and another rage-fueled detour that felt narratively unnecessary. The series’ first multiplayer mode was more accomplished than expected, but it also became the feature everyone politely stopped mentioning. Technically impressive yet creatively winded, *Ascension* was franchise fatigue rendered at enormous expense. | © Sony Computer Entertainment

Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 — 11. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (2010)

*The Force Unleashed II* resurrected Starkiller as a possible clone, which doubled as a convenient excuse to undo the first game’s strongest ending. Dual lightsabers and cleaner controls made combat flashier, yet the campaign recycled enemies and environments so aggressively that Force-pushing stormtroopers eventually began to resemble office work. Roughly five hours after it started, the story stopped on a cliffhanger and pointed players toward challenge rooms for replay value. This was not an expansion, but it often possessed the imagination—and running time—of one. | © LucasArts

10. Saints Row (2022)

Rebooting *Saints Row* without the old Saints was already a gamble; replacing them with a cheerful start-up of criminal roommates made the identity crisis impossible to ignore. Santo Ileso looked colorful, but its missions, traffic, shooting, and side hustles belonged to an older generation of open-world design, while launch bugs supplied chaos the script could not. Its jokes strained for relatability instead of danger or absurdity. Volition closed during Embracer’s restructuring the following year, giving this failed fresh start an especially grim epilogue. | © Deep Silver

9. The Callisto Protocol (2022)

*The Callisto Protocol* had the lighting, sound design, creature effects, and expensive facial animation of a prestige horror blockbuster. Unfortunately, Black Iron Prison kept funneling that craftsmanship into combat built around alternating directions on the analog stick. One-on-one encounters could feel brutally physical; crowds exposed the camera, targeting, and dodge mechanics as a wrestling match inside a broom closet. A thin story and limited enemy variety did the rest, while the superb *Dead Space* remake arrived weeks later and demonstrated how much tension this spiritual successor had misplaced. | © KRAFTON

8. Metal Gear Survive (2018)

*Metal Gear Survive* entered the room carrying two pieces of baggage: it was Konami’s first console *Metal Gear* after Hideo Kojima’s departure, and it turned his stealth sandbox into a zombie survival game set in another dimension. Reusing *The Phantom Pain*’s excellent movement should have been a free win. Instead, hunger meters, resource grinding, an always-online requirement, and spear-poking through fences smothered the decent cooperative ideas underneath. Charging roughly $10 for an additional character slot then transformed ordinary resentment into performance art. | © Konami Digital Entertainment

7. Gotham Knights (2022)

*Gotham Knights* begins by killing Batman, then spends the remaining campaign demonstrating how much more exciting Gotham was when he lived there. Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood have distinct fighting styles, but spongey enemies, color-coded loot, repetitive street crimes, and traversal abilities buried behind checklists turn superhero patrol into unpaid administration. Launching at 30 frames per second on consoles only sharpened comparisons with the older *Batman: Arkham Knight*. Cooperative play offered some fun, yet every promising idea appeared handcuffed to an RPG system nobody had requested. | © Warner Bros. Games

Marvels Avengers — 6. Marvel's Avengers (2020)

*Marvel’s Avengers* briefly looked like it understood the assignment. Kamala Khan’s campaign had warmth, the heroes felt distinct in combat, and smashing robots as Hulk delivered the expected dopamine. Then the credits exposed the real structure: repeated AIM corridors, barely visible gear upgrades, multiple currencies, and a live-service grind that treated Earth’s Mightiest Heroes like employees clocking into the same warehouse. New characters arrived too slowly to sustain that model, official development ended, and digital sales stopped. Even Captain America could not assemble a satisfying endgame from that inventory screen. | © Square Enix

5. Skull and Bones (2024)

After nearly a decade of delays, *Skull and Bones* finally sailed in carrying a $70 price tag and Ubisoft’s instantly immortal “quadruple-A” description. Its naval combat could be satisfying, but at at launch, a pirate fantasy without sword fights, explorable ships, or playable boarding felt strangely landlocked. Gathering materials, managing gear scores, and repeating live-service contracts soon replaced any fantasy of becoming Blackbeard. The awkward truth was waiting in Ubisoft’s own catalog: *Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag* had delivered a richer pirate adventure more than ten years earlier. | © Ubisoft

Aliens Colonial Marines — 4. Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)

The Xenomorph should be an easy monster to make frightening: keep it fast, intelligent, and mostly out of sight. *Aliens: Colonial Marines* instead sent rubbery aliens jogging into walls beneath lighting and textures dramatically poorer than its promotional demo. A notorious misspelling in an AI configuration file later became the perfect mascot for the whole production, even if correcting it could not repair the campaign. Weak gunplay, clumsy cooperative staging, and years of finger-pointing over development turned an official *Aliens* sequel into a cautionary tale about pre-release footage. | © SEGA

Mass Effect Andromeda — 3. Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)

The memes made *Mass Effect: Andromeda*’s failure look simpler than it was. Yes, stiff expressions and the infamous “my face is tired” dialogue became instant internet currency, but patches could not fix the bland Kett, repetitive vaults, checklist-heavy planets, or choices that rarely carried Shepard-era weight. Ryder’s jet-assisted combat was arguably the series’ best, and the Nomad made exploration pleasantly breezy; they belonged to a stronger game. Single-player support ended without story DLC, leaving the quarian ark—and Andromeda’s hoped-for future—to be resolved outside the game. | © Electronic Arts

2. Duke Nukem Forever (2011)

*Duke Nukem Forever* spent fourteen years changing engines and chasing whatever shooters had become, only to emerge as a museum of incompatible design decisions. It paired old-school enemies and toilet jokes with regenerating health, a two-weapon limit, sluggish platforming, and long corridor crawls—neither a proper throwback nor a convincing modern FPS. Duke’s swagger had also curdled; material once sold as knowingly trashy now landed as merely tiresome. Finishing gaming’s most famous vaporware was a genuine production achievement. Playing it felt like opening a time capsule someone had forgotten to seal. | © 2K Games

Cropped Anthem — 1. Anthem (2019)

*Anthem* had one of the best flight systems ever put into a third-person shooter, then built almost nothing worth flying toward. BioWare’s gorgeous world concealed a thin campaign, repetitive contracts, baffling loot, long loading screens, and an endgame that ran out of reasons to exist almost immediately. The promised *Anthem NEXT* overhaul kept hope alive until development was canceled, leaving defenders to praise its potential rather than the actual product. When the servers shut down permanently, its great comeback fantasy finally went offline with them. | © Electronic Arts

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Gamers can forgive almost anything when a beloved franchise is involved. A broken launch becomes “misunderstood,” a baffling sequel gets blamed on impossible expectations, and somebody always insists the critics were too harsh. Time has not been nearly as charitable to these infamous video games, however. Years later, even their old defenses have gone quiet—and replaying them makes it painfully clear why.

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Gamers can forgive almost anything when a beloved franchise is involved. A broken launch becomes “misunderstood,” a baffling sequel gets blamed on impossible expectations, and somebody always insists the critics were too harsh. Time has not been nearly as charitable to these infamous video games, however. Years later, even their old defenses have gone quiet—and replaying them makes it painfully clear why.