The 5 Most Disappointing Games of 2016

2016 was one heck of a year for gaming, but not every title hit it big. Whether they failed to deliver on promises, shipped out in an unfinished state, or just didn’t satisfy, the following five games were downright disappointing in our eyes.

The 5 Most Disappointing Games of 2016

2016’s wait for Final Fantasy XV was downright agonizing. Even though Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness tried to satiate JRPG fans, it simply failed to deliver. Its plot was rife with genre cliches and forced character development, leaving a bad taste in our mouths. This is made even worse with the copious amount of backtracking required, no doubt done to pad out its short 20-hour runtime. With this title, it felt like Square-Enix and tri-ace lost touch with what made the series popular in the first place.

As a mainline title for the popular fighting game series, Capcom certainly hoped to make it big with Street Fighter V. Though its “back to basics” approach translated to new characters, stages, and even fundamentals, the house of Ryu made things a little too simple this time around. The game launched in a buggy state with a paltry 16 characters, no arcade mode, and a story mode consisting of some amateur hand-drawn stills.

The game has seen some noticeable improvements since its launch in February, but it left a nasty first impression.

You can read our review here.

The spiritual successor to 2013’s Mars: War Logs, The Technomancer’s sci-fi aesthetics and political plot was undermined by some questionable design choices. Combat boils down to a choreographed dodge-dodge-attack dance, while sidequest objectives are intentionally spread out to pad the game’s length. It’s a shame too, because a bit more polish could have made The Technomancer really shine.

You can read our review here.

Hello Games made some big promises with their open-world exploration title No Man’s Sky, but failed to deliver on almost all of them. The downgraded graphics were just the start – things like the inability to meet other players and lack of procedurally generated alien intelligence really stung. The company recently released a patch for the title, but the current build is still a far cry from what it could have been.

Although Homefront: The Revolution was an admirable attempt to revive the series, the development team at Dambuster Studios really dropped the ball. The game pays host to a huge list of technical problems, poor AI, bugs, glitches and broken missions, making it seem like the game was not ready for release. Put simply, Homefront: The Revolution is collection of good ideas ruined by a rushed release, lack of polish, and a hugely disappointing technical performance.

You can read our review here.