That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video

Perhaps it happened to you under the Christmas tree yourself this year: You enthusiastically unpack the parcel from your loved one, your parents or someone else, look forward to this one gift that you are sure you will get: And then suddenly instead of the Playstation 5 you have a 50-pack of socks and instead of The Last of Us Part 2 you have the good old Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge.

Table of contents

1 Cyberpunk 2077 2 Bleeding Edge 3 Port Royale 4 4 ​​Minecraft Dungeons 5 Torchlight 3 6 NBA 2K21 7 Crysis Remastered 8 Project Cars 3 9 Warcraft 3: Reforged 10 Marvel's Avengers Yes, disappointments are omnipresent, and unsurprisingly this also applies to game announcements. A long-awaited title appears, only to then fail to meet the high expectations. Of course there were plenty of these good mood dampers again in 2020. We'll tell you our top 10 most disappointing games here.

To classify: Just because a game has disappointed doesn't necessarily mean that it is terribly bad. You can find these games in a separate article on our website.

Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt Red | December 10, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox One

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video (2) Source: PC Games Hardly anyone would have expected a few weeks ago to find Cyberpunk 2077 in a list of the most disappointing games of 2020, and yet we are here now. Of course we don't mean the PC version. It definitely has its quirks, such as bugs and AI dropouts, but in principle works quite well. No, we're talking about the versions for Playstation 4 and Xbox One, which prove: Advance praise is rarely a good idea. It was clear to everyone that the most anticipated game of the year would not look as good on the outdated boxes as it would on a high-performance computer. Such a technical debacle was not in sight. Cyberpunk on consoles is riddled with bugs, likes to crash, the graphical performance has been scaled back to such an extent that you are reminded of the PS3 era and the bustling, lively game world of the PC version is terrifyingly empty here.
< You can now talk shop a lot and argue that the problems mainly occur on the basic consoles and would not come into play on PS4 Pro, Xbox One X or PS5 and Xbox Series X, for example: What developer CD Projekt Red is here has delivered is still absolutely unacceptable. And trying to hide the state of the console sockets for more launch sales by only giving out the PC version for testing prior to release only makes the situation worse. After the massive crunch allegations in recent years and now this story, CD Projekt Red's good reputation has definitely been scratched. It is to be hoped that the next-gen versions of Cyberpunks for PS5 and Xbox Series X, which will be released in 2021, will make up some ground here and that patches will fix the worst errors in the versions for PS4 and Xbox One.

Bleeding Edge

Ninja Theory | March 24, 2020 | PC, Xbox One

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest gaming disappointments of 2020 - with video (3) Source: PC Games What do you think of when you hear the name of the British studio Ninja Theory? Well, probably mainly on heavily written and staged single player adventures. With Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DMC: Devil May Cry and last but not least Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, they have earned an excellent reputation. Instead of relying on these strengths, Ninja Theory published Bleeding Edge as the first title after the acquisition by Microsoft: a nicely meant, but only moderately well-made hero multiplayer title in the style of Overwatches. Instead of shooting, however, it is primarily cut here. To put it nicely: you notice that the strengths of the studio are elsewhere. The scope is small, the maps are lifeless and boring, the long-term motivation is wanting to end. With the name Ninja Theory comes a certain expectation, and even if Bleeding Edge didn't really hurt a lot of players in the end, it was a disappointment from this point of view. We'd rather wait for Senua's saga: Hellblade 2.

Port Royale 4

Gaming Minds Studios | September 25, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video (4) Source: PC Games During the development and when playing in advance, Port Royale 4 made one pretty good impression. The economic system pleased, as did the turn-based sea battles and the promise of a varied campaign. In practice, the seafaring adventure doesn't do anything drastically wrong, but all of these individual aspects are not enough to ensure a satisfying, motivating gaming experience. Most importantly, there is just too much idle. Nothing happens over long stretches, endless sea routes lined up with endless sea routes with only very irregular action in between. Added to this are unintuitive menu navigation, error-prone controls and other minor and major flaws. Port Royale 4 is good enough for that little seafaring kick in between, but nothing more.

Minecraft Dungeons

Mojang / Double Eleven | May 26, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video (5) Source: PC Games What if Diablo, but blocky? That was probably the thought of the developers when they started working on Minecraft Dungeons. Well, the result is exactly that: a short, ridiculously simple or neatly challenging hack & slash with Minecraft skin, depending on the selected difficulty level. So far, so good, but unfortunately also so uninspired. Sure, this thing is nice for Minecraft mega fans, especially because of the numerous references to the main game. Minecraft Dungeons just doesn't do anything that we haven't seen many times better in countless games. In the meantime there are several expansions for the adventure, which do not bring any fresh ideas, but just more of the same. You can't go wrong with Minecraft Dungeons, but you will have forgotten about it ten minutes after the credits roll. The fascination of the template does not even begin to come into its own.

Torchlight 3

Echtra Games | October 13, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest gaming disappointments of 2020 - with video (6) Source: Echtra Games What went wrong? After the two predecessors were showered with top ratings, the third part unfortunately falls massively. This is mainly due to the fact that the developers have decided to streamline the series with the new adventure. The role-playing elements have been reduced and in some cases completely abolished, most of the time the gameplay just boils down to walking around and knocking out enemies. It's fun, but it's also pretty insignificant. In a market where games of a very similar design are constantly handing each other, that is simply not enough. As in some of the other games that we will mention in this video, too often extensive grind is assumed. This may be explained by the fact that Torchlight 3 was originally planned as a mobile spin-off, which was then remodeled into a normal game, but does not excuse this fact.

NBA 2K21

Visual Concepts | September 4, 2020 | PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video (7) Source: PC Games NBA 2K21 is a great basketball game, there there is nothing to be avoided. What happens on the pitch feels even better than in the previous year thanks to adjustments in detail. However: With everything that happens around the basketball gameplay, the developers have ended up in the manure bucket. The game is riddled with microtransactions that are only seemingly optional. If you are not willing to invest countless hours in grinding, you will not see a country here without real money. Thankfully, the real money shop is constantly and very aggressively advertised. There are also nested menus, an uninteresting story mode and the fact that as the owner of one of the new consoles, you are not allowed to take over your last-gen version of your player. If you really want to play virtual basketball, you will find an excellent implementation here, but the packaging is more than just questionable.

Crysis Remastered

The Game Designers Studio | September 18, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest gaming disappointments of 2020 - with video (8) Source: PCGH We are deliberately not talking about the Switch version of Crysis Remastered at this point . Because even if it doesn't look as good as the original game, it's impressive that the developers have managed to port the shooter so well to the hybrid console. No, the disappointment surprisingly comes along on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. When the original Crysis came out in 2007, it was an extremely hardware-hungry graphics monster that looks comparatively good even today. Ergo, they expected more from the remaster than just a half-hearted implementation. The performance on the PC is really weak, on the consoles you have to struggle with technical problems, regardless of whether in graphics or performance mode. In terms of play, the title is still fun, but several DLC content is missing in addition to the multiplayer. You should really have expected that as a fan.

Project Cars 3

Slightly Mad Studios | August 28, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox One

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video (9) Source: PC Games Slightly Mad Studios wanted with the first Project Cars one day no less than the world to revolutionize simulation racing games. Well, that didn't quite work out, as there were clearly more realistic and better representatives of the genre. Speed ​​fun was definitely a very good title, as was the successor. But then came Project Cars 3. And even if it is essentially a good racing game, fans of the two predecessors are already deliberately alienated. It just doesn't feel like a sequel in any way. The driving experience has been drastically changed towards arcade accessibility, the new game modes and the structure of the career make only limited sense and you can see at every nook and cranny that an attempt was made here to create an egg-laying woolly milk pig, which in the end did not make anyone really happy . There are also annoying grinds, a strangely acting enemy AI and technical inadequacies. We hope to return to our old strengths in Part 4.

Warcraft 3: Reforged

Blizzard Entertainment / Lemon Sky Studios | January 28, 2020 | PC

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest gaming disappointments of 2020 - with video (10) Source: PC Games Since Blizzard gave up its independence and became part of Activision, the studio has been repeatedly accused by fans To have lost the once extremely good connection to the community and to place quick profits over quality and the principles that were previously upheld. With developments like Warcraft 3 Reforged in view, it's hard to ignore some change at Blizzard. Instead of a nice new edition with meaningful improvements, there was an old-fashioned look, a worse multiplayer, an unimpressive presentation and even missing features compared to the original. We haven't even mentioned the recently added bugs. That's why Reforged is not a bad game, but far from what was promised and what fans expected and almost a step backwards compared to the original.

Marvel's Avengers

Crystal Dynamics | September 4, 2020 | PC, PS4, Xbox One

That was probably nothing: The 10 biggest game disappointments of 2020 - with video (11) Source: PC Games When Square Enix announced Marvel's Avengers one day, all signs were pointing to a hit: One of the largest licenses of our time, with Crystal Dynamics, which developed Legacy of Kain and the Tomb Raider Reboot, an established studio: Nothing could go wrong! Well, in the end everything failed because of this "actually", because after the unveiling at E3 2019, the assembled players were expecting a classic single-player adventure. That was always the strength of Crystal Dynamics up until then, and Marvel's Spider-Man hadn't proven all that long before what a great single player experience the Marvel license can bring. Presumably it was some top manager in the Square Enix offices with dollar signs in their eyes who decided that was not enough and that it would just as well need a games-as-a-service model to get the last one To squeeze cents out of the fan base.

The result: A nice, half-heartedly cobbled together single-player campaign, an inflated, extremely unhappy online part that swallowed up a large part of the resources, moderate reviews, a disappointed and angry player base and Sales that were way, way below what was forecast. Star Wars Battlefront 2 had already proven that even a giant brand can fail due to poor quality and cheeky business methods; Marvel's Avengers had learned exactly nothing from this example.

Which games did not meet your expectations in 2020? Tell us in the comments!

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