In addition to the joy and pleasure of cool new games, we also experienced annoyance, hatred, and other negative emotions from disappointing projects. You understood correctly - this material features the main outsiders of 2025 according to our editors!
Monster Hunter Wilds — Maxim Dragan
Monster Hunter is one of those series where my relationship is like a roller coaster. I like it here, not there. Now I'm screaming with delight during a victory over a huge dragon, and a couple of minutes later I feel sick from having to prepare for another hunt in a dreary way. Unequivocal, to say the least.
And I was afraid to approach the new part for a long time. I was delighted with Monster Hunter Rise — it was smaller, but more concise and richer. And most importantly, it knew when to leave. No more than half an hour for preparation and hunting, and you can go about your business. But World, like Wilds, are already full-fledged parts of the series that you need to devote yourself entirely to, forgetting about the rest of your life if you want to achieve something.
And in the fifth hour of playing Wilds, I had a misunderstanding: why am I doing this? I'm bored, tedious, and uninteresting to go to the same monster again and again to increase my strength level for new contracts or story missions. I'm tired of running through the monotonous orange desert, occasionally replaced by dirty green canyons. This stupid armor and weapon design, hyper-exaggerated in an anime style, hurts my eyes!
Yes, 5 hours is ridiculous for a definite verdict. But if the above can be loved or tolerated, at least for research purposes, then the disgusting optimization of the game cannot be forgiven. Poor CAPCOM is already tearfully begging players to come back and promises to improve, but the developers are only making Wilds worse. The latest patch cut the graphics so that the project would somehow work at 60 frames on powerful PCs. Shame on your Japanese heads! Give us Rise 2 for Switch 2!
Battlefield 6 Story Campaign — run.code
As good as the multiplayer mode in Battlefield 6 is, the story campaign in the new shooter is just as disgusting.
No one will argue that sometimes you can allow various conventions for the sake of spectacle, turn a blind eye to the lack of logic, and forgive script holes in the hope that the game will later correct itself and give a clearer explanation of what is happening. In the case of the campaign in Battlefield 6, almost everything consists of conventions – action for the sake of action. What? Who? Why? It doesn't matter. The heroes will bulge their eyes, deliver loud, but completely empty speeches.
Completing the story mode will take only a few hours, but these will be the most aimlessly spent hours of your life. Faceless heroes trying to complete almost meaningless tasks. The final twist in the spirit of "the killer is the butler" puts an end to the desire to see a sequel, which the game unequivocally hints at. You will simply sit in front of the screen, experiencing anger, disappointment, and frustration at the same time, from the fact that you decided to spend your time on this.
There is no doubt that the campaign was made on the change from multiplayer and only to justify the price tag of $70. It seems that not only AI worked on it, but after it no one fixed anything — they took it as is. Anyway, people will spend more time in multiplayer.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — George Petrovich
The first part of Death Stranding is one of my favorite games. At least because it's the first game I played on the iPad with my daughter. The second part promised to be a real family event.
When the final credits rolled and my daughter realized what Uncle Sam had done in the end, the little childish happiness turned into real dancing on her dad's neck. At that moment, it seemed that Death Stranding 2 was the best game in the world, because no other game gave so many emotions in the finale. And then came the aftertaste. And the realization that these emotions were provided not by the game, but by your child's reaction.
But what did the game itself leave behind? The feeling of an unnecessary sequel. Don't get me wrong, Death Stranding 2 is a wonderful work. It takes all the best from the first part and elevates it to the absolute. The technical execution is truly delightful. Everything is good in the game, except for the question "WHY?".
The problem with the sequel is that Hideo Kojima said everything he could and wanted in the first game. The original is a complete work that does not require explanation. The plot of the second part feels like a wrung-out rag. Drops are also water, but it is not enough to quench your thirst. Are there emotional moments? Absolutely. Great directing? Of course. But it's hard to empathize with a plot whose main intrigue is guessed in 15 minutes. And for all 40 hours, the viewer is made a fool.
But the sequel is not only guilty of the plot. The first part divided the community: you either accepted it or categorically rejected it. In the second part, they tried to please everyone, but the opposite effect occurred. The original gave an incredible sense of satisfaction from overcoming unbearable conditions. In the sequel, they became even tougher, but from the start the game gives you a choice: you loved to suffer — suffer even more; you didn't like it — here's an all-terrain motorcycle and a bunch of weapons.
Naturally, when you have a choice, you prefer not to suffer, which destroys all the efforts of the developers. The second part has lost the feeling of exhausting overcoming, because any route can be driven with a breeze, knocking down all enemies along the way. The game still won't punish you for this.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Story Campaign — Mikhail Shkredov
On December 21, 2025, it became known that the famous developer Vince Zampella died in a car accident. This terrible event for the industry made us remember his greatest contribution to the shooter genre. He was one of the creators of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the first parts of Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 1 and 2, as well as Titanfall 2. All these games have one thing in common — they knew how to surprise. They put the player in difficult situations and gave bright emotions. Some scenes from Zampella's projects have become iconic. His teams understood better than anyone how to make staged shooters.
The story campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is also surprising and shocking. True, in the worst sense. To say that you have a bad neural network in front of you is to insult neural networks. To call the Black Ops 7 campaign a "creative bankruptcy" is to insult the words "creative" and "bankruptcy."
This shapeless mess of clumsy references, travels into the subconscious of the heroes, and battles with huge bosses evokes only sadness. Is it possible for modern studios to sink to such a bottom? It turns out they can. It turns out that they are able to collect levels from pieces of multiplayer maps again and again, mindlessly dumping enemies — without staging, without meaning, without any idea.
Once, launching the plot of Call of Duty, you understood that the creators had prepared something cool for you. Now you understand that the developers have once again refuted the phrase "there is nowhere lower to fall."
Genshin Impact 6.0 — Mikhail Kazachkin
The history of TV series and games knows many "leaked" endings. The reasons are different — creative differences, tight deadlines, a change of team — but the result is almost always the same: disappointed fans and the loss of cult status, if it even managed to take shape.
The release of version 6.0 was supposed to be the epoch-making completion of the five-year saga promised back in 2020. A journey through the seven regions of Teyvat, a fairy-tale world, dozens of characters with deep stories — all this seemed to have to come together in a single, multi-layered meta-plot. But now it is obvious: initially, this plot existed only in the form of general sketches. The screenwriters were given freedom at each stage, without being tied to a clear ending. And when it came time to write it — it turned out that there was nothing to finish.
The scraps of the plot turned out to be too disjointed, and HoYoverse, it seems, still does not understand how to assemble them into a coherent mosaic. Instead, the developers introduce a rapid technological leap — the "western" civilizations of Teyvat unexpectedly move to mechanization and industry. This is explained by the influence of the Travelers' starship, which arrived in this world many centuries ago. This is how Genshin Impact turns from a fairy-tale fantasy into a techno-fantasy.
But was it worth doing? Let's remember the Might and Magic series, and especially Heroes of Might and Magic III. Did many players then see alien ships and high technology in these universes? No, they believed in mages and dragons. And when they tried to add the "Forge" faction with its obvious techno bias to HoMM III, the community rejected it, despite the fact that it "fit" into the lore.
The same here: the contrast between Nod-Krai 6.0 and Mondstadt from version 1.0 is shocking - and not in a good way. Yes, the gameplay mechanics work flawlessly. But you don't want to play anymore. Genshin Impact 6.0 is no longer the game that millions fell in love with in 2020. And this is the main disappointment of the year.
Destiny: Rising — Михаил Казачкин
2025 was not rich in major mobile game releases. Against this background, Destiny: Rising had every chance to be noticed not only by fans of the franchise, but also by an army of millions of players on smartphones. The start of a successful game instantly generates a wave of discussions. And if Rising had succeeded, we would now have one of the best releases of the year.
Instead, we got a rapid outflow of the audience by the time of the first update and the standard promises of the developers to fix everything. But it seems that the game cannot be saved.
Formally created according to all the patterns, Rising fails in the main thing - in the feeling of gameplay. Personally, the shooting seemed primitive and uninspired to me, unworthy of the level of NetEase, which cannot be called a newcomer to the market. Although the Chinese giant does not have many of its own franchises, its experience in licensed projects is enormous. How it was possible to make the key mechanics of a shooter so weak is incomprehensible.
But in addition to the controversial shooting, the game has other problems: a faceless plot, ridiculous AI, monotonous level design, as well as a strange visual style of the characters. And, as a cherry on top, a gacha mechanic in a game with PvP zones. The developers claim that the gacha does not give an advantage and there is no pay-to-win. Perhaps this is the case so far. But the very idea of combining gacha and a competitive component is inherently vicious.
Metal Gear Solid Delta — Виталий Казунов
A big mistake is to re-release a PS2-era game with modern graphics in 2025, with micro-levels and a lot of technical limitations. It looked strange even 20 years ago, but now... Primitive as it is.
Once Hideo Kojima wanted to make a game about survival in the jungle (don't ask), so the hero hunts animals, puts meat in his inventory and chomps it right in battle. You can also use camouflage, climb trees, drown in mud, attract enemies with stomach rumbling, and one of the bosses can simply die of old age. The list of jokes can be continued for a long time. The problem is that the game does not force you to use it, and its structure is outdated.
Tiny arenas, stupid enemies, linearity. You can simply run through the levels from one checkpoint to another to watch the scene and continue on your way. If you are noticed and an alarm is raised, it doesn't matter. It is enough to reach the loading screen of the next location, and the pursuit will magically stop.
A separate line is the specific plot. Double and triple agents, clown bosses from a traveling circus, inappropriate references to previous parts (despite the fact that this is a prequel). In addition, there is inconvenient control and poor optimization.
Metal Gear Solid 3 failed to make a splash in the hit-rich 2004. Now the remake is out... And it was immediately forgotten, reminding only of the disappointment of 20 years ago.
Silent Hill f — Максим Драган
The most offensive disappointment usually happens when you are really looking forward to something. You come up with something, fantasize, and in the end you get... Silent Hill f.
And the idea of placing the game in Japan in the 1960s is not so bad. Silent Hill is not always and not so much a city as a purgatory where sinners pay for the horrors they have committed. And this concept personally hooked me until the very release, and in combination with the surreal art design of the local monsters, covered with sprouts of some unknown plant, it sold the game altogether!
However, problems started as soon as I launched the game. What kind of heroine is this? Why does she behave like a half-rotten log in dialogues, does not express any emotions, is not surprised by what is happening, and if she does break down, she does it deliberately in a Japanese way! As if Johnny Stereotype worked on the script, not Ryukishi07. In short: I don't believe it!
And the further I moved, the more questions and inconsistencies arose. I'm not even talking about the completely crooked and inconvenient combat system - this is a disease of all games in the series, part of the atmosphere. The main problem is that Silent Hill f needs to be completed 3 or 4 times in order to put the plot puzzle together. Do you know what this is called? A talentless script and creative impotence, when the story needs to be stretched over 3-4 playthroughs. Just like in Nier: Automata!
Avowed — Виталий Казунов
It's hard to understand how the famous Obsidian studio (creators of Fallout New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, Pillars of Eternity 1-2) could have created this. The veterans of the role-playing genre under the wing of Microsoft once presented a trailer for the game in the style of The Elder Scrolls. Dark fantasy, first-person view, swords and magic. Everyone is delighted. Later we were shown gameplay footage of Avowed - the art design became much worse, but we were promised that it would be a deep role-playing game with the ability to play a real villain with the appropriate ending.
And then Avowed came out. And disappointed. Much is explained by the fact that the developers initially made a cooperative action game, and then abruptly changed course and began to pull the logic of a classic RPG onto this skeleton. Dialogues with forks that lead nowhere. Villainy happens, but often behind the scenes - in a couple of lines of text. You just go forward along the gut of the level, simultaneously pulling their stories out of the boring companions. The plot seems bland, and the world seems like a decoration. The main character with a mushroom on his head (if you choose such a race) looks comical at all.
The battles are not bad, but they quickly get boring. The weapon almost does not change - in the new chapter you just find materials to upgrade the sword to a conditionally "epic" status and beat "epic" monsters. And since resources are given strictly according to the plot, there is no point in exploring levels in search of secrets.
Finally, the game is simply visually repulsive - another plastic world on Unreal Engine 5, as if painted with bright colors without a sense of proportion. The game has no face of its own. This is a banal fantasy that is ten years late.
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream — Эдуард Эпштейн
This game made a lot of noise in 2025 - not as much as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Dispatch, but enough. In this regard, I decided to check what it is. And what did I get?
But I got a very weak project. The plot here is banal and stupid: it tries to reveal various themes — from the problem of social inequality to the thirst for revenge — but each time it switches to the next question, forgetting about the previous one. What's the point? They should have chosen one thing and delved into it!
The gameplay is just as bad: it's a banal stealth puzzle that assumes only one solution. It would be okay if you just had to think of it — that's normal. But no, often this single solution is executed very poorly: sometimes you have to perform actions with jeweler's precision, hitting the right pixel. Make a slight mistake — start over! Fortunately, at least the save points are scattered in abundance.
The only thing that can be praised in the game is the atmosphere: the locations are beautifully drawn, the music immerses you in what is happening, and the overall picture quality is sometimes higher than in major blockbusters. It's just a pity that all this good stuff costs too much — 2500 rubles. Seriously?
Of Ash and Steel — Максим Иванов
It's easy to criticize frankly bad games – you scold them and forget about them. It's much more difficult when a game has many positive elements that bring pleasure. Of Ash and Steel boasts an unusual world, well-developed characters, and the fact that the developers clearly tried when working with the mechanics.
The execution spoils everything. You constantly experience disappointment during the most banal activities. Attempts to find the goal of the task, battles, leveling, and collecting resources are annoying. One of the most frequent complaints is the late receipt of the map, and these complaints are justified — the territory is huge, and there are few good landmarks.
It gets even worse due to the raw state of the game: many merchants and craftsmen are either absent or not in their workplaces; quests break due to bugs; clearing complex camps does not reward you properly. In addition, you have to endure the poor technical condition, when the game turns into a slide show.
So far, we are writing the title "worst" in pencil — in the hope that in the future the game will be improved to the level of "best".
Sniper Elite: Resistance — Эдуард Эпштейн
Games about the Second World War are an integral part of my childhood. Perhaps that's why the new part of the Sniper Elite series — Resistance — seemed to me a very stingy and boring game.
In terms of gameplay, it is 90% a copy of the fifth part, in which only minor details have changed. In some places it has even become worse: there are fewer levels, fewer enemies, and fewer officers. It's as if the authors found some remnants of materials lying around after the release of the "five" and decided to make another game out of them, selling it for as much as $50.
The story campaign also disappointed. The authors tried to build a coherent narrative, but it turned out dull: the characters are flat, the events smell of "agenda", and the overall tone is constantly jumping. It would have been better to just make a set of missions with briefings without cutscenes, as before — it would have been cheap and cheerful.
Of the interesting things, I can only note the multiplayer: fighting with real players in sniper duels is fun. It's just a pity that it gets boring quickly — in about 10–15 hours.
The project is saved only by the fact that it is available in the Game Pass subscription. Otherwise, it would be a waste of money.
No I'm Not A Human — Дмитрий Кривов
This is one of those games that tries to surprise with an original concept, but ultimately disappoints. After a few hours, it becomes obvious that the project is too superficial, despite the initial attention to detail.
The developers are trying to evoke a sense of anxiety and helplessness, immersing the player in an atmosphere of horror with guests who have crawled out of the ground, but these attempts more often cause fatigue. The gameplay is too monotonous: the character sits in the house, checks the guests, decides who to let in and who not to. The cycle repeats quickly, and the choice becomes more and more mechanical — especially considering that at the beginning the game feels like a roulette. The plot does not live up to expectations: the characters tell the same thing over and over again, and their stories do not reveal the depths of the universe.
Despite the presence of choices and consequences, No I'm Not A Human does not realize its potential and needs to be improved. What started as an interesting test — guessing which of the guests poses a real threat — turns into a boring task with slightly different endings.
Although the marketing hype can be attributed to the developers, this is not the main thing for the players. The only real plus is the atmosphere. Otherwise, the game is not worth the time spent.
Ghost of Yotei — Максим Иванов
First of all, the "Ghost of" series attracts with the aesthetics of feudal Japan. It's nice to jump around the fields and relax in the springs, but without a plot, this beauty quickly becomes boring. If in the first part Jin Sakai sacrificed his honor to save his homeland, then in Ghost of Yotei the heroine Atsu simply avenges the "Yotei Six" gang. Her path is devoid of moral torment: an evil woman runs around Japan and cuts enemies into sashimi.
The elaboration of the antagonists has noticeably decreased. Unlike the charismatic Khotun Khan from the original, the members of the "Six" are cardboard dummies without depth. These are just functional bosses who are only needed so that the player has someone to cross off the list. They are forgotten exactly one minute after the victory.
The attempt by the developers to push the idea that "revenge is bad" finally kills the plot. This message worked controversially in The Last of Us 2 and does not work at all here. The game creates dissonance: the gameplay encourages beautiful reprisals against enemies, but the screenwriters ultimately lecture the player, devaluing his actions.
The hopelessly outdated open world does not save the situation either. The structure, which seemed normal five years ago, causes yawns in 2025. The map is dotted with question marks with the same type of activities: more foxes, more haiku. Instead of a lively adventure, the game offers routine work to clear the map.
Finally, the secondary nature shines through in the very basis of the gameplay. Sucker Punch was afraid to change the working formula, which is why the sequel feels like a large-scale DLC. Muskets and kusarigama slightly refresh the fights, but globally the combat system remained the same. This is a "safe" sequel that marks time, afraid to take a step to the side.
FBC: Firebreak — run.code
This is a bold but failed attempt by Remedy to expand and deepen the Control universe. It is commendable that the renowned studio decided to try its hand at a new genre of cooperative shooters — clearly wanting to earn money from selling "skins" and trinkets to appease investors. But you need to at least competently assess your strengths, because you can't go far on one interesting universe.
Interesting design and a promising concept could not hide numerous problems: poor balance, tedious grind, monotonous mission structure, lack of voice chat (in a multiplayer shooter, yeah!), technical bugs (even without taking into account the unavailability of servers from Russia), as well as a terrible interface.
Another controversial decision was the tone of the game. Control and Alan Wake were serious projects, so it is completely incomprehensible why Remedy turned Firebreak into a comedy, and its heroes into clowns. But it is clear why the studio decided to recognize the game as a financial failure, write off the spent funds and redirect efforts to Control Resonant.
Painkiller (2025) — Даниил Шепард
Painkiller is a project that turned out to be unnecessary for anyone. Neither for newcomers, for whom it was made, nor for veterans of the series, who are well acquainted with its past. The developers managed to fail in almost all aspects: from game design to setting and story presentation.
The main problem is the complete lack of challenge. Painkiller does not pose a challenge and actually plays itself. This is especially evident in solo mode. It is impossible to turn off bot partners in the game, and opponents, even on maximum difficulty, do not feel like a threat. The effectiveness of partners is turned up to the point of absurdity: they constantly dodge, hardly take damage, never miss and save the player in any situation. Moreover, they often overtake the player himself in terms of total points. As a result, you don't play the game, but the game plays itself.
Formally, there are special enemies and mini-bosses that require "tactics", but in practice, any pumped-up gun allows you to kill them in a couple of shots without having to think. I don't even want to talk about the plot. The main intrigue turned out to be a farce, behind which they hid a call to play this for several dozen more hours.
The result is expected, but sad. Painkiller received only one technical update, no new content appeared. The project is actually abandoned. The online could not even overcome the mark of 900 players, and today it stays at the level of 20–30 people per day. With a high probability, the servers will be turned off by the summer.
There is no need to count on a second attempt to revive the series. This Painkiller finally buried the franchise.
Зайчик — Дмитрий Кривов
The "Зайчик" project from artist and game designer Saikono Joker based on the work of the same name by Dmitry Mordas was created for a long time as a horror visual novel with a 90s setting in post-Soviet Siberia. The game was appreciated for its atmosphere, stylish art, musical accompaniment and well-developed characters. In the first episodes, the player is immersed in the mysticism of the taiga village, encountering incomprehensible beasts, investigating the disappearance of children and making choices that supposedly affect the plot.
By the final fifth episode, fans' expectations turned into disappointment. Large-scale endings turned out to be absurd, often devoid of logic, with uncontrolled violence, schizophrenia, transformations into monsters and devouring of characters. There is practically no positive outcome, the choices contradict the endings, and some of the scenes give the impression that they were created not by a person, but by AI. Many players felt that the project had lost its charm.
Despite the failure with the completion of the story, "Зайчик" will be of interest to those who appreciate horror stories with children in the spirit of Stephen King's "It". The first chapters are able to hold attention and evoke an emotional response, but extreme cruelty, chaotic endings and the lack of a well-thought-out scenario made the game one of the most controversial and disappointing in 2025.
Escape from Tarkov — Даниил Шепард
It is difficult to talk about Escape from Tarkov once again, because everything has already been said. All the problems have been analyzed, the reasons for the failure have been voiced, and the project itself has been examined in detail both in the release material and in a full review. Therefore, it only makes sense to summarize the experience and explain why Tarkov became the worst game of the year for me.
If we talk directly about the gaming experience, it turned out to be purely negative. The technical condition, the work of the support service and the attitude towards the audience are no different from the practices of the worst publishers of the 2010s. Bugs are not fixed for years. Nikita Buyanov declares some of them "features", others are simply silent about. The most telling example is the sound, which still does not work properly in Tarkov.
Nothing has changed in the legal plane either. The license agreement is used as an instrument of pressure. Users who pre-ordered and tried to get their money back received refusals or bans. Owners of the Steam version continue to receive BSG account locks after applying for a refund in Steam. Although they do return the money there.
The community deserves a separate discussion. It was it that became the main disappointment. On forums and streams, you can observe a paradoxical picture: people admit that the game is broken, but continue to call it "good" and believe in the future.
This faith has no basis. Regardless of the statements about "Tarkov 2.0", it will not get better. The developers themselves say that active support will last for another two years. The studio had time to put the project in order in ten years. Instead, priority was given to ultra-expensive editions, banning the dissatisfied and murky earning schemes.
The only thing that can be said with confidence is that Escape from Tarkov will live. Not because it is good, but because an audience has formed around it that is ready to consume any product. The logic of this behavior is a mystery to me.
In the meantime, while there is a black market in Tarkov — trading items, conducting raids, cheats — the game will remain a profitable environment. First of all, for cheaters and traders. And it is for them, in fact, that it exists today.
