Gamers reveal their favourite ‘negative’ games
From Starfield to The Day Before, there have been plenty of games which have turned out to be let downs for many people, with considerably lower review scores than expected. That doesn't mean, however, that negatively reviewed games are always disappointments for everyone.
28th Dec 2023 19:37
Images via Bethesda | CI Games | Blizzard | Bend Studio
Gamers reveal their favourite ‘negative’ games
From Starfield to The Day Before, there have been plenty of games which have turned out to be let downs for many people, with considerably lower review scores than expected. That doesn't mean, however, that negatively reviewed games are always disappointments for everyone.
28th Dec 2023 19:37
Images via Bethesda | CI Games | Blizzard | Bend Studio
The past year has seen several games that people have had high hopes for come away with more negative reviews than positive ones.
From Starfield to The Day Before, there have been plenty of games which have turned out to be let downs for many people, with considerably lower review scores than expected. That doesn't mean, however, that negatively reviewed games are always disappointments for everyone.
A recent thread on the gaming subreddit asked players what their favourite game with mostly negative reviews is, and there were plenty of usually disliked titles mentioned.
Gamers have been discussing their favourite badly-reviewed games
A thread on the Gaming subreddit, started by Reddit user ittimjones, asked gamers what their favourite games which have received generally negative reviews are.
With 100 comments at the time of writing, plenty of people chimed in with their personal favourite bad games, and there were lots of different titles mentioned.
Starfield
A game that was mentioned several times throughout the thread was Starfield, which was released by Bethesda earlier this year.
“I guess I'll be that guy and say Starfield,” said one Reddit user.
Another added: “I liked Starfield. It got boring after a while, but most games do. It wasn’t this big epic and legendary game they wanted it to be. But it was a decent Game Pass game.”
Critics gave Starfield a generally favourable review score of 83 according to Metacritic, however it is much more harshly rated by players, with a user score of 7/10 on Metacritic and mostly negative reviews on Steam.
Days Gone
Another game that was mentioned several times was Days Gone.
One Reddit user said: “Days Gone for me is such an underrated game. I am still confused and shocked that this game got so many negative reviews for no reason whatsoever.”
Another commenter said: “I'm not sure about now but I remember when Days Gone came out, IGN gave it a 6.5/10 and Gamespot gave it a 5/10. That still pisses me off to this day.
“It's not the greatest open world game but it had a lot of really cool systems going on like the hordes and driving and gas mechanics, it had stealth, crafting, beautiful graphics and a gripping story that had some nice twists and surprises.”
Another added: “I came here to talk about this game. It was killed by negative reviews when it came out, but I absolutely adore the game. It's not flawless by any means, but it's super fun and the atmosphere is amazing.”
Interestingly, Days Gone seems to have received a much better reception from players than critics, with 92% of Steam reviews being positive ones and a user score of 8.4 compared to a Metacritic rating of just 71.
Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 is well-known for being one of the lowest-rated games on Steam, with many players being disappointed in the changes made to the first Overwatch game.
Not everyone seems to agree, with one Reddit user stating: “There's still a decent game in there. Just gotta ignore all the skin FOMO.”
Another added: “I do enjoy the fire gameplay of OW2 but let's not pretend it's just skins. The fact that new characters are locked without microtransactions or a long grind is understandably frustrating for many.”
Notoriously, Overwatch has overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam, with only 15% of them being positive.
Though critical reviews of the game are largely favourable, with a Metacritic score of 79, user reviews place it at a much lower 1.4.
Lords of the Fallen (2014)
Another game which was frequently mentioned was the 2014 Lords of the Fallen game.
One Reddit user said: “I’ve been playing it expecting nothing and I ended up pleasantly surprised with the art style and world. Even the slower paced gameplay grew on me.”
Another stated: “I think the game got completely wrecked the moment it was labelled a soulslike. People started asking for something the game never was meant to be, especially gameplay-wise.”
“The old one was pretty good. The new one is one of the best soulslike games in quite a while,” added another commenter.
With a Metacritic score of 68 and a user score of 6.3, Lords of the Fallen (2014) has received some of the most consistent reviews of all the games mentioned from critics and users alike. The game similarly has mixed reviews on Steam.
Other games referenced include Gotham Knights, Diablo 4, Duke Nukem Forever and Resident Evil 6.
Whether or not you agree with the negative reviews, or think that some of these games are actually gems, the thread is a great reminder that everyone has different tastes and not every review should be taken as gospel.
About The Author
Megan Cooke
Megan is GGRecon's Evening & Weekend News Writer. She has an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and is working towards finishing her masters in Journalism. When she isn’t writing about games she can be found reading romance novels or playing cosy games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, APICO, and Disney Dreamlight Valley.