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AAA games are the ones developed by big studios that have previously released critically and commercially hit titles. These games generally gather a large fan following, which causes them to foster the highest of expectations from the community.
While most of the time, such games do succeed, either due to their dedicated fanbase itself, or for delivering on some great content, that is not always the case.
Sometimes, AAA games hit the ground to such a bad reception that they don't quite recover, despite having a reputed studio behind them. The reason for this might vary from the game being unplayable at launch, or missing content features to simply not living up to the expected quality.
Thus, even AAA games across various genres tend to flop, whether action-adventure, RPG, FPS or open-world, with them being shunned due to their lacklustre performance and quality. Here are five such examples of AAA games that flopped spectacularly.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinion.
5 AAA games that disappointed players and critics alike
1) Anthem
A live-service game by BioWare and EA, Anthem was supposed to rival Destiny 2’s popularity. It featured cool-looking mech suits that would enable players to zip around the game world, and fun gunplay along with special abilities. The game looked really good before launch and people had high expectations from it.
However, once it was made available to play, it was soon clear that not enough effort was put into this game for it to be live-service. The campaign was boring and short, and didn’t leave any endgame quests or activities to keep players busy. The combat was fine at first, but eventually got repetitive as the game didn’t have interesting quests or objectives.
BioWare’s iconic storytelling was mostly lost, building on the world only through collectibles, while interesting characters were relegated to Fort Tarsis, the single-player hub of the game. It was here that the dialogue and interaction with NPCs took place, but nowhere else in the open world.
Anthem was a royal disappointment as a AAA game, and EA eventually shut down support for it as well.
2) Aliens: Colonial Marines
Developed by Gearbox Software, the minds behind the Borderlands series, Alien: Colonial Marines was a first-person shooter published by SEGA on February 12, 2013. As such, it had all the makings of a good AAA game behind it. However, the actual game itself was highly criticized for many of its aspects.
From gameplay that was monotonous and boring to various bugs and technical issues, the game even had bad graphics that did not hold up when compared to other titles of the time. The horror element was also compared to the movie it was inspired from, and was full of superficial thrills.
One of the largest bugs in the game, and admittedly a comical one, was the Xenomorphs' AI. Seemingly due to missing code in programming, these supposed apex predators could not even locate players directly in front of them. They were prone to running away in fear or seen circling around in the same spot until gunned down.
3) Mass Effect: Andromeda
The original Mass Effect trilogy was one of the AAA game series that set the bar for titles set in space. Featuring a host of different planets that could be visited across the Milky Way galaxy, the original trilogy made a long, arduous, and successful attempt at creating a star system that felt lived in.
Mass Effect: Andromeda, however, went and discarded all of this to set the game in the Andromeda galaxy, away from all the locations and planets that players had gotten accustomed to. In addition to this, the plot didn’t even come close to any of the previous titles in terms of scope or quality.
Various technical problems also plagued the game and resulted in broken cutscenes or poor animations, as well as the explorable planet world being barren and unimpressive. Gameplay was the only decent thing, although it wasn’t enough to save this AAA game from going under.
4) Fallout 76
Bethesda generally makes good choices when it comes to AAA games like Fallout, even though Fallout 4 was objectively not as great as New Vegas. However, no one was expecting what awaited them in Fallout 76, the studio’s try at an MMORPG set in the radioactive wasteland.
Players were treated to the horrifying realization that once they made their way out of Vault 76, the game had no human NPCs whatsoever. Instead, repetitive fetch quests were handed out by animatronic robots, which had about the same level of character and nuance as a brick wall.
With holotapes narrating the events that had taken place earlier, and no hub world to properly meet up with other players online, this game became a very lonely trek at times. Ultimately, Fallout 76 players made their own fun and met up together and took on mutant monsters in the wilderness, but even that got old quite quickly.
Players began to drop off one by one, and by the time NPCs were finally introduced two years later, very few were even around to notice the change.
5) Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red is well known for its AAA games, particularly the Witcher series, so it was quite the surprise for many when Cyberpunk 2077 launched in the state that it did. And yet, for others, it was not a surprise as the developers were constantly postponing the release date - a sure sign that it wasn’t completely ready.
But the studio eventually caved in due to outrage from fans, and released the game in a state that can be most accurately defined as unplayable. While it was riddled with bugs on next-gen platforms, the Xbox One and PS4 versions had so many issues that many people demanded refunds; a justified reaction seeing as how the game was said to have been specially focused on for previous-gen consoles.
With bad press for many, many more months after its release, Cyberpunk 2077 became the victim of many jokes. Still, something has to be said for CD Projekt Red fixing a lot of the issues and glitches with updates, which have made the game a rather enjoyable AAA game experience today. Although Xbox One and PS4 players might still be bitter as those versions could not be entirely fixed.
