PlayStation’s latest title, Marvel Wolverine, has found itself in the middle of a major hate storm recently. Reddit, YouTube, X and other social media platforms are full of people criticising the game and it also opened up to many negative reviews. And this is surprising because when it was first announced, players were super excited to try out this game. After all, the game is about Wolverine.
But when the reviews came in last week, they weren’t what you’d expect. However, this isn’t the first time that a super-hyped game hasn’t been well-received. There have been many instances in the past when developers spent years building hype around a title, but just within a few hours of launch, the games became the internet’s latest punching bag. So here is a look at 5 games that were absolutely hated upon at the time of launch.
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage, launched in 2023, introduced us to Basim Ibn Ishaq from 9th-century Baghdad. Mirage was a smaller game when compared with the huge open worlds of Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. And while some players appreciated that, there were many who didn’t.
At launch, one of the most common complaints was that the game was too short. Some players also felt it did not quite capture what made the older Assassin’s Creed games special. The optional teleport assassination ability did not help either.
But over time, Mirage developed its own group of defenders. One Reddit user summed up the contradiction nicely, pointing out that players had demanded Ubisoft “take AC back to its roots” only to complain when the resulting game was smaller and shorter.
The same player said they eventually spent 45 hours with Mirage and enjoyed what Ubisoft was trying to do, especially after the much larger Valhalla.
So in a nutshell, Mirage was not necessarily a game trying to compete with the giant open worlds that came before it. It was trying to be something smaller. For some players, that was exactly the point. For others, it was the reason they walked away.
Cyberpunk 2077 is perhaps the most obvious example of what happens when expectations become almost impossible to meet. CD Projekt Red spent years building the game into one of the most-awaited launches in gaming. Naturally, players were expecting a huge RPG where choices mattered, different life paths would dramatically change the experience and Night City would feel like a living, breathing world. But when the game finally launched in December 2020, things did not exactly go according to plan.
The biggest problem was the technical state of the game, especially on older consoles. Players reported crashes, bugs, broken quests and performance issues, while some of the systems and features shown or discussed before launch did not make it into the final game. The experience on PC was more varied, with the hardware playing a big role in how well the game ran.
One Reddit user summed up the biggest problem rather well, saying, “The bugs destroyed its impression.” Another Redditor pointed out that the story and visuals were strong from the beginning, but the technical problems took away from the overall experience.
Now, the backlash around the game was not just about bugs. A lot of players also felt that the game had been marketed as something much bigger than what they eventually received. The promise of different life paths, meaningful choices and deeper systems had raised expectations to a level that was always going to be difficult to meet.
However, the story did not end at launch. CD Projekt Red spent years updating the game, with the 2.0 update bringing major changes to its systems and Phantom Liberty adding more content. As the game improved, the conversation around it changed as well.
Cyberpunk 2077 went from being one of the most criticised launches in gaming to becoming a game that many players now recommend. It is also a good reminder that when it comes to games, the version you play years after launch can sometimes be very different from the one that arrived on day one.
If Cyberpunk 2077 had a problem with expectations and technical issues, Resident Evil 6 had a completely different problem. It tried to give players almost everything at once, and in doing so, it ended up frustrating a section of the fanbase that wanted the series to return to its horror roots.
Released in 2012, Resident Evil 6 followed four different campaigns featuring Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Jake Muller and Ada Wong. Now that’s a pretty strong and interesting lineup of characters. But, that didn’t stop the backlash.
Now each campaign here boasted its own tone and style. Leon’s story leaned more towards horror and suspense, Chris’s campaign was much more focused on action and Ada’s storyline was all about being tactical and smart. On paper, that sounds like a lot of content for one game. But that also became a part of the problem.
Some players felt that Capcom had pushed the series too far towards action and away from the slower, more atmospheric horror that had defined earlier games. The game also faced criticism for its level design, vehicle sections, skill system and heavy use of quick-time events, which became one of the more memorable complaints surrounding the game.
One Reddit user described the game as having “too much going on”, while another argued that Capcom had taken the wrong lessons from the earlier games when designing Resident Evil 6.
The criticism was not limited to the story or gameplay either. The four campaigns meant that the game constantly shifted between different characters and styles, and for some players, this made the overall experience feel less focused. Instead of getting one strong Resident Evil experience, they felt like they were jumping between several different ideas.
But there was always another side to the conversation. Resident Evil 6 also had plenty of players who enjoyed its combat, co-op gameplay and Mercenaries mode, and over the years, it has developed something of a cult following among people who appreciate it for what it is rather than what they wanted it to be.
It may not have been the Resident Evil game that everyone was asking for at the time, but it still managed to find its playerbase.
Released in November 2021, Battlefield 2042 arrived with technical problems, bugs, map design issues and several features that players either felt were missing or needed major changes. For a franchise with games like Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 behind it, the comparison was always going to be difficult.
A Reddit user explained the problem by saying that, “in a vacuum, 2042 is an okay game.” The issue was that players were not judging it in a vacuum. They were comparing it with older Battlefield games that had more features and, according to some players, more personality.
Another Reddit user described the game as “soulless”, saying that it felt like a cheaper version of Battlefield. While that is a harsh way of putting it, the wider criticism was clear. Players felt that the game had lost some of the identity that made the older titles special.
The launch problems made things worse. Some players felt they had paid full price for a game that still needed a lot of work, with one Reddit comment comparing the experience to becoming a beta tester after paying for the full game. The maps were another major complaint, with the original launch maps later receiving extensive reworks.
But DICE did not abandon Battlefield 2042. The game received a long list of updates, with new content, gameplay changes and map reworks gradually turning it into a more complete experience. That did not erase the problems people had with the launch, but it did change how some players viewed the game.
And finally, there is Far Cry 6, which had almost everything you would expect from a big Ubisoft open-world game. The game showed off a huge tropical island, a revolution, plenty of weapons and Giancarlo Esposito playing the villain, Antón Castillo. It even had Chorizo, a little dog with wheels who somehow became one of the most memorable things about the game.
So why did so many players still come away disappointed? The answer is- changes to the Far Cry formula which Ubisoft thought was a good idea but players disagreed.
For the first time, the game introduced a gear-based progression system instead of the traditional skill tree. Meanwhile, the ammo system, health bars, Resolver weapons and Supremo backpacks also divided players. Some players felt that these systems added unnecessary complexity without making the game more fun.
The characters and story also came in for criticism. One Reddit user said that the game had a beautiful setting and a great soundtrack, but some of the characters and missions felt over the top and took them out of the story. Another user said that the world looked great but felt surprisingly empty once you started exploring it.
The problem was not that Far Cry 6 was completely broken. It was that many players felt it was missing the spark that made earlier games in the series so memorable.
Some users also pointed out how the game leaned too heavily into its sillier side. The Resolver weapons, strange vehicles and Chorizo are certainly memorable, but not everyone felt that they fitted the more serious story about a revolution against a dictatorship.
So, a rough launch can shape the way a game is remembered but it may not always decide what happens next. Assassin’s Creed Mirage found players who appreciated its smaller approach, Cyberpunk 2077 changed drastically through years of updates, Resident Evil 6 found an audience that enjoyed its action-heavy take, Battlefield 2042 became a more complete game after a difficult start and Far Cry 6, despite all the criticism around its design choices, still has players who enjoy playing it. In the end, a game’s launch is only one part of its story, and sometimes it takes time to understand what a game really has to offer.
What do you think about all the hate that Wolverine is getting and have you played any of the titles mentioned above? Let us know and keep watching this space for more such stories.
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