It takes a lot more than dazzling rays of sunshine and endless terrain to make a world feel unique. It also takes that little bit of extra creativity to keep a player from sacrificing the experience to a dusty shelf for all time. Sadly, however, many developers fall flat at the first hurdle when building a new and hopeful world for gamers to explore. It’s these lands that often make or break a game, and should never be treated lightly during development.
We’ve seen some genuinely magical landscapes over the years. But, we’ve also seen stacks upon stacks of mundane fields that have made us feel more frustrated than intrigued when plowing through them. Here are the ten worst open-world games of all-time, according to Metacritic.
10 Fuel (67)
There’s really only so much rubber-band style racing gamers can tolerate before the adrenaline comes to a grinding halt, that not even nitro can help here. For the 2009 open-world Fuel, for example, these mechanics become tired out before the mid-way marker of the story even arrives.
The setting for Fuel is blatant. It’s post-apocalyptic and dreary. But, again, there really are only so many murky textures and bruised browns we can watch at daring speeds before even the world itself becomes painful to look at. While the concept is clear, the open-world crashes into repetitive tracks and dull victories.
9 Two Worlds (65)
In a desperate attempt to steal the glowing spotlight cast over Bethesda smash-hit Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Polish developer Reality Pump stepped up and laid Two Worlds on the table. However, even after capturing the eyes of sandbox gamers, both Two Worlds fell incredibly flat over a miserable reception.
Slated for its bugs and awful AI, Two Worlds offers the player hardly any bang for their buck for the entire twenty-hour slump of a campaign. Plus, with low res and jagged textures with no real appealing touches, the ocean of lands featured are quickly forgettable.
8 Mafia 3 (62)
For years fans begged 2K to revive the great Mafia series and dish out a third installment. After Mafia 2, especially, crime-drama lovers hungered for another round at playing kingpin in a new metropolis fuelled from corruption and violence. However, after the long wait, Mafia 3 finally fell at launch to boring routines and grim lighting.
Mafia 3 starts off incredibly strong in terms of story-driven gameplay. But fast forward three hours in, and the city of New Orleans quickly becomes a miserable playground skirmish for repetitive missions and hardly noteworthy plotlines.
7 No Man’s Sky (61)
No Man’s Sky was possibly one of the most anticipated games of 2016. Boasting an entire void of planets to explore and an endless catalog of meaningful encounters with otherworldly species, as well as jaw-dropping scenery. Hello Games has won Game of the Year already in the eyes of gamers everywhere.
Release day fell and No Man’s Sky was immediately placed beneath the critic's spotlight for a thorough investigation. And, to our surprise, it was the opposite of what Hello Games promised in the build-up prior to launch. It was boring. It was pointless; there were no real goals or meanings behind the endless exploration. This meant thirty hours minimum was spent plowing through with no real motive, apart from endless mining.
6 Dynasty Warriors 9 (57)
There comes the point where the reputation of a developer becomes so high that any old content can be released, and it’ll guarantee massive amounts of sales. For Dynasty Warriors 9, however, fans were quick to notice the lack of care when reeling out the first open-world chapter in the timeline.
Dynasty Warriors has always had large but bordered open-world maps. But for the ninth major installment in the series, Omega Force urged to build an open-world for players to indulge in. Sadly, the world consisted of hundreds of unimaginative miles filled with copy and paste scenery. This, along with watered-down action, all rounded off as a total disaster for the open-world genre.
5 Metal Gear Survive (54)
Branching away from the typical Metal Gear timeline that millions of fans have come to know and love, Metal Gear: Survive acts as a whole other game, and not in a good way, either. Since Hideo Kojima departed Konami, the interest in experimenting with alternative worlds within Metal Gear became a reality. Only, with Survive, the zombie-esque drama punches loyal fans well below the belt.
Metal Gear: Survive takes everything long-term fans adore about the franchise and replaces it with a horrible battle royale style gameplay. Metal Gear might be slapped on the box, but the awful gameplay is not even close. Sadly, since Kojima has no further input into the franchise, it’s anybody’s guess as to where the Metal Gear series will go from here.
4 Superman Returns (51)
When it comes to thundering metropolises attention to detail is the key to keeping players hooked. With Superman Returns, however, it’s the boring combat and skewered controls that make the eighty square miles hardly worth flying through.
With a rather dull six-hour story battling through the same predictable encounters, players are left feeling baffled and unsatisfied at how poorly Electronic Arts handled the iconic superhero movie turned game.
3 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (44)
New York City is meant to be shown as a picturesque painting, but in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, all that picture displayed was depressing textures that make the Big Apple easily forgettable. Even after the delay, developers still struggled with bringing life into the city that never sleeps.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 consists of repetitive side-quests, aimless swinging, and scrubbing through joyless battle after battle. For long-running Spider-Man fans, an appealing quality might shine. But as far as open-world exploration goes – there really is nothing to return for.
2 Driv3r (Metacritic Score: 40)
In a desperate attempt to stare Rockstar Games in the face and deliver a hard-hitting comeback to Grand Theft Auto, Ubisoft threw Driv3r in a tongue-in-cheek slap. Sadly, the inadequate efforts barely caused the enchanting aura of Rockstar Games too so much as flinch.
Shortly after Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City successfully launched, open-world gamers were quick to scrutinize the appalling misfire of Ubisoft’s watered-down clone. Driv3r, although somewhat familiar with the sandbox genre, was quick to miss the mark when rustling up anything remotely enjoyable. With mundane missions, laughable combat, and instantly forgettable characters, Driv3r marked the decline of the once-promising franchise.
1 Raven’s Cry (27)
Finally, capsizing into the lowest depths of the gaming seas, welcome to Raven’s Cry. It is deemed unplayable due to its excessive uninteresting story and wooden mechanics, as well as its glitches, crashes. It’s honestly hard to tell which is worse.
Raven’s Cry is holding one of the lowest Metacritic scores ever. The title means nothing to the players who sacrifice so much for no prize.