2025 was an exceptional time for Indie titles, with many games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Blue Prince, and more being some of the best that the year had to offer. However, not every game had the same reception, because along with these hits, there were a lot of terrible games, including AAA slop that rounded out the year.
So, below we will be going over a list of the worst games that were released in 2025 and what made them such a complete disaster.
The worst video games of 2025
1) Mindseye
You cannot talk about the worst video games list and not include Mindseye, which is considered to be “the worst” game of 2025 by a huge margin. There was a fair bit of expectations and hype around this title before its release, as it was made by a studio led by former GTA developers.
So naturally, many felt that it would be breaking the mould when it came to the action thriller genre of video games and bring with it the same level of storytelling that players have come to expect from the GTA series.
Needless to say, Mindseye failed to meet every expectation and struggled to justify both its scope and ambition. The missions felt tedious and marred by game-breaking technical issues, which were as bad as launch day Cyberpunk 2077.
The narrative was sloppy, with the story and characters being some of the blandest aspects of the player experience.
While the game does start out well with a GTA-like introduction to the world and characters, it fails to build on the momentum, with combat getting more and more repetitive and the open world feeling like a tedious chore to explore.
2) Call of Duty Black Ops 7
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 makes it to the list because of just how terrible its campaign was. While the multiplayer was decent, and the Zombies mode was more of a return to form, the shooter’s story mode left a bad aftertaste in everyone’s mouths.
The campaign of the game is pretty nonsensical at best. From the get-go, you are made to make your way through a series of floating islands and then fight giant plant monsters.
The enemy AI is terrible, to say the least. They act as bullet sponges that you can just ignore and run past to make the campaign end faster.
While Battlefield 6 did not have much of a campaign, it was still miles better than what Call of Duty decided to do with the Black Ops 7 Story mode.
The missions are tedious, the boss fights are mind-numbing, and fighting the same giant plant monster for 45 minutes will make you want to get a refund for your purchase.
That being said, the Zombies mode in the game is one of its major plus points. It’s mainly because of how the developers have decided to go back to their roots with this one; however, there is no real innovation here to speak of. If you have played the Black Ops 4 Zombies mode before, then you have played this one as well.
3) Lost Souls Aside
The gameplay and combat loop of Lost Souls Aside are its weakest points. Technically and graphically, the game shows a lot of promise, and you can see the passion and effort that has gone into some of its core world-building details.
However, the gameplay fails to live up to the high expectations that the title sets for itself. You can see the Devil May Cry influence in the combat and the Final Fantasy-like world and character designs, which makes it quite an ambitious undertaking.
Unfortunately, the final product was pretty sloppy. The gameplay loop, the narrative, the voice acting, and character backstories were pretty terrible.
While the combat is nice to get into at the start (seeing how flashy it is), it soon becomes monotonous. Enemy varieties are limited, the boss battles are mundane, frequent, and take too long to complete.
The main character is incredibly dull, and at no point in the game will you be able to connect with and empathise with him. The game feels like an extended tech demo that requires a lot of polish before the official release.
4) Painkiller
The 2025 reboot of Painkiller was not a good one. The original game was one of the rare titles that helped keep the “boomer shooter” genre of games alive at a time when everyone was leaning towards military shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield.
So those were pretty big shoes to fill for the reboot title, which went for a gameplay loop that tried to mix between Doom and Vermintide. The title is a four-player co-op and not a single-player experience, which made it all the more off-putting for older fans of the series.
Moreover, the co-op aspects of the game are also quite dull, and the more you play it with your frineds, the more tedious the campaign starts to feel.
While there are moments where you notice that they have tried to do something interesting by looking to re-invent the genre to some degree, they unfortunately do not come together, and what you are left with is an absolute mess of a shooter experience.
Enemy varieties are limited, the bosses feel like a chore, and every single mission and area feels like a reused variant of the previous one.
5) Sniper Elite Resistance
Sniper Elite Resistance has one of the worst enemy AIs out of all the games that has released in 2025. It is a massive step down from previous series entires and it gets almost none of the formulas right in what makes a Sniper Elite game a Sniper Elite game.
Stealth is secondary here, and you can literally take on an entire battalion guns blazing, as all the enemy AI is capable of doing now is to just run at you and be bullet sponges.
The story is moreorless the same as compared to the previous titles, and it feels more like a DLC to Sniper Elite than its own standalone game.
6) Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2
The first Vampire: The Masquerade game from 2004 had a sort of cult following. While the game overall was particularly not all that great, with the narrative and gameplay completely falling apart by the end, it still had a lot of amazing ideas that made fans want a sequel, which will work on these mechanics further.
However, Bloodlines 2 does not feel anything like its predecessor. There were a lot of expectations around it being an open-world Vampire RPG, but in reality, it turned out to be a very limited and linear game with an extremely boring and monotonous narrative.
The game lacks ambition and plays out a lot like the Dishonored titles, but you are made to constantly run back and forth on a small map, talking to different NPCs who have extremely long and boring dialogues.
The RPG elements are also pretty limited, and you can only punch your way through enemies here with the occasional vampire powers mixed in. You can’t even hold weapons and items, and the only time you are able to wield a gun here is through telekenesis, where your character is not even manually holding the weapon themselves.
All-in-all Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 is a very bland experience, with none of the qualities and promise of the 2004 title.
7) Assassin’s Creed Shadows
There were a lot of expectations around Assassin’s Creed Shadows before its release, most of which it was not able to meet. One of the biggest gripes around the game was the introduction of Yasuke as one of the main protagonists, which sparked many to question not just the historical accuracy of the setting but also how odd Yasuke felt to the overarching narrative.
Moreover, Yasuke’s kit did not fit the overall theme of what an assassin game should be like. His movesets were overdone, making him a raid boss who was able to just stand his ground and hack his way through almost everything.
Whereas Naoe, on the other hand, fit the story perfectly and came with a combat set that had its roots firmly dug in the earliest AC titles. Her playstyle completely revolved around stealth, where she needs to make the most of all the environmental elements around her.
However, apart from Yasuke’s combat, players had issues with enemy AI being absolutely terrible and how the main narrative and missions were absolutely tedious. Many also disliked the fact that they will often be forced to play as Yasuke for the sake of progressing the plot.
The dialoges in the game were also pretty bland and it features some of the most forgettable side content in the entirety of the Assassin’s Creed series.
