Highly-anticipated games of 2022 that didn't live up to the hype

2022 saw the release of several highly-anticipated games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, A Plague Tale: Requiem, and more. Titles like God of War Ragnarok and Elden Ring managed to shake up the entire gaming landscape and worked their way into the hearts of millions.

However, as with every year, there were some games that could not fulfill the expectations of the gaming community.

Note: This article contains the author's opinions.

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Saints Row and 4 other highly-anticipated games that fell short

Disappointments are inevitable in the gaming world, and one has to accept the good with the bad. Here are five 2022 games that players had waited for eagerly only to be disappointed.

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1) Gotham Knights

The name "Batman" gets everyone excited, but he leaves his legacy behind for other superheroes to show their mettle in Gotham Knights. Many gamers were looking forward to playing as one of the four knights - Red Hood, Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing - capitalizing on their individual moveset, playstyle, and skills in the open-world of Gotham City.

Since Gotham Knights was being developed by the same studios that made Batman: Arkham Origins, fans raised their expectations.

Unfortunately, the game turned out to be disappointing. It released with horrible performance optimization, a bland open-world, and tedious grinding mechanics. Players complained about having to grind menial tasks and repetitive quests to progress the main plot. Most people who played the game were left with a bad taste in their mouths.

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2) Diablo Immortal

The initial announcement was not met with a lot of excitement from the overarching gaming community, but fans of the Diablo franchise were happy to get a new installment in the franchise.

After the beta testers of this mobile game raved about the gameplay, players felt safe raising their expectations. Despite knowing how egregious Blizzard’s monetization was getting, they maintained cautious optimism.

Sadly, it all came crashing down when players discovered that the game has horrible pay-to-win monetization. They would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to max out even one character. The game featured every scummy tactic in the book that would force gamers to shell out and was dubbed Diablo Immoral by the playerbase.

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3) Saints Row (2022)

Probably the only GTA clone to make a name for itself, Saints Row has a dedicated fanbase that is always eagerly anticipating more sequels. After the success of the third and fourth installments, players were excited about the 2022 reboot, aka the fifth installment. However, things started looking down as soon as the trailers dropped.

The beta test turned out to be even worse, but players still hoped that the final version would at least be decent. Sadly, Saints Row (2022) released with poor graphics, bad performance, recurrent bugs and glitches, lackluster gameplay, and boring storylines.

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4) Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Fans had been waiting for a good iteration of the game for ages, but this year's release was also not the one. Players were promised a lush open-world with many interesting platforming designs but they instead received a bland world with disjointed floating platforms. For a game about going fast and planning a route in advance, it had horrible pop-in issues as well.

Sonic Frontiers featured monotonously easy challenges with sudden difficulty spikes that put off many players. Finally, the overly simplistic combat system sealed the game's fate as it took its place in the mass grave of Sonic games.

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5) Overwatch 2

Overwatch 1 had one of the best releases in gaming history and ended up winning the Game of the Year Award that year. With excellent competitive gameplay, fascinating characters, and great lore, it cemented its place in the hearts of millions of players.

In stark contrast, Overwatch 2 had a horrible release. Players faced lengthy queue times and repeated disconnects that would often put them back in the queue. Riddled with microtransactions and strange gameplay changes, the game was appalling to many who had looked forward to the sequel for years. The absence of Bastion also caused players to speak out against the developers.

Within a few weeks of its release, many gamers abandoned the game altogether.

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Fandoms, especially large ones, can be hard to please, and nothing is ever going to impress everyone. Games take years to develop, which leads to hype and excitement building over time. Sometimes, the expectations are just too high, and certain games are destined to fail.