10 Badly Reviewed AA Games That Are Actually Pretty Good

The AA space is a unique one as it’s hard to judge the kind of game it is without comparing it to others in the same genre with bigger budgets.

While there are a ton of low-rated AA games, some are actually pretty damn good and deserved much more love than what they received.

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Sometimes it’s about the gameplay, sometimes it’s about the visuals, but it’s always about the quality, so let’s check out some double-A games.

We’re going to talk about some games that got hit hard when reviews came out and instantly ended any hopes a game might’ve had. This is for all the AA games that didn’t get a chance to get out of the station before being roasted.

Our criteria is going to be games that have a 75 or lower on Opencritic that deserve a much better review than what they got.

10 Elex 2

OpenCritic Score: 65

Elex 2 did not live up to the potential the original game promised, but it certainly didn’t deserve the lowly reception it got when it released in 2022.

It’s not an amazing game, but it’s a pretty solid RPG that tries to do a number of things differently than most games today. I mean, how many games have you flying around with jetpacks one minute and swinging broadswords the next? And then unleashing an alien gun while casting magic?

It’s a wild mix of genres that all come together in a shaky but still palatable way. The gameplay is rocky for sure, but it’s an old-school kind of jank that used to be the norm in the RPG genre.

The various factions to discover and either work for or against, the wild enemy variety, and the branching storylines are more than enough to give it a shot.

9 Enotria: The Last Song

OpenCritic Score: 69

Enotria: The Last Song deserves way more credit than it got for giving us something that felt truly distinct as a Soulslike. No, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way, but it wears its inspirations proudly and tries to do new things with the tools it had.

First, the scenery here is just amazing to look at. The art style is so weird and original that you can’t really even identify it as Soulslike. It’s sun-soaked, wildly abstract looking and, overall, a breath of fresh air from the parade of grim-dark Soulslikes that are obsessed with a dark, oppressive atmosphere.

There are tons of branching paths, varied enemy types, cool weapons to find, and a great parry system that feels a bit more forgiving than most Soulslikes, so you won’t be throwing your controller against the wall here either.

I think Enotria: The Last Song deserved much more of a fair shake in 2024, and for anyone looking for a solid RPG with great combat and unique aesthetic, it’s a damn fun time.

8 Crime Boss: Rockay City

OpenCritic Score: 54

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a ridiculous game. I mean that in the best way. It’s full of Hollywood’s whose who in 1997 and just drips with terrible dialogue, phoned-in performances, and overall, low quality.

The idea is to take the formula of Payday, and build a cohesive story around it with famous actors. It’s a good idea on paper and the shooting is actually pretty fun, but I think the fact that not a single one of the actors cared about this game really brought down the overall product.

However, if you can get past that, the gameplay loop is pretty fun and some of the firefights are pretty epic and seem to punch far above the actual rest of the quality of the game.

It was meme’d to hell and back when it came out to the point that I don’t think many people actually played it, they just watched YouTube videos and laughed at it. For those that actually played the game? It’s a fun and stupid time, and sometimes that’s all a game really needs to be.

7 Left Alive

OpenCritic Score: 38

The cover art for Left Alive is deceptive. It’s the artist for Metal Gear Solid, who famously put together some of the best cover art in gaming history. You’re expecting that level of quality from the get-go and when you see Square Enix attached, which only increases the feeling.

As sort of a spiritual successor to the underrated Front Mission series, Left Alive instead puts you in the boots on the ground version of the wars in that universe.

It’s a game that is heavily stealth-focused, but also has some interesting action set pieces, like when you actually get to control the mech monstrosities you see throughout the game. This is not Metal Gear Solid in any way, and expecting that level of expertise will get you nowhere.

What is here, though, is a unique, if not clunky, stealth game that has some solid sneaking mechanics and really emphasizes you to not get caught, as you are wildly underpowered when that happens.

If you’re itching for a new stealth game to try in a time when not all that many games in the genre even exist, this one may surprise you and is certainly far better than the miserable reviews would have you believe.

6 X-Men: Destiny

OpenCritic Score: 47

X-Men: Destiny definitely didn’t have Activision’s full weight behind it in 2011, and that’s too bad, because the foundation for something great is clearly there with this game. The premise is perfect; you pick one of a handful of characters and then pick their power type, and off you go into the world of X-Men.

The big selling point here was choosing how your story will go. Will you join the X-Men or the evil Brotherhood? It’s a great idea, but I don’t think the budget was given to really make this thrive in 2011. The game was ridiculed for its length and repetitive mission types, but honestly, this is what I expected from an X-Men game.

You team up with different famous characters from the comics throughout the game, grow your powers, choose to save or let people die, fight bosses and, overall, it’s a pretty fun, if not a bit shallow, beat’em up.

The powers are a ton of fun to mess around with, and there’s a solid skill progression system that sees you unlocking more and more attacks as the game goes on.

Nobody is putting this game in the hall of fame, but as it stands, it’s one of the worst-reviewed games out there, and I think it deserves a better reputation than that.

5 Vampyr

OpenCritic Score: 72

I will beat the drum for this game until the end of days. No game is like Vampyr, and I think for that reason alone, it didn’t do well. It’s sitting in the low 70s on Metacritic, and it just doesn’t respect at all what went into making this game work.

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While a couple of technical issues stop it from being a masterpiece, Vampyr is still a fantastic title that will keep you entertained for hours.

There are so many moving parts, and it’s a miracle the whole thing doesn’t fall apart at the seams.

The loop of feeding on people, deciding whether to let people live or die, discovering their motives, their lies, their truths, fighting in the streets, and returning to see what horrific new development has happened is something that I found endlessly addicting. The combat isn’t the best, but the vampiric powers are a ton of fun to mess around with and, at times, it feels like a Temu version of Bloodborne, which I don’t think is much of a bad thing.

Vampire games are few and far between and this is easily one of the best out there and deserves another chance. Playing this one in 2020 was a truly engaging experience, and if you play it, you’ll know why.

4 Blades of Fire

OpenCritic Score: 72

Blades of Fire is a throwback sort of game, with an old-school, Xbox 360 level of quality and feel to its gameplay, but that’s not a bad thing. Unfortunately, the game failed to do much in sales and was reviewed poorly for the most part, and it’s a shame because there is a lot to like here.

The combat is weighty and has a ton of visceral impact, with limb severing, decapitations, and all sorts of bloody goodness for action fiends to delight in. It’s got sort of a discount God of War feeling to it, from the combat to the overall vibe, but it works.

The story is where the game falters, but the combat mixed with the unique blacksmithing mechanics kept me engaged enough to work through the game. I feel like the developers didn’t put nearly enough effort into making this game known. That, plus an all-time generic name, definitely held this title back from being better received.

3 Outward

OpenCritic Score: 64

Outward is a very unique kind of game. I think people went into the experience expecting an open-world RPG like The Witcher 3 or Skyrim, and when they didn’t get that? Boo, hiss, cry, and moan.

If you’ve got an open mind though, Outward is undoubtedly special. It’s unforgiving, doesn’t hold your hand, and is one of the toughest RPGs out there. This isn’t because of the Soulslike difficulty, but moreso, just trying to figure out what the hell you’re supposed to do.

It’s vague, it’s mysterious, entire systems like the magic system is not a part of the main path, and generally, you’re left in the dark.

But it’s a true adventure. It’s a game full of “What’s going to happen next?”. The combat is decent enough, but it’s a bit of an ugly game for 2019’s standards, so it’s easy to see why people didn’t gravitate toward it.

However, it’s an interesting and one-of-a-kind type of RPG that isn’t really made anymore and worth a look before its bigger budget sequel comes out.

2 The Matrix: Path of Neo

OpenCritic Score: 69

The Matrix was just about the coolest thing ever-growing up, and it baffled me that it took 5 years for someone to make a decent Matrix game. It finally happened in 2005, and it had a “barely there” reception as the franchise was over and done with. It really needed to be released in between the second and the third movies to make an impact, in my opinion.

The reviews for this game simply don’t give it enough credit. There are a bunch of levels here and, yes, some are completely absurd, like one level that has you fighting giant ants. But then there are great ones that pop right out of the movie, and the thing holding it all together is the combat.

You’ll be shooting and fighting hand to hand here, and all of the moves from the movies are here at your disposal. Bullet time is implemented well, and when you launch into it, your melee attacks become much more extravagant. You feel like you’re fighting as Neo.

That’s the key to all of this, and it succeeds hugely in making you feel like Neo and fight like him while recreating the scenes from the movies that made the series an iconic one, and it deserves another chance.

1 Absolver

OpenCritic Score: 73

You likely have heard of Sifu, but probably aren’t too familiar with the previous game from Sloclap, Absolver. It’s a bizarre, multiplayer fighter that also has a single-player mode, and there is truly not another game in existence like it.

You start off in a mysterious world and have to fight your way to get answers, for which there will be precious few available. Most of the game’s actual story is up for interpretation, and it’s all about the combat.

The combat is brilliant, with you using style switching to mix and match combos. Throughout the game, you will learn new combos by fighting, countering, and blocking enemies using new abilities.

This builds your move arsenal up considerably, and that’s when the game gets really good. Once you’ve built up your arsenal of moves, you can mix and match and use different schools to customize your fighting style and take it all online to fight others.

No fight against other players ever feels the same, because no two players actually have the same loadout or will implement the moves the same way.

Fighting online in this title is just gaming bliss, and no other game has come close to replicating it.

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