The PS5’s New Worst Game Is Here

Some games will take you by surprise. Others provide you with just what you are looking for. There are games that are really good at being absolutely average, and there are games that are so terrible they’re fantastically horrible. It requires a diverse range of skills. What type of game is Square Enix’s action-adventure Babylon’s Fall? People warn you that a particular game is horrible, but you choose to participate nonetheless because you don’t trust them, only to realize that it was much worse than they said. Step aside, Balan Wonderworld: the PlayStation 5 now has a new worst game to contend with.

It is a real-time service action-RPG in where you must laboriously hack and slash your way through a strange tower while increasing the numbers on your metre to advance in rank. Unfortunately, it controls like Jell-O, and combat is frequently a shambles, while everything in between feels rough and unfinished at times.

It may be played alone or with people online, but the game will automatically pair you up with random strangers every time you go on a new adventure, unless you explicitly opt out. In between these adventures, you may do tasks, enhance your equipment, and interact with other players. The fundamental building parts for a Destiny clone are in place, but none of them seem to fit together even somewhat well. It has a more Anthem-like feel to it, but without the visually stunning planet or gratifying Iron Man outfits.

The English voice acting in Babylon’s Fall is a mix of amusing and irritating at various points. The menus and typefaces, which have seen many a live service grind come and go, appear to have been lifted from a long-forgotten MMO of a bygone era. There is a lot of blurriness in the game, almost everything. Despite the fact that it was created with the goal of emulating European oil paintings, the result in practice appears incomplete and aesthetically displeasing, even after alleged enhancements have been made. Cyberpunk 2077 looked better on my PS4 when it first came out than Babylon’s Fall looks on my PS5 more than a year after it was released. The general appearance of the game, with the exception of the music by composer Hiroshi Yamaguchi, made me squint, cringe, and roll my eyes all at the same time, which was a little too much for me.

What about a fight? Platinum Games, the studio behind for blockbuster titles like Nier: Automata and Bayonetta 2, is behind Babylon’s Fall. Things would be OK even if the home were falling in on itself if comboing opponents still felt pleasurable. The problem is that it doesn’t work. Sprinting is a slow exercise. It’s a pain in the ass to jump. It’s common for battle to deteriorate into a rapid-fire game of attacking and dodging until the opponent is defeated. Chaos-driven combat and unending repetition tailored at larger co-op squad sizes and post-launch live service ambitions bury the roots of Automata.

The game isn’t perfect, but it’s also not terrible. There are a lot of good ideas out there. It’s possible to telekinetically wield additional weapons fed by a metre that grows up as you land and avoid regular hits in Gideon’s Coffin. You may shoot a target with a bow, stab them with your sword while rolling in for the kill, and then finish them off with two hammers. However, the way it’s done right now is just too clumsy to make up for the game’s other flaws.

The game’s five-hour tale seems equally diluted by its live service goals, which is to say that it’s basically crap stacked on more bullshit like kids creating drip castles on the beach. When you play as a sentinel, you’re recruited to combat creatures in the Ziggurat ruins, which are guarded by magic zombies and comprised nearly entirely of tiny, sun-drenched passages. In several moments, the only thing to be found is the rambling explanation of fellow soldiers in the meal hall. Characters narrate their present task instead of touring the Ziggurat’s remains using text layered on top of static photos.

No room or resources are given to any of the unique high fantasy world building that is present, including prophesies and political intrigues. After the Ziggurat’s power had transformed and perverted a huge Sentinel, he warned me in his best Jacob Marley voice before he was killed for apparent disloyalty. “Oh my goodness if you pass by and ask me what I’m doing in this game I would die of shame having to explain it,” is how I would describe the rest of the game.

Yet this isn’t anything I have to say. Metacritic presently ranks Babylon’s Fall as the worst PlayStation 5 game. Compared to other games with similar button layouts, Werewolf: The Apocalypse scores lower than Werewolf: The Apocalypse and roughly 10 points worse than Balan Wonderworld. eFootball 2022, the most terrible sports launch in recent memory, comes in at number 299 of 300 rated PS5 titles on OpenCritic.