Battle Royale games have grown in popularity over the last couple of years thanks to great games like Fortnite and Apex Legends; though this genre of game has a fair share of detractors. Needless to say, the genre's divisive nature coupled with the tendency for so many gaming studios to "get on the bus" to cash in on the fad can result in some titles taking a critical beating, which is what we're here to look at today. That said, a lot of battle royale titles that come across as absolute flops don't even make it as far as to receive a rating on Metacritic, so many of the genre's truly terrible titles will be conspicuously absent from this list.
Since many battle royales emerge as game modes or variants of their core games (a la Battlefield V's Firestorm, Fallout 76's Nuclear Winter, etc) we'll be using the main title's score as the metric in those cases. It may not reflect specifically on the BR game mode of a given game, but if the core game didn't please critics, it's unlikely the BR version of it did either.
7 Hunt: Showdown – 76 Rating, 7.4 User Score
Kicking things off at a lukewarm 76 as we work our way down is Hunt: Showdown, released by Crytek in 2019 for the Xbox One and, and targeting release on the PS4 on Feb. 18, 2020. Crytek is generally known for producing well-made games that develop a cult following; a couple of examples being the games in the Far Cry and Crysis franchises. Their games are also graphically impressive – it took a few years after its release until the average PC was able to handle playing Crysis. With Hunt: Showdown though, the general consensus is that Crytek under-delivered. Player-balancing during multiplayer matches is a major complaint. New players often find themselves facing opponents that have been playing the game for months.
6 Dying Light: Bad Blood – 74 Rating, 7.9 User Score
Dying Light was developed by Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in 2015 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This is a survival/horror game in addition to being a battle royale game. The premise behind the survival/horror aspect is very similar to I Am Legend.
Bad Blood is the title's underwhelming BR fling. It features a smaller scale battle royale experience with a few standout features, though bad performance and poor balance are common complaints. The game’s low rating is, according to users and critics, mostly due to the game having an unfinished feel to it. Players also cite having problems getting the game to run smoothly – even with hardware that exceeds the recommended minimums.
5 Darwin Project – 73 Rating, 7.2 User Score
Darwin Project was released by Scavengers Studios in 2018 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The setting for Darwin Project is one familiar to players of massive online multiplayer games – a post-apocalyptic world. The player is dropped into the Northern Canadian Rocky Mountains with only a bow and and axe to defend themselves. Like Rust, Darwin Project has a crafting system that allows players to scavenge materials and build better weapons. The biggest complaint from critic and users on Metacritic is the lack of variety in Darwin Project. There just aren’t enough maps, weapons, building options, or game modes to keep players happy and coming back for more.
4 Battlefield V – 73 Rating, 2.3 User Score
Battlefield V faced a bevy of controversy on release, which naturally translated to its critical reception. However, there were plenty of complaints regarding how the game played. A lot of reviews on Meatcritic lament how they wanted to like this game but it feels rushed and unfinished. Performance issues are another common complaint in the user reviews. Shortly after its release Battlefield V was given a battle royale mode titled Firestorm; which allows for up to 64 players on one map and features an ever shrinking battlefield. One problem with Firestorm, according to the reviews, is the map is actually a little too big at first. Users state this slows down the action to an uncomfortable pace, and the loot system is frequently decried as the worst in the genre.
3 H1Z1: Battle Royale – 66 Rating, 4.0 User Score
H1Z1: Battle Royale was released in 2018 for the PS4 and PC. A game with as many problems in the development phase as H1Z1 is almost always doomed to let fans down. This began as a spin-off to the original H1Z1 (called H1Z1: King of the Hill). The spin-off was then fractured into two separate games – Just Survive and H1Z1: Battle Royale. The “generous” complaints for this game on Metacritic mainly focus on how the game does absolutely nothing to set it apart from the torrent of battle royale games released in the wake of PUBG and Fortnite. Most reviews stated the game looks awful and has a significant problem with lagging controls.
2 Kirby Battle Royale – 57 Rating, 7.1 User Score
Kirby Battle Royale was developed by Hal Labs and published by Nintendo in 2018 for the 3DS. Seeing an official Nintendo product on this list might be shocking to some readers. With nine game modes besides the battle royale offering, Kirby Battle Royale is as much a party game as a battle royale game.
Most of the game modes, which involve mostly co-op and competitive fetch quests, are not as much fun as the battle royale mode. This was a major complaint with many reviewers, and most felt the battle royale was lacking because the developers wasted time adding nine other game modes instead of focusing on making the game’s namesake – the battle royale – a better gaming experience.
1 Fallout 76: Nuclear Winter – 49 Rating, 3.2 User Score
Is anyone surprised that adding a battle royale mode to Fallout ’76 didn’t make it any more enjoyable? Nuclear Winter added a battle royale mode to Fallout ’76, and while it can be amusing in short sessions it really only gave people new avenues of complaint for this awful game. The game is still remarkably buggy and suffers from lag issues; which is not something that can be tolerated in a battle royale game. Many reviews contain words like “soulless”, “uninspired,” “cash-grab,” and “boring,” which should more or less summarize how well it has gone over since release.