The 10 Worst Video Games of 2021

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – December 20, 2021

Above are the lowest-scoring games released for any platform between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. Games are ranked by Metascore (as of December 18, 2021) prior to rounding, and any titles with fewer than 7 reviews from professional critics are excluded. If a single title would have landed on the list multiple times due to low scores on more than one platform, we only included the lowest-scoring version.

6 of 11 photo by All in! Games

44 #5: Of Bird and Cage (PC)

Sure, it gets some credit for being the year's only heavy metal album disguised as a two-hour interactive story loosely based on The Beauty and the Beast (but retold here in an especially dark version centering on a drug addict). But, as Screen Rant puts it, "just because a game is unique doesn't necessarily mean that it's worth playing," and many critics feel that Cage's story has less depth than the average music video and that the game's interactivity barely registers.

“In the end, Of Bird and Cage left me with a terrible taste in my mouth, and I wondered how it managed to get released today. In fact, it’s so bad that I would almost recommend it to connoisseurs of terrible games, but frankly, I’m not sure I could live with my conscience." —GameCritics

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