The Walking Dead: Destinies, a 3rd person shooter adaptation of the popular zombie thriller serial, is a new contender for Worst Game of 2023.
You know, when I praised Rise of Kong last month for bringing back the trend of releasing laughably bad shovelware adaptations of popular TV and movie franchises, I was actually being sarcastic. I didn't mean for it to be a literal call to action. Evidently, Flux Games didn't get the memo, because their latest release, The Walking Dead: Destinies, sure fits that description.
This new contender for Worst Game of the Year was released last Friday, and very quickly clips of its, uh, incredible gameplay and cutscene quality started making the rounds on social media:
I refuse to believe The Walking Dead: Destinies is an actual game. I'm convinced it's an elaborate prank by the developers to see if anyone actually takes it seriously. pic.twitter.com/2aRxPk6s14
— GmanLives (@GmanLives) November 18, 2023
An actual cutscene from The Walking Dead: Destinies. 2023 is the best year in gaming, I haven't laughed this hard at a game in a while. pic.twitter.com/NE3RG5uIzD
— DX (@DXFromYT) November 19, 2023
I NEED A COPY OF THE WALKING DEAD DESTINIES STAT ! pic.twitter.com/1XvDzuiHPY
— Neo64 (@Neonagi64) November 18, 2023
Truly a masterpiece of modern storytelling. I mean, the static cutscenes, hilariously awful character models and awkward combat sections definitely tell a story, just not the one Flux Games might have wanted to tell. Although it does have me wondering just what kind of shoestring budget these developers were given by their publisher, GameMill Entertainment... Hold on, GameMill? That name sounds familiar...
GameMill Are At It Again With Another Candidate For Worst Game Of The Year
Ah, now it's all starting to make sense! GameMill Entertainment is the exact same publisher that was also responsible for Rise of Kong! Seems like they had a few undercooked licensed games in the oven and decided to just toss them out at the tail end of 2023. Which does fit their publishing modus operandi, I suppose.
What's more surprising is that they keep getting these licenses for major franchises in the first place. A report by The Verge some time after Rise of Kong's release revealed that GameMill regularly task smaller studios working under them with developing licensed games with insufficient budgets within as little as a single year. Which of course leads to the resulting games' quality being a bit of a coin toss between "decent enough" and "you should get paid for playing this".
Honestly, my heart goes out to Flux Games for being the latest studio to have a black stain in their portfolio forced upon them. The concept of a Walking Dead adaptation that actually lets you see alternate outcomes for the TV show's pivotal moments is genuinely interesting! And if they'd been given more time and money to work with, maybe they could have turned it into a game that's actually worth playing? But I suppose we'll never know for sure.