Steam has thousands of games, ranging from classics that shaped entire genres to releases that struggled to meet expectations. Most discussions focus on the best-rated titles, but player reviews also tell a powerful story at the other end of the scale. The lowest-rated games on Steam are not always failures in concept.
5 New 2026 Steam Games You Should Be Playing
Steam's library already received some juicy new titles in 2026. Here's which ones to check out right away.
Many started with strong ideas, popular franchises, or ambitious goals. What pushed them to the bottom was how those ideas were delivered to players. These ratings come directly from the people who bought, played, and reacted to the games over time. The reasons for the low ratings are usually due to bugs, missing features, design choices, performance issues, and broken promises. When thousands of players raise the same concerns, patterns become impossible to ignore.
Find all 10 pairs
Find all 10 pairs
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
Player Rating: 14%
- Futuristic strategic finale where players manage military forces and fight for control of key points in the Tiberium-infested world.
- The game changed many of the classic Command & Conquer elements that fans expected.
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight wraps up the long-running Tiberium storyline first introduced in older Command & Conquer titles. In the story, it’s the year 2062, and Earth is dying because of the alien-grown resource called Tiberium. Players take roles leading either the Global Defense Initiative or the Brotherhood of Nod as they struggle to survive and find a way to stop the spread of Tiberium. The game includes both solo campaign battles and multiplayer modes with objective-based combat.
A big part of the criticism is how the game departed from the core mechanics that defined earlier Command & Conquer releases. Traditional base building and resource harvesting, which were staples of the series, were removed in favour of capturing control points and running a linear progression of unit unlocks. Players also point out that the campaign felt underwhelming, with missions that lacked depth and storytelling that didn’t resonate as strongly as in previous games in the series.
Spacebase DF-9
Player Rating: 16%
- Space-station management game where players design and run a small colony in deep space.
- Players say the game launched in an incomplete state with a lot of concerns about bugs.
Spacebase DF-9 is built around the idea of running a space station far from Earth. Players place rooms, assign jobs, manage oxygen and food, and deal with emergencies like fires, hull breaches, or hostile threats. Spacebase DF-9 has been around for over a decade, but the overall player sentiment has remained largely unfavourable.
The game is seen by many players as a good idea that never reached its full potential. The basic building elements and sci-fi setting had appeal, but many Steam players say the game felt unfinished and abandoned by its developers. Many reviews mention that after entering early access and launching, updates were sparse or stopped entirely, leaving bugs and missing features unresolved.
War of the Three Kingdoms
Player Rating: 17%
- A supposedly free online strategy card game set in the era of China’s Three Kingdoms.
- Heavy microtransactions didn’t deliver a fun, balanced experience without paying.
First off, don’t confuse War of the Three Kingdoms with the 2018 War of Three Kingdoms, even though both are strategy games. War of the Three Kingdoms is a free strategy card game on Steam that blends collectible cards with online combat. Players build decks featuring famous figures from ancient China’s Three Kingdoms era, then use those cards to fight battles and gain a strategic advantage over opponents.
War of the Three Kingdoms has received a lot of reviews on Steam, so it’s not one of those games that fly under the radar. But the reviews have been overwhelmingly negative. A key reason for the poor reception comes from how the game functions in practice. Many players feel the core gameplay loop is shallow and heavily influenced by in-game purchases.
FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction
Player Rating: 18%
- A high-speed, destruction-focused racing experience.
- Most players felt the driving mechanics, physics, and overall quality were far below what fans expected.
FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction is supposed to be a lot of fun, as it puts players behind the wheel in high-speed races that combine driving with destruction. Vehicles crash into each other, walls, and the environment, and players can attempt stunts to gain an advantage. The game features multiple modes, including traditional races, demolition challenges, and stunt-focused events, all designed to test speed, control, and timing. Sounds fun, right? Well, not exactly.
The biggest disappointment players have with FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction is the driving physics and vehicle control. Many reviews describe steering as unresponsive or inconsistent, so it can feel difficult to control cars reliably in races. When vehicles don’t behave as expected, races can devolve into frustrating moments rather than fun high-speed combat. And crashes often feel more irritating than entertaining. Because of how underwhelming FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction was compared to the first two entries, it’s worth pointing out that it was developed by Team6 and not Bugbear Entertainment, who were responsible for the first two entries.
Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection
Player Rating: 21%
- It packages the original Battlefront and Battlefront II with updated visuals and online play for new platforms.
- Bugs, graphics, and multiplayer issues.
Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection was released in March 2024 as a way to bring the original Battlefront and Battlefront 2 into one package for modern hardware. It lets players fight in iconic battles from the Star Wars galaxy, from ground troops to vehicles like X-wings and AT-STs, and includes campaign and multiplayer modes that were popular in the original titles.
10 Games With Record-Breaking Launches AND Record-Breaking Disasters
Whether it's good or bad, these games will forever be remembered for the records that they managed to break.
Because Battlefront Classic Collection was sold as a remaster of two great games, expectations were high. Many fans hoped that nostalgia would combine with modern polish to create a smooth experience. Instead, the early version felt rushed to many players, with the core multiplayer, the reason most people bought it, being especially unreliable. This led to a wave of frustration and criticism by Battlefront Classic Collection players on Steam, anchored around technical issues and unmet expectations rather than the underlying content itself.
The 4 Sins
Player Rating: 23%
- First-person horror adventure where four players work together to solve puzzles and explore an eerie, abandoned town.
- Technical problems, poor execution of core mechanics, and an experience that didn’t live up to its cooperative horror promise.
The 4 Sins drew interest for its cooperative horror setup, but the way it was built and how it felt to play didn’t match what many players hoped for. That disconnect between concept and experience is the main reason for its mostly negative reception on Steam.
A major reason for the poor reception is that players often felt the game didn’t deliver on the promise of smooth, engaging cooperative horror. Players pointed out the buggy nature of the game, poor graphics, and the fact that the camera kept shaking while the player’s character moved. When a title is built around teamwork and suspense, these sorts of problems can quickly turn what is meant to be an atmospheric escape experience into something players find uninspiring or frustrating.
Towns
Player Rating: 25%
- Many players felt the game was abandoned and unfinished, with bugs.
- A city-building and management game where players build a settlement above a dangerous dungeon.
Towns invites players to build and manage a small town with multiple layers of gameplay. On the surface, the town needs houses, workshops, farms, and defenses to keep citizens productive and safe. Beneath the town, adventurers explore dungeons for treasures, which then help the settlement grow.
Despite the interesting concept, Steam reviews show that players were largely disappointed. Many reported that the game felt incomplete and abandoned. Players repeatedly described it as a buggy mess that was almost unplayable. Overall, Towns had an appealing idea, as a layered town-and-dungeon sim, but failed to deliver a satisfying experience. Its unfinished systems and technical problems led to overwhelmingly negative feedback on Steam.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World
Player Rating: 26%
- A theme park simulator where players design and run their own amusement park.
- Concerns about controls, graphics, and crashes.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World arrived in 2016 as the next major entry in the longstanding RollerCoaster Tycoon series. In this title, players can map out paths, place rides and scenery, and experiment with high-speed coaster designs. The game also included features intended to let creators share parks and designs through Steam Workshop, aiming to fuel creativity and community involvement. Despite those ambitions, the reaction from players has been largely unfavourable. Players returning to the series expected a robust park management experience, yet for many, the reality felt far short of that. Players reported frequent crashes and lagging.
RollerCoaster Tycoon World appealed to the idea of a modern park design experience, but the execution left many fans feeling that it didn’t live up to the potential of the series. Technical problems and a perception that core elements were lacking helped shape the predominantly negative response on Steam.
Kerbal Space Program 2
Player Rating: 26%
- Sequel to the popular space flight simulator that places players in charge of designing rockets, managing spacecraft, and exploring the solar system with physics-based mechanics.
- Abandoned and unfinished.
Kerbal Space Program 2 was introduced on Steam as the follow-up to the popular space simulation, where experimentation, careful planning, and physics are at the core of every mission. It includes construction of spacecraft, interplanetary exploration, and navigation challenges that test players’ engineering skills while they push tiny green astronauts into orbit and beyond.
20 Best Space Flight Simulation Games
Space flight simulators may be a niche game but Metacritic knows which ones are the best of the genre.
One issue that comes up repeatedly in player reviews is that the game felt unfinished. And that’s no surprise, given that Intercept Games laid off the developers of the game. So the project lacks active support or improvements.
Sacred 3
Player Rating: 26%
- A fast-paced cooperative hack-and-slash action game where players choose a hero and battle through hordes of enemies in a fantasy world,
- The game lacked depth, with limited customization, RPG elements, loot, and repetitive combat.
Sacred 3 basically puts players in a fantasy setting where the forces of evil have risen, and players step into the boots of legendary warriors to push them back. The gameplay revolves around close-quarters combat, smashing through waves of enemies with simple attacks and special abilities. Friends can join in cooperative matches to take on big threats together, giving the game a focus on teamwork and high-speed action rather than careful role-playing or deep strategy.
The overall reaction to Sacred 3 reflects that the experience didn’t meet many players’ expectations, especially fans who hoped for something closer to the rich role-playing roots of the earlier Sacred games. Players pointed out that enemies repeat often and battles can feel like repeated waves without strategy, which wears thin quickly. Unlike many action RPGs, there’s little meaningful loot or customization that makes characters feel truly distinct as they level up, leaving progression feeling flat rather than rewarding.
16 Games That Were Removed From Steam (& Why)
Steam has almost every PC game, but there are a few exceptions. Why were these titles removed from Valve's platform?