10 Worst Video Games Of 2023

If you're not a fan of Bloober Team's fairly on-the-nose horror, then Stray Souls makes Layers of Fear and The Medium look like masterpieces by comparison.

Jukai Studio's Stray Souls is a loud and pompous attempt at a survival horror game where absolutely nothing works as intended. The main character's facial animations are almost as comic as the forced jump-scares. The combat is janky, when it works at all and doesn't randomly stop you from aiming your weapon. The story is almost non-existent and tied together with tired tropes and puzzles.

At least with Stray Souls you aren't wasting as much money as, say, Gollum as the game is available for a mere $30. But that's not helped by the fact that Stray Souls has the absolute full hand of terrible. Not only is it a bad game, it's made by awful people.

Artur Lączkowski, the game's lead, left social media after people discovered his Twitter likes were full of transphobic and racist bile. If hate isn't enough for you, he's also a hack. Stray Souls uses AI art and asset flips from the Unreal Engine store - and, even with this "assistance", it still blows.

All this in a game that happens to be scored by legendary Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, whose soundtrack - unsurprisingly - is about the only redeeming quality of this dumpster fire.