20 Recent Video Games EVERYONE Knew Would Suck

Though shadow-dropped games absolutely can be awesome, it's a strategy that tends to work better for new IP that might need the extra attention - like, say, Hi-Fi Rush.

When you're dealing with a name franchise, it's a little more sus, as was certainly the case with Sony Santa Monica's new God of War-themed Metroidvania, God of War Sons of Sparta.

Sony announced the game during their State of Play presentation on February 12th and dropped it the very same day, and while a God of War Metroidvania is a conceptually great idea, the reveal trailer didn't exactly set the world on fire.

In its very bones this felt like a curious little passion project that Sony eventually realised wasn't worth the juice of a major marketing push, and so rolled the dice with a shadow-drop.

While hardly the worst game released this year, Sons of Sparta largely lived down to expectations, delivering an aggressively generic, personality-devoid Metroidvania that felt more like a cheap cash-in than a game actually produced by the main God of War studio.