Ever since video games first came out, the two main categories that distinguished them, and helped new players find the right game for them, were genres and the split between single-player and multiplayer games. Multiplayer games have been a staple of many different gaming scenes: competitive play, party games for groups of friends, or games where you can play through the story of a game with others just to name a few.
Here we will take a look at some of the best, as well as the absolute worst multiplayer games that came out this decade based on Metacritic scores. If you want to find games you could play with friends (or avoid at all costs), this list is just the thing for you!
10 Best: Borderlands 2 (91)
As we all know, the Borderlands series has gotten tons of attention over the years, and with good reason. These FPS games combine all of the best elements for a fun shooter: an insane amount of guns, crazy enemies, interesting locations and quests, and great humor. As the score for the PlayStation 3 version of Borderlands 2 shows, the developers hit the nail right on the head.
Borderlands 2 is considered by some to be the best entry in the franchise, having the best sense of humor, story, and especially the writing. There are a few games that make us both hate and love the main villain of a game, but this game's antagonist - Handsome Jack, does just that. What better way to experience all of that than to team up with three other friends and have a blast?
9 Worst: Game Party Champions (24)
Everyone knows that the concept of a party game is to make a collection of mini-games that are creative and fun. However, as we will see in this list, there are some that did not get that memo. Game Party Champions is a party game from the Game Party series, which surprisingly has five games in total.
The reason why it was so poorly received is mainly the fact that the mini-games are extremely generic, poorly executed, and just plain boring. Released as a launch title for the Wii U back in 2012, we doubt it did any good for the console's reputation.
8 Best: Rayman Origins (92)
The Rayman franchise has always been an odd one, never truly settling down on one style, but rather changing it drastically a couple of times as time passes. Starting off as a 2D platformer with its first game, the franchise moved on to a fully 3D style with the two following games, before eventually going back to being a 2D platformer with the fourth game in the franchise.
Rayman Origins is an insanely fun platformer game with a beautiful and original art style, and amazing levels. The best part is that it can also be played by up to four players. Not only that, the players can have a bit of cheeky fun, punching or slapping their friends' characters in the middle of a level and laugh as they fall into a pit filled with spikes.
7 Worst: FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction (23)
The FlatOut franchise seemed to do relatively well with its first game, getting generally positive reviews due to the games' fun factor of driving cars with friends and crashing into each other. Technically the sixth game to be released in the series, FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction was the one that tripped up the franchise.
Although it had a decent amount of game modes to choose from, that was pretty much all it had going for it. Horrible graphics, buggy mechanics, an enormous amount of glitches were the things that made this game an unenjoyable mess to all that dared to play it. Even though the idea of a game with a destruction derby might sound fun, the only thing that crashed was this game's review scores.
6 Best: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (93)
There are a few fighting game franchises that can contest the popularity and quality of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Being a popular game among the competitive scene, as well as a solid choice for a party game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fast-paced fighting game that is a great pick for almost any occasion.
Considered as the best entry in the franchise by many critics, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a large roster of characters from a ton of franchises to choose from, tons of different stages, polished gameplay as well as new features, such as a stage builder that lets the players' creativity shine. This solid game can definitely be considered as one of the best games for the Nintendo Switch yet.
5 Worst: Fast & Furious: Showdown (22)
A game riding on the fame of the Fast & Furious movie franchise, this game is a good as the movies are deep. Released in 2013, this game was doomed from the start, as it checked off every point off the list on how to make a bad game with virtually no redeeming qualities at all.
Riddled with problems such as bad graphics, tons of bugs and glitches, horrible voice-acting and sound design, as well as a campaign with generic and repetitive missions. As if that was not enough, the campaign is laughably short, clocking in at around two and a half hours. Even though the player can play through the campaign with a friend, unless both of you are enormous fans of the franchise, there is no reason anyone should go through the experience.
4 Best: Divinity: Original Sin II (93)
Divinity: Original Sin II came out on PC in 2017, which for a video game is a relatively short time. Despite that, it is already considered by many to be one of the best RPGs ever made. The reasons for such claims are many, such as amazing story, characters, and writing in general, the gameplay is fun and engaging, but also challenging, among many other things.
This game is ostensibly the closest thing we've ever gotten to a video game iteration of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, where anything can be done as long as you have the stats (and creativity!) for it.
3 Worst: Infestation: Survivor Stories (20)
As we all know, there is no shortage of open-world multiplayer games, especially those that include survival elements, and Infestation: Survivor Stories is one of them. The genre of open-world survival games including zombies or other types of hazards was the staple of the early 2010s, however, this game originally called The War Z was not one of the successful ones.
Not only was the base game released completely broken, with bad game mechanics that did not work, it was also shipped with microtransactions that made matters even worse. We can only guess how a game like this has sold over 2 million copies.
2 Best: Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (93)
These days there are few RTS game franchises that are as well-known and loved as the Starcraft series. When the sequel, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty came out, it was a hit among critics, casual as well as competitive players alike. It was such an anticipated and critically acclaimed sequel, that it sold around 4.5 million copies in only five months.
The reason why this game still has a big player base is that it does pretty much everything right for an RTS game: multiple factions with their own unique play-styles, great combat, huge fun-factor. Although it may seem that the main focus of the game is the single-player story campaign, it's the multiplayer mode that drew in the majority of the players. Everyone who enjoys playing RTS games knows how good it feels to outsmart their opponents, which is probably why the enormous and influential professional competitive scene was so fierce.
1 Worst: Family Party: 30 Games Obstacle Arcade (11)
At the bottom of the barrel, we have Family Party: 30 Games Obstacle Arcade, a party game with a name so bad that it serves as a warning to anyone unsuspecting enough to even think of playing it. Everyone can enjoy a "so bad it's good" game where the poor quality makes the game absurd and funny, this game is at the very bottom of Metacritic's score list, and it's definitely not because it falls within the "so bad it's good" category.
Every review of this game tells the same story: extremely dated graphics, horrible controls, abysmal voice acting and sound topped off with a generous amount of bugs. There's a reason this game holds the title of the worst game on multiple platforms including Metacritic - absolutely everything about it is horrible, and there is no reason anyone should play it.