The Last of Us Part II
Let's start with the one that'll get the most people in the comments. The Last of Us Part II tells a bold, unflinching story — nobody's arguing that. Naughty Dog swung for the fences with the narrative structure, and the animation and motion capture work is still best-in-class years later.
But the gameplay loop gets repetitive. The combat encounters start to blur together by the back half. Stealth, encounter, cutscene, stealth, encounter. The emotional weight of the story carries you through, but the moment-to-moment gameplay doesn't evolve enough to justify the runtime. Great story, but the gameplay needed more variety. Fight us.
GTA V
It's been 13 years. GTA V launched on the PS3. It's now on PS5. Three console generations. And the reason it's still here isn't the story mode — it's the online grind. GTA Online became Rockstar's money printer, and everything that made the single-player experience special got left behind.
The story mode is fun. Trevor is iconic. The heists are well-designed. But the online grind ruined what made GTA great — the chaos, the freedom, the satire. Now it's shark cards, flying bikes, and loading screens. The cultural legacy of GTA V is GTA Online, and that's not the compliment people think it is.
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy nailed one thing: the world. Walking through Hogwarts for the first time, exploring Hogsmeade, flying on a broomstick over the Scottish Highlands — it's magical. For about ten hours. Then you realize the actual gameplay is mid.
The combat is flashy but shallow. The open world is filled with the same collectibles and repetitive enemy camps. The story doesn't go anywhere interesting. Hogwarts Legacy sold on nostalgia and world design, not on being a great game. The magic wore off fast, and most people put it down before finishing. Beautiful world. Mid game.
Starfield
Bethesda aimed for the stars and landed on empty planets. That's not even a hot take at this point — it's the consensus. But the hype machine before launch had people expecting No Man's Sky meets Skyrim in space, and what they got was a loading screen simulator with great gunplay and empty exploration.
The city hubs are decent. New Atlantis has moments. The faction questlines have flashes of classic Bethesda writing. But the core loop of land, scan, loot, leave doesn't hold up across hundreds of procedurally generated planets that all feel the same. Starfield isn't bad. It's just aggressively mid for a game with that pedigree.
Fortnite
Fortnite changed gaming forever. That's not debatable. It popularized battle royale, pioneered the live-service model, and created a cultural phenomenon that transcended gaming. But the OG magic is gone. The game today is a content machine — brand deals, crossovers, and seasonal events designed to sell skins.
The gameplay is still solid. The building mechanics (when they're enabled) are still unique. But the soul of early Fortnite — the chaos, the community creativity, the genuine surprise of it all — has been replaced by corporate polish. It's a theme park now. A very profitable, very entertaining theme park. But the magic? That's gone.
That's our list. Five games that deserve credit for what they do well — and honest criticism for where they fall short. Which game do you think is overrated? Sound off on Instagram @GamePeltGG.