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2005 was a year bursting at the seams with great games – Resident Evil 4, the first God of War, Psychonauts, GTA Liberty City Stories, and so many more iconic titles all arrived. On the other end of the spectrum, though, were some less-memorable games that got a frosty reception. One such game was Utopia City, a futuristic FPS that was panned by critics at the time. Bizarrely, it just appeared on Steam, almost two decades on from its original release date.
While the early and mid 2000s brought us some of the best FPS games of all time, it’s safe to say that little-known Utopia City wasn’t one of them. Tasking you with infiltrating the titular cyber world that is keeping people virtually enslaved, you have to battle your way through several unique levels to collect artifacts. These artifacts then get you access to the Mastermind that controls Utopia City, allowing you to destroy it.
That’s not a terrible premise for a shooter, but unfortunately its execution left a lot to be desired. Due to its age and obscurity, finding coverage of the game online is extremely tricky, but some legacy reviews have been aggregated by Metacritic – and its average score is one of the lowest on the entire site. Utopia City scores a dismal 23/100.
Sadly, the links to these reviews are all dead, or they appeared in physical magazines. However, there are some brief snippets that will give you a flavor of why Utopia City is so underwhelming.
IncGamers said at the time that “it’s hard to think of anything since the turn of the millennia that looks this bad,” citing the game’s “bland and hazy” textures and dull level design. GameWatcher described it as “adequate for budget line expectations and out of reach for anything beyond that.” Elsewhere, PC Gamer quipped: “Perhaps the dev team just asked the pizza delivery boy to do the job to save some pennies for the sequel.”
While seeing any 19-year-old game appear unannounced on Steam is odd, it’s stranger still when it’s one that clearly isn’t much good. However, that’s exactly what’s happened. You can now buy and play Utopia City on Steam, and it’s even got a 25% introductory discount until Tuesday, November 26. If you’re desperate to add one of the worst-reviewed PC games of all time to your library, you can do so here.
There is a small amount of reason behind Utopia City’s surprise emergence onto Steam. Publisher Strategy First appears to have been putting several very old games from its back catalog onto Steam throughout the course of 2024, and a recent flurry has seen Utopia City added to Valve’s platform. Still, the decision to include one of the worst PC shooters ever in that endeavor is a bizarre one.
Enough about terrible games, though – let’s restore the balance and point you in the direction of some of the best PC games ever made. You’ll also find some future stars in our list of the biggest upcoming PC games.
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