10 Critically Acclaimed Video Games That Players Hated

Critical reviews have always been at the center of the video game world. Making or breaking a new release depending on the score it receives, the response surrounding a title always becomes an immediate talking point, with discussion getting heated when some publications don't line up with others.

Such consensus isn't just important to players, though, as developers often have clauses in their contracts that require them to hit a certain number on Metacritic in order to receive a bonus or to be considered a success.

Despite the stock people put into official reviews, critics and fans are often divided on the biggest releases, resulting in acclaimed video games that players actually hate, and big titles that were shat on by publications ending up being loved by fans

[-Foxtrot]

Well lets be honest most of the time journalists have their head so far up developers/publishes asses that they'd miss plenty of flaws they'd crucify other games for just incase they'd upset them. Then you have the fact many of them get some great unique press kits worth a lot of money if they were to sell them.

[Seraphim]

and let's not forget in this day in age players, scratch that, people are complaining about anything and everything. Yeah we might hate on certain aspects or games but we still have fun and enjoy some of them.

[Godmars290]

You mean "everything" as in MTs, overpriced collection editions that don't include the game and DLC that comes off as being content cut from the full game? Anti-consumer practices that are becoming more and more common?

[mikeslemonade]

Overrated games are:
Bioshock Infinite
Mario Galaxy 2
Uncharted 3
GTA4
Halo 3
Bayonetta 2
GTAV Remaster PC version
MGS5
Mass Effect 2
Red Dead Redemption
Witcher 3
Dragon Age Inquisition

Games that are not overrated on the list is DmC.

Games that are probably overrated that I have not played is Wolfenstein (2017).

[RGB]

@mikeslemonade
Uncharted 3 was underrated, as good as or as near good as Uncharted 2 and 4.
MGSV - okay, you know it was unfinished right and looked and played better than most completed games.
Red Dead Redemption - You have to be kidding me.
The Witcher III - Yep, you are kidding... Yourself too.

GTAIV was super overrated though, GTAV scoring less yet was so much better.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

If those games are overrated, I would love to see what you deem amazing.

[mikeslemonade]

@SGT
Overrated does not mean they're not good games. They just have too high of a score.

@RGB

If Ucharted 3 is as good as 2 it shouldn't be that high of a score if you only match equal your predecessor. Uncharted 2 has the legacy of setting the cinematic standard for the entire generation. And it even bled into this generation.

MGS5 is too high. You can't just give a game because the mecahnics and scope are great. The actual campaign is meh and wasted a lot of time running to the next objective. Plus it's watch tower mission after watch tower. It's like the best mission was the demo or beta mission.

RDR is boring single campaign. Just pop and shoot with auto aim. Blah blah blah blah

5Witcher 3 is boring campaign and overrated graphics. Which of stories do I actually remember. Only the voice acting is great. Plus clunky controls.

GTAV is amazing for being a game on old hardware. Now the remaster getting the same score basically is bogus.

Pretty much meta is wrong most of the time. They grade to easily on ports and remasters. They are biased against games that come out every year. For example COD, Battlefield, and AC should be higher. I'm not for those games but they need to realise every game that comes out is probably a 85 rating or higher. Anything lower means they have a bias. And then they are biased for Nintendo games. Basically any AAA Nintendo game is 90 so I use a -8 for WiiU games and a -6 for Switch games.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

"RDR is boring single campaign. Just pop and shoot with auto aim. Blah blah blah blah "

Are you serious??? RDR's campaign is among the best of last gen. And if you take into account that it's open world, it's even more impressive given how difficult it is to tell a compelling story in a non-linear game at the time.

Not even going to bother commenting on you over-simplifying the gameplay =/

[Steveoreno1]

I would hate to have Mike's brain.

[conanlifts]

@mikeslemonade A lot of the games you have listed are the same sort of style and genre. It seems as though you just dislike those genres from your list. So rather than being over rated I would just say they are not the sort of games you should choose in the future. It would be like me saying fighting games or racer are over rated, When in actual fact I just dislike that gameplay.

[MajorLazer]

@Mike

Never go full retard

[mikeslemonade]

lol not my fault you guys don't know how to rate games.

[killswitch80]

Lets be honest metacritic is just 10 scores or 0.

[RommyReigns]

'Well lets be honest most of the time journalists have their head so far up developers/publishes asses that they'd miss plenty of flaws they'd crucify other games for just incase they'd upset them. '

*cough* Zelda Breath of the Wild *cough*

[-Foxtrot]

Metal Gear Solid V

Final Fantasy XIII

Grand Theft Auto V

dmc reboot

All overrated by reviewers

It's a long list

[CaptainObvious878]

Don't know why you're getting disagrees. BotW is this years most over rated title by far.

[andrewsquall]

Exactly, I still use a Youtuber like Angry Joe as a perfect example. Even if he thinks he is doing good he is STILL promoting these games by doing any videos of them at all. Then an event like Paris Games Week comes and goes and he doesn't do a single mention on it whatsoever let alone a single game that was at it

He did over hype videos this year on all the worse mt riddled games including Injustice with its RIDICULOUS talk of character DLC 5 months before launch, Star Wars BFII and Shadow of War. Even pure disaster train wrecks like Mass Effect Andromeda. Yet not a squeak about games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Persona 5 or Yakuza Kiwami (since he made a big deal out of Yakuza 0, although I think its more embarrassing when he admits he is only playing a game because its on PS4 and he never would have bothered if it is a PS3 release).

And that is only him as an example, there are plenty others out there that make waaaay too big a deal of EA and Warner's games. He didn't even do a damn MENTION of Spider-man at PGW but if it were a game coming to the Xbox market too he would have been all over it.

[conanlifts]

You also need to take into account the huge amount of hate that large franchises generate. Games like destiny 2 for example received a lot of its negative and 0 scores on the 7th September, the day it released. Metacritic is far more flawed regarding user reviews as it has no system in place to verify whether the reviewer has even played the game. Horizon Zero Dawn and gears of war 4 of other examples of 0 rated reviews that are all posted on the launch day. The system is broken.

[KickSpinFilter]

Well if your looking at user reviews on Metacritic your broken. You can only look at journalist reviews on there.

[Gatsu]

Well said.

[ziggurcat]

I wouldn't really say a game that is in the 70s counts as "critically acclaimed."

[Dario_DC]

70s in gaming is like 50s in movies.
So I do agree with you.

[Avery__]

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[leoms]

mass effect 3 and dragon age 2 were good games though

[Liqu1d]

I thought DA2 was utter trash compared to Origins.

[WeaseL]

never believe user scores they are rife with fanboys.

[Cobra951]

Right. That's the real story here. Review bombing happens all the time. I can't trust user reviews.

[NotoriousWhiz]

I trust user reviews more than critical reviews for certain games. Obviously, you have to pick a user that looks like he's not a rabid fanboy, but usually those aren't too hard to spot.

[HeisenbergX]

BF2 is not critically acclaimed

[SegaGamer]

That GTA 4 score is misleading. The 6.6 rating is based off the PC version, and people weren't complaining because the game was bad, they were complaining because it was a bad console port. Even on high end machines, this game struggles to maintain 60fps.

[theshredded]

User scores shouldn't exist

[Diffraction_Fos]

In truth, no one actually takes User Scores to heart per se. But that being said, a disproportionately low user score usually means "Proceed with caution", since a lot of so-called professional reviewers can't often be trusted.

Personally, I give way more weight to the professional reviews. However, when there is a huge sea of gap between the average Professional score and average user score, I usually take it to mean that there is either something really wrong with the game or some of the professional reviews are very sketchy. And I'm usually correct.

User reviews keep the companies honest(for the most part), since they know they can't just buy off professional reviewers and dupe everyone.

[conanlifts]

I look at some of them, but rarely take note of the 10's or 0 scores. My favourite bad reviews are the people that score the game a 1 or 2 and follow with " I got bored with the multiplayer after 40 hours of play" type comments. Seriously if you can play any game that you score 1 or 2 for more than an hour you are living life wrong. for me 0- 3 scores are reserved for games that you can barely play as they are that bad. Why would anyone invest time into something they find so terrible.

For user scores to count they need to verify the game has been played by the reviewer.

[RGB]

Can't argue with any of these, although I played Battlefront II for free at my local store and it was actually fun. Played Galactic Assault on Jakku, looked and played much better than the 1st game, shame EA has trashed DICE's good work.

[NotanotherReboot]

Horizon comes to mind!

[UCForce]

Then you are overrated. I bet you don't understand and play though the game enough.

[ILostMyMind]

Forza Horizon, you mean.

[LandoCalrissiano]

This is because people are just bandwagon down voting assholes. There's a reason Facebook never implemented a dislike system.

[3-4-5]

* Most gaming journalists don't even cover 50% of the elements of any game...they gloss over sfx & music and focus on graphics and social issues.....as if those matter in games.

* Most gaming journalists are not good at video games. I repeat.....are Not good at video games. This is why they miss the important elements of a game, and this is why they nitpick over stuff that doesn't matter.

It's not that the game was bad, it's that the person playing the game was bad at it because they aren't good at games and shouldn't be reviewing games.

You don't have somebody who knows nothing about football or basketball, cover or write about a football or basketball game right?

So why are there so many people so unqualified to talk about games......talking about games.

And more importantly, why are so many of you gullible, and why do you believe and listen to them and eat it all up.

Play what you want...when you want....how you want.

[admiralvic]

"So why are there so many people so unqualified to talk about games......talking about games. "

Because you're assuming X and Y is important, when X and Y can be as much of a plus as a minus.

"It's not that the game was bad, it's that the person playing the game was bad at it because they aren't good at games and shouldn't be reviewing games. "

Like, someone can be bad at basketball or football and still cover it, because they know. Likewise, sometimes really good people hit a point where people can't relate. Like I think Destiny's raids are really easy and should be harder, but a lot of people I run into think they're harder and too inaccessible right now. I wouldn't say I'm without question right and they're without question wrong, but it happens.

"And more importantly, why are so many of you gullible, and why do you believe and listen to them and eat it all up. "

And, with that being said, remember that trusting anyone could make you potentially gullible. If I went into GameStop and asked about Mario, there is a chance they know nothing, a chance they're lying and a chance they're genuinely telling the truth. But, it isn't like you can skill check that person at GameStop, the person who sits next to you in school or just some random passer by who says that game is great.

[LoveSpuds]

As usual, a complete lack of perspective from WhatCulture. The idea that the user ratings on Metacritic are a true reflection of gamers feelings on a given game is laughable. Those ratings are bombarded by so many idiots, marking games high or low for the most ridiculous of reasons, how anyone could see them as a fair reflection of the opinion of the community at large is beyond me.

[ShadowWolf712]

Should do the opposite too. 10 Critically panned games that players loved.

[Theknightofnights]

I think some of these games had terrible users scores due to controversial decisions such as Mass Effect 3's ending or DmC turning the protagonist into a young brown head kid.

It doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad games, it just means that at least one element of the game was absolutely hated by fans of the series. Sometimes its a bit more like politics than it is a review of the actual game.

[JimmyDM90]

Probably the biggest gap I've experienced between critical review and my own reaction was Dragon Age Inquisition. It won a bunch of game of the year awards and was almost a 90% on metacritic(PS4 at least) but when I played it it was so disappointing and bland. The combat wasn't satisfying and the story just didn't live up to past Bioware games.

[Skankinruby]

Gta 4 campaign was way better than 5, and I loved far cry 2 it was the only one that was unique and didn't just feel like an uncharted knockoff in first person. And nobody hated uncharted 3 the second one just raised the bar way too high and people's expectations were unreasonable

[Elda]

I loved DmC & I have no problem with D2 or MW3,SF5 is better & will finally be the game it should've been come this January.

[KickSpinFilter]

MW3? I loved that game, the MP in that was awesome played it until just now CODWWII is my replacement.

[Shinox]

You trying to TELL ME that RE7 isn't on that list .. you have to be kidding me !?

[quent]

Evolve

9/10-IGN