As it stands, The Last of Us 2 is the highest-rated video game of the year so far, with an impressive 95 score on Metacritic. Critics have given The Last of Us 2 near-universal praise, with many hailing it as one of the best video games ever made. Despite this, The Last of Us 2 is currently getting review bombed, with its 95 critic score standing in stark contrast to the measly 3.4 user score that it currently has.
To discuss exactly why The Last of Us 2 is getting review bombed would be to venture into spoiler territory, but it has something to do with plot developments that fans of the franchise aren’t happy with. The phrase “SJW” also comes up multiple times in The Last of Us 2 negative reviews, with people complaining about its LGBT content. Few, if any, of the negative Last of Us 2 user reviews on Metacritic really offer much substance, but that’s not surprising since it’s unlikely any of the reviewers have actually played through the game (and that goes for those writing the positive reviews as well).
At the time of this writing, The Last of Us 2 has 1,978 positive user reviews versus 4,758 negative ones. However, the number of reviews jump by a few hundred every few minutes, so it seems like the game’s review bombing is far from over. Naughty Dog knew The Last of Us 2 would be divisive, but the studio likely didn’t have this in mind.
Review bombing isn’t a new practice, of course, but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Many top video games go through a review bombing phase after they’re released for one reason or another, so it’s surprising that Metacritic still allows it to happen. After all, users being able to submit reviews for a game that it’s virtually impossible for them to have played for any significant amount of time doesn’t necessarily make sense, so the solution could be as simple as holding off on user reviews until a few days after launch.
What usually happens in these situations is that some of the more obviously trolling or fraudulent reviews will be pulled, and fans of the game will rally up the number of positive reviews. The latter already appears to be happening on The Last of Us 2 Metacritic page, but they have a long way to go if they hope to catch up to the sheer number of negative user reviews currently being thrown at the game.
Regardless, gamers shouldn’t take the Metacritic user score for The Last of Us 2 very seriously until the review bombing ends. In the meantime, Last of Us 2 reviews from professional critics have been overwhelmingly positive, and it will definitely be interesting to see if any other game coming out in 2020 manages to dethrone it or not.
The Last of Us 2 is out now, exclusively for PS4.
Source: Last of Us 2 Metacritic
