Game On: ‘The Last of Us Part II’ highlights Metacritic issues

“The Last of Us Part II” was released on Friday, and it was the most divisive video game launch in recent memory. Within hours, critic reviews and audience scores alike began flooding websites like Metacritic – normal for a big game release.

But abnormal for a big game release was the clash between gaming journalists and most consumers – a 95/100 combined score from news outlets and a “user score” that has fluctuated from 3.6-4.4/10 over the past week.

The speed at which these tens of thousands of user scores were being submitted should raise an eyebrow – “The Last of Us Part II” is a 25-hour experience, and many hobbyist reviewers admitted they couldn’t stomach playing through the whole game. In defense of those impassioned gamers, if you dislike the abrupt turn the story makes at the two-hour mark, it’s highly unlikely you’ll appreciate how the rest of the tale plays out.

Conspiracies abound, of course. People who like the game say it’s being “review bombed,” with “The Last of Us Part II” voice actors Shannon Woodward and Laura Bailey taking to Twitter to claim the influx of negative reviews was an automated effort.

“The bot farms are fully activated,” Woodward said.

Meanwhile, many who dislike the game have suggested gaming journalists are paid off – or at the very least motivated by fear of their media pass being revoked.

Gaming news outlets have occasionally found themselves blacklisted by publishers, but there’s scant evidence of it ever occurring due to poor reviews.

Kotaku was given the silent treatment by Bethesda and Ubisoft for years, but by the publication’s own admission, it was because they leaked info regarding the existence of games those publishers weren’t ready to announce yet.

While gaming journalists are unlikely to have their views swayed by media access, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing at all to be skeptical about.

Developers are often given postlaunch bonuses by their publishers based on the game’s Metacritic score after its release – the best-documented example being when Obsidian developer Chris Avellone tweeted in 2012 that “Fallout: New Vegas” “was a straight payment, no royalties” – there was “only a bonus if we got an 85+ on Metacritic, which we didn’t,” he said.

Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart confirmed the statement, saying in an interview with Kotaku that “publishers like to have Metacritic scores as an aspect of contracts.” On top of that, most gaming journalists maintain personal connections with people in the industry.

Alanah Pearce, a gaming writer who worked for IGN for several years, stated on her YouTube channel that “relationships between writers, publishers and developers can be issues.” She said that being friends with Troy Baker, a voice actor for “The Last of Us Part II,” makes her hesitant to pen any sort of review for the game.

As a critic, no matter how much you like or dislike a product, you’d hate to contribute to essentially robbing people of their hard-earned monetary bonuses. It’s an awkward spot to be in, doubly so when Metacritic’s exact algorithm for calculating a product’s “Metascore” remains a closely guarded secret.

What is known is that Metacritic uses a weighting system to put more emphasis on reviews published by prominent outlets such as IGN and GameSpot.

Ultimately, the role of the critic is to inform people whether or not they should invest their time in a product or experience. Game publishers using Metacritic to grant or withhold bonuses to developers complicates the narrative, thrusting professional reviewers into an uncomfortable situation where they are partially responsible for a person’s paycheck.

The only viable method for publications to sidestep the problem is to issue reviews without a score or grade.

That’s the policy of Kotaku, Polygon and Time Magazine, among others. In the case of “The Last of Us Part II,” the critiques offered by those outlets were notably mixed. Were the 99-and-counting positive reviews “paid off” by Sony? Doubtful.

The story is a polarizing one, but the incredible amount of work that went into the visual and audio design pushes the “video games are an art form” narrative, something every gaming journalist is sure to appreciate.