Metacritic users strike again: Portal 2 gets slew of negative reviews
Lewis Denby April 19, 2011 - 2:20 pm
This is something I did not expect. In what almost seems like a repeat of Dragon Age II’s slew of negative Metacritic user reviews, Portal 2 has been ripped a new one by much of the review aggregator’s community.
The PC version of Portal 2 currently holds a 96% average on the site, placing it among the highest-rated games of recent times. But the user reviews tell a different story.
Averaging at just 4.3 out of 10, user reviews complain about the game’s apparently short running time, day-one DLC, and accusations of Valve focusing on the console versions over the PC edition of the game.
“$80 worth of day one DLC, 4 hours worth of gameplay and “Please don’t turn off your console”. Also a cliff hanger ending for Portal 3, seriously now. I’m disappointed valve,” writes the appropriately named DayoneDLC, awarding a 3 out of 10.
“Ridiculous DLC on day 1! And both endings have been spoilt virally by Valve,” says Luthien. “And while the console versions were leaked 2 weeks early, the PC version was still subject to the gimmicky grab for cash to allow for a faster unlock via steam. Is this going to be the future of PC gaming? No wonder that PC gaming is dying.” Luthien’s score is a flat 0.
“If you are going to implement a cash shop, use them for what they were intended for,” adds HoneyCombs. “Free to play games, which is what Portal 2 should have been. I am disgusted.” HoneyCombs’ score, too, is zero out of ten.
Many other users complain about the game being given a full-priced release, claiming the game would be better suited to a budget price, despite a drastically increased running time over the original, three-hour-long game.
Of course, Metacritic’s users tend to veer quite dramatically towards the high and low ends of the scoring spectrum. But it’s rare for such a critically acclaimed game (and, frankly, such a great one) to receive such a slamming by players.
Last month, Dragon Age II players dragged the PS3 version’s user rating down to just 2.9 out of 10.
Loving Portal 2 today? Why not check out our Portal 2 game page?
Comments (2)
Wow… what losers… who cares about play time and such? If it is a good game, it’s a good game… play time just depends on if you buy it when it comes out or if you buy it later when it drops in price. I never really care about play time, I just rent it if it is short.
I’d be really interested in studying the reasoning behind doing this. And if there is any sort of coherent online community orchestrating it.