A technical masterpiece with a risky and ambitious story, The Last of Us 2 has brought home hundreds of awards since its release last year. While its dominant performance at The Game Awards was certainly an impressive display, the game's latest win is perhaps its most intriguing yet. Earlier this week, Metacritic revealed that the controversial sequel had won its fan-voted Game of the Year award.
While even the staunchest critics of the choices made with the game’s characters have acknowledged that The Last of Us 2 is worthy of the awards it has been given, this specific win is an interesting one. Back when the game first released, Metacritic was home to a vastly different set of reactions regarding The Last of Us 2, making its Game of the Year nod less than a year later particularly unexpected. From faux outrage to an outpouring of support, the Metacritic community’s new stance on The Last of Us 2 is a positive sign for the website and future discussions regarding Naughty Dog’s most recent game.
The Original Metacritic Controversy Explained
It is no secret that the story of The Last of Us 2 is not everyone’s cup of tea. Viewed by some as an improvement over the beloved original and seen by others as an insult to the first game’s legacy, the divisiveness around the game is clear. However, regardless of opinions on the game’s dual perspective narrative, one side of the spectrum got a bit out of hand regarding their criticism of The Last of Us 2. Tanking the game’s user review score on Metacritic to a 3.2 at its absolute lowest, a clear difference could be seen in opinions.
However, since the review bombing of the game, The Last of Us 2’s user score has risen quite a bit. While it is still at a low 5.7, those positive on the game have raised its score an impressive amount. Further, as many have pointed out, a vast majority of the negative reviews for the game are illegitimate. A huge chunk of the game’s 150,000+ review scores were posted at the moment of release, meaning that players were sharing a negative opinion of the game without having actually played through the post-apocalyptic story themselves.
Further, much of The Last of Us 2’s review bombing seemingly stemmed from a place of hate. From thinly veiled remarks to outright hate speech, plenty of the reviews can be arguably thrown out due to their vitriol. Beyond that, even more negative reviews came down to players reading The Last of Us 2’s plot leaks, forming an early opinion without knowing how the story actually plays out. With the result being thousands of unfair 0 out of 10 review scores, it is easy to understand why there has been so much discussion about the game's metascore.
While criticism is certainly fair and not everyone has to enjoy what Naughty Dog did with certain characters, many of The Last of Us 2’s user review scores were built upon unearned negativity. Metacritic was quick to realize this, setting new guidelines designed around combatting review bombing. Following the controversy surrounding The Last of Us 2, those behind the website introduced a system that forces users to wait 36 hours before posting a review.
Forcing angry gamers to wait out the peak of their frustration, those wanting to leave a fake review are likely to be invested in doing so after 36 hours, and this also encourages having played the game some before submitting a review. While not guaranteed to stop the problem completely, the move was a step in the right direction — and helped lay the groundwork for The Last of Us 2’s 2020 Game of the Year win on Metacritic.
A Major Victory For Naughty Dog, Metacritic, And TLOU2
While review bombing still occurs fairly often on websites such as Steam, there has not been a Metacritic incident on the scale of The Last of Us 2 since the changes were made. While The Last of Us 2’s Metacritic review score will likely never be fixed, its shocking Game of the Year victory is a major piece of evidence regarding just the original reviews. While this is a sign that Metacritic was correct in its actions and ensures that user reviews should be more accurate going forward, the win likely means even more to Naughty Dog.
The user poll for Game of the Year on Metacritic saw The Last of Us 2 dominate the competition, bringing in five times the votes of runner-up Ghost of Tsushima. A clear message to Naughty Dog that its art is appreciated by a large majority of gamers, the win is much more than another Game of the Year victory, as the site’s actual users crowning The Last of Us 2 Game of the Year speaks volumes about the original player score’s validity.
Though this is a victory for Naughty Dog as a studio and Metacritic as a website, the conclusion to this painfully long saga is a big win for fans of the game as well. The Last of Us 2 winning the website’s Game of the Year award in a landslide is a sign that the game is much more popular with players than it seemed at launch, and this bodes well for future discussions of the game. From The Last of Us 2’s upcoming Factions release to regular discussions of the story and its characters, players positive on the game could be facing less hostility going forward.
The Last of Us 2’s latest Game of the Year victory is an ironic turn of events due to its Metacritic past, but it is also a sign that the project is aging well. With hateful voices slowly dying out, healthier discussions about this specific game and the future of The Last of Us series can be had going forward. A clear outlier in The Last of Us 2’s reception, this Game of the Year win serves as a welcome end to the drama regarding the game’s frustrating and confusing Metacritic performance.
The Last of Us 2 is available now on PS4.
