“Unfair, misleading,” says Raphael Colantonio, founder of Arkane, about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s Metacritic score…

The landscape of the video game industry has changed dramatically in recent decades, and platforms like Metacritic play a significant role in evaluating games that come to market. However, this influence is not without its critics, despite the importance of the score there for many companies. A growing number of voices are questioning whether Metacritic truly reflects quality, or whether it simply shows whether a title is sufficiently polished or optimized at the time of release.

The case of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is peculiar, as it is listed on the Metacritic website with a score of 73 out of 100 after reviews from around 70 media outlets. Many journalists and content creators have pointed out that the post-apocalyptic shooter has many bugs and could use some optimization. However, after a massive launch patch, many of these issues have been minimized, and the title is very enjoyable, despite the fact that several updates are still needed to perfect the experience.

After S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 sold 1 million copies and debuted on Steam with nearly 120,000 concurrent players, Valve’s store shows that the game’s reviews are “mostly positive.”

Many feel that the game’s score does not reflect reality. This view is shared by renowned developer Raphael Colantonio, founder of Arkane Studios, creator of Dishonored and Prey.

Arkane founder criticizes Metacritic system after S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 score

Colantonio criticized the review site’s system on X/Twitter for encouraging the creation of boring games. He argued that a high score is more about how polished a game is than about how memorable the title is. “The Metacritic ecosystem encourages devs to make safe boring games. As long as a game is polished at launch, you’re guaranteed a 80%, no matter how boring the game might be,” he says.

“Meanwhile Stalker2 gets a 73 because it’s a bit rough on the edges at launch. Unfair, misleading.” He qualifies his words in another post. “My previous post was a bit controversial. Hopefully this one will be received better: 70% on Metacritic can either mean it’s a mediocre game or it’s an amazing game that has bugs at launch and needs patching. I don’t think Metacritic helps in making the difference between the 2.”

Source: Steam, X

The Metacritic ecosystem encourages devs to make safe boring games.
As long as a game is polished at launch, you’re guaranteed a 80%, no matter how boring the game might be.
Meanwhile Stalker2 gets a 73 because it’s a bit rough on the edges at launch.
Unfair, misleading..

— Raphael Colantonio (@rafcolantonio) November 23, 2024