Part 6/11:
Critical Reception and Review Bombing: A Closer Look
While sales figures illustrate consumer response, critical and user reviews offer another dimension of insight. Currently, The Last of Us Part II holds a metascore of 5.1 out of 10 on Metacritic. However, Ryan’s analysis reveals a nuanced picture by examining thousands of user reviews, removing spam, and accounting for review bombing tactics.
He conducted a meticulous deep dive into over 57,000 reviews collected via a custom scraper, analyzing the distribution and authenticity of scores. This process uncovered patterns of review bombing—both highly positive and extremely negative reviews being posted en masse immediately after release and throughout the game's lifespan.