10 Recent Video Games Critics Hated (But Players LOVED)
6. Pathologic 2
Open-world survival horror game Pathologic 2 received wildly polarising reviews upon release, scoring a 9/10 from Edge Magazine but to the same token landing 5/10 from Gamespot, while Rock, Paper, Shotgun hated it enough that they didn't even finish it.
Its Metacritic score shook out at an aggressively mediocre 64 on Xbox One and a slightly better 70 on PC. Though some critics praised its atmosphere and ambition, it was widely raked over the coals for its frustratingly demanding survival mechanics, abundance of bugs, and irritating combat.
Conversely the user rating settled on an impressive 8.7, and on Steam it holds a "Very Positive" rating from over 5,000 players.
Beyond the fact that anyone throwing down cash for this sort of game is likely well acquainted with its brutal difficulty, post-release Ice-Pick Lodge reluctantly released 16 difficulty sliders to aid struggling players, as reviewers obviously didn't have access to while playing.
You can bet that had the game launched with the sliders in the first place, reviews would've been considerably kinder.