10 Recent Video Games Critics Hated (But Players LOVED)
4. Left Alive
Left Alive is one of the worst-reviewed games released by a major studio in the last few years. The Square Enix-published stealth game was hyped up largely due to the involvement of legendary Metal Gear Solid artist Yoji Shinkawa, but once reviews dropped, so did jaws around the world.
On PS4, Left Alive scored a pathetic 37 on Metacritic, being panned by just about every major gaming publication for its stiff controls, brutally unforgiving stealth mechanics, inconsistent AI, bland graphics, and excess glitches.
Many complained in particular about the game's infrequent checkpointing and how even the lowest difficulty setting offered a significant challenge to those inexperienced in stealth games.
In what perhaps represents the single biggest cavern between critics and players in history, however, Left Alive rocks a strong 8.2 on PS4, and an even higher 8.5 on PC, with well over 1,000 ratings a-piece.
While some have accused Square Enix of inflating the user scores with bots, a less-nefarious explanation is that shortly after release Square Enix released a patch which introduced a new Casual difficulty level.
If nothing else this made the game basically playable without massive frustration, even if it failed to remedy Left Alive's many other failings.
Still, a cursory look at the game's subreddit confirms that it does indeed have a loyal, passionate cabal of fans, tough though that might be to believe.