At launch, most games will be evaluated by experts and critics before reaching gamers. However, the opinions of experts are not always synonymous with the success or failure of the projects, or in other words, similar to the judgment of the players. Even, many times, games with extremely low scores on MetaCritic have become super products later, attracting millions of gamers. For example, the names below.
League of Legends
Certainly, most gamers, even though they have not played, have at least once heard the name League of Legends. But few people know that, at the time of its first release in 2009, this super product had to receive a very modest score, only 78 points on MetaCritic. The main reason given by experts is because they think that League of Legends will not be able to surpass the quality standards, content that DOTA has done very well before.
Perhaps at that time, the impression that DOTA left behind was still too great and even well-known game critics did not understand the vision that League of Legends would bring. In fact, at the present time, League of Legends is still one of the famous eSports games, possessing the largest viewership and playing rate in the world.
Warframe
Warframe was released in 2013 with not much investment in advertising. This makes many people think that this is simply a normal space shooter, when even the developer Digital Extremes is not well known in the gaming world. At the time, many critics thought Warframe was just a mediocre, anonymous product and its only attractive reason was its free release. Warframe only received 64 reviews on MetaCritic.
But who would have thought that, a few years after its release, Warframe would become one of the most played games on Steam. Digital Extremes’ efforts in developing and improving content have brought great success. For now, Warframe is simply called the perfect game.
Final Fantasy XIV Online
Final Fantasy XIV Online’s review score on Metacritic is only 49, extremely low and below average. The majority of reviewers agreed that at the time, Final Fantasy XIV Online gave all the impression that it was incomplete in development, with few missions, lousy interface, and poor server management.
But then, Square Enix quickly saved this game to maintain the prestige of its Final Fantasy brand. Currently, Final Fantasy XIV Online is one of the best and most played MMOs in the world, even surpassing the 18 million player mark not long ago.