Killzone 3 is by all accounts a fantastic game but the metacritic for it is lower than it's predecessor. The reason for this, I think, is that all of the reviews are from early copies and as such focus on the single player.  Killzone 3's single player is not that great, it has cheesy one liners and purportedly a Halo 2 style ending (no spoilers I haven't played for myself yet) but the single player of Killzone 3 is not the meat of the game. The multiplayer is the heart of Killzone and the reviews that have focused on that aspect are extremely positive (ex. Destructoid) but you can not blame reviewers for focusing on the singleplayer because they reviewed the game when the multiplayer was empty but maybe this a warning against early reviews?

If they didn't want the single player to be scored in a review then why even make a single player portion? It's still a part of the game.

85 metacritic score is pretty damn good to anyone with half a brain. Which people who follow Metacritic to begin with tend not to have, I guess.

Metacritic scores are skewed by time, you can really only get a 'true' score weeks after a game's release. Basically if a game is 'hyped' or has a lot of pre-release promotion it will be more positive initially. Like wise games that just drop on release day tend to have lower scores on Metacritic. So wait it out, oh and don't worry what the Metacritic score is worry what the game is.

It sucks that a 4/5 rating translates to a 80/100 metacritic, that's all I can say.

" 85 metacritic score is pretty damn good to anyone with half a brain. Which people who follow Metacritic to begin with tend not to have, I guess. "

" If they didn't want the single player to be scored in a review then why even make a single player portion? It's still a part of the game. "

This is why I hate Metacritic.

" @VictoryBlixt: Tbh, any time you have to say that x is the meat of a game, so it shouldn't matter that y was lacking or straight up sucked, you're pretty much doing it wrong. A lot of the reviews I've read have said that whilst it's a lot of fun, it isn't doing much that 2 wasn't doing - that's a valid criticism in my opinion and explains the lower metacritic better than people not having played enough of the multi-player. "

?...it got good reviews so I don't see why this game is an example.  If anything its bad to NOT RELEASE reviews for a GOOD game.  Like Bulletstorm is getting great reviews and pretty much it seemed like everyone was saying the game will suck and not allowing reviews to come out until the release date proved such.  I enjoyed the demo so it's good to know the full game is just as good.
 
Still, for me, I chose to pick up Killzone 3 today.  One game is enough.

If it's something I'm interested in, 80-100 is a buy as far as Metacritic scores go, and I should say that's if I'm looking for affirmation on whether I should drop $60 on a videogame.  When it creeps into the 70s, I tend to add the item to my Amazon wishlist and wait and see if the user score is disparate from the critics.  Even if it pans out to be so-so, if someone buys it for me off the wishlist, I get to enjoy the game without having to pay a dime.

" If they didn't want the single player to be scored in a review then why even make a single player portion? It's still a part of the game. "

Are there people on the servers to play with in MP?  Because without it I can see OP's point.

FPS genre, imo, should just ditch the SP all together and just became a pure MP game genre as it's obvious to me that almost none of them, excluding Ken Levine and company, are interested in a meaningful story line.  "

from GB it got 4/5 stars, sounds great but unfortunately thats only 80/100 lol (and I think the game deserves more).

I'm not excusing the single player but alot of the reviews I read did not or barely mentioned the multiplayer aspect of the game. Take Battlefield Bad Company 2 for example, a fantastic game by all accounts, but the single player was pretty poor but most reviews of that game focused on the Multiplayer because that is what the Battlefield games are about "

Agreed. Even from a gamer POV I sometimes feel that developer just put in the SP as lip service for people who are not too big on MP. FPS genre, imo, should just ditch the SP all together and just became a pure MP game genre as it's obvious to me that almost none of them, excluding Ken Levine and company, are interested in a meaningful story line.  "

Metacritic can shuv it!

" If they didn't want the single player to be scored in a review then why even make a single player portion? It's still a part of the game. "

It's just franchise fatigue, I doubt later reviews would have made much difference tbh.  They were naive if they were expecting this to end up with a 90+ score.

" @VictoryBlixt said:

I'm not excusing the single player but alot of the reviews I read did not or barely mentioned the multiplayer aspect of the game. Take Battlefield Bad Company 2 for example, a fantastic game by all accounts, but the single player was pretty poor but most reviews of that game focused on the Multiplayer because that is what the Battlefield games are about "

It is possible that the reviewer is reviewing the part they care about. As a general rule, I do not play competitive multi-player with shooters. So if I am going to get Killzone 3, it will be for the single player. If I wrote a review, it would focus only on the single player. It is perfectly valid for a professional critic to feel the same way and write a review that focuses on SP.
 
  
@Mordukai said: 

Agreed. Even from a gamer POV I sometimes feel that developer just put in the SP as lip service for people who are not too big on MP. FPS genre, imo, should just ditch the SP all together and just became a pure MP game genre as it's obvious to me that almost none of them, excluding Ken Levine and company, are interested in a meaningful story line.  "

Despite my lack of interest in multiplayer, I also wish more would do just multiplayer. It would make it much easier to see which games are worth picking up for single player alone. Half-hearted campaigns are depressing. "

The reviews of Killzone 2 also came out early so I don't think that is the reason why Killzone 3 is getting slightly worse reviews.

" @lebkin said:

" @VictoryBlixt said:

I'm not excusing the single player but alot of the reviews I read did not or barely mentioned the multiplayer aspect of the game. Take Battlefield Bad Company 2 for example, a fantastic game by all accounts, but the single player was pretty poor but most reviews of that game focused on the Multiplayer because that is what the Battlefield games are about "

It is possible that the reviewer is reviewing the part they care about. As a general rule, I do not play competitive multi-player with shooters. So if I am going to get Killzone 3, it will be for the single player. If I wrote a review, it would focus only on the single player. It is perfectly valid for a professional critic to feel the same way and write a review that focuses on SP.
 
  
@Mordukai said: 

Agreed. Even from a gamer POV I sometimes feel that developer just put in the SP as lip service for people who are not too big on MP. FPS genre, imo, should just ditch the SP all together and just became a pure MP game genre as it's obvious to me that almost none of them, excluding Ken Levine and company, are interested in a meaningful story line.  "

Despite my lack of interest in multiplayer, I also wish more would do just multiplayer. It would make it much easier to see which games are worth picking up for single player alone. Half-hearted campaigns are depressing. "

Yes but a professional critic needs to fully represent the product and by focusing on one aspect you are misrepresenting the product. You do not right a book review that pans the cover art for 3 pages and then devote a paragraph to how great the writing is "

Yes but a professional critic needs to fully represent the product and by focusing on one aspect you are misrepresenting the product. You do not right a book review that pans the cover art for 3 pages and then devote a paragraph to how great the writing is "

Doesn't this game let you use the move (light gun) to auto lock onto enemies in multiplayer matches? 

I like metacritic, for a game I'm interested in, i go read the top two reviews, the middle two reviews, and the lowest two reviews (and any reviews that I would want to read otherwise).

gives you a very good idea about the good and bad about a game. Regardless I'm pumped for KZ3.