Battlefield 6 is a newly launched game that has had its reviews and ratings from the critics very early on. The critics have nearly unanimous consent that it is a good game. However, one specific review stands out more than others, and it is not for the reasons that one might think.
The game has the current score of 83 at Metacritic and 85 at OpenCritic. Those scores cannot be ignored. The same score of 8/10 given by major magazines such as GameSpot and GamesRadar is also there. The score given by Digitec is the highest with a 10. ButWhyTho and Critical Hits are not too far behind with their rating of 9.5. Several other reviewers like ZTGD, PSX Brasil, WellPlayed, Game Rant, and PCGamesN have given the game a solid score of 9. So the general mood is positive, right? Yes, for sure.
Then comes IGN. The review from IGN was a real shocker because they gave a rating of 5 out of 10 to the game. The score of five is like no other scores that are still bringing light to the list at the bottom. The score’s presence on Twitter was noticed by the gaming community and was quite significant.
The first tweet by Shinobi602 only pointed out the high scores but what about the replies? All were referring to that one low score. A user called @ThreeLeftThumbs directly asked, ‘Why did IGN give it a 5 then?’ Another user, @DoggtorEd, simply stated ‘IGN gave it a 5 for some reason LMAO.’ Even the confusion and comedy of the situation were clear. Another user @warden_hunter03 flatly stated the obvious thing by saying ‘I love how IGN is not present😂😂’ in the list of high scores. The elephant in the room was evident to everyone.
So what went wrong with IGN’s review? Well, from the discussion in the replies, it seems they did the review of the single-player campaign separately from the multiplayer. And let’s face it, in which Battlefield game has the campaign ever been the highlight of the franchise? User @Alex_T5171 made a comment to this effect, ‘This includes the campaign which no one really cares about anyway.’ Another reply from @Bizzy739 further clarified ‘For the campaign only, they review multiplayer separately.’ So the score of five is probably only assigned to the single-player narrative aspect of the game.
In fact, this reasoning is so accurate as Battlefield has always been a multiplayer-focused franchise. Making up a story is just a nice extra, a few hours of thrills before the player dives into the real deal which is the huge online warfare. User @Yeegrek felt it, when he tweeted: ‘Reading the summaries, it’s what I expected: the campaign is fine, nothing spectacular, but multiplayer is where it shines. That’s exactly what I thought I was getting when I ordered. LFG!’ That might be the most reasonable opinion in the entire thread.
But, of course, the debate would not be complete without the traditional console war and platform rivalry being pulled into it. @DrizztDoUr17778 made a comment with ‘Yet it won’t sell more than the new cod🤣😂🤣 #facts.’ And @GlitchMonki simply replied to a Call of Duty mention with ‘COD LMAO.’ Some things in the gaming world never change; the rivalry is always there, especially between PlayStation and Xbox.
Besides, there was this little tug and pull between the users whether people were ‘crying’ about the reviews or not. @MitzieteTTV and @dreambendertv were giving it to each other a little bit, with one telling the other to ‘Cry more’ and the other asking who was really sore. It was a whole drama, but it just shows how strong the discussion about review scores can get, even when they might not exactly represent the whole gaming experience.
The entire scene is a classic example of why and how reviews should always be read in the context of the whole review rather than just looking at the final score. A score of 5 for a Battlefield campaign? Seriously, it might even be generous based on past entries. But a score of 5 for the whole Battlefield 6 including its star multiplayer? That would be insane and totally opposite to what all other critics have said. It is true that the lion’s share of gamers buying this game are doing it for the multiplayer, and according to the other scores, it seems that they are getting just what they want.
So, if you are considering purchasing Battlefield 6, then you can definitely afford to ignore that one IGN score if your plan is to take part in the multiplayer fights. The critics’ overall reception of the game is extremely positive, the community reviews have shown that they are excited based on the other reviews, and the core gameplay loop seems to be appealing to the gamers. The campaign may not be great, but let us be honest, were you really interested in the Battlefield game’s story? Probably not. You are in for those epic, chaotic moments that only this series can offer. And from all the signs except that one strange score, it appears DICE has already achieved this aspect. Now if you would be so kind, I need to go and see what all the fuss is about. Just a moment, what was I saying? Oh, right, battlefield. Explosions. You get it.
