"Overrated" is a word that gets thrown about like a hacky sack at a California beach party. It's the modern person's go-to term for describing something which they believe is getting way too much credit (incidentally, these folk always try to redirect your tastes onto some obscure thing only they've heard of). And although you'll hear people using the word to describe the latest Oscar-winning film or a praised music album, it's in the video game world that it really comes into its own. It's true that for every gamer who praises a game for its innovations, storyline and mechanics, there's somebody out there who can't fathom why a game is getting so much praise. Thing is, that somebody isn't even wrong, given that the inherent quality of any video game is highly subjective - everyone is allowed an opinion, and coherent, well-formed arguments are always welcomed when it comes to this particular medium (there's a notable lack of them, to say the least). As soon as the word "overrated" gets mentioned, though, people tend to turn away because it conjures up feelings of somebody trying to provoke a reaction for the sake of it. "Oh, Nintendo are way overrated - they've been making the same game for years," is the sort of single-minded, mis-informed comment that generally serves no purpose and stinks of arrogance. You just know the person who utters those words doesn't play Nintendo games (or hasn't in a long, long time). So why I am explaining all this? Well, put simply, it's because this article isn't intended to approach the subject of overrated games with the same amount of ignorance. I actually
like all of the games mentioned in the article - some of them have provided me with some awesome experiences. But given their critical ratings and reputations, I wanted to take a look at these games from the perspective of somebody who both appreciates them and happens to think they're overrated, too.
Note: Given that there's no truly objective way to judge whether a game is technically "overrated" or not, I'll be referring to Metacritic's critical rankings throughout this article, whose scores for the games mentioned - collected by averaging the opinions of professional gaming critics - probably serves as the fairest method to prove that a game is considered to be particularly well thought of.