GTA: The Trilogy Definitive Edition becomes lowest-rated Metacritic title ever

Andrew Highton
lance vance with gta trilogy and metacritic logos

Due to a huge number of bugs and glitches, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition has now taken the spot as the lowest-rated user-rated game in Metacritic history.

GTA: The Trilogy Definitive Edition was released as a celebration of three of the most important video games ever made – GTA III, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas.

However, across multiple platforms, users have spent the first week of the game’s release reporting an astonishing number of glitches and bugs that launched with the collection.

As a result, the game has been review-bombed on Metacritic and has now overtaken Warcraft III: Reforged to become the lowest-rated title in Metacritic history.

gta the trilogy metacritic score

Metacritic has become the industry leader for aggregating review scores for both recognized critics and publications, and also the general public.

So, the remastered GTA Trilogy becoming the lowest-rated user review score in history is a big deal, even more so when you consider that the original release of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas have scores of 97, 95, and 95 with critics on the PS2 – making them some of the best-reviewed games ever.

However, the bug-ridden launch of the new Trilogy remasters have caused users to give the game horrendously low scores, making the Metacritic PC version stand at 0.5/10 – overtaking Warcraft III: Reforged’s score of 0.6/10.

One big reason that will have contributed is the fact that after going on sale, the game was then removed from the PC amid complications with unintentional game files. It seems like unlicensed songs and even the return of the infamous hot coffee mod all made their way into the game.

tommy vercetti in gta vice city

Here’s a handful of some of the reviews by users:

  • You literally screwed good classic games. City looks awful, npcs looks awful, [and] old bugs not fixed. 0/10
  • Thanks so much Rockstar! You made a re-release that is worse than the original games! Wait, you also took down mods AND the original games? Thank you again. Awesome stuff.
  • A look at any screenshot should suffice to realize the mess Rockstar published here. But look a bit deeper and you’ll realize just how broken this de-master really is. From new game-breaking bugs to typos to broken 3D models, missing effects, etc. The list goes on and on. Stay away.
  • They banned the mods, removed original games from stores, cut out many music tracks, made ugly cartoonish characters, games are filled with bugs, it’s based on poor mobile ports, basically the old game with new lightning and lazy AI upscaled textures, and yes they’re charging 60$ for it. Nothing else than a zero.
CJ and the gang in San Andreas

The criticism seems to be directed at virtually every aspect of the remasters with the consensus feeling that the game is currently not worth its price tag.

Updates are apparently in the works for the Trilogy across its several formats, so it will be interesting to see if GTA The Trilogy can be salvaged.


For more GTA news and guides, check out the full list of cheat codes for GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas.

Image Credit: Rockstar Games

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A content creator for Charlie INTEL / Dexerto that earned a degree, wrote for PlusXP, Twinfinite, and Keengamer, before finally securing his dream job of being a professional video game writer. When not writing about games, he's very busy playing every game in existence and adding to his 11,000+ PlayStation Trophies and 150+ Platinums. You can contact him at [email protected].