Washington Post writer Michael Thomson writes a negative review for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, resulting in a fan petition demanding it be removed from MetaCritic.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is undeniably a success for both Naughty Dog and Sony. The game has managed to outpace Uncharted 3's sales, and has earned near-universal critical acclaim, standing as the second highest rated game in the series with a 93 score on review aggregate site Metacritic. Even so, not everyone can be expected to enjoy Nathan Drake's last adventure, and one reviewer that didn't like the game has drawn the ire of diehard Uncharted 4 fans.

Michael Thomson, a writer with the Washington Post, gave Uncharted 4: A Thief's End one of its only negative reviews. In his review, Thomson criticized the game for having a weak story, and complained that Uncharted 4's groundbreaking visuals were too overwhelming. Thomson, while clearly not impressed with Naughty Dog's latest effort, did not assign a score to his review, yet at the time of this writing, it is listed on Metacritic with a 40/100 rating.

Due to the overwhelming number of positive reviews for Uncharted 4 on the site, including our own Uncharted 4 review, the 40/100 rating has done virtually nothing to shift the game's aggregate score. In fact, GameRankings, another review aggregate website, has the game sitting at a similar 93.71% rating, though it doesn't count the Washington Post review.

So, even though Thomson's review hasn't had a profound effect on Uncharted 4's review aggregate score, some fans of the game are demanding action nevertheless. A petition has been posted on Change.org to have Thomson's Uncharted 4 review removed from Metacritic, and it has already been signed by nearly 6,000 individuals.

While Thomson's review of Uncharted 4 is an outlier, he still has a right to share his opinion, and he is by no means obligated to like Uncharted 4. Having said that, it is odd that Thomson's original review has no score attached, yet one appears in the Metacritic listing of his review. For that reason, it does seem somewhat reasonable to ask Metacritic to at least remove the score from the review, but going as far as to make a petition demanding this be done is a little overboard.

Uncharted fans are understandably passionate about the game, but creating a petition to have a critic review removed because "it harms the flawless reputation of the game" does seem a tad excessive. And it's not as though Thomson's opinion is even reflective of the general consensus, so it is a little odd that some fans are getting so upset at his review. Even Xbox's Phil Spencer praised Uncharted 4, so with most everyone, even the competition, giving the game high marks, there's little reason to get worked up over one negative viewpoint out of the many positive ones.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is still one of the highest rated games of all time, regardless of Thomson's review. In the grand scheme of things, it's no big deal that one review out of the 92 Metacritic used to score Uncharted 4 has a negative slant, and it probably will have little to no bearing on the success of the game.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is available right now, exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

Source: Change.org, MetaCritic, Washington Post