Stellar Blade has been slowly overtaking the world of gaming, for all the right and wrong reasons. But, even with all the controversies, the game is seeing stellar performance as it overcomes Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Helldivers 2 with the best user Metacritic reviews of 2024.
The game is currently topping the user review charts on Metacritic and trading blows with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Stellar Blade has a 9.3 average score out of nearly 2,000 reviews, whereas Square Enix’s revived flagship is carrying a 9.0 based on 3,360 player scores. Another 2024 heavy hitter, Helldivers 2, has also been toppled, though the margin is much wider as the extraction shooter has an 8.2 average grade. Stellar Blade has been the source and target of several controversies, mainly to do with the protagonist’s physical looks and an accidental reference to a racial slur. It has nevertheless come out on top and is, as things stand, the best user-reviewed title of the year so far.
In terms of critical acclaim, both Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2 are equal in measure with an average 82 out of 100 score on Metacritic. Our Andrew Highton gave the game a 9/10, praising its “evolving combat, banger soundtrack, and gorgeous graphics.” Though it currently reigns supreme among the players, critics still consider FF7 Rebirth to be the superior title as its 92 average score indicates. Still, Sony has a lot to be proud of, as their hack-n-slash PS5 exclusive has only been out for a few days and is already making such tremendous strides.
Helldivers 2 and Stellar Blade were both published by Sony, and Square’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is exclusive to Sony’s consoles. The Japanese publisher has experimented recently by releasing Helldivers 2 on the PS5 and PC simultaneously—an experiment which has proven mightily successful, all things considered. Here’s hoping it learns from the experience and expedites its porting of Stellar Blade and other exclusives to PC.
