I would say that more often than not, sadly. Some exclusive games do manage to avoid the stupidity, but it's still way too common. 

Yes. Never take user's score seriously. Ever.

Avoid fan reviews of games everywhere like the plague. 95% of the people making those reviews probably haven't even played the game.

Until there is a way and requirement to verify that you own the game and in addition provide some sort of in-game stat that shows you have actually played it (like a game completion trophy) I would never trust a user review.

Yeah, IGN makes them frequently...

User reviews on Metacritic are nonsense, I never read a single one, they're just so useless. Steam and GOG actually has some great user reviews, seems to be a lot less hostile, Metacritic focuses on score and the competition of being the best game, this is heavily reflected in the user scores.

Yes, pretty much every big game now a days will have its meta page flooded with troll reviews. It's actually a big problem because if there are issues with a game then you'll never know because they are buried in a sea of hate.

Yes, goes for every game.. but there are times when a user score is accurate, for example

This one

Are troll reviews common?

Haha. Dahahaha. DAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA



Yes they are

Most games have trolls, so on average most of them work out to a reasonable comparison if you compare game A's core to game B's. Obviously not always. I have seen troll (and especially reverse troll) from professional reviews too... I only look at rankings of reviews when deciding between a few games and can't othersie choose which one. Most of the time reading the reviews is better than the scores (easier to tell when someone over or under rated their score, or counted one minor aspect of the game that is not important to me too much).

A generally better source of user reviews is Amazon as they do a better job of limiting each review to one verified purchaser... https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Breath-Wild-Nintendo-Switch/dp/B01MS6MO77/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1#customerReviews
(4.7/5 from 209 reviews)

Troll reviews go hand in hand with fanboy reviews. One side giving zero's on metacritic and the other giving 10's in an effort to influence the scale.

This is not new and this IS the internet. So, yes... choose your sources of information wisely.

If it makes you feel better, most people who make troll reviews will probably end up dying alone. Probably due to crippling depression from lack of friends and social interaction