Players reviews, at least on Metacritic, are not to be trusted. The problem is indeed the one Brad pointed out, people try to influence the overall score. For example, Galactic Civilizations II Twilight of the Arnor has a 7.9 user score on Metacritic, which I find to be revolting. One guy even says he doesn't even like 4X games. Then why bother?
I don't actually believe in a score system for games, because each game is different and has good things and bad things. Some people rate FE low, because "it fails to be a MoM clone". But it doesn't try to be. This is why people should actually read about the game, see how it plays, identify the things THEY like and the things they don't. Simply looking at a Metacritic (because its also shown on the Steam page) score and deciding to buy or not, is plain stupid, in my opinion.
I actually bought War of Magic after all the horrible reviews, because I liked followed the game since its announcement, and I was indeed disappointed because of serious performance and stability issues, but after they were fixed, I enjoyed and played the game a lot.
But I believe things are actually shifting towards my point of view, I believe people are starting to actually look for LPs and gameplay videos and reviews, not just look at a symbolic number to decide whether they should buy a game or not. This is why the community has a huge role in promoting the game, more so then actual marketing perhaps. Reviewers will talk about whey THEY like and what they don't, but a LP or other gameplay video will show you the actual game and you can decide for yourself what you like and what you don't.