Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 66 | 16 |
| Creator reviews (1 tracked) | – | 15 | 0 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 75% | 70 | 1000 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 66% | 64 | 5 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 13 reviews sampled · 8 total reviews in window · weighted 4.7 up / 2.4 down · computed 3h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (34)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 60
“With all the variety of story quests and nice graphics, American Fugitive is a very buggy and boring game”
read full review ↗ - 60
“If you ignore the bad artificial intelligence of the police and actually the whole city, American Fugitive is quite a fun game, accompanied by a great musical background and its art graphics processing is great. The developers tried to create a game inspired by the good old classics and they succeeded to some extent. You can buy the game on Steam for €19.99.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Overall it feels a little like death by a thousand cuts with American Fugitive, with one too many niggling little problems letting the whole thing down.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Way back in the days of the original top-down Grand Theft Auto a new genre was roughly born, one that put an emphasis on a little crime, chaos, and fun along the way...”
read full review ↗ - 70
“American Fugitive is an exceptional open world playground for dumb fun, but it fails to capitalise on that when tailored mission design is brought into the fold. One too many repetitive objectives drag the experience down to a crawl, but for some, the narrative will be just about enough to make it worthwhile.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“While it initially looks like a simple top-down arcade game, American Fugitive hides a lot under the hood.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“American Fugitive hits most of the bullet points you look for in a functional open world game, but some glaring omissions, sparseness to the world, and a lack of developed characters keep it from being GTA in the boonies you might hope for. This far into the Switch life cycle, you can find better alternatives for your open world fix.”
read full review ↗ - 65
“American Fugitive is a neat take on the top-down crime drama. I like a lot of its ideas, while others hold it back. I would love to see more from this team with these ideas in mind. Clean up the padding and add fast travel and this game could really be something special. Also, give me the option to zoom the camera out a little more, as it stands it feels a little too close to avoid oncoming traffic. ”
read full review ↗ - 55
“American Fugitive is fine if you can overlook its slew of flaws. From shaky AI to an overzealous crime detection system and spotty controls, there's enough here to make one quit the game rather quickly. It helps that the core aspect of the open-world gameplay and the small town setting are enough to keep some people interested. If you really want a throwback to the old GTA system, then this will do, but don't expect something as polished and varied as Retro City Rampage.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“American Fugitive is solid, it does what it does well without really picking a lane and allowing the character of Will Riley to shine through. What feels like a story arc that is justifiable (you see Will not commit the crime he’s in prison for, after all), it’s soon forgotten for murderous mayhem and whilst I’ve complained about it somewhat, what’s on offer is really good fun. It’s an easy game to recommend, but I think more so than usual it’s important to know what the game is before you jump in. It’s fun and frantic and a nice love letter to that which its inspired by.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“A new game in the vein of GTA Chinatown Wars is something that should work quite well, but while American Fugitive has some good ideas it fails to deliver on the execution, especially with the Switch version's wonky frame rate. American Fugitive takes the promise it had, prangs it on a lamp post, and gives it a wanted level.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“There is a lot to do in American Fugitive, and a lot of it works well. It hits that sweet spot where everything holds up whether you're out on missions or just driving around and exploring. You can definitely feel the game's limitations, but that doesn't feel like a problem -- many of them add to the charm that American Fugitive brings to the table. ”
read full review ↗
GameMAG
Gaming Professors
Nintendo Life
Nindie Spotlight
Push Square
Capsule Computers
NintendoWorldReport
ZTGD
Worth Playing
FingerGuns
TheSixthAxis
GameSkinny…and 22 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- American Fugitive Patch Notes - 10th July 2020 [1.1.18951]Jul 10, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- American Fugitive Patch Notes - 25th June 2020 [1.1.18924]Jun 25, 2020significant · resets scoring window
- State of Emergency free update!Nov 25, 2019
- American Fugitive Patch Notes - 24th June 2019 [1.0.17495]Jun 24, 2019significant · resets scoring window
- American Fugitive Patch Notes - 22nd May 2019 [1.0.17323]May 22, 2019significant · resets scoring window