Personally, i like to judge a game for myself. I’ll use Football manager as a example here. The reviews on steam are overwhelmingly negative, mainly as there is no chinese localisation and it isn’t a big upgrade. I enjoy the game very much, but i agree, but it doesn’t make it a bad game? So reviews in any case, can be misleading, as someone new to the series is very much not going to care about it not being a big upgrade
I always check what game critics are saying, because I understand that all people have different opinions about something, and it’s ok.
Of course, if the majority have a too negative opinion about the game, then I most likely will believe and not buy it.