ranked in its top 30 albums of the year

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/roots/gametheory

with an overall score of 82 (9.5 user rating)

100
Stylus Magazine
With Game Theory, the Roots have finally delivered on nearly every once-broken promise.
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91
Entertainment Weekly
It's all ghetto vérité and political paranoia, with claustrophobic production to match the doom and gloom.
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91
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Especially in its superior second half, the album resonates with casual ambition as it reconciles ?uestlove's effortless bohemian cool and sonic perfectionism with Black Thought's dark swagger, street-level sociology, and silver-tongued virtuosity.
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90
Dot Music
This is not merely a good album, but a truly great one.
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90
All Music Guide
Game Theory is a heavy album, the Roots' sharpest work. It's destined to become one of Def Jam's proudest, if not most popular, moments.
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90
RapReviews.com
There are plenty of unexpected surprises to be found.
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90
Tiny Mix Tapes
It is an excellent album that has taken them seven long years to finally get to, but those are seven years that have been evidently well spent: After years of mediocrity and being, to some degree, marginalized -- just when the world needed them -- The Roots are back like never before.
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80
NOW Magazine
If anything, the grooves have gotten tougher and funkier on Game Theory.
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80
PopMatters
The Roots’ darkest, grimiest, most unrelenting and possibly most focused effort to date.
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80
Blender
Whatever style the Roots take on their eighth album, whether it’s 21st century Sly Stone ("Baby"), flute-inflected freak-folk ("Living in a New World") or epic black rock ("Game Theory"), they do better than anyone else in pop.
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80
The Guardian
This taut, turbulent piece of work is the Roots' best yet.
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80
Vibe
Like prior Roots albums, Game Theory boasts top-notch craftsmanship... but it's continuity that makes this album unique.

80
Spin
Game Theory is the Roots at their heaviest.

77
Pitchfork
A streamlined product that die-hards can justly revel in.
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76
ShakingThrough.net
A few throwaways... keep Theory from attaining the rarified heights of earlier efforts. But in the final count, it’s just nice to hear this criminally underappreciated outfit sounding so sharp and revitalized.
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75
Los Angeles Times
"Game Theory" helps rescue a remarkably anemic hip-hop summer.

75
E! Online
downcast disc is actually an improvement on its predecessor.
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71
cokemachineglow
Game Theory’s highs never quite reach those of Do You Want More?!!!??! or Illadeph Halflife (1996), and those albums, even with those highs, are still inconsistent affairs. Which means that the Roots are back on track, but the track itself was never something we praised wholeheartedly in the first place.
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70
Rolling Stone
For every head-nodding beat, Game Theory has a head-turning treat.

70
Urb
The Roots' energy is claustrophobic and thus, jaded. It still has a prominent place on Game Theory, but when it's not subdued, it's downright bitter.

70
Village Voice
They've resurfaced sounding dark, mysterious, and pissed off.
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60
The New York Times
Black Thought... sounds more focused than he did on the Roots’ last album, “The Tipping Point,” and more engaged than on the one before it, “Phrenology.” But because he’s not the kind of rapper to modulate his emotional pitch, his intensity can level off into monotony.