Critical Role (2015– ) User Reviews

The most epic show of epicness to ever exist!

[casey-468-959961 · 10/10 · 24 July 2015]

9 voice actors get together and play Dungeons and Dragons, live, for our entertainment. The voice acting experience of everyone involved is outstanding and they have played these character for the better part of 2 years and so they are truly emotional when one of their party is on the brink of death; REAL TEARS PEOPLE! If you're a fan of fantasy and great story telling, if you were ever embarrassed by your basement hobby, if you wanted to learn about table top role playing, but, didn't know where to go, I highly recommend Geek & Sundry's Critical Role. I laugh, I cry, I RAGE! But, mostly, I love, love, love Critical Role. By far the most genuine and entertaining show out there at the moment.

#Critter4Life

10/10 all the feels.

Better than most television

[nmcgehee-788-723657 · 10/10 · 18 June 2017]

This show is a joy to watch. All of the actors truly care about their characters and the narrative.

The unscripted, improvised actions of the players adds to the unpredictable and engaging story that Matt Mercer sets up.

Watching Critical Role will enrich your life.

The most seamless blend between comedy, action, and drama I've ever seen.

[philliphopp · 10/10 · 18 May 2016]

I stumbled upon this web series quite early in its airing. It mainly caught my interest because of the cast. Nine voice actors in total, some of which you never knew you knew, make up this extremely well rounded and semi-professional improvisational group of adventurers. Developing a human being is no easy feat, and to make each and every character as unique as they are, it's astounding. With the cherry on top that is their years of experience in voice acting, it is a joy to listen to them all whenever they speak. Now what got me to stay was the absurdly well spun story, custom built by the dungeon master. The writing of this loose script is pulled off amazingly, and the only thing that would make it better is to have an actual cast behind the creator to voice each character. Don't get me wrong, he does do a fantastic job with each one, breathing life into every being in his world. From the characters born from both the players and the DM, comes the gut busting, tear jerking, most jaw dropping story that I have ever had the pleasure to witness unfold before me. As of writing this review today on the Thursday of May 19, 2016, I await the impending exhilaration of watching the newest episode, number 54. To all of those reading this, I have one question for you. Is it Thursday yet?

An excellent display of storytelling.

[dmnqwk · 8/10 · 18 October 2015]

Critical Role is an excellent display of just how much fun you can have playing the classic 'pen and paper' game of Dungeons and Dragons. Bringing the old radio plays from the 20s into a modern day setting (the internet) these highly talented voice actors all inject fun, enthusiasm and entertainment into their characters.

Matthew Mercer (Halo 4, Diablo 3) takes on the role of the Game Master, the person responsible for maintaining the story, who guides the players through their journey in a world of his creation. Every shopkeeper, tavern owner and wandering monster is brought to life by his quirky and intelligent style.

On occasion the story can wane due to the size of the party and due to the budgets available to web shows the sound quality will sometimes go awry I was unable to rate it as a 10, but the quality of voice acting involved will rival any movie, TV show or video game. If you love playing the game itself or want to pick up some helpful tips this show is not something you can afford to miss.

Greatest internet show of all time

[jamie_brandon · 10/10 · 19 June 2017]

This show is epic, the story telling is top notch. And the real emotions of these voice actors as they are truly connected to their characters is unbelievable! Matthew Mercer is a world creating genius and just waiting for Thursday proper to roll around so that I can watch is almost torture. This is by far my favorite streaming show of all time.

Fantastically amazingly awesomely perfect

[jessi-dawn0513 · 10/10 · 21 April 2016]

This is easily the best visual experience of my life. The connection the community feels to each other, to the people in the show, and to the game itself is incredible and I've been hooked -- nearly obsessed -- since the first half hour I saw. The experience is one that will resonate with you throughout your life and I sincerely hope this group continues in one form or another for decades to come.

This is the first and only time I've been tempted to send something to the actors, and even with only a fan letter I am waiting on pins and needles to know if they even got the letter.

Less than three you guys!

P.S. Includes more than a bit of swearing, some inappropriate humor and lots and lots of nerdiness.

Is it Thursday yet?

[toothy-tottan · 10/10 · 23 September 2015]

One of the many things you must see before you die. Preferably Live. Do you like D&D look no further. In the vision of Matthew Mercer we follow our heroes in the quest of entertaining us.

The gang of Vox Machina: The accountant Vex cries when the gang spend to much money. Her twin brother Vax is the sneaky backstabbing kind. Grog is the fierce Goliath with an heart of gold. Pike is the true-believer of the gang and she is also paladin with a strong healing touch. Percy is the tinker of the gang creating deadly things of use. Scanlan is the gigolo and bard and the gangs jester. Keyleth the Elven Druid of many shapes and she got a wonderful laugh. Tiberius the Sorcerer he is from Draconia.

Critter and Vox Machina Fan for life.

The toothy swede.

The best and most immersive representation of tabletop gameplay

[danny-93040 · 10/10 · 9 April 2016]

This is the best televised dungeon and dragons(homebrew/tweaked) series i have ever seen. Rarely ever do i like the position of spectator when people are playing games. But for 48 episodes i've been eagerly longing for the next. The dungeon master Matthew Mercer is a storyteller extraordinaire. All the other characters are of equal importance to the story Matthew develops. Each and every one of the actors adding a unique touch and feel to the campaigns. From serious to in for a good laugh you will be engulfed in an array of creative problem solving. Immersive roleplay and an excellent distribution of heroic moments between characters where all actors respect their assisting role at the right time allowing for each character to shine.

Thank you so much critical role crew for giving me such a lovely experience on a weekly basis. P.s. Please air the rebroadcast on a Sunday! It's too hard for this European to wait until Monday to see the episodes and impossible to break my day rhythm to see it at midnight.

Engaging character-driven show of truly epic proportions

[andrea-552 · 10/10 · 18 June 2017]

Critical Role is a surprisingly engaging show, told through constant improvisation performed by some of the hardest hitters in the Voice Acting business, through the game "Dungeons and Dragons" lead by Matthew Mercer. Critical Role takes place in the high fantasy world of Exandria, and centers around the group of adventurers called Vox Machina. Vox Machina consists of Goliath barbarian Grog (Travis Willingham), human gunslinger Percival (Taliesin Jaffe), Dragonborn Sorcerer Tiberius (Orion Acaba), half-elf druid Keyleth (Marisha Ray), gnome cleric Pike (Ashley Johnson), gnome bard Scanlan (Sam Riegel) and the half-elven twins, the ranger Vex'ahlia (Laura Bailey) and her brother, the rogue Vax'ildan (Liam O'Brien). The story starts in-medias-res as the group are entering the dwarven city of Kraghammer. They don't manage to be there long before they start attracting attention and trouble. What makes the show isn't the story itself, which might surprise most who try to watch the show. It's the characters, their inter- personal relationships, struggles, and the impact they have on the world around them that makes the show what it is. Despite having no visuals at all, this show is intensely visual, through the amazingly graphic storytelling of Matthew Mercer. If you possess even a smidgen of ability to imagine, Matthew Mercer handles the rest. He'll paint castles in your mind, after which the remaining cast will fill the castle with life, laughter, and tears of both joy and sorrow. Being that the show is running on 300+ hours, and isn't done yet, with the average episode being 3 hours, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a short attention span. But if that isn't an issue, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories about people. Even if you don't like fantasy, you'll quite quickly discover that the fantasy is just the setting of the story, but that the backbone of Critical Role is the characters. I've seen 300 hours of this show, and I'd happily watch 300 more.

it, is. awesome.

[carlinhosmarcelo · 10/10 · 19 June 2017]

Honestly, I never thought I would like this show. As a D&D player (and DM) myself, I've always thought that watching someone play without playing yourself to be extremely boring. 54 episodes later, I have to say: that was not the case with Critical Role.

How can watching 8 people talk and roll dice make you laugh or cry?

I've found that listening to Matt's descriptions would paint a picture before my eyes. It was just like watching a movie, only way better. Because fails are awesome too here. Characters are not always ready or prepared, they sometimes don't really know what to say. And that makes them more real. Through the players' voices, I can hear their characters. I've come to the point where i really believe that Ashley and Sam are gnomes, and Travis is a Goliath.

This show made me want to be a better DM, and a better player. Matthew, I one day will be as prepared as you are! I know the chances of the cast ever reading this, but if any of you ever do, thank you for letting me watch and have fun with you.

Long road ahead and I LOVE IT

[LayllasLocker · 10/10 · 12 February 2019]

I just started with Season 1 - ep 1! These ppl are magical! ♥ Finally found perfect background while sculpting.

Entertaining for what it is. A great ad for D&D.

[gazzalodi · 6/10 · 5 August 2021]

Six stars isn't a bad review, it's actually a raving positive review because most D&D streams are 2 star at the best.

Yes Matt Mercer is an awesome DM, though egregiously gentle. Six plus years of this show and 0 tpks and only one DM PC kill? Not realistic.

Yes it sucks that most new DMs now try to be Matt Mercer clones not realizing this guy has decades of practice. But hey, there are NEW DMs now because of him. So good on him for that.

The show is very entertaining. The most watchable D&D show being streamed. Is it 'scripted'? Yes, mostly. The outcomes are predetermined (they have let that slip numerous times). They have to be given the guests who show up and how many things end on point to make the next plot narrative thread work. But that's okay because if you watch the online play streams, not scripting the narrative arc can really bog down a stream as a DM tries to cover for the fact that he wasn't expecting the party to go all murder hobo and set themselves up as feudal lords of the gnomish fishing village they were only supposed to spend a day in. Fun for players, but boring to watch. That said I do think the moment by moment interactions are improvised.

Yes, some of the players are long winded emo edgelords. If you don't like those scenes skip the 20 minute angst-fests and fast forward back to the narrative, you aren't missing anything. If you like emo edgelord roleplay, then enjoy.

Yes there is a ton of virtue signaling (but seriously, not as much at the game producer, WotC, does) and yes one of the characters spews their RL political views through their character enough to catch a lot of nerdrage. So what? In the six years of the show that character's annoyingly uneducated (they obviously don't realize one of the parent companies they shill for got busted using slave labor in China) political rants make up about ten minutes.

Yes the shows fans are legendarily thin skinned and have toxic reactions to any criticism of the show or characters. Look at all the downvotes for anything that isn't a 10 star review here. But unless you leave a comment that isn't absolutely glowing in a forum/youtube comments section about the show you can easily avoid the "leave Britney alone" types that make up a majority of the show's fan base.

Final conclusion. Worth watching if you are curious about D&D or want to a D&D fix between your own sessions, just avoid interacting with their fans. Not worth watching if you are wanting to know the hard mechanics of how a D&D session actually work or want instruction on being a DM. Matt Mercer and other, even better, DMs have a bunch of separate series of DM'ing tips on Youtube for that.

Stop at Campaign 3

[fasterthanu7 · 5/10 · 27 February 2024]

Why does Hollywood feel the need to continuously shove DEI down everyone's throats.

Campaigns 1 and 2 are amazing. Relationships and ppl of all kinds are treated as normal, thus it becomes part of the characters and the world. C3 is however is not story focused, but rather it's focused on identity politics, and literally begins with each character telling their pronouns.... Pronouns are observed by others and used for CONVENIENCE. You do not choose your pronouns, it's how OTHERS IDENTIFY YOU. If you're obviously a male others will refer to you as such and vice versa. If you have to tell someone what they should see when they see you, then you have a problem with yourself. Fix it. Change your appearance to reflect the pronoun you want others to refer to you by, but you're not the most important thing in the world so ppl may get it wrong time to time, suck it up. EVERYONE has to deal with life. Stop presuming that your struggles make you special and that others don't have them. If your biggest problem in life is how another person makes reference to you then you've lived a comfy life. Go volunteer and help the world by serving and earning respect. Then you won't be so focused on "your pronouns."

And yes every character "identifies" as "they" or "ze" or whatever. It's ridiculous. There is a lack of focus on actual story and character. Instead all of the focus revolves around appeasing the alphabet people, and by doing so only further others them. It's just nonsense. They've lost the plot. They're more worried about checking every identity and far leftist political box that the story takes a backseat to THE MESSAGE.

You create good stories and if you want to center a theme then cool for a thread or two (that could even build to an overarching theme) then great! But storytellers do this by first TELLING GOOD STORIES. Nobody wants your message without a good story with interesting and relatable characters. By relatable characters that doesn't mean "representation," it means the characters face choices, situations, and problems that are relatable and build character and skill.

By C3 you have 10 minutes of Promos/Ad Reads, 5 minutes of recap, 10 minutes of setting the stage, 10 min to each character in rounds, and then an incitement of suspense, then a 20 minute break, followed by a 60-75 minute "battle" of very little consequence (when and if there is character death it's literally planned beforehand to make sure the Player is okay with their Character's death-can we be any more sensitive?).

Campaign 1 - 8.0/10 Campaign 2 - 8.5/10 Campaign 3 - 3.0/10.

Great D&D played on your TV

[will_lambert · 9/10 · 22 March 2021]

So great to finally see a D&D show. I'm a little late to the Critical Role party and didn't expect to be entertained has much as this show does. I was always an old school 'Theatre of the mind' roleplayer, and the show doesn't disappoint, with brilliant characterisation from the players and DM

One of the best storytelling shows

[chessworth · 10/10 · 14 July 2021]

Amazing show, where a bunch of amazing voice actors and great people get together to play dungeons and dragons with the spirit of storytelling.

If you love unscripted quality storytelling, appreciate the subtle skills each player brings to a ongoing tale woven between them all.. you will not regret taking the dive...

[minclarion · 9/10 · 18 May 2018]

As a long-time tabletop RPG GM/Player, from the 70s to now. I have to add my two cents to this one. For the old salts in the genre, you'll very much appreciate the polish and skill Mercer possesses at this craft. for the newly initiated.. Welcome. This is the perfect example and keystone to begin your own journeys. Everyone can appreciate the mix of varied and stellar skills these players and friends have brought into Mercer's world. and even they are have been humbled and taken aback by the deserved success of this show. Just be ready for a DEEP dive into the sheer amount of content they have amassed over the years. all freely available on Youtube, Twitch and Alpha. Enjoy :)

How do you want to do this?

[mcdermottj-26524 · 10/10 · 18 June 2017]

This show is an inspiring, authentic, and genuine experience that intimately brings you to a table of friends that over their now more than 100 episodes allows you to feel like part of their family and game. Rarely has any other form of media ever felt so immersive and inclusive, pulling the audience in to the story.

I did not know what I signed up for opening the first episode..

[kosmonautti · 10/10 · 24 November 2017]

I have never written a review before on IMDb - I'll make an exception for this one. I was looking for something fantasy-related to watch with the feeling that I already had seen everything worth watching (which obviously isn't true, but gives you the PoV - I'm quite the nerd).

And then - out of the blue I stumble onto Critical Role. And within 10 minutes of the first episode in-game, I was hooked. Totally, utterly lost. As for today I'm only 5 episodes in and this is pure genius... I love it so much that I'm actually in pain for missing it being broadcast live.

I've never played D&D myself, but I have experience in MERP, so that gives basic idea of how the mechanic works and now without a RP party I've actually dug out from the dust my old MERP rulebook and dices and for real -- atm playing alone. Just because I want to play soooo much. And maybe one day I'd become as great as M. Mercer as the DM. But he's absolutely... diamond. Even more epic than Trinket.

So be warned: if you're a RPG!nerd without a group, this might cause moderate/severe withdrawal symptoms.

10/10, I've never seen a movie or series like this. (Scanlan sings in the distance "Nothing compares to U")

Excellent Storytelling

[kwhewell-32465 · 10/10 · 21 October 2017]

In addition to making D & D accessible to huge swaths of the population, the story arcs are quite well done. Often minor events in an earlier episode become ground shaking awesomeness 20 episodes down the road! Add that to some great character interaction, amazing voices, and a fantastic fan base, you've got something pretty special.

Storytelling Goals

[Chrisiant · 10/10 · 11 April 2019]

This show is what storytelling should be. Each of them has made me laugh and cry. Matt Mercer's skill and meticulous care makes his world immersive and beautiful and genuine.

Exciting, sad, hilarious and a great show!

[runargrovik · 10/10 · 18 June 2017]

Critical Role is a great show suitable for anyone who has ever enjoyed watching Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones or the likes. The magical fantasy setting of Dungeons and Dragons is brought to life by these amazing voice actors. In time, these players will grow on you, and they will take you on an emotional journey, both sad and hilarious.

I'd recommend starting of with episode 24, as things start to really pick up at this point. Start here, and after one episode, you will never look back.

The cool Kids pretend to be nerds for four hours.

[pacodance · 7/10 · 3 July 2020]

First a few caveats; I listen to the show in podcast format and have only heard the majority of campaign 2. I have been a d&d player off and on for over twenty five years, and while I never had a group that gathered with the frequency that this group does I have played with more players than this group clearly has. I think this show is a fantastic introduction to the idea of role playing games to the masses, and dungeons and dragons, for all its problems, is popular enough now that the appeal is broad. As a veteran role player from various games I frequently find myself cringing at many aspects of these games. While I recognize that there exists as many different styles of play as there are gaming groups, I'm not certain that this represents the best of what an immersive role playing game has to offer. Maybe I'm cynical, but I dislike stories where the 'heroes' never suffer for making poor choices. That being said, the voice acting is top notch but except for the occasional guest glaringly white, the DM Mathew is well prepared (sometimes overly so) but treats his players with kid gloves, and the group dynamic is choppy as many of the pc's are redundant within the party and thus slows play to a crawl at times, but the flip side being there is plenty of party dynamic to explore, which they are not afraid of doing, even if it takes....all....four......hours. Ugh.

Story theatre. Scorn for the true game of D&D.

[AlbeeCritiquein · 3/10 · 8 January 2021]

Don't be fooled. This isn't a genuine Dungeons and Dragons game. Instead, it is a predetermined outcome where the characters (PCs) have all the plot armor their players desire. They will reach any goals and exist (in some form) forever. That is, unless an actor leaves the show never to return. Then their character's death will be contrived too, just like any series. Every battle is designed to be a win or a loss for story purposes. Not only do the players have this free ride to give their characters the arc points they have planned, but every action is devoid of serious consequences. The 'DM' retro-actively makes deeds heroic no matter how evil, and trivial no matter how stupid or damaging they should be. It resembles a toddler's game more than the D&D game where disaster can be at every bad move.

Game pillars such as alignment (Good/Evil & Chaos/Law) are belittled. Something intended (for 40+ yrs of D&D) to be instinctively hateful or fearful of the party will automatically adore them if that is what a player wants. Role-playing/maintaining a consistent mindset, is instead random behavior. It may shift to whichever direction the actor has planned for that day. Serious, inner-party conflicts that should be character ending may have vanished by next show. This is seemingly to not upset fans or that certain performer (who breaks rules and etiquette regularly) that orchestrated things like hiding items, concealing life threatening information, and even trying to harm other party members, in the first place.

They say they are playing D&D, all the while ignoring its main principles. It's not a peek at "friends playing D&D". Far from it. It's voice actors improvising a play for very different motives.

Wonderful and engaging program

[redtailfoxx · 10/10 · 15 May 2019]

I don't always get to watch it live, but I always watch it. The whole cast is a delight to watch. Matt Mercer is a great storyteller & hardly ever stumbles on his path, even when the rest of the cast derails entire plotlines. If you love a good story, that you've never heard before, watch Critical Role.

Wonderful show!

[ansemsdaughter · 10/10 · 17 May 2019]

Creative, funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking! This show has it all! Matt is an amazing DM and the rest of the cast are absolutely brilliant!