Why "Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode II" has a low score on metacritic?

It's bad?

PC Gamer :
34
"Play never feels fluid, a problem compounded by the horrible, poorly ported PC controls."

They don't seem to mention the game being buggy but perhaps too.

No one has played it before?

I didn't play it, but it's probably the same as episode I. And I think episode I was really bad. Not really Sonic-like. Unfluid, controls were bad. It kinda felt bad playing it. And I think I met some bugs on my way while playing it, not really sure though.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is bad Sonic game. Do not bother with it, just play good old Sonic CD or Advance. Unless you're a die-hard Sonic fan.

It's just not a good game. The levels in episode 2 are some of the worst 2D sonic levels I've played.

I played ep.1 (not ep.2, so take this with a grain of salt) and I think it wasn't on par. The physics and controls in particular are completely different from any classic Sonic game. Maybe it's better played with a controller. Levels are very straight-forward.
The one thing that worked was the nostalgia-factor: replaying the classic zones and bosses with a new twist felt nice, but overall the game fell short for me.

Oh.. understood. Thank to all guys!! :)