"Los Angeles Times" writer Oliver Wang commented that "Game Theory" "moves coherently as a whole and not just assemblage of spare songs". "Rolling Stone"s Peter Relic viewed the album as a progression over their previous work and wrote "For every head-nodding beat (and ?uestlove brings plenty of 'em), "Game Theory" has a head-turning treat". Will Dukes of "The Village Voice" called it The Roots' "most radical record to date" and commended Black Thought for his lyricism on the album, writing "Raw, emotive, and urgent as a motherfucker, his flow—on songs like opener 'False Media,' whose gangly steel snares give way to plush orchestration—is bleak and expansive and seething with wrath". Robert Christgau, writing for "MSN Music", felt that the album is "not hooky enough", but "strong enough to compensate" with a tone that "maintains until the J. Dilla encomium that closes."