"Game Theory" received universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 26 reviews. AllMusic's Andy Kellman praised its musical quality and lyrical themes, writing "Spinning turbulence, paranoia, anger, and pain into some of the most exhilarating and startling music released in 2006... "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". "The New York Times" writer Nate Chinen viewed the album's production as inconsistent, but found Black Thought's performance more focused and engaged than on previous efforts, while writing that "?uestlove infuses "Game Theory" with a hard sonic logic, so that the music often sounds as tough as the lyrics". "Vibe"s Thomas Golianopoulos gave it 4 out of 5 stars and called it "a masterfully crafted, sobering wake-up call". Jeff Vrabel of "PopMatters" dubbed it "The Roots' darkest, grimiest, most unrelenting and possibly most focused effort to date".