I'm pretty sure they didn't (the people at TRF I mean). There's a difference between something being absolute rubbish (1-2 out of 10), poor(3-4 out of 10), a missed opportunity (5 out of 10), reasonable (6 out of 10), Very good (7 out of 10), a pretty great game (8 out of 10), Incredibly good (9 out of 10) and an all time great (10 out of 10).
Note those grades are just a rough guideline, to show that there are degrees of enjoyment that might relate to the perspective of hype you might've noticed.
I got the distinct impression that most of the guys thought it was Very Good (about 7 out of 10). Hardly a rave review.
No-one was jumping out of their chair saying that this would be a "must have" game or that the improvements were huge. A lot of this is hyperbole and exaggeration.