I watch and listen to a lot of Giant Bomb and SkillUp, and both had praise for the multiplayer modes, warts and all. I can’t agree with all games media just being marketing, otherwise you’d never see bad reviews for the likes of those publishers spending all that money on marketing. It may not have worked for you, but doing all of those modes has done very well for the game.
This is the kind of stuff you might know if you already know what’s ahead of you, like if you played it before, but as a first-time player of the game, not knowing what’s coming, I found it to be a poor experience when you only have a melee weapon but specced for guns.