We've been playing without Critical Hit effects of any kind for the first stretch of our current Rules Cyclopedia game.
At first, the players were more than ok to see the occasional damage burst go away as long as they were no longer subject to the same damage bursts from NPCs as well. When you have 3 HP, every attack is pretty critical already!
However, there was a knock-on effect caused by an interaction with another rule we've also been using for a bit now:
Grit, from Frontier Scum by Karl Druid.
Grit
I really like the Grit mechanic, and have settled on it over a number of years of using similar "player-reward" mechanics: plain old GM inspiration, multiple flavors of hero coins, and so on.
Our current iteration of Grit is a consumable resource that allows PCs to re-roll d20 rolls: ability checks, saving throws, attack rolls, and defense rolls - as long as the result of the roll isn't a Critical Failure (a natural 1 or 20 on the d20, depending on the roll).
Each PC earns 1 Grit at the beginning of each session and loses them all at the end. During the session, a PC earns 1 Grit whenever they roll a Critical Failure on an ability check, saving throw, attack roll, or defense roll. There is no maximum amount of Grit a PC can have at one time, because...
Conversely, when any PC rolls a Critical Success on any of those rolls, ALL PCs immediately lose ALL of their Grit.
The idea is that gives the PCs a boon when their luck is down and they need it, and takes it away when their luck turns around and they don't.
My players and I all like using Grit, and the tone/flavor it brings to the game. Players don't hoard it or count on it, and use it when they have it. It also makes failures more fun, since you might turn them around (or get more Grit!).
But, it did make rolling a Critical Success a strange kind of unsatisfying...
When a PC scored a Critical Success, it did nothing. No extra damage or beneficial effects on attacks, no auto-success on checks, etc... Because of Grit, a Critical Hit in combat could still do 1 damage and still cause everyone else lose their Grit too. Kind of a bummer.
You kind of wish you rolled a 19 instead. The attack or save would probably still succeed, and not ruin EVERYONE'S momentum.
It became pretty obvious how much that actually sucks here in Basic, and something drastic needed to be done if we were going to keep Grit intact: we needed to bring back Critical Hits.
Crits
Now that our game has player-facing Defense Rolls (you'd know if you've been following along), we have a unique and relevant situation:
Technically, only the PCs make Attack Rolls.
And that's meaningful, because to me, it almost feels like that absolves us of the burden of NPC Critical Hits. Only PCs roll to attack, so only PCs can score Critical Hits.
And with keeping with that thinking: since the PCs are finally getting something for a Critical Hit in combat (extra damage, in our case), only Critical Hits in combat should cause everyone to lose their Grit.
Grit for Crits
You might be thanking, "Hey, wait a sec - a PC makes Defense Rolls, right? And they can roll a Critical Failure on them, right? Surely a Critical Failure on a PC's Defense Roll would be a Critical Hit for the NPC? I call bullshit, you're taking it easy on them!"
But actually, it's not necessary - because of Grit.
Since it's the PC is the one making the Defense Roll, they're already being punished for the Critical Failure by the Grit mechanic. Normally, if a PC fails their Defense Roll but its not a Critical Failure, they can re-roll the result if they have the Grit to - possibly turning the failure into a success.
But you can't use Grit to re-roll a Critical Failure.
Sure, you earn 1 Grit from it (ain't that thematic), but if you roll a Critical Failure on you're Defense Roll, that's it - no re-rolls. You're taking that damage and there's nothing you can do about it.
And this, at least for me, seems to solve it.
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