Mike Straw·
NewsPCXbox Series X
··2 min read

Starfield Is Getting Review Bombed By People With Nothing Better To Do

Starfield review bombed

It happens almost every time a major game is released. The critic reviews come out and then players get their hands on it to see what all the hype is about. And at that point, it doesn’t really matter anymore. Sites like Metacritic are sure to see a wave of people coming to leave negative reviews of the game whether they played it or not. And Starfield is no exception as it’s currently being review bombed just a day after its full release.

As of publishing, Starfield sits with a 5.9 Xbox Series X user score and a 5.4 PC user score on Metacritic. At one point, however, those numbers were in the low fours when sitting down to begin writing.

You have some reviews read, “Two worst graphics that I have ever seen” with a 0/10. Another zero score doesn’t even hide its intention, “This is for review bombing for the Horizon games, also y’all would have made a lot more money if y’all released on PlayStation.”

In an effort to combat the negative review bombing, other users are leaving 10/10 ratings without any sort of relevant comment.

“PlayStation fanboys botting the reviews to lower the score,” one 10/10 rating reads. “Amazing game! Love it!”

READ MORE: Fools Want PlayStation Writers And Developers to Lose Their Jobs For Enjoying Starfield

While there’s no way to prove the motivation behind all of the reviews being left on Metacritic and other platforms, it’s clear that some people just have nothing better to do.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that user reviews shouldn’t be allowed. In fact, I find myself trusting in-depth, thought-out user reviews more often than not. There’s something about reading a review from a regular player with 30/40/50 hours that helps with a decision process when debating on a purchase. But there’s absolutely nothing helpful about the people who just want to ruin the experience for others solely because a game either isn’t on the platform they want or because it doesn’t do that one niche thing you had hoped.

It’s clear there has to be a better way to weed out the clearly fake reviews than there is. Otherwise, it’s going to continue being a mess of a system for years to come.

If you are looking for more reliable user reviews, the current best options are the Steam and Xbox storefronts themselves. Whether positive or negative, they have been more thorough than those on Metacritic.

What do you think should be done about user review scores for major games, and games like Starfield being review bombed? Is this just a problem that the industry has to live with?

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Mike Straw
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of gaming, Mike was a beat reporter for various outlets covering the NHL for years before moving to game journalism full time. When he's not writing, you can find Mike playing various turn-based strategy games and roguelikes.

8 Comments

  1. How freaking childish to say we should exclude anyone who doesn’t give the game a perfect score, what utter gibberish. Let alone playing right into the hands of the Right Wing totalitarians who would gleefully hold up your article as an example of cancel culture. And who could blame them, you’re doing the exact same thing.
    The game is fundamentally trash, it’s not optimised, destroying PCs and is a blatant fraud by the publisher. You are literally doing a No True Scotsman fallacy, and it’s such a glaring example of late stage Capitalism that says everything is a dichotomy, and the other side is the devil incarnate. It destroys truth and it destroys democracy, because no one has to listen to anything they don’t want to anymore.
    The fact is the game is dull, many of us predicted this would happen, so when a company uses access to game reviews, and withhold game footage until after the purchase is made, is just dirty, especially from a company owned by a Trillion dollar Tech Monolith. 8 years and 400 million dollars for a Fallout 4 Expansion pack
    Disgusting. And if you took the time to read through the reviews they’re all saying the same thing, the game has no soul, no ambition, no longer inspires the imagination. There’s no grand events, no scale, no realism. As one review said, it was like being at a baby shower that never ends.
    You don’t sell Paddington the Bear to Gamers, they don’t care, this is what happens when old people try to control everything, they lose touch, and become irrelevant

    Oh, and btw, I note your issue with the first review was “Two Graphics” assuming it was meant to be “The Graphics” and you were drawing attention to the spelling error. But then you made one of your own with “Throughout” instead of “Thorough”. Such is the circle of life.

    As for the pronoun “debacle”, sure seems like a convenient smokescreen for this whole bait and switch, such a convenient way to divert the conversation with a red herring. So very convenient…

    2. An entitled gamer whining and crying in the comment section? Never seen that one before.

      This review bombing crap is beyond old at this point. If games are always so horrible, maybe make your own? Oh wait… that’s extremely difficult and conflicts with having no life in your parents basement.

    3. I agree with you but seriously, did someone hurt you? I do not like the game either, but people like you just make us look bad. The kind of approach to criticism you displayed here just makes those of us legitimately criticizing the game look like ranting children. It is possible to dislike something in a civil manner, without doing a disservice to your own argument. Do better.

  2. It’s not a 0/10 game and it’s not a 10/10 game it’s a 7 at most but I would personally say less. What’s annoying is all the overly positive reviews, even though the graphics suck, there are a shed load of loading screens and time (even with SSD), the games buggy, the menu system is pretty poor, the encumbrance system is poor, facial animations are bad and the in game maps no existent making finding your way around hard. I could take every aspect of the game and name a different game that does it better.

    These are all genuine weaknesses that make the game poorer and leave room for improvement. I’m a pc player so I don’t give a .. about playstation vs xbox. BUT there clearly are also xbox fanboys overselling the quality of this supposedly next gen game as well as ps fanboys raging.

    I also feel like some of the crtic reviews are overly biased, which makes you wonder if some of them are on the take. You can say I’m wrong but no matter how fun this game is (and it definatly has its moments) it can not be a 10/10 if there is room for improvement. Can anyone, hand on their heart honestly say this game has no room for improvement.

    If your argument is … yeh but mods… its still not a 10 out of 10 game in release state. Real gamers need to come together and stop supporting games that are not quite up to par because all the time we accept it and let them get away with making sub-quality (especially with so called next gen technology) we will never get anything better.

    Your whole job as a reviewer is to be honest about the game as a whole because all the time you defend something with so many imperfections, you are what is making the gaming industry such a toxic waste of talent and we wont ever see better. We have reach an avenue where indie games are almost as good as or better than multimillion pound AAA titles, it’s insane.

  3. We have reached the point where user reviews need to be curated like most forum posts are for offensive content. Those that are clear bombing or padding need to be deleted.

  4. I am thoroughly enjoying this game. It has been a while since I’ve played a game that had made me want to keep playing like this. I think the graphics look great, the systems are good and I have yet to experience anything i don’t like about the game. To me it’s a 9 or 10 as it stands for sure. If you don’t like it, then move along and play something you do like. There’s no need to cry online and demand other people dislike something just because you do, move along.

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