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?
