Review Bombing A Modern Moral Quandary

Reviews are constantly a hot topic in the gaming industry. Be it a well known reviewer giving a beloved game an imperfect score causing outrage, see Jim Sterling and the absurd aftermath of his Breath of the wild review. Or an employee doing damage to a large brand by plagiarizing their review from a small independent creator, see the IGN and Boomstick gaming debacle. Some even perpetuate wild theories about game devs and the gaming media partaking in scandalous activities just to secure good reviews. It seems there is always new drama to get into surrounding the scores attributed to these works of art.

Today I’d like to discuss a trend that gives me pause. One that in theory gives power to the consumers but in practice of late has been used as a weapon in an attempt to strike down games when their developers have made decisions the consumers disagree with. I’m talking of course about the review bomb.

Review bombing is the practice of leaving negative reviews on a game’s user review page enmass to drive down the overall score. It is usually in response to the developer doing something that fans generally disagree with. We’ve seen instances of review bombings occur when a change has been made to the game such as adding some kind of disagreeable microtransaction. I think for the most part this is fair, famously Black Ops IIII released free of the microtranactions that have played previous call of duty entries. However as the months have gone on a clone of Fortnite’s Battle Pass has been added in addition to charging for small items such as sights. A major publication isn’t going to go back and update their review this far out so it becomes almost a responsibility of the fans to make others aware of the updates. In this instance I feel a coordinated effort to raise the word is understandable. For games in early access often times these campaigns are the only way for potential consumers and the dev teams to know how updates have been received and if changes are needed.

However a recent case has left me questioning me feelings on user reviews in general and the efforts some people will go to in order to make their voice heard. The game series Metro is based on a Russian series of books by the same name. Developer 4A Games received solid reviews for the two games with Metro 2033 coming in at an 81 on metacritic and Metro Last Light scoring an 82. For the release of Metro Exodus the developers have decided to forgo releasing on steam instead opting to release on Epic’s storefront which famously does not yet allow user reviews. The backlash has been fierce, without the ability to review Exodus on steam fans have instead began bombing the pages of 2033 and Last Light. It seems obvious these games are not responsible for the decisions of their creators. Unfortunately this line of rational thought has not made a difference.

Recent reviews for 2033 give the game a “mixed” score of 44% while Last Light has been knocked down to a 41%. My issue doesn’t lie with fans expressing their displeasure however this feels more like getting punched for something your sibling did. More accurately the fact that I feel the switch to Epic’s storefront isn’t a big deal it's more akin to being assaulted for something your sibling might have possibly done that could potentially have been bad.

While I sympathize with the perceived loss of consumer power this action taken in anger seems misdirected. Furthermore it lends credence to the argument that as gamers we are entitled, a sentiment I agree with at times but generally feel is overblown. My solution perhaps not as radical as some feel is needed, would be to speak with your friends, tweet about your concerns, voice then on YouTube or even write a blog post like this one. Don’t tarnish the reputation of games that came out years ago and have nothing to do with the current business decisions. In doing so you may feel your voice is amplified but your message is lost.

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