Review Bombing: some striking cases in the history of video games

In recent years we have seen a significant increase in the so-called "Bombing Review", Due to a growing influence of user reviews (on the various online platforms) and to the desire of the latter to want to express at all costs their disappointment, often unjustified, towards videogame - and cinematographic - works with the simple intent on damaging its sales or popularity. Frequently the cause of Review Bombing it is not strictly linked to the quality of the product itself, as to “external” elements linked to the video game, which aim to challenge commercial, social or political choices of various developers or publishers.

In this article we have decided to collect the most striking cases in the history of videogames, critically acclaimed, but literally massacred by the public. Before starting, we remind you that the games in the following list have been arranged in a purely random order, not representing any ranking or order of importance.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2

The first person shooter set in the universe of Star Wars was harshly criticized by gamers because of the microtransactions e loot boxes present within the game, seeing it more as a "pay to win"; but that's not all, as users have blamed that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 aimed to significantly favor those who bought, for real money, new content or playable characters. In response to widespread criticism from gamers, EA finally decided to "revolutionize" the game disabling microtransactions and modifying the progression and the economic system of the title.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Since its release, the new exclusive made in Nintendo has undergone several criticisms from gamers, generating the "feared" Bombing Review. The complaints not only contested the choice of the Japanese giant to be able to own in Animal Crossing: New Horizons one island for Nintendo Switch, but that the progression on the latter depended exclusively on the first player. Of course, these are still strong limitations on the gameplay side, but not so much as to deserve the insufficiency.

Never Automata

The same fate befell Never Automata, highly acclaimed RPG developed by Platinum Games and published by Square Enix. Once released in the Asian market, several Chinese users have lashed out against the work of the Japanese software house since the latter is not alone it did not have Chinese language support, but was offered for sale with a price doubled compared to the European counterpart.

Marvel's Spider-Man

Even superheroes can fail, or in our case, be targeted by online users. Marvel's Spider-Man di Insomniac Games immediately after the exclusive release on PlayStation 4 he was immediately accused of having undergone a downgrade, compared to what was shown at E3 2018, due to some missing puddles in the final game. Fortunately, despite the multitude of criticisms leveled by users against the developers, the Insomniac Games team decided to joke about what happened by stating that in Marvel's Spider-Man "there are other places with tons of puddles".

No. We have plenty of other places with tons of puddles

- Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) August 26, 2018

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Also Call of Duty: Modern Warfare last October 2019 was literally bombarded with negative reviews about Metacritic. The cause of the Bombing Review is due to how Activision and Infinity Ward have decided to represent the Russian army in game, describing it as the main antagonist of the story and coming to attribute the destruction of Iraq to him, in particular mentioning the note "Highway of Death”(Highway of Death), although in reality the attack was carried out during the Gulf War by American forces.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Astral Chain

Besides Animal Crossing: New Horizons, too Fire Emblem: Three Houses e Astral Chain have received tons of negative reviews on Metacritic, due to the fact that Koei Tecmo e Platinum Games have decided to release their titles exclusively on Nintendo's hybrid console. Fortunately, the well-known online "aggregator" of reviews has decided not to take these "trivial" ratings into consideration, promptly removing them from the site.

Death Stranding

Also the highly anticipated work of Hideo Kojima was impressed by the dreaded Review Bombing, literally dividing the opinion of online users. Many players have not only defined Death Stranding as a "delivery simulator", but they have harshly criticized the gameplay of the game calling it even "boring". Probably the negative criticisms of the users are due to the very long walks faced by Sam Porter Bridges between deliveries.

Epic Games Store exclusives

The launch of theEpic Games Store in December 2018 generated several discontent due to some titles that landed exclusively on the digital store of the creators of Fortnite, including Metro Exodus e Borderlands 3. Given that the digital store of the well-known software house based in Cary has always omitted user reviews from its interface, they have decided to bombard some related games (such as Borderlands 2) present on Steam.

Doom Eternal

Despite the new work of Id Software has been a huge success not only from critics, but also from users, the first substantial update of the PC version of the title has generated strong discontent among gamers, resulting in the inevitable Bombing Review. The update in question, in addition to introducing enhanced Demons, Echelen levels, balancing the campaign and the Battlemode, forced PC players to necessarily install the Anti-Cheat system di Denuvo. The latter, although officially only necessary for the Battlemode to prevent the use of cheats in the multiplayer mode, also had to be installed by those who played exclusively the single player companion of Doom Eternal.

The Last of US Part 2

And finally we find, also in chronological order of release, the last effort made by N. From the first day of release, The Last of Us Part 2 was harshly criticized by the public for a variety of reasons. The Bombing Review it was not triggered solely due to the various leaks that had revealed the events that would have involved well in advance Ellie e Joel in this second chapter of the series, as for a gameplay (according to many) "boring", from the topics covered, to the sexual orientation of the protagonists. Furthermore, among the latest "accusations" we also find that of downgrade.