Horizon Forbidden West PS5 PlayStation 5 1
Image: Push Square

It wouldn’t be a major video game release without gamers exhibiting embarrassing behaviour. Horizon Forbidden West has been quietly racking up disproportionately negative reviews on Metacritic overnight, and while it’s still holding a steady overall user score, the string of 0/10s are obviously beginning to look disingenuous. Many of you may recall The Last of Us: Part 2, amid an eye-rolling social media scandal, falling to a similar fate.

Of course, there’s no targeted campaign against Aloy’s sophomore outing this time – it’s just people being silly. “Probably the biggest disappointment in a while,” one user wrote of the 80 or so hour game, less than 24 hours after its release. “I had very high expectations. The story is bland and unimaginative, the gameplay is very boring. Even the lauded graphics are underwhelming. Really dropped the ball here.”

After the aforementioned The Last of Us: Part 2 saga, Metacritic did pledge alterations to its user score system, with the goal being to prevent this from happening again. Unfortunately, it looks like two years later nothing has really changed. Of course, we all know that the user score on the website is a complete waste of time, but it may still influence less engaged players – and it looks like Horizon Forbidden West’s rating is going to take a battering.

Of course, the title is not without criticism – the platforming is finicky and there’s your usual open world jank – but we loved the title overall in our review: “Any minor quibbles we have melt away when the game's firing on all cylinders. It's a gorgeous, wildly fun action RPG, and there's nothing else quite like it.” If you’re just getting started this weekend, then be sure to check out our Horizon Forbidden West guide for any help.

[source metacritic.com]