Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores PS5 Review Bombing Fiasco Prompts Metacritic Policy Changes

that's why i always roll my eyes whenever someone claims that user scores are more important and reliable and true indicators.

if people have a problem with official reviews for being "biased and fake" then you can't take user reviews serious either when those are more proven to be flawed.

I know folks like to talk trash on numbered scores but situations like this highlight one of the best things about them. It's easy to know which reviews to ignore by just looking at how outlandish a review score is. There's simply no way 0/10 makes sense for Burning Shores so it's easy to just simply ignore it.

User reviews are indeed a double-edged sword. In many cases, they're one of the few notable resources for consumers to vocally express displeasure with shady business tactics from a publisher/developer or get the word out on a game's unacceptable quality.

But then there are some cases like this.....

Metacritic should have ditched user scores years ago. It’s just become an outlet for weirdos to have deranged rants in a public space.

@Korgon I think a 0/10 never makes sense unless the game doesn't work at all tbh

I don't think Metacritic can be officially considered a trusted source for a game score anymore, since almost every big game is getting review bombed by disgruntled gamers , many times for no actual proper reason...
0 score reviews can't and shouldn't be taken seriously by any devs or companies in any official way.
As for the gamers... I can't be sure about others but I for one am not looking on Metacritic if I want to make a good idea about the worth of a game... it would be a waste of precious time.

Now if media would stop making such a big fuss about those review bombings, maybe the phenomenon would actually get a chance die out, and we would be spared of such useless drama every time a good game launches.

People have been hating on Horizon for the past year and a half anyway so it's just the same old at this point.

Remember guys critic scores don't matter the only thing that matters is the audience score that's the only actual measure and indicator of quality because audience scores are always honest and are never dubious or artificially manipulated at all nope the audience score is always what matters......🙄

The thing with this situation that most of these idiots don't understand because they probably didn't play Burning Shores is that hooking up with Seyka is a CHOICE. If someone doesn't think the relationship is fleshed out nor convincing enough to want to take it to the next step (I fall into that category), then they DON'T HAVE TO DO IT. Simple as that. Guerrilla isn't "forcing" anything down people's throats.

@jdv95 my thoughts exactly. People just want to justify their hate towards a game. That's all there is to it. User reviews (at least in video games) simply can't be trusted any more.

Here we go again with homophobes hating people folk.

@TripleKing333 whatever attracts clicks. They already know it's a problem and the way they choose to address it every time is laughable.

@RBMango While true it is technically a choice I think those people need to just huff their copium now because let's be real Horizon III is most likely gonna make the kiss ending canon

I am okay with these low scores. There is no other mechanism to counter the brainless masses giving this trash unimaginative formulaic game 9s and 10s.

Most of the people posting 1 star reviews probably haven’t even played it. They’ve just seen the articles online about the ending (which I haven’t reached yet but have a good idea what’s got their knickers in a bunch). Some people were mad about it being PS5 exclusive which could be a factor too. But I mostly think it’s the other thing.

My only issue with the Horizon series is the silly direction they went with the story in HFW. But now anyone criticising the game at all will be labelled a redneck or whatever (like what happened with TLoU2).

First Bud Light, now the Horizon franchise?! What’s next? Cheeseburgers? The flag? Soon it won’t be safe to walk the streets at night.

That's why user scores should absolutely be ignored on metacritic the critic reviews are what matters and that goes for playstation, xbox and nintendo games.

@Kanji-Tatsumi
They have been hating on Horizon since 2017 when first game dropped.

User reviews dont like the story of the DLC

I dont often agree with critic reviews either

This happens with every game these days. Resi 4 remake had the exact same problem. I’m sure that Zelda tears of the kingdom will get the same treatment.

At this point Metacritic is a useless tool to evaluate game scores. Or certainly the public part of it.

Gamers are the most toxic in the regard of recommendation. Never trust them. Find Out Yourself

@trev666 At the end of the day really the only opinion that should truly matter is one's own

I'm not a fan of review bombing for the sake of hurting a developer/publisher for a decision made. Let the game stand on its own merits. If you don't like the story elements, fine, but that shouldn't be enough to give a game or a DLC a score of zero.

@Keyblade-Dan Not really. Imagine if you had to stick your hand in each and every fire you see just to be sure that it will in fact burn you. If you got sick of the formulaic assembly line development method of Ubisoft you can safely skip games like Horizon. It's the same thing.

Funny how it’s only ever „review bombing“ when it comes from the audience.
If people don’t like that a lesbian romance appears to have been shoehorned into Horizon‘s story then they are entitled to that opinion. When he was still at Guerilla, I recall Herman Hulst saying that Aloy was too focused on her mission for relationships. Does this mean he is now a raging homophobe?
When people attacked Hogwarts Legacy, they were not relegated to „vocal minority“ status and every insufferable games journalist felt a need to address their concerns. Either leave these kinds of voices out of the conversation completely or allow all opinions to be heard. That would be actual journalism.

@GrimReaper

I played both ubisoft and horizon games and horizon games are not formulaic. You're reaching so bad.

@RBMango remember the times when you could bang aliens and be gay in games like mass effect without everyone loosing their minds??? Good times

There should be custom option to choose to show average review score without 0/10 and 1/10. Let them rant, but give option to bypass such ridiculous reviews.

@GodofCapcom I disrespectfully disagree

@RBMango remember the times when you could bang aliens and be gay in games like mass effect without everyone losing their minds??? Good times

@Boxmonkey

Oh yeah. With re4 too.

Man everyone now complains about every ***** game. Gow is a DLC, ER was about technical prowess, HFW was too "generic", doom eternal is more of the same.

Same ***** will happen with ff16, zelda and spiderman 2. Oh, FF lost its identity, it's not turn based. Zelda and spiderman 2 are more of the same (although that's what sequels do you zombies).

@zanlyons Hey, how do you do that spoiler box in the comment? I got hit the other day with having a spoiler and didn't know how to do that.

@GrimReaper i usually see all your comments erased but never got a chance to read them before they get deleted and i was wondering why they always get deleted... then i read this and realized why XD

Was to be expected. Same people rating 0/10 that rated TLOU2 abysmal.. let me tell you, neither is abysmal 😝

If developers even read Metacritic community reviews, I doubt they pay attention to anything below a 6 or a 7, as unless they know their game is average to poor, 5 and below usually denotes a knee jerk emotive reaction or straight up trolling.

@GrimReaper

Every side mission, every character in those are different in HFW. Ubisoft is such a literal copy and paste side quests with no background at all. At least there was a sense of wanting to keep exploring in HFW compared to FC4 (haven't played the latest AC and don't plan on playing the new FC).

Every open world has checklist so that's not the issue. Hogwarts legacy was more formulaic and more ubisoft like than horizon too. There weren't too many copies and paste stuff in horizon.

Ubisoft is so much lazier making open worlds, gameplay and general. They pump more of these too.

Actually makes me more excited for the DLC, if anything. Nine times out of ten, when there's fan controversy over an ending/plot element in a game, it's because the writers took a calculated risk they thought would be interesting. One harsh truth I've had to come to accept is that online fanbases tend to suck, as the loudest, most reactionary voices drown everyone else out.

But yeah, this sort of thing happens with a lot of big exclusives, too. Tears of the Kingdom is gonna get nuked from orbit by salty fanboys once user reviews open up, lol.

@Uncharted2007 I actually have no idea. It just appeared so probably one of the moderators

User reviews are literally useless. At least a critic has to expand on their opinion.

Why must bigots be the biggest tantrum tossing snowflakes in the face of this planet….???

@LordBakemono You should be grateful that there is at least one person exposing games like Horizon for what they are. Hive minds and undeserved positivity only lead to worse products.

@GodofCapcom 'Every open world has checklist so that's not the issue' this line right here makes you a part of the problem. One day you will realize it.

What exactly even makes Horizon's world so special to you? The robot dinosaurs and animals? As far as I am concerned that's as lazy as studio can be. It can't possibly be the story and characters.

As long as Sony studios keep making strong, female characters with all sorts of attributes then I'm completely fine with it. The cynicism I have for this stuff in this day and age walks a tightrope - when is it a natural development and when has something been added for tokenism?

TLoU handles it pretty well in terms of writing characters Ellie and Dina, although Lev's story was cliché to say the least. In HFW and the DLC it can come across as a bit clumsy and tokenistic at points... "Hey look, insert group here, we're 'championing' you in this scene!", although less so in the DLC. It's a really tough thing to nail and sell narratively. Getting that variety and depth behind the characters and not making attributes such as sexuality or gender a key focus is paramount. Character attributes should fall into place around their story.

Again, just my opinion here. I'm sure some think Horizon has done a great job with it but I think there are many improvements to be made in the writing department when it comes to these things. It's mainly the supporting NPC's that have the 'clumsiness' about them, rather than Aloy herself (I do have a big soft spot for her character ❤️)

Edit: I'd also like to echo @Zanlyons point about Hogwarts Legacy. Bias is an enemy of journalism.

@get2sammyb Appreciate it. I'll try to remember that for next time.

@GrimReaper

You mean being a hipster and loves to hate on popular things because people enjoy the way things are, but you don't?

Yes. HFW world is amazing. One of the best ever made. What I mean with checklists is that the map has to have machines camps and stuff like that. As long as it's not overdue like spider-man, hogwarts or ubisoft games, a checklist is ok. Even Elden Ring has repetitive used assets in their dungeons lol.

And I love the story and characters. Sorry to disappoint you. I think Aloy is one of the best female characters created. Sylens, Erin, Varl were good too. HZD story was better tho.

@GodofCapcom This is such a weak response. Open world games haven't evolved at all for over a decade now still filled with formulaic activities and lazy quest design that incentivizes the creation of god playable characters like Aloy that can investigate and solve everything with the help of the Batman 'detective vision' from 2009 and take on empires on her own, but sure call me a hipster and live in blissful ignorance.

@GrimReaper

Welcome to video games lmao.

Indie games are also suspect.

@jdv95 I only really read reviews of important sites like Pushsquare. The user review I give true relevance is my own.

@GodofCapcom No. Welcome to modern video games. 2004-2012 was a golden age of creativity and you will do yourself a lot of good if you go back to play some of the classics that you might have missed.

1 for the graphics 🤣🤣

Should of gone to specsavers.

People are idiots.
I mean, the DLC is a bit bad, like MCU writing levels of bad, but it is by no means a 5/10.

I've said it before and I'll say it again there's a very simple way to end this practice of 'fake' review bombing once and for all.

Metacritic having a requirement to link your PSN or sign in via a PSN portal that then verifies the game is in your play history to grant access to leave a review.
That way you know people have genuinely played the game, then they can be taken with some sincerity.

But they won't ever do that.

It didn't hurt TLoU and it won't hurt Horizon.

I'm sure the DLC is great (I bought it but haven't played it yet) but I'm praying to all that is holy that this review bombing incident makes them reconsider the direction they took. Hoping they shoehorned this stuff into the optional DLC to tick that mandatory box and be done with it. If Horizon 3 makes this stuff front and center, I'll be very sadly exiting the series. I respect everyone's opinion on the matter but personally am very disappointed.

@GrimReaper

I disagree. I have been gaming since ps1 so idk what you're talking about. Those games are what made the games that we have today lol . You just can't filter out that was new back then. Just quit gaming lol. Do yourself a favor.

Get ready for the GaaS phase.

I dont pay attention to metacritic scores anymore, the only reviews I trust are on push square, I havent played burning shores yet but its downloaded and waiting for when I've got 100 percent on forbidden west and I don't want to rush because I'm enjoying it that much.

@zanlyons Very well said! This conversation is always one-sided. "Everyone can be heard" until you have an unpopular opinion then you're a bigot. Lol

I don't see the problem with aloy being gay/bi, it's not like Horizon is a choice based game such as mass effect where you can choose what sexuality your character is and can make story based choices that effect the game, Horizon isn't meant to be like that, the game is linear in terms of choice, you're experiencing the story and aloys feelings the way the Devs want you too.

If you can't respect Guerrilla's vision and story they have created then that's on you to find another game to play.

@GodofCapcom Wrong. We are living through a dark of age of creativity. It has happened in the past. Tarantino recently spoke about how Hollywood lost it's edge during the 50s and that led to the great renaissance of the 70's with The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Halloween, Alien, Star Wars etc

There are rumblings that Ubisoft is in financial trouble and CDPR's lead dev recently spoke about how big companies are running into a brick wall with their current quantity over quality approach. Hopefully both studios go bankrupt and we start getting great games again.

@TripleKing333 Metacritic can fix these problems with review bombers by requiring user reviews to have a minimal character limit and also adding an algorithm that deletes reviews that just says one word over and over again plus reviews that are copy and pasted.

You'll still get the odd reviewer doing terrible reviews but I'd wadger if they implemented a system like this, maybe with other factors to prevent review bombers, that would clean things up. Add in a report system too.

That would require Metacritic to actually do some work though so we know it won't happen.

@GrimReaper I agree. We're heading into a big wall in gaming. With Games as a Service and repetitive uninspired games, plus smaller studios being absorbed left and right, the next 5 to 10 years are going to be rough (with, as always, a few exceptional games).
Hopefully, this will help reboot the industry and get us something really new and exciting. I'd bet at that time, VR tech will be sufficiently developed and cheap to be part of this new age of gaming.

@invictus4000

There is a reason unpopular opinions are unpopular and as soon as everyone figures that out the sooner the world can move on.

This is why I don’t mess with relationships in games, and why games shouldn’t include them. Leave relationships stuff up to the fanfic weirdos online.

@UltimateOtaku91 oh god, the worst example of this was in AC Odyssey - which let you choose your characters sexuality throughout the entire game. Until the dlc… when they decided to force your gay character into a drunken one night stand with a woman so your bloodline would continue 🤣 That was laughably bad writing and borderline offensive.

@AverageGamer "Leave relationships stuff up to the fanfic weirdos online."

There's bound to be a lot of guys who had Aloy as their Waifu, now they're livid 😂

Not sure what this is about but I think I have an idea going off these comments. It was only the other week people where mad that a cartoon that's being made into a film is casting a woman with lighter skin colour than the cartoon character. Identify politics bleeds into everything.

@GagaOooLaLa Yeah they definitely didn't think that through lol that's why I prefer linear games story/choice wise.

@Olmaz @GrimReaper

I'm not saying this gen is more creative. It's not, but there's really not else that can be done at this point. Just enjoy the game that combines superb stuff and that's it.

None of the games I played on ps5 are fresh. Everything is an improved form of something, but I still enjoy games. I don't have to hate on things because I already experienced it. If it's good, it is good, and HFW is an amazing game. Not perfect.

We know what fanbase is doing this.

@Phornix

Just make it that you must sign in with your psn and have a certain trophy.

@UltimateOtaku91 I'm only a couple of hours in, so I have a ways to go until I reach the point where I decide if I want to kiss her or not. I have a feeling I will not, but not because I have anything against it. My initial reaction is I don't think it makes any sense as Aloy has already said no to another woman and was already kind of smitten over a guy in the first game briefly. Like I said, I'll reserve my overall judgement until I finish the DLC, but my initial reaction to this is it doesn't make much sense and even feels borderline forced.

I think it's a solid 7-8. Some of the dialogue is cringe though.

@GrimReaper

hahahahaha. It's better in almost every way. Few exceptions. Now I just think you're clueless if there's nothing better. It's not even an opinion. Have a good day. You and me will clearly disagree with most things if something like that is your opinion.

@KilloWertz I think it's more to do with seyka falling for Aloy and you get to choose to return those feelings or not, its a forced choice but not a forced outcome if that makes sense. I think Guerilla didn't want aloy to remain alone forever and left it up to the players, I would assume in Horizon 3 there will be more romance options to choose from depending on the feedback from this DLC.

Only public game rating i care a bit about is Steam

You actually know they have the game and for how long they played it.

Time for GUERILLA to go back to KILLZONE.
Please remaster killzone liberation to ps plus premium and make one open world sequel in Helghan

@mariomaster96 no, their are exceptions. Wrestlemania 21 for the original Xbox. That's definitely a 0/10.

Which is why I never listen to reviews. I've played 9/10 and been disappointed and also played 4/10 and absolutely loved it.

Review bombing just adds to more sells, just look at The Super Mario Bros Movie ha ha!

Wouldn't it imply a vocal majority and not a vocal minority if the overall rating is garbage.

Makes me sad but happy knowing there are individuals out there so much sadder than me...crying because it's not on the PS4....get a job and buy a ps5 then if you want to play it that bad

P.s won't be buying the dlc myself personally as I couldn't even get into the main game

@Olmaz surely they've exhausted all avenues of genre ,I feel AI is what they should be concentrating on ,an npc that knows your name, your likes and dislikes ,realistic responses to every action you make in game ,that would be great and maybe a little scary.

It is interesting here though when you sift through the ignorant right wing media regurgitation posts and you also take away all the overwhelmingly early glowing reviews that gave it 10s and 9s because of fanhuman loyalty and likely review bombing(with high scores), without even playing it, we do see some commonalities in the genuine reviews.

One can see general consensus, even when stacked up against games site reviews. That despite whatever safe score the games journalist puts or the player puts on these agreed upon the following points, they seem to be a common thread:

-Good visuals
-Under utilised new area
-Short with little to do and what is there is more of the same.
-only truly 1-2 new general enemy machine
-Formulaic and underwhelming writing and poor story
-tacked/forced feeling romance
-Noticeable pop in during flight
-no aerial combat and underutilized water diving gimmick
-very same looking environments as the base game
-underwhelming boss fights
-No discernible reason why this had to be next Gen onky aside from maybe the pop in and final boss.
-poor platforming mechanics/sections

Now outlets cited these issues and chalked it up to more of the same and thus essential for those that want more of the same (without any call for an evolution or refinement of horizon's shortcomings mind you). Thus giving 7-8s (often the safe review range when considering the pressures these outlets face when reviewing big titles) .

Many actual players of the dlc did take issues with these points and gave the game a rating around 5-6.

One can discern here by ACTUALLY READING the genuine reviews and cross referencing a bit, that aside from all the fluff and hate, this was a pretty mediocre and half baked dlc overall. Especially coming out a year after release.

Oh small side note: those "next Gen clouds" they put in. They are static, they do not move. whereas the original clouds did. Kinda weird trade off considering there is a day/night cycle 🤔

I'm all for it. I'll never understand how people can be so angry in life that they get triggered by what someone else does with thier life or the Stories told in a film, tv series, game etc. Just sit back and relax and watch the world progress without you.

@Kidfried It’s users like that who’ve caused an article about Pride to be locked before it even went up. So you can’t even participate in the actual purpose of Pride on the article about it. That’s the end goal isn’t it, if they push people down so much that they have no voice.

I feel as though this article should have a disclaimer attached to the front end!

I meaaaaan... I thought it was veeeeerrry obvious that they were going for that with aloy from the beginning. Especially these days.

@grapetrap Riiiiight. Just because an opinion is popular doesn't make it right. In our world and culture it's usually quite the contrary, actually.

Thought it was a little short and rushed for the main quest. But it was still an enjoyable 6 hours-ish. The new Critters were fun, if sparse.

Also: I didn't see a single thing that put it league's above the original or why it couldn't make it to the PS4. So I empathize with those who have yet to upgrade.

I think Users use different criteria to review a game than professional reviewers do. Professional reviewers are giving a rating for use by a wide and diverse audience and temper their own personal views and try to consider other tastes. Users are giving a rating from exclusively from their own personal perspective with no tempering.

I don't think that makes 0/10's invalid or "bombing" by default. I accept in some cases bombing does occur but I tend to consider that to be the case when it relates to an out-of-game issue - e.g. something the dev/pub said or did.

I can think of a sequel game released a few years ago that was very divisive. For me it was a 0/10 because I felt the original had one hook that seperated it from hundreds of mediocre games in the genre, and that was removed right at the start of the sequel. To me, it was ruined and I wished I'd never bothered.

Like having a meal served in a restaurant with a fly in the gravy. The rest of the meal was untouched by the fly, but the entire meal at that point is tainted and has to go in the bin. You wouldn't want to touch it at all. You could argue the steak was still worth an 8/10, but the entire meal is now rendered a 0.

I can accept that this could be the case for a person who finds a plot point forced, immersion breaking and causing suspension of disbelief to fail. Sometimes it's not the detail of the plot point itself, but just the fact that something is there to cause that suspension of disbelief failure.

Silly example, but it's a bit like when I watch an old episode of He-Man and he gives a message at the end. I have no issue with his message and quite agree with it, but that intrusion of something external to the fiction, that seeped in from real life at the time, is jarring.

I don't know how to put it correctly to not initiate hatespeech/holy war etc. (pushsquare is a friendly community, I''ll bet on it). But here' s what I feel I have to say:
I want games and other media to represent gender and sexual preferences in a statistically correct manner. There are majority of people, who are heterosexuals.
Media should represent all factions of our society according to how it is in reality and not give such large preferences to the minor factions.
I'm straight myself and I played both Horizon titles extensively. And I never felt my Aloy this way. Developers should give a player two options. And being left forever alone shouldn't be considered as one.

Should've hooked up with Nil, Aloy.

I personally really enjoyed Burning Shores. I think it is abhorrent that in this day and age there is such ignorance and prejudices still out there that ppl would ban the game because the lead character happens to be gay maybe they are just jealous! . These prejudicial and ignorant behaviour have no place in society

@Blacksmith1985 what a ridiculous comment

What about the earth threatening impending doom! All I see are articles about the gay stuff. Is it worth getting for actual plot advancement?

@Lonewolf1891 "what a ridiculous comment." Why? Its his opinion. I agree with what you said that in this day and age that such ignorance and prejudice should not exist but they do unfortunatley. The push square community as a whole are a great bunch of people and the main reason i chose to remain part of it (it sure as hell isnt the editors/moderators.) Articles such as this will bring out those who can have a mature discussion and those who can not. It will also show you those who will never accept anybodys point of view as well. I think all walks of life have a right to be depicted in media regardless of their sexuality etc but sometimes it can seem that they are included so certain boxes are ticked in order to be diverse if thats the right way to put it across. This is one of those topics thats never going to have everybody agreeing about.

@Starkei dont be silly 🤣

@GrimReaper

Does a game have to be drastically revamped from what came before to be good?

I like the Horizon games because they are dumb fun with an interesting visual design language.

It is very much a Ubisoft clone with all the negatives that come with that style of game design. But it has an interesting world and pretty cool visual design to set it apart.

Sometimes that is all a game needs to be decent and fun to play.

I wouldn’t give the Horizon series tens out of tens or anything. They are pretty formulaic open world games built in the Ubisoft mold.

But they are fun to play.

Plus even in the golden era we had some true janky junk flying around.

@Blacksmith1985 like mass effect do you mean ,I was under the impression that you are given the choice to choose huggy huggy kissy kissy in burning shores

@GrimReaper

Alright you’re clearly a troll. Have a good day friend.

Let's forget aloys sexual preference ,and discuss why can we not see female nipples in the game ,but there's an abundance of disgusting giant male burger nips ,I mean whats going on with that ,I think someone at guerilla has a weird fetish.

@GrimReaper *Caesar 🙄😁🤪

@tallythwack

That’s a result of content ratings boards. Especially the ESRB in the US.

Showing uncovered female breasts earns you an instant M rating for “nudity.” Society accepts men walking around shirtless and this it isn’t considered nudity.

It’s pretty dumb.

Not a fan of review bombing by people who haven't even played the game but in this instance I'll allow it for anyone who paid for the PS4 base game and is now denied the dlc. I'm only 4-5 hours in but I really think it could run on PS4, so non-PS5 owners got legit screwed.

You pay money for the base game, you should be able to play ALL of the game, simple. If they didn't want PS4 owners to play they should have at least made it a stand alone game, look a little less shady anyway. See Lost Legacy and Mikes Morales.

@Jill_Sandwich yeah i'll go with that but sometimes it seems a bit cynical almost manufactured and not sincere.