I was on Twitter recently when I saw news that the new DLC for Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, was getting review bombed on Metacritic, to the point that Metacritic is going to now be more strict when moderating user reviews in the future. The reason for the review bombing of Burning Shores seems silly to me as I have mentioned that I often play female characters in video games and I tend to choose a female partner if I engage with the romance in the game. However, I do think it’s worth sharing my thoughts on review bombing and the impact it can have, both positive and negative, on video games.
Understandably, review bombing is a relatively recent phenomenon that has come into being with the rise in the internet and the ability for people to leave their own reviews for products. Review bombing can apply to any product or service that allows people to review it and its purpose is to artificially adjust the rating. There are some examples of review bombing being used to improve the score of a product or service but the overwhelming majority of review bombings attempt to drive down the score. It’s also important to note that these review bombs are typically unrelated to the quality of the product or service itself but are due to other factors such as politics, societal issues, the actions of the developers etc.