Review aggregator website Metacritic says it is working on ways to tackle abusive and disrespectful user reviews which are posted on its platform. Metacritic owner Fandom has been forced to address the “freedom” the site offers users which often opens up doors for reviewing bombing. The latest game to suffer from this incident is the Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC.
Over the past few days, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores user reviews have gone from a 5.5, down to a 3.2 and at times, sat as low as 2.7. That’s because gamers aren’t happy with some of the story choices that were made at the end of the DLC.
READ MORE – The Flash Gets Exciting New Trailer With Batman and Supergirl
Possible story spoilers follow
At the end of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, it is revealed that similar to Elisabet Sobeck, Aloy, who is her genetic clone, is also a lesbian. Because you know, genetics carry these things over and this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. We learnt of Elisabet’s sexual orientation during the last chapter of the main game.
It is revealed that Aloy’s new companion and friend Seyka who she meets during the Burning Shores DLC might just be her lover too. The game also provides users with some options to embrace this romantic relationship.
Of course, the internet isn’t happy about this and took to the Metacritic user review section to voice its opinion. As a result, the user rating on Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC dropped to an abysmally low score.
But Metacritic wants to address the issue. Even though review bombing has been around for decades now, the site has suddenly woken up to the idea of actually doing something about it. In a statement, Fandom says:
“Fandom is a place of belonging for all fans and we take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic. Metacritic is aware of the abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and we have a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use. Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed. We are currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months.”
Fandom has yet to reveal what tools it has in the works to tackle issues like this so we will have to wait and see what happens next. In the meantime, the Burning Shores reviews have been removed from the site but the last user score is still there at 4.1.
Even if you don’t like the new lesbian Aloy, she isn’t going anywhere. Guerrilla Games announced that the studio is already working on the third chapter of her journey alongside an online game.
