Developed over several years, Starfield stands as one of the biggest and most ambitious first-party Xbox games, aiming to push the boundaries of exploration in a video game. With 1000 planets, Starfield promises to deliver an unprecedented level of freedom.
Since the hype of the game is at an all-time high, the game has attracted attention, both positive and negative. Following the recent Starfield Direct, the game’s Metacritic page was spotted with a negative review from an angry user.
Why It Matters: The game not being released yet and receiving a negative review shows how controversial the title will likely be at launch. Following in the footsteps of several other games, Starfield also faces the threat of being review bombed upon release.
User reviews of games are locked before their release, but the site experienced a compromise by a user who left an angry review critiquing the game and Bethesda. The review has been deleted, but Metacritic still shows one negative review.
While a negative review makes little sense in this scenario, the fact that the user was able to leave a review at all is surprising. Starfield is not releasing until September, and even the media has not received review copies of the game yet.
Therefore, this user is unlikely to have played the game. This might be a sign of things to come, hinting at a wave of negative reviews for Bethesda Game Studios’ most ambitious release yet.
Prior to the review’s removal, users quickly took a screenshot, revealing the contents of Starfield’s first negative review on the platform. As seen below, the review gave Starfield a score of 0/10.
The angry user complained about the game being broken at launch. However, Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Games Studios, claimed that Starfield would have the least amount of bugs in a game shipped by Bethesda, which could be comforting to fans.
Previously, games like Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild received a similar wave of negative reviews. Horizon Forbidden West’s latest expansion also received multiple negative reviews, which lowered its user score to 2.8.
Following such incidents, Metacritic has gained notoriety for its vulnerability to review bombing, leading to the site ‘evolving’ itself in the future to avoid such issues.
Nevertheless, these negative issues will not stop the game anytime soon, as it is shaping up to be an excellent title. Starfield also made it to the top of Steam’s best-sellers list after the recent information from Bethesda Game Studios.
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