Starfield Faces Review Bombs After Winning Steam’s Innovation Award

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Obaid Ur Rehman

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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Built up as one of 2023’s most anticipated releases, Starfield received the most coverage of any game last year. Despite mixed reception after the initial anticipation wore off, the game was nominated for a major award from Steam.

In a shocking turn of events, the RPG ended up winning this award, and the reactions were not positive. With many unable to accept this outcome, the award triggered a wave of negative reviews for the game on Steam.

Why it matters: The open world of Starfield and the RPG elements were quite cookie-cutter. This led to fans feeling that this victory was unjust, with even the biggest fans admitting to this fact.

As seen in the image above, the most recent reviews on Starfield’s Steam page are negative and point to the game’s latest award. While both players have around 30-50 hours in the game, their negative review states that the RPG should not have been praised for innovation.

The game now has over 90K reviews, with over 40% of them being negative. However, these reviews appear to be losing their authenticity quickly since many of them are targeting the game for the simplest of reasons.

While we don’t agree with the outcome either, this should not be a reason for Steam users to leave a negative review for the game. This comes off as a blatant trolling attempt and could get worse as time goes on.

This award was voted by the community, so thousands must have found something to like about Starfield.

Many have also speculated that the game was voted in an attempt to troll Bethesda, but it seems unlikely that this movement was big enough to carry the game to victory.

Constructive criticism is reasonable, but targeting a developer’s work for a single award seems a little too far. For all its flaws, Starfield has already shown plenty of improvements, with Bethesda making fixes that addressed many of the game’s problems recently.

Despite so much controversy, the RPG still managed to beat the playtime of Baldur’s Gate 3. It also became one of Steam’s best-selling releases, ending up as a major commercial success for Xbox and Bethesda.

Obaid Ur Rehman

[How-To Guides Expert]

Laiba, our tech guru at HI Digital, simplifies and crafts How-To Guides with a Google IT Support Certificate. Beyond tech, she captures the city’s aesthetics through her lens. Join her journey where tech meets creativity!

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