[UPDATE: While the influx of negative reviews have continued to grow, so too has the positive reviews. It is unknown if this is in reaction to the review bombing or those who have taken more time to actually play the game, but as of this update, the ratio has become 796 positive reviews, 68 mixed, and 253 negative. Original story follows.]
Housemarque's PlayStation 5-exclusive roguelike sci-fi game Returnal released on April 30 after numerous teasers and showcases following its reveal during the "Future of Gaming" livestream in June 2020; which also officially unveiled Sony's next-gen console. Though it isn't perfect, Returnal has received largely positive reviews from media outlets, including a five-star score from Game Rant. However, it appears Metacritic users are beginning to review bomb the game.
Review bombing, a process by which users (or bots) flood a game with negative reviews to bring its cumulative score down, is not uncommon in this age of digital media consumption. While certain games may see justified negative scores for any number of reasons, occasionally much-beloved titles are review bombed for seemingly unrelated reasons. For example, Monster Hunter World was review bombed late last year because of an off-color joke made in the Monster Hunter movie.
With regards to Returnal, it's hard to say whether the issue is as significant as it has been for other games. As of this writing, Returnal has a 7.2 User Score on Metacritic based on 424 reviews; broken into 291 positive, 19 mixed, and 114 negative. Given it has only been available for one day, many short, vague reviews appear as though they could be bots making claims about the game being "anti-consumer" and "not worth the price." It should further be noted that the window was open for long before these reviews began flowing in.
One notable example is Metacritic user GoodGames99, who has made four reviews total that were all posted May 1, 2021. Three are 10 ratings for Red Dead Redemption 2, Control, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla; with a 0 rating for Returnal that says one of their problems is, "Why is main character so ugly?"
That being said, there are a number of valid criticisms levied at Returnal, both by official critics and Metacritic users. Bugs in Returnal have resulted in progression gating and crashes, for example, and difficulty has been a hot-button issue given many feel its current save system leads to players needing more time for each run through the roguelike than can be given by working individuals especially.
The latter issue has drawn enough attention that Housemarque responded to fans on Twitter yesterday. Returnal's developer hinted at a new save feature potentially being in development saying, "We hear the community and we love you all." It did not have anything to announce at the time, but those who feel the game's mechanics make it too difficult can likely expect something soon. In the meantime, it will be worth watching how reception to Returnal on aggregate sites like Metacritic shift as it moves away from launch.
Returnal is available now on PS5.
Source: Metacritic