Metacritic has removed over 6,000 negative Death Stranding ratings

[midian182]

A hot potato: Death Stranding has proved to be a real love it or hate it game for many people. Now, more controversy is surrounding Hideo Kojima’s title after Metacritic deleted over 6,000 negative ratings, pushing its score up from 5.1. to 7.4.

The change was first reported by Redditor argandg, who noted that while there were 78 new positive ratings between the 4th and 5th of December, the number of negatives dropped by 6,429—from 9,335 to just 2,906. At the time of writing, there are 8,864 positive ratings and 3,207 negatives.

Metacritic has confirmed it removed several user ratings after they were flagged for “suspicious activity.” It says the decision was to avoid “potential score manipulation,” also known as review bombing.

“Metacritic takes issues of potential score manipulation seriously and has a number of policies in place to maintain score integrity. Moderators regularly review the site and remove any entries that do not fall within our guidelines in addition to a moderation queue where Metacritic users can flag unusual behavior. Moderators then review and remove any entries that violate our terms of service,” said a company spokesperson.

It’s worth noting that Metacritic only deleted people’s number ratings. User reviews were not removed as ratings can be submitted without a review. IGN points out that the site’s terms of service state it can remove user submissions “without notice.”

Review bombings are something Steam is familiar with. Valve’s online store has brought in several features to address the problem, including an “off-topic filter,” which excludes these reviews from counting toward a game’s overall score.

In other Hideo Kojima news, the famed Metal Gear Solid created says he wants his next title to be “the scariest horror game.”

As to make the scariest horror game, I’ll watch the scary movies in order to awaken my horror soul. THE EYE is the Thai horror movie I rent when making PT but was too scary to finish watching. The package is scary so I rented the disc only. Will I be able to finish watching? pic.twitter.com/BVwPruUAvt

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) November 22, 2019

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/83091-metacritic-has-removed-over-6000-negative-death-stranding.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"review bombing"

AKA we cant take criticism, our egos are too fragile.

 

[Puiu]

"review bombing"

AKA we cant take criticism, our egos are too fragile.

I think many of the "reviews" were bots, literal copy-paste comments (or just slightly different) with weird user names. The game has its fair share of problems that people don't like and the 7.x score kinda shows this. Metacritic and Steam really need better anti-bot tools.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I honestly don't know if this game is good or not.

 

[rrwards]

I honestly don't know if this game is good or not.

I've heard both sides. Games "journalists" circlejerking about how it's this incredible art piece that's monotonous, but somehow that's the charm. Game streamers/youtubers going on about how it's the worst slog in history; that its story is a masterpiece, but tied to absolutely horrendous gameplay that only serves to pad a plot.

So take both of those with a grain of salt and it's probably okay if you don't mind going A to B for about 40 hours with a good story.

 

[CaptainTom]

I've heard both sides. Games "journalists" circlejerking about how it's this incredible art piece that's monotonous, but somehow that's the charm. Game streamers/youtubers going on about how it's the worst slog in history; that its story is a masterpiece, but tied to absolutely horrendous gameplay that only serves to pad a plot.

So take both of those with a grain of salt and it's probably okay if you don't mind going A to B for about 40 hours with a good story.

For me it's not even for the story, though the world is very unique and interesting. It's the gameplay I adore - and I would give it a 10/10 (or maybe a 9.5-9.9) for said reason.

It's not a walking simulator at all - it's something entirely new. A sort of survival-hiking gaming. The negative reviews seem to exclusively come from people who think this needs to be another MGS or shooter. It isn't one of those games...you wouldn't give Forza a bad review for being a racing game when you wanted to play a shooter, would you?

 

[kevbev89]

For me it's not even for the story, though the world is very unique and interesting. It's the gameplay I adore - and I would give it a 10/10 (or maybe a 9.5-9.9) for said reason.

It's not a walking simulator at all - it's something entirely new. A sort of survival-hiking gaming. The negative reviews seem to exclusively come from people who think this needs to be another MGS or shooter. It isn't one of those games...you wouldn't give Forza a bad review for being a racing game when you wanted to play a shooter, would you?

What part of the gameplay did you enjoy (genuinely curious)? I only watched videos of people mocking the game so my impression is pretty negative.

 

[Krackan]

Did they also remove all of the fake positive reviews as well? People were handing it 10s before release almost as much as they were handing it ones or zeros. Sounds like a pretty biased system to me.

 

[Danny101]

The premise of the game doesn't interest me much. It could be one of those titles that doesn't take off at the beginning, but over the years ages well. When it's cheap I might take a second look.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I think many of the "reviews" were bots, literal copy-paste comments (or just slightly different) with weird user names. The game has its fair share of problems that people don't like and the 7.x score kinda shows this. Metacritic and Steam really need better anti-bot tools.

And yet the obvious positive bots remain untouched. Like I said, the creators are unable to take criticism, whether real or fake. This has nothing to do with review bombing, as positive review bombing is absolutely a real thing, yet sites like metacritic are in no hurry to fix that problem.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

And yet the obvious positive bots remain untouched. Like I said, the creators are unable to take criticism, whether real or fake. This has nothing to do with review bombing, as positive review bombing is absolutely a real thing, yet sites like metacritic are in no hurry to fix that problem.

First of all, Kojima Productions doesn't own Metacritic.
Second, if you actually look at Metacritic reviews, there are plenty of negative scores and reviews on there. There are 8900 positive reviews and 3200 negative reviews.

If your claim is true that Kojima can influence Metacritic and can't take criticism and wants to remove negative reviews, then why is there still over 3200 negative reviews on Metacritic for the game?

 

[Mithan]

This game is fantastic. I did not follow it for the years leading into release, it just looked stupid and I am not a huge fan of MGS games (the stories make little sense and they get kind of boring IMO). Anyways, I picked this up because I had surgery and needed something too do.

Man, 65 hours of playing in a week later... it was an amazing game. I really enjoyed it, enough to make it my game of the year. It just drew me in.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Anyways, I picked this up because I had surgery and needed something too do.

So that is what the prerequisite is for this game. Just Kidding, I honestly don't know anything about the game.

BTW: I hope the surgery was nothing too serious.

 

[Puiu]

And yet the obvious positive bots remain untouched. Like I said, the creators are unable to take criticism, whether real or fake. This has nothing to do with review bombing, as positive review bombing is absolutely a real thing, yet sites like metacritic are in no hurry to fix that problem.

Wrong, there were positive ratings removed too, there just weren't as many. As you know, most troll bots don't really focus on "positivity" on Metacritic (or the internet in general). I don't remember a single review bombing that involved "positive" ratings.

 

[m3tavision]

For me it's not even for the story, though the world is very unique and interesting. It's the gameplay I adore - and I would give it a 10/10 (or maybe a 9.5-9.9) for said reason.

It's not a walking simulator at all - it's something entirely new. A sort of survival-hiking gaming. The negative reviews seem to exclusively come from people who think this needs to be another MGS or shooter. It isn't one of those games...you wouldn't give Forza a bad review for being a racing game when you wanted to play a shooter, would you?

What are you doing in-game, that is so fun...? And what gameplay are you talking about?

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

It's also possible that as people played it, they started to like it and changed their reviews.

 

[Stiqy]

And yet the obvious positive bots remain untouched. Like I said, the creators are unable to take criticism, whether real or fake. This has nothing to do with review bombing, as positive review bombing is absolutely a real thing, yet sites like metacritic are in no hurry to fix that problem.

The creators of this game own Metacritic and/or can alter the reviews posted there? What? You're not making any sense.

 

[Sum Guy]

My issue with game reviews that are rated good are often horrible, and games that are rated terrible are often great. Maybe my idea of good and bad is very different from the masses. Reviews are useless and have been for a while now.

I seem to get the best opinion on a game based on game play videos on YouTube. Even that can sometimes be tricky due to editing and the players abilities or lack thereof. Game play videos are still more reliable overall vs game reviews.

 

[Puiu]

What are you doing in-game, that is so fun...? And what gameplay are you talking about?

If you are this much against the game then it's not the game that you have problem with, it's something else. Even if somebody actually took the time to answer those very subjective questions you would certainly not acknowledge them.

Having said that, here's one that I like a lot (that isn't about the storytelling or the acting, or the combat, or other things): the random stuff you find and can interact with placed by other real players while you hike across the land. It really hit well with the whole theme of loneliness and trying to connect with others that the game has.

Look, it's a flawed gamed, but it's one that also does many things incredibly well and people like that.

 

[CaptainTom]

What part of the gameplay did you enjoy (genuinely curious)? I only watched videos of people mocking the game so my impression is pretty negative.

I mean basically every second outside of cutscenes (which you can skip!) was fun. My favorite section so far is the mountainous traversal and winter survival segments. The general flow of the game is you select a package to transport from one base to another, plan your route carefully avoiding raiders/gouls/weather, and then set out on a problem solving adventure.

Every minute is survival and problem solving. You may come across a stream that looks iffy, and so you decide to begin constructing a bridge...but what if that takes too long? What if the elements will destroy a particular package. Ok, so then you decide to take an alternative route...but which one? One way may take you over bumpy terrain you didn't prepare for, or another may dip through hostile territory. But it's all up to you.


One area in particular I remember: I remember going over this hill into a forest where I expected it to be a breeze - maybe a little hilly, but nothing to worry about until I got to the mountains on the way to a town. Well unexpectedly there was a huge Armed Separatist camp who immediately flagged me and started hunting me. Thus I made a B-line for the mountains while trying to avoid gunfire on my motorcycle, got to a cliffside and started frantically climbing.

Once I hit the top of the cliff I noticed several groups were climbing up the mountain from several sides. What followed was 10 minutes of traversing precarious peaks with climbing gear, rappelling down and up mountainsides and then cutting my rope so no one could follow, and stopping from time to time to take out a few people who got to close with grenades and a bolo gun.

I eventually got off the mountain into the marshland the town was in (having neutralized 20 enemies!). I used most of my climbing and healing gear up, but that's why I brought it - I planned for the worst. The Shipment was delivered on time and without damage despite the trouble. It was an exhilarating mission I played the way I wanted to.


Do not listen to the haters. This is one of the defining games of 2019 (and the generation), but I guess you can play ANOTHER shotgun-in-a-hallway shooter instead if you want to...

P.S. What really bothers me is how often people say "games have stagnated," and then turn around and **** on an entirely new type of game....

 

[CaptainTom]

If you are this much against the game then it's not the game that you have problem with, it's something else. Even if somebody actually took the time to answer those very subjective questions you would certainly not acknowledge them.

Having said that, here's one that I like a lot (that isn't about the storytelling or the acting, or the combat, or other things): the random stuff you find and can interact with placed by other real players while you hike across the land. It really hit well with the whole theme of loneliness and trying to connect with others that the game has.

Look, it's a flawed gamed, but it's one that also does many things incredibly well and people like that.

Well I responded to him, couldn't help it haha. To be honest I am not sure if I actually think it's that flawed. The game is incredibly polished and basically everything about it is well done with meticulous detail. The only thing I can say is the cutscenes could have used some modern directing/cinematography to speed them up...but then again just skip the cutscene if you don't care!

 

[Porkous]

What are you doing in-game, that is so fun...? And what gameplay are you talking about?

Too strange and drunkenly made with little subtext and intrigue.

Also the level detail? The whole game is just a plain simple terrain (green pasture) stretched across the entire world...

The cinematics seemed somehow okay, although I haven't particular followed the whole story, but some aspects seemed to be literal crap