Ragnarok’s PC Port is Being Review Bombed

Kratos isn’t the only person to wake up and choose violence. Today, it’s gamers. God of War: Ragnarok isn’t having a great day on Steam, where a recent wave of review bombing has left it at a “mixed” score.

On release, God of War: Ragnarok was welcomed to the gaming world with open arms, earning high review scores across the board. People loved everything about it: the story, the gameplay, the music, everything. But that was on PlayStation consoles.

You need a PSN account to play God of War: Ragnarok on PC. This wasn’t a problem with home consoles since the account was a package deal with Sony hardware. PC games are a whole other beast, and the requirement has left players baffled and upset.

By quickly scrolling through the reviews, it’s easy to see what’s been frustrating people. Between the typical reports of hardware incompatibility and those who simply don’t like the game, most of the negative reviews have a general trend.

Some users were especially disappointed when they cleared time in their schedules to play, only to run headfirst into a brick wall.

One comment in particular cites safety concerns, listing seven different times when Sony, and their accounts, had a security scare.

Reactions like this are, to an extent, expected. Just by sheer weight of numbers, even competent account-creation systems will have some users fall through the cracks. These users see their experience lessened for zero upside – at least, not one they can see.

A Review Bomb Tale As Old as Time

For many, this story will seem all too familiar. Sony is hardly the first company to demand extra layers of accounts and launchers from players who just want to relax and enjoy an offline, single-player game.

Those who find themselves forced to create a PSN account may feel echoes from their past. Of YouTube, Google+, and an army of tanks. Stories like these are hardly new to the online ecosystem, and they always seem to end the same.

People are rarely happy about this sort of thing. Sometimes, the company behind it all relents. But most of the time, they don’t, and people just put up with it.

Until then, gamers will typically vent their frustrations using the easiest route they can find. In this case, and many similar ones, Steam reviews end up being that outlet.

Whether players should use a review score as an outlet is another question. Their anger is at based on a variable outside the game itself, and it affects a number that, for many, is supposed to reflect only the game. It’s no surprise that such behavior is seen as ‘unfair’ by many gamers.

Like it or not, it’s easy to see why people gravitate towards a platform like Steam. Among other things, the review score can be used to numerically quantify the anger of these upset users—something that Sony can, in theory, see and react to.

Only time will tell if theory can become practice. But one need only look at other, similar stories to see that the answer could very well be “no”.