Recently there have been many people abusing the Metacritic user reviews to give a game ridiculously low scores without buying the game (like with Call of Duty and Mass Effect). People are bashing games they have never played before, for the very fact they have a stigma attached to the name. With the newly released Star Trek game however, there is an issue that is all the more worrying.
The inevitable video game tie-in to the blockbuster JJ Abrams film, Star Trek: Into Darkness was released this week and on Metacritic, the game is doing badly both on the few critic reviews and the user reviews. This is not unheard of for a film tie-in but there seems to be problems with the user reviews: There are accounts posting exceptionally high reviews for the game, who have never posted before the release date.
Here is a taste of some of the reviews:
- “I’m not going to ruin it for other players but just to say, if you like Mass Effect type adventure games with a brilliant story, great action scenes then you really need to consider this game.
If your a Star Trek fan then why are you still reading this? Get down to your local store and grab a copy RIGHT NOW.” – SoulLessBoot (Previous reviews = 0)
- “Refreshing take on Star Trek Enjoyable Gameplay, Excellent Story, Good Atmosphere, Good Graphics, Excellent Music and Sound, Good Platforming and Puzzles, overall a game well worth its money and can compare with some high-profile titles.”Girland (Previous Reviews = 0)
- “Got the PC version on-line today (Save $10 and do the online download). This won’t be game of the year, but is still a fun game. The rating is an 8 if you enjoy the story of star trek and movie you’ll enjoy the adventurous storyline.” – AmerFreedom (Previous Reviews = 0)
There are many more to be found if you want to look for yourself but some people are starting to suspect the developers (Digital Extremes) and the publisher (Namco Bandai) of creating fake accounts to bump up the negative review scores away from the ridiculously low scores that it was getting. For example, Metacritic user Coletrain128 is one of the growing group of people saying it is Namco Bandai employees, “Stop lying to consumers Namco Bandai. The fact that you delayed review copies, denying that Co-op doesn’t work and having to create fake accounts on Metacritic in order to combat the negative press reviews this game is about to get is crap. Incredibly unprofessional.”
We want to stress that this IS a rumor as there is absolutely no proof as to WHO is responsible for these fake accounts.
However, on Reddit yesterday, screenshots surfaced that showed the contents of a forum filled with people having issues with online co-op mode for the game. In among these postings, one user was shown to say “Works fine for me. Game uses Steam servers.” The user in question is kenneth.lindenbaum otherwise known as Kenneth Lindenbaum, Senior Producer on Star Trek: The Video Game.
Obviously there are people who are wanting to impact the game’s reception slightly.
What do you think about these reviews? Who do you think is to blame for the user reviews?
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