Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores Gets Review Bombed

See full bio

Avinash Jaisrani

At Tech4Gamers, I contribute as a News Reporter, combining my skills and gaming enthusiasm to keep our audience updated on the latest developments.

See full bio

The latest addition to the popular Horizon franchise from Guerrilla Games and PlayStation comes as a brand new DLC for Horizon Forbidden West.

Similar to the previous DLC release, Burning Shores expands on Horizon Forbidden West, with Aloy traveling to the ruins of Los Angeles. The DLC is also the most ambitious project from Guerrilla Games yet, being exclusive to PS5 for this reason.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores was released on April 19, and the DLC has seen positive reception from critics. However, the DLC expansion is also being review bombed on Metacritic.

As seen above, the game has a critic score of 81/100. However, the same cannot be said for the user score, which has come down to just 2.8/10 following over 200 negative reviews.

While review bombing is not a rarity in the gaming industry, recent PlayStation releases like God of War Ragnarok or Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Forbidden West have not faced such issues, with both games currently staying near a user score of 8.0.

The most common reason cited for the negative user reviews concerns a reveal found later in the DLC. For users interested in the expansion’s story, it would be best to turn back now, as we will discuss the spoiler in the next paragraph.

Later in Burning Shores, it is revealed that Aloy is gay. Users on the website have pointed to this reveal, leaving a score of 0/10 for the DLC.

While these user scores are unlikely to have any significant impact on the game or the success of the Horizon franchise, they may lead to a response from Metacritic. Previously, PlayStation games like The Last of Us Part 2 have also seen a similar wave of negative reviews from users, but not much has changed since then.

As such, many have suggested that it might be best for the website to introduce measures to avoid similar instances in the future.

Avinash Jaisrani

[News Reporter]

Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than three years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.