A review bombing occurs when a work is spammed with negative reviews from either a large number of people or a few people with multiple "spam" accounts for reasons relating to a small part of the work or something outside of the work, rather than the work as a whole.
Whether or not a review bombing is justified is completely irrelevant as it is a matter of opinions. Examples of this trope are a matter of fact and should contain only facts, not personal opinions.
It's not a review bombing if people in general consider the work as a whole to be bad, only if it's caused by a small part of the work or something outside of the work. One sign that a work is being review bombed is if it receives an abnormally high amount of user reviews in an unusually short period of time.
In order to keep things objective, citations are required for all examples. Citations are done as follows:
- Blah Story Blah Blah Circumstance Blah. Example Website
- The citation needs to record the opinions of several people; a citation that mentions only one person isn't enough.
- The citation should be in a reputable source. We'd prefer you cite something a bit more formal than someone's Tumblr blog or Twitter feed. Anyone can write a blog post and then call it a "citation".
- Also, citations stuck behind paywalls or mandatory logins don't count. If people can't see your proof, then it doesn't prove much.
Examples
open/close all folders
Film — Live-Action
- Upon its release in 2019, Captain Marvel was bombarded with negative reviews. It received over 50,000 mostly-negative reviews in a matter of hours, resulting in an audience score that dropped as low as 36%, as offense was taken to leading actress Brie Larson's perceived activism. By the time Rotten Tomatoes decided to purge all audience reviews for the film and start from scratch, the film had received more audience reviews in mere days than Avengers: Infinity War had received in the eleven months since its own release. The film's audience score currently sits at 45%, the lowest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in contrast to its critic score of 79%. Later, the review bombing carried over to IMDB.
- The Last Jedi was met with many negative audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, in contrast to sites like CinemaScore which polled audiences in person who gave a positive "A" grade. Publications had suspicions about the authenticity of the audience scores; ''Polygon'' wrote how it was difficult to discern how many were genuine reviews and how many were bots or organized attacks, finding that many criticized the film's inclusion of "SJW" concepts or for its racial diversity and female figures. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has a critic score of 91% and an audience score of 42%, contrasting The Force Awakens (93% and 85%) and The Rise of Skywalker (52% and 86%). Many of those responsible for the review bombing were open and honest about their actions.
Live-Action Television
- Batwoman (2019) was review bombed for portraying the title character as a lesbian.
- Ms. Marvel (2022) was review bombed by viewers who accused the titular character of being a Muslim "replacement" for the white Carol Danvers.
- Watchmen (2019), which serves as a sequel to the graphic novel of the same name, was review bombed by fans of the comic that felt the series disrespected the character of Rorschach, who they felt was meant to be the hero instead of a right-wing figure as illustrated by the original graphic novel and throughout the series.
Video Games
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) was review bombed on Metacritic in October 2019 by users who were angered at the game's depiction of the Russian military. In particular, the campaign's portrayal of an area attacked by Russian forces dubbed "the highway of death" drew outrage from its apparent similarities to the real-life Highway of Death that suffered devastation as a result of an attack led by American forces during the Gulf War. Polygon.com ScreenRant.com
- Crusader Kings II was review bombed by customers after Paradox raised the prices in some regions.
- Death Stranding was review bombed on Metacritic upon its launch in November 2019, receiving over 15,000 user reviews half a month after release and bringing the overall user score to around 5.5/10. Publications noted that the user score bombings were both positive and negative, although found there were more of the latter. The review bombing was deduced to have stemmed from players who were disappointed with the game, which had been widely anticipated but released to "divisive" reviews by critics, as well as PlayStation users who were upset that the game would be ported to personal computer a year later in 2020. In early December 2019, Metacritic removed over 6000 user reviews categorized as negative, increasing the user score to a higher rating of 7.4/10.
- Devotion, by Taiwanese studio Red Candle Games, was review bombed by Chinese players after they discovered an in-game poster that referenced the meme of Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping censoring the character Winnie the Pooh. While Red Candle stated the poster was not meant to be in the final game and took it out on the next immediate patch, the game still received negative user reviews, forcing Red Candle to terminate their publishing deals and pull the game from distribution.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was review bombed in 2015 by customers after the game's introduction of paid mods, leading Valve to reverse their decision and remove the paid mod functionality. Additional review bombs for Skyrim as well as fellow Bethesda Softworks game Fallout 4, occurred following the launch of Bethesda's Creation Club in September 2017, which reintroduced the potential for paid mods.
- Nintendo's Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Astral Chain were both review bombed on Metacritic shortly after their launches in July and August of 2010 respectively for being exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, presumably by users of other platforms who were not aware that the critically acclaimed titles were owned by Nintendo. These reviews were removed by Metacritic in early September, restoring the games' user scores to their original "generally favorable" and "universal acclaim" scores of 8.7 and 9.0 respectively.
- Firewatch was review bombed on Steam in September 2017 after its developer, Campo Santo, filed a DMCA takedown against a video PewDiePie made of their game, following an incident where PewDiePie uttered a racial slur during an unrelated livestream. Campo Santo justified the takedown by stating they did not want someone with PewDiePie's ideology supporting their games. A large number of users issued negative reviews of Firewatch, claiming that Campo Santo were "social justice warriors" or were supporting "censorship". Campo Santo employee Sean Vanaman later expressed "regret" over using the takedown notice.
- Gears 5 was review bombed on Steam primarily by players from China after the game was pulled from sale in that region by its developer, The Coalition. While the reason for the game's removal was not officially stated, it may have been pulled by order of the Chinese government due to the inclusion of LGBT+ Pride flags that players can use as decals.
- Grand Theft Auto V was review bombed throughout June and July 2017 after publisher Take-Two Interactive issued a cease-and-desist against the widely used game modification tool OpenIV, as an attempt to stop single player and multiplayer mods for GTA V and GTA Online. The review bombing reduced GTA V's overall Steam review rating from "positive" to "mixed".
- The Last of Us Part II was review bombed on Metacritic upon release in June 2020, with a score of 3.5, based on almost 30,000 reviews within two days, despite the game receiving "universal acclaim" from critics. Publications attributed the negative reactions to initially stemming from plot leaks in April 2020, which had ignited backlash from fans of the original game. Negativity was specified towards the story and characters, additionally citing the inclusion of "social justice warrior" content. Online harassment and death threats were also directed at certain members of the game's cast and development team.
- Life Is Strange: True Colors was review bombed by Chinese players upon release for the inclusion of the flag of Tibet (seen outside of a Tibetian shop in-game), related to the conflict of Tibet's sovereignty from China.
- NieR: Automata was review bombed in April 2017 by Chinese players demanding a translation of the game to Chinese, whom PC Gamer called "a powerful new voice".
- In October 2017, Player Unknowns Battlegrounds was review bombed, primarily by Chinese players, after an advert for a VPN service was shown in game. As the internet in China is highly regulated, VPN servers have been used by some players to bypass Chinese regulations and play on servers in other regions. The promotion of such VPN products was poorly received because players believed developer Bluehole should introduce servers local to the region instead of encouraging Chinese players to pay for VPNs. The review bomb may also be tied to the fact that the product, which is not free-to-play, included advertising support, which has yet to occur for the game in any other region worldwide.
- Pokémon Sword and Shield was review bombed on Metacritic upon release in November 2019, following complaints from fans about the exclusion of Pokémon from previous games in the series, as well as quality concerns brought about by apparent evidence that Game Freak had lied about some aspects of the game's development.[42] The bombing brought the user scores for Sword and Shield down to 4.6 and 4.4 respectively.
- The first Spore game was review bombed on Amazon in 2008 after publisher Electronic Arts incorporated a DRM system that limited buyers' ability to install the game more than three times. This system was meant to prevent piracy, but ultimately led to a coordinated backlash with buyers feeling like they were "renting a broken game."
- Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) was review-bombed on Metacritic upon its launch in November 2017 in response to the design of the game's microtransactions and loot boxes. Many saw the game as being pay-to-win during its pre-release beta trials as the unlocking of new content and characters significantly favoured those who paid for them with real money. In response to the backlash, Electronic Arts altered the progression and economic system to make it fairer to players, and the day before release, disabled the microtransactions entirely, stating that they would be re-introduced at a later date. In March 2018, developer DICE announced an overhaul for the system, stating that all content would be purely cosmetic, will not affect gameplay, and would only be purchasable through in-game currency. The changes were released across March and April 2018.
- Titan Souls was review bombed in April 2015 by supporters of YouTuber John "TotalBiscuit" Bain after the indie game's artist Andrew Gleeson mocked a statement that Bain made, saying the game was "absolutely not for [him]". Bain, in a following podcast, stated that the developer "has it out for [him]", leading several of his followers to review bomb the game, though Bain later expressed that he did not endorse that behavior.
- Total War: Rome II, initially released in 2013, had been patched in early 2018 to include the potential for women generals to emerge from the game's mechanics. When an image of the game showing one player's armies all led by female generals, users on Steam complained about the historical accuracy. A female community content manager stated the Creative Assembly's stance, that the game was meant to be "historically authentic, not historically accurate", but a portion of these users began to review bomb the title on Steam, believing that the content manager was pushing a personal agenda. Player-created mods that allowed players to control the probability of women generals appearing became popular on Steam.
- Warcraft III: Reforged, a remaster of 2002's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, was review bombed on Metacritic upon release in January 2020, reaching a low score of 0.5/10 several days later based on over 14,000 reviews, making it the lowest-ranked game on the site by user score. The game itself received mixed reviews from critics with an aggregate score of 60 out of 100, as of February 2020. These reviews cited the poor quality of the remaster, lacking some of the features that Blizzard had previously said would be in the game such as improved cutscenes and user interface, and that it felt like a half-finished product. However, the review bomb was focused on additional issues beyond the game's quality. The game was released as a mandatory update to the original Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos due to it using Reforged's client, which prevented players from reverting to play the original Warcraft III, even if they had not purchased the remastered version. Additionally, those players criticized the terms of use policy that gave Blizzard ownership over all user-authored works made in the remaster.
