What's up with the reviews?

[Vigil]

Can someone tell me what is happening with the reviews? On YouTube ppl are bashing it saying its terrible but I am seeing over 80% positive reviews on steam
I'm planning to buy it in the coming weeks but this got me confused...

[Cheeodon]

Originally posted by Knight_Kin:

Originally posted by Alice Ó Súileabháin:

There have been no deletions beyond reviews that break TOS. No one has been able to provide proof.



Yes, reviews still have a TOS. You cant just leave a review thats a bunch of slurs, for instance.

I asked because I know the answer, these same TOS allow them to remove reviews at their discretion which also means any reason they decide. Most companies know better than to beg steam to have reviews removed because it tends to harm the game sales when you do that. Sometimes controversy leads to more sales as it's a form of free advertising. When you see reviews go bye bye en masse, it's always a bad sign that sales are in the dumpster, which can become a self feeding loop.

User reviews give players an opportunity to share their experience with the games they've played, while also enabling other players to make confident and informed purchasing decisions.

Reviewers should adhere to the following guidelines:

Do not direct abuse or insults at other players, developers, or groups.
Do not include threats or encouragement of harm.
Do not use reviews for commercial purposes. Examples include: advertisements, referrals, or promotions.
Do not artificially influence review scores. Examples include: using multiple accounts to leave reviews; coercing other players to leave reviews; or accepting payments or other compensation to leave reviews.
If a copy of the game was received for free, this should be disclosed in the review itself.

Anything not in violation of this isn't *Supposed* to be removed, technically, unless its clear the review is simply trolling. And even then we get plenty of troll reviews like "king shark is a shark."

But as I said earlier, so far, no ones managed any *actual* proof that these reviews are being deleted, they simply claim it, then use the "This option has X and that option has Y amounts!" while ignoring thats because its filtering between your spoken language, and ALL Languages, or other similar ways to skimp around the details and prove themselves right.

[Biotic Geth Prime]

" an Arkham sequel the gameplay is radically different and the tone is a near 180 so I get that people might be disappointed."

Well said.

And you know what?

This could have easily have been avoided.

All they needed to do was to set this game in al alternate reality, and not the same Arkhamverse from the previous games.

I do have to show my respect towards Gotham Knights in this regard. While the game is no magnum opus, it still feels more "arkhamnesque" than this game. And it is set in its own reality. So we can be a lot more forgiving and open minded about it.

This is always one thing I try to discover when reading a negative review.

If the person is genuinely dissatisfied by what the game is, or if he or she is merely disgruntled over what the game did not chose to be. Is it sincere criticism towards what the company did with a chosen direction, or mere frustration over them not having taken an entire separate route?

[Cheeodon]

that said, I think its literally just a case of audience apathy. Most players who werent interested in this, didn't buy it. That simple. Its not like palworld or helldivers 2 where people gave it a chance and tried it out, and then didnt like it so they left a bad review. Most players just..weren't interested. (Also look at the reviews sometime, about half are people calling the game bad or giving it "Wait until X amount off" reviews while stating its "Ok". Steams "Positive only/negative only" rating systems kinda awful.)

[Knight_Kin]

Well I wouldn't have minded something new in the Arkham universe, I do like the originals even though i have not touched them in years. So it's disappointing when I looked into this one like oh jeez. It has all the markers of a stinker. Woke stuff is a hard pass because it's always a dead weight on games and movies. Apathy is a good word for it, maybe even antipathy. It does appear a lot of people see it this way too.

[Googledebunker]

People seem to think the Suicide Squad is on par in popularity with Batman. DC's most popular IP by far is Batman. The people that bought this game probably like the Suicide Squad IP, which is why it is being reviewed favorably.

In addition, people that liked the rhythm based combat of the Batman Arkham games might not like 3rd person shooters, looter shooters, live service, or whatever.

Just because it's a shared universe, that doesn't mean fans of Batman are going to like it. I don't read Superman comics just because it takes place in the same world as Batman.

Some people seem to have difficulty grasping the concept that not every product needs to be specifically made for them. They also don't seem to understand that all the people going back to buy the old Arkham games are still generating revenue for Rocksteady, which enables Rocksteady to continue their work on the Suicide Squad game.

That's the thing about successful games, they use the profits from the previous game to help fund the development of the next one. Rocksteady is usually pretty tight lipped about their profits, and production budget, so it's just speculation based on a single platform.

The concurrent users fluctuate in most live service games because they are seasonal. People stop playing when they have played enough of the content, then come back when there is new content. Path of Exile for example loses almost 90% of it's concurrent users a couple of weeks after a league starts.

This game also released in a popular release dense period, so people are probably playing other games while waiting for a sale, or for the next season to drop, but we don't know for sure until the next season, or a sale occurs, unless Rocksteady publishes sales figures, but based on physical box sales

"in the UK, the game has arrived at number one on the physical retail chart, selling over 80% of those copies on PS5."

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/02/uk-sales-charts-suicide-squad-swings-past-persona-3-reload-for-number-one-debut

So if physical sales being 80% PS5, it's mainly a difference in demographics, which is also reflected in the quantity of reviews on Playstation being much higher than on PC while still retaining a 4.3/5 review score on the Playstation store.

So while it under performed on PC, and Xbox, that doesn't mean that it isn't seeing success on Playstation. Different demographics like different products.

[peremptor]

Originally posted by Nosferatupac:

People seem to think the Suicide Squad is on par in popularity with Batman. DC's most popular IP by far is Batman. The people that bought this game probably like the Suicide Squad IP, which is why it is being reviewed favorably.

In addition, people that liked the rhythm based combat of the Batman Arkham games might not like 3rd person shooters, looter shooters, live service, or whatever.

Just because it's a shared universe, that doesn't mean fans of Batman are going to like it. I don't read Superman comics just because it takes place in the same world as Batman.

Some people seem to have difficulty grasping the concept that not every product needs to be specifically made for them. They also don't seem to understand that all the people going back to buy the old Arkham games are still generating revenue for Rocksteady, which enables Rocksteady to continue their work on the Suicide Squad game.

That's the thing about successful games, they use the profits from the previous game to help fund the development of the next one. Rocksteady is usually pretty tight lipped about their profits, and production budget, so it's just speculation based on a single platform.

The concurrent users fluctuate in most live service games because they are seasonal. People stop playing when they have played enough of the content, then come back when there is new content. Path of Exile for example loses almost 90% of it's concurrent users a couple of weeks after a league starts.

This game also released in a popular release dense period, so people are probably playing other games while waiting for a sale, or for the next season to drop, but we don't know for sure until the next season, or a sale occurs, unless Rocksteady publishes sales figures, but based on physical box sales

"in the UK, the game has arrived at number one on the physical retail chart, selling over 80% of those copies on PS5."

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/02/uk-sales-charts-suicide-squad-swings-past-persona-3-reload-for-number-one-debut

So if physical sales being 80% PS5, it's mainly a difference in demographics, which is also reflected in the quantity of reviews on Playstation being much higher than on PC while still retaining a 4.3/5 review score on the Playstation store.

So while it under performed on PC, and Xbox, that doesn't mean that it isn't seeing success on Playstation. Different demographics like different products.

The game is an unmitigated disaster. Don't get why you are going out of your way to rationalize it into anything other than what it is.

It's ok. Games fail... some more than others, like this one.

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

Originally posted by Biotic Geth Prime:

" an Arkham sequel the gameplay is radically different and the tone is a near 180 so I get that people might be disappointed."

Well said.

And you what?

This could have easily have been avoided.

All they needed to do was to set this game in al alternate reality, and not the same Arkhamverse from the previous games.

I do have to show my respect towards Gotham Knights in this regard. While the game is no magnum opus, it still feels more "arkhamnesque" than this game. And it is set in its own reality. So we can be a lot more forgiving and open minded about it.

This is always one thing I try to discover when reading a negative review.

If the person is genuinely dissatisfied by what the game is, or if he or she is merely disgruntled over what the game did not chose to be. Is it sincere criticism towards what the company did with a chosen direction, or mere frustration over them not having taken an entire separate route?

Yeah that's a pretty decent way of solving the issue, like, we're already dealing with the multiverse in the game so why not have us start in an alternate universe and THEN have us travel to the Arkham universe?

In terms of plot it changes absolutely nothing while probably avoiding some of the controversy and giving them an opportunity to have a sweet cameo in a later season with Kevin's Batman. It's not like he can't voice brainwashed Bats and Arkham Batman, well at the time of the game being made that is. RIP.

There's absolutely valid criticisms to be had but IDK a lot of what I'm seeing isn't really valid. Ranging from the whole "toxic masculinity" thing to the "disrespect" thing, etc, etc.

It's like this game is a gigantic troll magnet. It's so bad you'd think that someone hired a bot farm to do it.

[peremptor]

Originally posted by Bad Distraction Carnifex:

Originally posted by Biotic Geth Prime:

" an Arkham sequel the gameplay is radically different and the tone is a near 180 so I get that people might be disappointed."

Well said.

And you what?

This could have easily have been avoided.

All they needed to do was to set this game in al alternate reality, and not the same Arkhamverse from the previous games.

I do have to show my respect towards Gotham Knights in this regard. While the game is no magnum opus, it still feels more "arkhamnesque" than this game. And it is set in its own reality. So we can be a lot more forgiving and open minded about it.

This is always one thing I try to discover when reading a negative review.

If the person is genuinely dissatisfied by what the game is, or if he or she is merely disgruntled over what the game did not chose to be. Is it sincere criticism towards what the company did with a chosen direction, or mere frustration over them not having taken an entire separate route?

Yeah that's a pretty decent way of solving the issue, like, we're already dealing with the multiverse in the game so why not have us start in an alternate universe and THEN have us travel to the Arkham universe?

In terms of plot it changes absolutely nothing while probably avoiding some of the controversy and giving them an opportunity to have a sweet cameo in a later season with Kevin's Batman. It's not like he can't voice brainwashed Bats and Arkham Batman, well at the time of the game being made that is. RIP.

There's absolutely valid criticisms to be had but IDK a lot of what I'm seeing isn't really valid. Ranging from the whole "toxic masculinity" thing to the "disrespect" thing, etc, etc.

It's like this game is a gigantic troll magnet. It's so bad you'd think that someone hired a bot farm to do it.

In theory with this multiverse as a plot device mechanic they could come out with the ultimate BS that this isn't the arkhamverse but one very similar to it... that's why for instance there's implied there was a relationship between Harley and Ivy (done in a very distasteful manner I might had) and Deadpool being black instead of his previous coloring in the Arkham Batman games.

If that's the kind of twist you enjoy in your games then by all means partake and glad the game found an audience albeit a small one.

[BoogieWoogie]

Up to you OP.

But...

I would wait if I was you.

If the company is smart, they would try for a big brain move to mark down the game on sell to make up for the lack of audience in hopes of attracting buyers and I am pretty sure they will be doing it in the upcoming month or new few months at latest.

There is no way this game is going to stick at a 70$ value for over six months in the least or they are crazy/have bad marketing one considering the amount of backlash and lack of buyers for a triple-A title. They going to have to do something to hope to bring in additional consumers.

[Biotic Geth Prime]

Nosferatupac:

"People seem to think the Suicide Squad is on par in popularity with Batman. DC's most popular IP by far is Batman. The people that bought this game probably like the Suicide Squad IP, which is why it is being reviewed favorably."

I think you are missing the point.

Not only is the Justice League featured in the title, but there is a strong reliance on the Arkhamverse, and the fact that this is the same studio that brought us the classic Arkham trilogy. (AO being a bit of an appendix and done by another company)

This game did cost at least 200 million USD.

This is quite a lot of money. Enough for it to be labelled AAA.

Since it is a live service, and with a lot of investment, they probably did expect it to generate MORE profit than the previous Arkham games.

So, they are not taking a back step by downgrading it from Batman to Suicide Squad. They clearly believed that they would be moving forwards, upwards, towards a higher level.

From all appearances, their expectations would have to higher.

I mean, just look at the sheer size of the game world. And with all the promises of even more cities to explore on upcoming DLC.

This game did cost a lot of money to materialize and the final product shows it. And DLC is yet to arrive.

You can claim "Oh! They did not expect it to be as successful as Arkham."

Correct. But not the way you are trying to paint, but the exact opposite.

All things considered, they were betting and expecting on the game being MORE successful than Batman Arkham.

You dont create a game so much bigger in scope and planning (with a long DLC list) expecting less. Anyone daring to venture these waters is obviously expecting far more. This is the only reasonable conclusion.

[Seraphiel]

The answer is that the reviews are good because the game is overall good. It's not anything amazing but it's solid.

[Ztreak]

Might mean that those who ACTUALLY bought it enjoys playing it.

[gingerbreadman]

Originally posted by Knight_Kin:

Originally posted by Gingerbreadman:

The only reviews that get deleted on steam are those that break the tos

The terms of service don't allow negative reviews?

They do…

You aren’t making the argument you think you are.

They didn’t maliciously delete reviews.

[The Woker]

Originally posted by peremptor:

Originally posted by Nosferatupac:

People seem to think the Suicide Squad is on par in popularity with Batman. DC's most popular IP by far is Batman. The people that bought this game probably like the Suicide Squad IP, which is why it is being reviewed favorably.

In addition, people that liked the rhythm based combat of the Batman Arkham games might not like 3rd person shooters, looter shooters, live service, or whatever.

Just because it's a shared universe, that doesn't mean fans of Batman are going to like it. I don't read Superman comics just because it takes place in the same world as Batman.

Some people seem to have difficulty grasping the concept that not every product needs to be specifically made for them. They also don't seem to understand that all the people going back to buy the old Arkham games are still generating revenue for Rocksteady, which enables Rocksteady to continue their work on the Suicide Squad game.

That's the thing about successful games, they use the profits from the previous game to help fund the development of the next one. Rocksteady is usually pretty tight lipped about their profits, and production budget, so it's just speculation based on a single platform.

The concurrent users fluctuate in most live service games because they are seasonal. People stop playing when they have played enough of the content, then come back when there is new content. Path of Exile for example loses almost 90% of it's concurrent users a couple of weeks after a league starts.

This game also released in a popular release dense period, so people are probably playing other games while waiting for a sale, or for the next season to drop, but we don't know for sure until the next season, or a sale occurs, unless Rocksteady publishes sales figures, but based on physical box sales

"in the UK, the game has arrived at number one on the physical retail chart, selling over 80% of those copies on PS5."

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/02/uk-sales-charts-suicide-squad-swings-past-persona-3-reload-for-number-one-debut

So if physical sales being 80% PS5, it's mainly a difference in demographics, which is also reflected in the quantity of reviews on Playstation being much higher than on PC while still retaining a 4.3/5 review score on the Playstation store.

So while it under performed on PC, and Xbox, that doesn't mean that it isn't seeing success on Playstation. Different demographics like different products.

The game is an unmitigated disaster. Don't get why you are going out of your way to rationalize it into anything other than what it is.

It's ok. Games fail... some more than others, like this one.

...and don't you just love to see it in 2024! Hoping for many more - may we reach the Marvels level of bombing and coping!

[Hobo Jack]

People with average taste because they play mostly the same potato game will enjoy it.
YES LIFE love suicide squad, yes and Mc Donalds !

Originally posted by diabeto:

Can someone tell me what is happening with the reviews? On YouTube ppl are bashing it saying its terrible but I am seeing over 80% positive reviews on steam
I'm planning to buy it in the coming weeks but this got me confused...

Go for it, you got already Forspoken.