What's up with the reviews?

[Peuloom]

I was looking for games to buy and noticed this one lingering at the bottom of the list, with a solid average of mostly positive reviews. So, probably, the game is great, right? However, when I checked the discussions, I’ve never seen so much hatred before. To be honest, even in the trailers and gameplay videos, no one seems to like this game.

This left me very confused: why are the average reviews mostly positive?

I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything, but it worries me because consumers might fall into suspicious traps depending on the situation, you know? I want a reasonable explanation since it feels like some kind of collective delusion. Additionally, I’d like to know if there are any positive aspects that would make this game worth buying.

Is this game actually good or bad?
I feel a bit suspicious when I see the actual active players and external reviews conflicting with the Steam reviews.

[Loot Hunter]

Originally posted by Peuloom:

This left me very confused: why are the average reviews mostly positive?

Because they are made by people, who already liked the game's presentation and bought it. Everyone, who isn't on board with the game's message, isn't impressed by its visuals or checked the demo to find the gameplay too primitive for them, wouldn't buy this game and therefore wouldn't make a review on Steam.

In fact, I would argue that for a niche game, 73% is a somewhat low score, as it means that even among all those people who were fine with all the game's apparent issues 27% still ended up disappointed.

[animefan520]

Non-rabbit hole version. Deletion of 'review bombing' from more of the spammer types.

Rabbit Hole version. Steam is like IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. in that deleting negative reviews that are in excess (especially legitimate ones) when the 'reviewed material' is of a 'certain narrative' and the 'material' needs to look like it is more positive while blaming 'review bombing' on haters.

[holdingsix]

Have you actually read a few of the reviews (both positive and negative ones)?

Creative works are rarely objectively good or bad. It depends on your personal preferences, and those vary between players.

[Unknown Samurai]

What loot hunter said is right.
The game (when it came out) costed a hefty chunk of money, so spending that amount to purposefully leave a bad review, would be a waste of money. For comparison, Unknown 9: Awakening was free with some AMD graphics card (don't quote me) which is why all the reviews are way worse and also many of them contain "obtained product for free."

When I got the game, I didn't expected it to be good, mainly cause i thought it was a parody game. You could call me one of the "haters". But after getting through it, and seeing that the devs know there are aspects that could be improved. Changed my opinion on the game, which is why I didn't give it a thumbs down.

Dustborn honestly isn't as bad as most people online say it is. (There's just some questionable ethics with Vox usage.)
If you're still planning on picking it up, I recommend keeping an eye out for future updates.

[Red Thread Games]

Originally posted by Peuloom:

I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything, but it worries me because consumers might fall into suspicious traps depending on the situation, you know? I want a reasonable explanation since it feels like some kind of collective delusion. Additionally, I’d like to know if there are any positive aspects that would make this game worth buying.

Is this game actually good or bad?
I feel a bit suspicious when I see the actual active players and external reviews conflicting with the Steam reviews.

We have no way to manipulate or remove Steam reviews, and Steam's policy is to never "censor" reviews unless there's clear and indisputable evidence of review bombing.

You can read the negative reviews for yourself: players are free to purchase Dustborn and give it a thumbs down, if they don't like it. Currently, 27% of buyers didn't, and 73% of buyers did.

Dustborn got mixed-to-positive reviews from game critics; a lot of people genuinely like the game. A few examples:

• Weekly Famitsu 80% (“Gold Hall of Fame”)
  
• Games.ch 90%
  
• Gamepressure 8.5/10 (“Editor’s Choice”)
  
• Hobby Consolas 82% (“Very Good”)
  
• Empire Magazine ★★★★☆ (80%)
  
• Financial Times ★★★★☆ (80%)
  
• Twinfinite ★★★★☆ (80%)
  
• IGN Spain 8/10 (“Very Good”)
  
• Gamereactor EU 8/10

We recommend watching the gameplay trailer, reading recent Steam reviews, checking out some "professional" reviews — and if you're still on the fence about spending the money, wait for the next sale!

[LazyJoeBeard]

The game is a political message and nearly everyone knew so the majority of people did not buy it, the only people who bought it agree with its message and there for gave it positive reviews, The only reason its positive is the fact only people who agree with its message bought it and had the ability to review it. Its very common for games with low player bases to be positive, look at how many reviewers there are, its like 220 or something (did not look just guessing)

[holdingsix]

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

The game is a political message and nearly everyone knew so the majority of people did not buy it, the only people who bought it agree with its message and there for gave it positive reviews, The only reason its positive is the fact only people who agree with its message bought it and had the ability to review it. Its very common for games with low player bases to be positive, look at how many reviewers there are, its like 220 or something (did not look just guessing)

How come that you think that the game is a political message? On what is it based?

[LazyJoeBeard]

Originally posted by holdingsix:

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

The game is a political message and nearly everyone knew so the majority of people did not buy it, the only people who bought it agree with its message and there for gave it positive reviews, The only reason its positive is the fact only people who agree with its message bought it and had the ability to review it. Its very common for games with low player bases to be positive, look at how many reviewers there are, its like 220 or something (did not look just guessing)

How come that you think that the game is a political message? On what is it based?

watch some game play and make your own decision, its the one I came to after watching a play through of it or you can watch one of the hundreds of videos pointing this point out. If you played it and disagree that is your opinion but not the opinion most people came too. But I think a good telling is the fact they said them selves it was a game made by the events of ... when ever trump was elected (the first time lol) and they elude to it being the reason the game was made. They were upset trump won and made a game for some reason in retaliation, that is just the first point.

[LazyJoeBeard]

Originally posted by holdingsix:

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

The game is a political message and nearly everyone knew so the majority of people did not buy it, the only people who bought it agree with its message and there for gave it positive reviews, The only reason its positive is the fact only people who agree with its message bought it and had the ability to review it. Its very common for games with low player bases to be positive, look at how many reviewers there are, its like 220 or something (did not look just guessing)

How come that you think that the game is a political message? On what is it based?

even forbe who is all for woke stuff is saying it is
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2024/08/22/dustborn-review-love-it-or-hate-it-it-dares-to-be-different/

'Dustborn' Review: A Political Adventure Rewarding Patient (it cut off and I refuse to disable my adblocker so that's all I can copy paste)

[holdingsix]

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

Originally posted by holdingsix:

How come that you think that the game is a political message? On what is it based?

watch some game play and make your own decision, its the one I came to after watching a play through of it or you can watch one of the hundreds of videos pointing this point out. If you played it and disagree that is your opinion but not the opinion most people came too. But I think a good telling is the fact they said them selves it was a game made by the events of ... when ever trump was elected (the first time lol) and they elude to it being the reason the game was made. They were upset trump won and made a game for some reason in retaliation, that is just the first point.

Did you watch an entire playthrough (15+ hours) or do you mean the commentary videos from YouTube users who make money from clickbait content?

Do you mean the 2018 interview? That was for a different game though. The other game did end up inspiring Dustborn, so, it would be fair to say that Dustborn is politically inspired. It also has political themes. From there it's still a big jump to saying that it's a political message. That you would need to prove with facts from the game.

So, what is the political message of Dustborn, according to you?

[holdingsix]

Originally posted by Shrek The Ogre:

Originally posted by holdingsix:

How come that you think that the game is a political message? On what is it based?

How long do you think asking people that question will cover the fact the game is a message of modern progressives

Until you have played it

[holdingsix]

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

Originally posted by holdingsix:

How come that you think that the game is a political message? On what is it based?

even forbe who is all for woke stuff is saying it is
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2024/08/22/dustborn-review-love-it-or-hate-it-it-dares-to-be-different/

'Dustborn' Review: A Political Adventure Rewarding Patient (it cut off and I refuse to disable my adblocker so that's all I can copy paste)

Also note the irony of your argument being "it's a political message because other people say so" in a topic where OP asked if there might be a collective illusion going on. Possibly they are not wrong.

[LazyJoeBeard]

Originally posted by holdingsix:

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

watch some game play and make your own decision, its the one I came to after watching a play through of it or you can watch one of the hundreds of videos pointing this point out. If you played it and disagree that is your opinion but not the opinion most people came too. But I think a good telling is the fact they said them selves it was a game made by the events of ... when ever trump was elected (the first time lol) and they elude to it being the reason the game was made. They were upset trump won and made a game for some reason in retaliation, that is just the first point.

Did you watch an entire playthrough (15+ hours) or do you mean the commentary videos from YouTube users who make money from clickbait content?

Do you mean the 2018 interview? That was for a different game though. The other game did end up inspiring Dustborn, so, it would be fair to say that Dustborn is politically inspired. It also has political themes. From there it's still a big jump to saying that it's a political message. That you would need to prove with facts from the game.

So, what is the political message of Dustborn, according to you?

I mean I was watching it live so I missed some but I would say I watched about 10 hours of the story, I did not enjoy that time in the slightest but I needed to so I could say my opinions on the game while actually forming my own opinions on the game. So I would say I watched 75-80% of it, I only missed 1 stream that was 3 hours long in the whole play through.

[LazyJoeBeard]

Originally posted by holdingsix:

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

even forbe who is all for woke stuff is saying it is
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2024/08/22/dustborn-review-love-it-or-hate-it-it-dares-to-be-different/

'Dustborn' Review: A Political Adventure Rewarding Patient (it cut off and I refuse to disable my adblocker so that's all I can copy paste)

Also note the irony of your argument being "it's a political message because other people say so" in a topic where OP asked if there might be a collective illusion going on. Possibly they are not wrong.

I believe its a political message based on all he info I read and watching the large majority of the game, I believe that is the reason most people noped out right away, its the reason I believe there are so little reviews and that is why its positive, because only people who already agreed with its message bought it. Out of the 250ish reviews only 160 of them played over 10 hours and with only them being available, so excluding all of the reviews that have under 10 hours makes the game mixed. You can set a played time in the review filter, most of the positive reviews did not even get through the 10 which is easily seen by how it causes it to go from positive to mixed.

[holdingsix]

Originally posted by LazyJoeBeard:

Originally posted by holdingsix:

Did you watch an entire playthrough (15+ hours) or do you mean the commentary videos from YouTube users who make money from clickbait content?

Do you mean the 2018 interview? That was for a different game though. The other game did end up inspiring Dustborn, so, it would be fair to say that Dustborn is politically inspired. It also has political themes. From there it's still a big jump to saying that it's a political message. That you would need to prove with facts from the game.

So, what is the political message of Dustborn, according to you?

I mean I was watching it live so I missed some but I would say I watched about 10 hours of the story, I did not enjoy that time in the slightest but I needed to so I could say my opinions on the game while actually forming my own opinions on the game. So I would say I watched 75-80% of it, I only missed 1 stream that was 3 hours long in the whole play through.

You mean you watched a stream with commentary? What could be the problem with that for forming an unbiased opinion?

Don't forgot my question: So, what is the political message of Dustborn, according to you?