Looks like CS2 was a victim of review bombing... Reviews keeps getting better and better.

[YouTube.com/StoneLegion]

So it looks like tons of people bought / refunded the game instantly and now that other people have had actual time to play the game their giving it positive reviews. It's sitting near 50% vs being somewhere like 25% yesterday at some point.

I think the point here is outside the performance issues the game is awesome it's a monster, we just need to now get that performance more refined.

[Zero, Dark Knight]

We're calling legitimate in-game broken mechanics, performance issues which the devs themselves admitted to, and player concerns about other issues, "review bombing" now are we?

[AG2590]

Not sure about that... 4080, 13600K @ 5.5GHZ 32GB 5600 Ram at 2k people noticeable lag. Feels choppy

[ViraCorp]

They may have released it to early, but it's not like they did NOT tell people it was not hitting the target performance/optimization yet.

Paradox: We know it does not meet optimization/performance yet but we are releasing it.

Consumer: I don't believe them, they are trying to get one over on me, I am going to buy it anyway, and now I am going to complain it performs lower than expected just like they posted.

I have had no issues, been having a lot of fun with it, and have just not taken the time to review yet.

[LocalDaddy]

Originally posted by Alyson:

Not sure about that... 4080, 13600K @ 5.5GHZ 32GB 5600 Ram at 2k people noticeable lag. Feels choppy

So turn some stuff down. Simple. Really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ simple.

[cozmosis]

OP needs to learn what review bombing actually means. People generally review bomb when a dev/publisher does something anti-consumer to a playerbase - this isn't the case at all here, the game is in a very poor state and wasn't ready for release - that's a fact.

The reviews increasing are more than likely from all the fans of the game getting the hours in and seeing the good - which is fine, but it's a very head in the sand perspective to a fundamental problem in the gaming industry these days - we shouldn't be the victims of rushed/badly made games, and should hold the studios accountable.

[FwhPixelink]

I agree that it was released too early. But, i do understand that Co really had no choice. Either way, they would have been hammered.

After tweaking my settings for RTX 2060 (6GB) card, I am able to play. My GPU does get a 98% load the entire game, but I do get some stuttering, but its actually less often than CS1.

I am working on my 1st test city just to learn how everything works. It looks good even on low settings.

So, even though some were over-hyped, and ran into problems right away. I think some over reacted and just gave bad reviews cause they were mad. Others, who were mad at first settled down and seen that a lot of players were getting things running by tweaking their settings an so they were persistent and got it work. Thus revised reviews.

In my first review I gave it a thumbs up, because my GPU wasn't up to it. However, I know that the game still needs optimization, I tweaked my settings and I was on my way.

I don't feel like the rash reviews were not a concern to them. I just think they reacted to quickly and lashed out. Maybe they will come back. I don't think they were "review bombing"... just frustrated.

But, as I wrote in Discord. CO will be taking a chance on releasing too early. now thy have to work their way through it.

[A Sneaky Poptart]

OP, you seem to not know the difference between review bombing and a game getting the reviews it deserves from terrible performance issues at launch. Just because a game is getting raked over the fire (as it should), doesn't mean it's review bombed. Please, learn the difference before whining.

[Parqer]

Originally posted by Thomas:

I frankly took it as people that were too inept to change their graphics settings in the in game settings page. The fact that the real heavy hitters for frames were on as default is a mistake by the devs. That said when you turn those settings off it runs fine. The devs failed to tailor things to the lowest common denominator when it came to settings. Not the worst error in the world, but it lead to the inept having a freakout. Lesson for the future, some gamers need someone or something to hold their hand to find out what settings work with their rig.

This is so true. I was getting about 45 FPS by default, but changed my settings and I'm now getting 120. Not to mention most of the negative reviews are coming from people with .1 hours played. It is very clear that a lot of children saw a single YT video complain, bought the game for the intention to leave a bad review, and immediately refund before even actually playing. OR their PC isn't good enough, OR they didn't bother to attempt to alter settings to match their system.

[MaYHeM]

Review bombing is a coordinated effort to damage the reputation of a game or publisher. This is not that. These are largely legitimately unhappy people who have purchased the game and aren't happy with it. Call them haters if you want, calling them inept is obtuse, toxic and shameful.

I find the game playable, but I do have a monster of a machine, however I have other complaints along side of the performance problems. In many places it feels a step backwards. I wouldn't give it a negative review, but neither would I fault someone who does.

[Terramaris]

Originally posted by Zerotheliger:

Originally posted by Names Matter:

review bombing has lost all its meaning. this isnt a coordinated attack to shame the dev. they have legitimate issues lol. But yet, I just can't get with the narrative that bad reviews en mass means its being "bombed". thats just hive mind bs.

yes cause im sure everyone has more 4090s than were reported on steam hardware review

The Steam Hardware Survey is opt-in (so not comprehensive) and gives only percentages (so no hard numbers). What we know is 0.44-0.77% of Steam Users surveyed had 4090s. Assuming Steam had a good sample size of users with no bias that would select against high tier users participating, that is still a very large number of people. There are over 1,000,000,000 Steam accounts (granted most are alts or inactive users), and 120,000,000 unique monthly users. Lets be generous and say 200,000,000 people went into the survey. That means there are 1,000,000 people minimum with the RTX 4090 gpu on Steam.

That would mean you saw over 100x more people than have actually reviewed the game and 10x more people than there are peak players say they had a 4090.

If we want to talk about math that does not check out, your math does not check out. Even if I were to be absolutely generous to your argument and say only 100,000,000 took the survey, that is still 500,000 people minimum with the RTX 4090.

[Parqer]

Originally posted by A Sneaky Poptart:

OP, you seem to not know the difference between review bombing and a game getting the reviews it deserves from terrible performance issues at launch. Just because a game is getting raked over the fire (as it should), doesn't mean it's review bombed. Please, learn the difference before whining.

Please go take a look at these reviews and tell me how many have actually played the game. Most of the negative ones I've seen only have like .1-1hr of game time. Its very clear that people are buying this game for the sole intention to leave a negative review, and refund immediately after.

[83athom]

Originally posted by Rodrigo:

The only time there was a review bomb was when steam released paid mods and people unleashed on skyrim.

Bad launch with terrible performe IS NOT REVIEW BOMB. OP isn't very smart.

You're new here aren't you? A LOT of games have been review bombed for various reasons, some deserved some not.

[Tridus]

"I'm a fanboy and the game didn't get reviewed well therefore it was review bombed" is certainly one take.

[volleyballguy_79]

I had initial performance problems but watched this space and got the graphics adjusted and now it is working. It is a great initial product and I can see a lot of potential for expansion. All my posts about performance were solely to make devs aware of issues some may be experiencing so they have an opportunity to fix it. But overall, since I changed the graphic settings I am having a lot of fun exploring the game and cannot wait until the modders get a hold of it and new content is released. There is so much you could customise!!!

[mrxak]

Originally posted by YouTube.com/StoneLegion:

So it looks like tons of people bought / refunded the game instantly and now that other people have had actual time to play the game their giving it positive reviews. It's sitting near 50% vs being somewhere like 25% yesterday at some point.

I think the point here is outside the performance issues the game is awesome it's a monster, we just need to now get that performance more refined.

The devs admitted to the problems, the negative reviews are accurate and justified. When patches come out to fix those problems the reviews will likely improve if the game itself is actually good. Releasing an unfinished game doesn't deserve good reviews.