It is not uncommon for players to spend thousands of hours in their favorite game. However, many cannot understand writing a negative review for a game after such a long time on Steam.
The title image is a collage made from a stock image from Pexels and a screenshot of the game.
What kind of review is this? The review comes from a Steam user named “Herb McDerperson” and was written for the game Battlezone 98 Redux. Between the game’s release on Steam on April 18, 2016, and the writing of the review on August 30, 2021, the Steam user spent more than 8,400 hours in the mix of strategy game and first-person shooter.
This corresponds to just over 4 hours of gameplay every day, assuming the player started right at launch – although he admits to often leaving the game running in the background. Despite – or perhaps because of – his dedication, the player cannot recommend the strategy game. Joshua Wolens from PC Gamer tracked down the player and spoke to him about his reasons for writing a negative review after such long playtime.
A considerable dose of nostalgia is conveyed by the launch trailer from 2016:
He played Battlezone for years, but then the remaster came
What is the story behind the rating? The Steam version is a remaster of the game originally released in 1998. Scott Smith, aka Herp McDerperson, tells PC Gamer that he received the game for Christmas in 1999.
Years before his review on Steam, Smith had spent countless hours in the strategy game: all hours of his youth, which are not even included in the total of 9,041 hours on Steam. After a long break, the player returned to the game with the “1.5 Patch,” an unofficial patch that fixes many issues of the original game.
But then came the Redux version, and many players apparently could not resist the appeal of an official, polished Battlezone. “The release largely destroyed the multiplayer scene of 1.5,” Smith says. “It is now pretty much dead.”
Despite his aversion to the new version, the longtime player switched from the original to the remake.
Among the criticisms the player mentions in his review are numerous bugs and crashes as well as some missing features. Many of the points are probably especially relevant for players who know Battlezone both before and after Redux like Smith. Other complaints from Smith are more serious, such as the fact that the minimap suddenly shows everything while the original only displayed what could be captured by the player’s radar.
However, the multiplayer experience is the worst, as according to a community legend, it was assembled within a week. Smith is not sure if this is really true, but the mere thought reflects his difficult relationship with the game’s developers. He even has a sort of feud with one of their employees:
In the past, both Battlezone remasters have repeatedly had problems with their multiplayer servers, and I have been VERY vocal about pushing for these issues to be fixed. Rebellion was often VERY slow to address such issues… As a result of my interactions, I have a hostile relationship with one of them (whom I will not name). Of course, I blame the other party for that.
Why he decided to write his review on that day in August, Smith cannot answer. He had actually planned to do so for years. However, he can explain that he has spent over 600 hours in the game since then: “For some time now, I only open the game to help someone, usually Modern, with problems. I have rare institutional knowledge and enjoy helping others with it. I have easily spent a few dozen hours on tech support.”
Smith still looks occasionally at the remaster of the sequel, Battlezone: Combat Commander.
Especially with strategy games, it is not unusual for players to spend thousands of hours in a game. And indeed, it is not an isolated case that one cannot recommend a game after such a long time: Gamer writes negative review after 3,263 hours in a game on Steam – Receives response from the developer
