The gaming platform Steam is asking its Destiny 2 players, who have accumulated quite a few hours in Bungie’s shooter since the PC launch, whether they would like to reconsider their original review.
What is the question about? With the launch of Shadowkeep on October 1st, the PC version of Destiny 2 moved from Battle.net to Steam. The Free-to-Play version Destiny 2: New Light was also released simultaneously for PC on Steam.
Numerous fans wrote their first reviews of Bungie’s MMO shooter back then.
As some players now report on Reddit, Guardians on their new PC home platform are asked whether they would like to revise their review of Destiny 2 written there.
Who is the target audience? Affected are players who have spent many more hours in the game since their original review. The Redditor PunnyCasual wrote his first opinion after nearly 3 hours of gameplay and had already played another 93 hours when he received the corresponding message from Steam.
It literally says: “You have played an additional 93 hours. Would you like to revise your review?”
This is just a reminder or invitation. You can do it, but you don’t have to.
Is this “normal”? Some might now wonder what it is all about. Is Steam trying to push the ratings for Destiny 2 specifically?
However, this is probably unrelated. Other users also report that they receive the same prompt for other games, such as Hitman 2, after they have spent a certain amount of time in the game following their review.
Steam now checks in on several games
Why is Steam doing this? An official explanation is not known, but the goal of the feature is likely to improve feedback for potential buyers and interested parties of the respective game. There have been frequent issues with objective reviews on Steam.
Specifically, this is about so-called review bombing. The rating system has often been abused by players who vented frustrations about things that had little to do with the quality of the reviewed game or the game itself – for example, the general business policy of the publisher or that a highly anticipated game was initially available on another platform instead of Steam.
This was also the case with the Borderlands series, which received massively negative reviews on Steam because the yet-to-be-released sequel Borderlands 3 was supposed to be available only in the Epic Store at first.
The rating score can be heavily distorted this way and would present a completely false picture of a game to potential buyers. It seems this new feature aims to improve that.
The reviews on Steam should then reflect the long-term experience rather than the first impression.
What do the players think about it? Both the affected players and other Reddit users consider the feature a cool and useful idea. The corresponding post on Reddit received over 6,700 upvotes within a day.
Some hope that this prompt becomes part of the regular Steam review process – a long-overdue idea. Others felt reminded that they wanted to revise their original review for one or another game. The feature shows clear initial effects.
What do you think about Steam asking for a review update after a certain playtime? Useful feature or just annoying? How would you rate Destiny 2 now? Differently than right after the launch?
