When Atlas first launched last month, it didn’t cannonball into the high seas so much as belly flop.
The resulting wet slapping sound continues to echo around in the game’s Steam review section to this day. Even though the game is still eliciting cringes and jeers from its reviewers, Atlas has somehow also become hugely popular.
Sometimes, you just need to howl into a void. Say whatever else you will about it, but 2018 provided us with no lack of voids into which to howl our agonized cries. Steam’s review section sure was one of them—and an illuminating one, at that.
It's not every day a new gargantuan space opera drops on Steam. And yet, at the start of the month, a space simulator promising all the exploration and trading you'd expect from Elite: Dangerous or Star Citizen arrived.
Sometimes, all you need at the end of the day is an old-fashioned toilet assassination.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is, to hear people (including Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo) tell it, pretty good, despite some questionable narrative decisions.
Last week, however, it committed a crime that some Steam users decided couldn’t be forgiven: a 34 per cent off sale. Cue the review bombs.
SCUM, a new survival game in early access, is taking Steam by storm. The people reviewing it simply cannot get enough of defecating on other players.
Sometimes, all you want to do is give peeps a dose of medicine.
As many reviewers on Steam will tell you, Cultist Simulator isn’t for everyone. But the people who love it really, really love it.
Join Garfield and his friends in the funniest fast and fur-ious game! What character do you want to play with? Garfield, Odie, Jon, Nermal... you choose! Take part in n o h o l d s b a r r e d c r a z y r a c e s.
Darkest Dungeon is on just about every platform these days, which is great if you speak English. If you don't, you have to wait for the localisation process - and according to the review bombing of the roguelike on Steam in the past 48 hours, the Korean translation isn't very good.
It's been a long journey for the spiritual successor to the Demolition Derby games.
In city builder Frostpunk, every decision is agony. Steam reviewers are feeling the burn.
Sometimes, love doesn't come easy.
Just going by Steam reviews, Far Cry 5 is a game about throwing shovels, petting dogs, and enjoying the Montana countryside. Seems legit.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is the kind of in-depth, detailed RPG where the developers had to nerf the chickens. Steam users are loving it.
It took more than a year, but the good, good anime boys' roadtrip tour finally made a stop on PC. Have Steam reviewers accepted the sprawling, uneven fishing simulator in spite of its flaws, though? (Spoiler: Yes.)
If the idea of Advance Wars crossed with FTL and Pacific Rim sounds intriguing, then you've got a pretty good handle on the reception Into The Breach has gotten.
With more concurrents than any fighting game previously on Steam, it's safe to say that the reception for Dragon Ball FighterZ on PC has been warm.
On its face, Steam sensation They Are Billions appears to be about three of gaming's most-hallowed S's: survival, steampunk, and (s)zombies. That, however, is all just window dressing. Truth is, They Are Billions is a game about failure, which is where all the best stories come from. Steam users have been sharing some doozies.
One Steam review is a person shouting into the void. Two is an argument. A whole mess of them, though? That's a deep, dark look into the collective psyche of Steam users. In 2017, we rounded up the best reviews of the year's top Steam games and maybe, just maybe, learned a little something about ourselves in the process.
