I don't see the pattern of a review bombing in Steam reviews... Looks like a game getting released very soon in early access and failing to gain traction.

It's sitting on my wishlist and I'm waiting for it to get to 1.0, but their update cadence has been very slow. Now they are saying their studio does not have the funds to complete the game.

I do hope they turn this around, but as a consumer I am very wary when it comes to titles in early access, and even more when the studio goes radio silent for months.

I love the Ori games! I haven't played this game though so I guess I'm part of the problem lol

Why did they get review bombed?

Hm... while I'd love to buy the game to support them, 40€ is a very high asking price for an early access title, especially if they possibly won't be around to finish it.

Personally, I picked up NRFTW after the first hotfix for The Breach and I haven’t run into pretty much anything most of the negative reviews are complaining about. There were 100% tuning issues with the original Breach update and they got pummelled for it in the reviews, but in less than a week they fixed 90% of the problems.

It’s an early access game, so no, of course it’s not perfect yet, but it’s a really solid product with a ton of potential that’s fun to play right now.

The problem is that reviews are rarely updated, so right now there’s a ton of reviews that capture a tiny snapshot of the game’s life that don’t reflect where the game is merely a couple weeks after they were left. I’m sure there was a bunch riding on this…they’d been locked up in legal proceedings getting the rights to the game and getting out from under a publisher, and I’m sure part of the hype train around The Breach was to spur a renewed round of funding.

As someone newer to its community, I’m really surprised at how much complaining there is about end game longevity and a bunch of other things that make me want to ask, “You…you know the game isn’t done yet, right?”

Moon Studios took a risk going independent which means two things: (a) they have strong faith that their project can stand on its own, and (b) they are far more sensitive to cash flow now than they were under a publisher. One thing I think they’ll need to work on is their community relations, and it’s a shame because it almost always means we hear less direct communication and more stuff filtered through PR people.

I’ll leave a positive review b/c I’ve played about 10 hours and I’m really enjoying the game in front of me and look forward to the updates coming through the rest of 2025.

I think there's a lot more that goes into a games success or failure than just reviews. I'm not entirely convinced that a wave of good reviews would financially save their studio. I also find it funny that he acknowledges that he doesn't write reviews for things.

For my case, it's been on my wish list for a while. I enjoyed Ori, but didn't love it, and plan on getting around to the second Ori game eventually. But I have a zillion games to play, and right now they're not that high on my list. But my moods change, and next month I may well be in the mood for something like No Rest for the Wicked, see it on my wish list, and finally pick it up.

But quite frankly, no review is going to sway me. I've enjoyed Mixed review games, I've loved Mostly Negative games, and I've disliked Overwhelmingly Positive games. Fact of the matter is I'm much more likely to look at actual gameplay videos and make a decision rather than read a written review.

But, that's just my anecdotal experience. I personally find it hard to believe the reviews play that big of a role here. I think that success or failure comes down to a hundred different factors, and the unfortunate reality is that some really awesome gems aren't successful for no real fair reasons, sometimes.

Maybe he can get some help from his friends in AfD.

"detrimental" was definitely not the word they should have used. What would be a better word there? Comment below. It helps me keep bringing you great comments.

Anyone play it? I generally don't buy early access, but the Ori games were great and I'll probably like this too.

I have a love/hate relationship with ARPGs. I love games like Ys, Zelda, and Dark Souls, but I don't like loot based games like Diablo II, and it seems like ARPGs either go hard on loot or largely avoid it. This looks like the second case, but I'd hate to get a few hours in and realize I need to manage loot for decent progression.

Maybe they should take the feedback from reviews and incorporate that into their updates. It's not just that you are being review bombed by unreasonable people, it's that people feel the game has problems that aren't being addressed. I agree it is difficult to recover from a bad release because first impressions are everything. Companies can recover and have, take No Man's Sky for an example.