Not Massive: ResetEra User Review Bombs AI: The Somnium Files


I have referred to ResetEra over the years as an asylum, a toxic cesspool, and a grease trap echo chamber where hatred goes to fester. Needless to say I don’t have the most positive opinion on the forum.

Our article today comes from Kotaro Uchikoshi Eng, who you may recognize as director on the the Zero Escape series. Our subject reached out on Twitter and to ResetEra for help yesterday regarding the game AI: The Somnium Files. AI had been review bombed on Metacritic from an 8.2 user score to a 1.9 in one day and digging up the how’s and why’s was something of a priority. Speculation had been running rampant on ResetEra and Reddit over the size and scope of the review bombing, its goal, and motivation. At one point users suggested that the review bombing may be in response to a scene where the character Mizuki refers to the LGBT community as one that is “more sensitive and capable of sympathy” due to their shared struggles. Not entirely surprising.

User Krvavi Abadas on ResetEra posted in the same thread a detailed report on the review bombing and its motivations. A little too detailed if you ask some, and it didn’t take long before the truth came out. Krvavi Abadas hadn’t just investigated the review bomb, they were responsible for it. And why? Over a crush on a fictional character. Turns out the criminal does return to the scene of the crime.

Abadas buckled like a dollar store stepladder.

“But Akira Okada ended up discovering that i had tanked the score for AI hours after i did it, and the whole story basically blew up from there.
To reiterate my thoughts on the game from previous threads. I loved most of the A-set videos and found them to be incredibly endearing, even developing a massive crush on her due to my general attachment issues. But i hated the actual game for how it basically ignores everything said videos were trying to build up, to the point that it”

For what it’s worth, Abadas has been permanently banned on ResetEra for “engaging in inappropriate behavior.” It didn’t stop them from defending their actions on Twitter.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Abadas’ actions do highlight the reality that MetaCritic is just about worthless when it comes to user reviews due to how easy it is for one person to tank a game’s score. Hopefully Metacritic will see this as a learning experience but given the website’s past we highly doubt it.