Why so sad, Lara Croft? Well, that’s because Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which received generally favorable reviews from players and critics — our own Greg Bargas gave it a 9/10 — has been getting a lot of bad rap lately. That’s all because of a recent sale on Steam where the game has a 34 percent discount. Meanwhile, its Croft Edition — containing the base game, the season pass, and lots of digital and cosmetic goodies — is 47 percent off. These discounts have led to a number of players to suddenly review bomb the game for the past few days.

“Great Game, Why Did I Spend More Money On It?”

That seems to be the general theme among reviews. It was first mentioned on Reddit by user Predator8137. That post has since been removed due to allegations that Chinese players were predominantly behind this move. That’s because some reviews, upon translation, had the following feedback:

  • “Your mom is dead!”
  • “These Japanese developers should die!”

Now that’s a lot of pent-up frustration for an adult, or it’s a 12-year-old writing those remarks. Others, more or less, had this particular message: “It’s a good game. Too bad it went on sale so early. It’s disrespectful to those who bought it at full price.”

As for the English speakers who did some review bombing of their own, here are some samples:

These and many others are actually fairly telling because some of these players have either (a) spent dozens of hours in the game when it initially launched; (b) did not spend a lot of time on the game at all. The common threads that bind these players are that they haven’t played in the past couple of weeks and that they all bought the game earlier than the rest. They were not expecting the price to drop so soon. Henceforth, review bombing was the only option to let their voice be heard.

Thankfully, there were also some reviews that were critical of the game due to player experiences and not necessarily focusing on the recent discounts. Still, this issue also caused a stir in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider discussion board on Steam. Here are some commentaries from various players:

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider – Review Bomb With Such Aplomb

To be fair, review bombing isn’t a new concept. It’s actually tied to mass movements and concerted efforts among disgruntled gamers who felt that they were wronged by a company. Sometimes these grievances have merits; oftentimes not so much.

In certain occasions, this is borne by outrage, as well as the rapid-fire information and knee-jerk reactions on the internet. For instance, Total War: Rome 2 was the subject of such an incident. That’s when the game was review bombed a month after a controversial reply from a developer, and several months after the implementation of female generals. So yes, review bombing is a means to voice one’s displeasure, but it tends to be a spur of the moment thing. You heard someone react a certain way which then leads to your personal outrage.

Then again, another train of thought is that Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn’t doing well financially. That’s one of the most probable reasons for a sudden price drop. Going on sale within a month would be the best way to gain extra profits.

On a personal note, it’s hard for me to commiserate with such reactions. I tend to be the type who likes to live life without regrets. If I purchased an item which eventually went on sale then tough luck, that’s life. If I enjoyed that product and a sale allowed for more users to try it out, then more power to them. But that’s just me. I don’t expect anyone else to have a similar mentality.

What do our readers think? Are you in favor of the sudden price drop for Shadow of the Tomb Raider? Or was it disrespectful to those who bought early or pre-ordered and review bombing the game was justifiable in this case?