A new batch of Cyberpunk 2077-themed items came to the PC version of Death Stranding today, and fans unhappy about the former's disastrous launch have decided to review bomb the latter. CD Projekt Red has had a less enjoyable week than they likely expected after launching its open-world neon shooter last Thursday. After putting harsh restrictions on reviewers and only showing them the PC version of the game, console players discovered a buggy mess that was virtually unplayable on the base models of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The developer apologized for the state of the game and promised refunds, but several platform holders and retailers have gone on to deny them due to their standard operating policies.
None of this hullabaloo should be affecting Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima's polarizing video game prophecy about the 2020 lockdown. However, the two games have shared DNA for quite a while, and a crossover was always planned. Today's update for the PC version of the game includes everything from cosmetics to make Sam Porter Bridges look like a resident of Night City to a stylish red motorcycle to ride around the wasteland. CD Projekt already returned the favor by including a brief cameo of Kojima in one of Cyberpunk's earliest missions.
After the update hit Death Stranding, the Internet proved why no one can have nice things by dumping negative reviews onto the game's Metacritic page. The flood was first noticed by mrpyo1 on Twitter, and he shows solid evidence that the reviews are all coming in via some sort of mechanical procedure. At the time of writing, the user score is 3.1, which isn't too far from the 3.5 it had seven days ago according to the Wayback Machine.
The review bombing is also centralized only on MetaCritic at the moment. The Steam page for the game is still standing at a Very Positive rating for its user reviews, and there's been no spike in negative takes since the Cyberpunk crossover. CD Projekt Red's game itself has Mostly Positive user reviews on the platform, showcasing that the main issue continues to be with the console versions rather than the more optimized PC release. The Epic Games Store, which also has both games up for sale, does not support user reviews at this time.
While this review bomb for Death Stranding will likely just be a blip on the radar, one wonders if the folks at Kojima Productions thought about delaying the release of these Cyberpunk 2077 cosmetics, if even by a few weeks. The game is currently rife with controversy, so this type of negative attention seemed inevitable. Those still playing the PC version of Death Stranding are not the types to move on to the latest and greatest, so they likely would have appreciated the new items whenever they hit the game. On the flip side, since the items aren't coming to the PlayStation version of the game, console players are out of the loop anyway, and they're the ones with serious stakes in the state of CD Projekt Red's long-awaited title.
Source: mrpyo1 - Twitter