Review bombs have turned into a weapon that many people utilize, and Chinese players don’t seem to hesitate to use them whenever they feel attacked. If you spend time checking out Steam reviews, you will eventually encounter posts in Chinese. They’re usually very polite and reasonable, but sometimes, you may encounter a review bomb. Back in December 2024, a group of Chinese players decided to review bomb Baldur’s Gate 3 after hearing Larian Studios Sven Vincke’s pre-award speech. Now, another group of Chinese fans attacked a small indie game named BZZZT with review bombs after its developer posted a rant on X.
The BG3 review bomb occurred because Chinese fans were upset that Black Myth: Wukong failed to win GOTY. Besides questioning The Game Awards, they attacked Vincke because of his “hypocritical” speech. They believed Vincke implied that Black Myth: Wukong wasn’t made with passion. Considering the commercial success of BG3, the Chinese fans felt that Vincke had no right to denounce other companies creating games just for profit.
Unlike the BG3 review bomb incident, BZZZT got negative attention from Chinese fans after its developer ranted on X. Their argument was quite reasonable. They were bemoaning the bad reviews from several Chinese players who simply demanded a localization for the Chinese language. They said this move felt like blackmail and that these negative reviews would impact the game. They also explained that localization wasn’t that easy and required much work, time, and money.
Unfortunately, although the developer gained some sympathy from this post, this act also earned the attention of a group of Chinese players. The Steam review page for BZZZT is currently flooded with negative reviews from Chinese fans who bought the game just to review bomb it. Most of them barely had any play time, but they posted lengthy rants.
One reviewer berated the BZZZT developer for adding various mainstream languages except Chinese. They claimed that the developer was indifferent and even disrespectful to Chinese players. “In fact, according to the rules of Steam, as long as you buy the game, you can give a bad review to the game. Since you don’t respect us, then I don’t have to respect you,” the Chinese player wrote.
