PlayStation is apparently running a test run by offering players the ability to write user reviews on the PlayStation Store, a departure from the “five-star” rating system that has been in place for some time.

Some players are reporting that they can now write written reviews for a certain number of games. It’s pretty targeted at the moment, but it seems ripe for expansion.

Currently, this is only possible with games purchased digitally and only on the PlayStation website itself, to avoid the hassle of typing in the controllers. Presumably the idea is to create a system like that of Steam, which has long been part of the storefront there.

User reviews can… go either way. There are certainly people who believe that the user review, rather than the critic review, is the “valid” review for games, and who prefer to read those rather than the critics’. But often they can lead to review bombing campaigns to lower the reviews as much as possible to support an argument or protest a particular issue. Valve has taken some measures to prevent this, offering things like displaying your play time alongside the reviews, but that has risks and benefits.

Although I’m an oft-dismissed critic, I say bring it on. I don’t really see the general downsides, and with a proper system in place, I can see how user reviews can be useful. Seeing controversial game reviews at 0.8/10 a few hours after launch is silly, but I think something like Valve’s system does more good than bad. Still, I’m very excited to see how it plays out.

At the moment, not everyone can do that, and not for every game. It seems you should look for an invitation from PlayStation in your email to start writing reviews, and you can test the system that way. I’m not sure if you can see actual reviews without an invite yourself, as I can’t find them on the Helldivers 2 page, just the star rating, but I’ll keep looking. Especially with Helldivers, which has seen huge spikes of bad reviews on sites like Steam due to certain events like PS account requirements or a bad update, I wonder if that would carry over to this new PlayStation system. But it’s just too early to know at the moment.

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