Steam users are begging Valve to make one major change to how the review system works. And we genuinely get it.
Steam reviews are a useful way of seeing how well received a certain game is by its players, but it isn’t exactly perfect.
Several flaws with the system have been mentioned over the years. Considering it’s a binary Recommend / Not Recommended system, coupled with the fact that you only need to play five minutes to leave a review, can sometimes lead to Steam reviews being exploited.
Another issue that exists with the system is the lack of user hardware specifications, meaning that a person’s PC setup isn’t disclosed by default in a review.
This leads to reviews that complain about performance issues being rather unreliable, as there’s no way of telling what kind of hardware the person leaving a negative review because of low framerates or bad graphics has.
As one person posted on the Steam Reddit page, “I strongly suggest that Steam Reviews should also mention the specs of the PC / Hardware the user was playing on.
“With this, we can make better decisions if the review is really worth your time or not.”
The post then features a screenshot of a review which states, “Extremely laggy. Can’t even play the game. Waste of $70.”
The post continues: “The user here writes that the game is ‘Extremely Laggy’ Well, this can be because of multiple factors. That can be CPU, GPU or maybe the RAM requirements are not met well. We may never have a proper closure to ‘Why the user experiences lag’ if we don’t have proper data to make a decision.”
Steam Users Agree A Change Is Needed
Users in the replies generally agreed with the sentiment, with one user writing: “We love it when Steam calls out corporations but users will hate it if they feel like Steam is calling them out.”
“It would be somewhat handy. I see a lot of people complain about games running badly, and wonder what they’re running cause I’m just not having the same problems,” writes another.
“This goes both ways though. So I actually agree,” writes a third user. “I have a 5090 / 9800X3D machine, and ‘everything’ runs great for me. So if I make a review saying “game runs and looks great” that’s also a bit disingenuous.”
Valve has been known to release new features periodically that improves the user experience, so it’s possible that this might be something the company would consider adding if enough noise is made.
It’s interesting to see how passionate the Steam community is about improving the review system. Changes to enhance user experience can really make a difference in helping players find the right games. I hope Valve considers these suggestions!