The Controversy Surrounding Resident Evil: Revelations Review Bombing

The Legacy of Resident Evil: Revelations

Resident Evil spin-off game Resident Evil: Revelations finds itself the target of a review bombing effort 11 years after its launch. The PC version of Resident Evil: Revelations has been review bombed 11 years after it first launched. Resident Evil: Revelations originally released as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive game in 2012 before eventually making its way to other platforms, with the PC version releasing in 2013. Resident Evil: Revelations brings back popular franchise heroes Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, with the game primarily following Jill as she explores a ship full of monsters. The game earned mostly positive reviews and is considered one of the better Resident Evil games of its era.

resident evil revelations steam review bomb

While critical and fan reception for Resident Evil: Revelations was mostly positive at the time of its release, the game has recently found itself the target of a review bombing effort on Steam. As reported by Eurogamer, Capcom controversially added DRM to some of its old games on PC, with Resident Evil: Revelations being one of them. While DRM is theoretically meant to curb pirating, it had the side effect of making it difficult for some Resident Evil: Revelations players on PC to use mods. This resulted in angry Steam users flooding the Resident Evil: Revelations Steam page with negative reviews, bringing the game's overall score to 'Mostly Negative.' Capcom has reverted the update for now, but does plan on adding DRM back to Resident Evil: Revelations at some point in the future.

resident evil revelations negative steam reviews

The Impact of Review Bombing

Since Capcom plans on adding DRM back to Resident Evil: Revelations when some of the issues with it have been ironed out, it seems unlikely that the negative reviews will go away. In the meantime, it's possible that other Capcom games that have added DRM in recent updates will be targeted by review bombers as well. However, Resident Evil: Revelations seems to be the main focus of disgruntled fans at the time of this writing. It should be stressed that Resident Evil: Revelations' Mostly Negative average on Steam isn't a reflection of the game's actual quality. Everything that helped the game earn a 'Very Positive' rating on Steam to begin with is still there. Review bombing efforts are sometimes about the quality of a game, but in many cases, it's done as an act of protest against a controversial decision that the developer or publisher of said game has made.

The Future of Capcom Games on PC

Capcom's decision to add DRM to an 11-year-old game has clearly upset fans, and it doesn't seem as though it will be changing its mind. Unfortunately, it seems Capcom fans on PC may have to start putting up with DRM to play the company's games moving forward.