Metacritic promises "stricter moderation" following Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores review bombing

(Image credit: Sony)

Metacritic has promised to implement "stricter moderation" after Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC was subject to "abusive, disrespectful" reviews from players.

Be warned, spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC are in this article.

Earlier this week, we reported that Horizon Forbidden West's new DLC was being review bombed by fans over the DLC's length and story features. However, plenty of players have also vented hatred towards the Burning Shores expansion over an optional kiss between protagonist Aloy and female companion Seyka.

"Fandom is a place of belonging for all fans and we take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic. Metacritic is aware of the abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and we have a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use," Metacritic's statement reads.

"Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed. We are currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months," the statement from the website concludes.

Metacritic stops short of outlining what these tools to tackle hateful and abusive messages actually are. As Eurogamer notes, however, Metacritic has already begun manually removing select user reviews from its website for Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC.

Elsewhere, in more positive Horizon-related news, Guerrilla confirmed the next Horizon game is in the works at their studio, and will continue Aloy's adventures after the Burning Shores DLC.

Check out our guide to all the Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores Pangea Figurines locations if you're looking to complete one of the more difficult quests in the new DLC.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.