Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is the first installment of the series that has faced a lot of criticism. All thanks to two characters and an interesting relationship prepared by developers from Guerrilla Games.
Possible spoiler alert
At the end of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, there was an optional love story where Aloy kissed her new companion. This scene caused a great stir and the consequence of the events was a lot of criticism of the studio, the game and then bombarding the reviews of the feature expansion.
Jordan Middler from the VGC editorial office had the opportunity to talk to the developers of Guerrilla Games and the journalist asked directly about the negative reactions of the players, attacking the studio and lowering the production’s ratings.
The creators emphasize that although they are always open to criticism of their work, in some situations it is necessary to ignore the comments, but in some situations the team cannot come to terms with it.
We’re always trying to create something that’s compelling, something that’s emotionally engaging, so for people who have actually played the game, we’ve always been interested in hearing those experiences, thoughts, and feedback. But for people who haven’t played the game or who are just trying to be negative online, we think it’s pretty easy to ignore,” said Annie Kitain, lead writer.
We love getting feedback from our fans. We love when they have constructive feedback on this or that. And we’re perfectly happy when they say they don’t like this or that, in regards to pretty much every aspect of the game that they really thought about. But yeah, when this kind of overt hostility comes up, it’s pretty easy for me personally to isolate myself and realize that it’s a mindset that I can never really come to terms with. But overall, we’re extremely pleased with the response because I feel like we’re worrying about every detail when we’re making this, and it’s really great to see such a positive response,” added Ben McCaw, Narrative Director.
Guerrilla Games also received a lot of positive feedback because the developers took up an important topic, but the developers emphasize that in this case, the kiss itself was not the most important thing. The creators continued the theme started in the two previous installments and wanted to show that Aloy has a bigger mission and can’t think about her feelings at the moment.
Source: VGC