Anyone who’s ever been involved in a conversation with me about Steam Reviews will know I don’t like them. I don’t like them as any kind of metric, I don’t like that they include reviews from players who have been given the game for free, I don’t like people writing nonsense and trying to be funny in them, but most of all, more than anything in the world, the act of review bombing leaves a little bit of sick in my mouth.
Review bombing is just such a (takes breath) ‘gamer’ thing to do. Jumping on a game five seconds after it’s launched with a 1-star review because the overcrowded server kicked you out is moronic. Doing it because there is a black or female lead character in a game you wanted to play, trust me, says everything we need to know about you, long before you give me your opinion on the game.
Woke this, woke that. Shut up and play the game. You have two hours. If you don’t like it, refund it, I don’t need to know your political opinions, like, er, ever.
And breathe.
So what’s the story with Starsand Island, a cosy, farming, life sim that has been on the radar at The Escapist for a while now, but seems to have bumped into some unusual controversy around its Steam Reviews – not for people sticking the boot in, but for damning it with praise. It’s all a bit strange.
It started soon after Starsand’s launch into Early Access. Super positive reviews started appearing on Steam, and lots of them, all from accounts with hardly any playtime or history, that if you didn’t know better, were all coming from the same source.
Positive affirmation – you are a strong, confident video game
What’s this, some form of review bombing positively? To what aim? It’s a bit meta to think that “if we post so many positive reviews, people will get suspicious and it will hurt the devs”. That sounds like a long game that not many in gaming often play. There is not as much satisfaction as just shouting into the echo chamber “GamE SUckS”.
If it’s some kind of weird promotion and actual AI botting of reviews to boost the rating it is clumsy at best.
If it’s just people who really want to support the game, it’s ill-advised, and if they are legit reviews, well, it doesn’t matter any more.
The developer, Seed Sparkle Lab, has responded with equal parts bewilderment and desperation, publicly urging whoever’s behind this torrent of praise to “please… stop” and let them focus on making the game better.
Is this some kind of overpraise as an attack? We have no concrete evidence, but it does feel as though someone may be doing this intentionally. What makes it even more puzzling is that this approach is not cheap, since leaving a review requires purchasing the game. (We later discovered that some of these accounts refunded the game after posting their reviews.)
Seed Sparkle Lab
That plea itself has only amped the conversation, turning what should have been a footnote about launch bugs and Kickstarter key distribution delays into a full-blown discussion about bot reviews, AI-generated text patterns, and whether positive review-bombing is even a thing.
Right now, Starsand Island is Very Positive on Steam, and from what we have seen, it’s got a lot of potential, is a little rough around the edges, but is still in Early Access.
We are just somehow in a position where we have to talk about the Steam Reviews of a game more than the game itself. What a time to be alive.
Other Starsand Island pages you may like:
- How to get iron ore
- Navigating the Starsand Island save system is key, and here’s how it works
- Does Starsand Island have multiplayer?
Last Updated On: Feb 19, 2026 11:11 am CET