Steam recently changed how they show game reviews to players. They used to show a mix of every review ever written for a game. Now the store page mostly highlights reviews written in your own language. For many people this means they only see English reviews by default. Steam often makes small changes like this to help the store feel cleaner. They have also added things like privacy settings and labels for games that use AI.
The main problem with this update is that it can change the total score of a game. If you only see reviews in one language you might miss what the rest of the world thinks. Most people on the platform speak English or Chinese so those groups have the most influence. Some players are worried that hiding other languages makes the review averages look different than they really are. A game might be loved in one country but hated in another.
Steam says they made this change because language matters for the gaming experience. Sometimes a game has a bad translation that makes it hard to play in certain languages. This leads to angry reviews from players in those regions. Other times certain cultures might find the content of a game offensive while others do not. By showing you reviews in your own language Steam thinks you will get a better idea of how the game will work for you.
If you do not like this new system it is very easy to change it back. You just have to scroll down past the game requirements to the actual review section. There you will see a small menu that lets you pick which languages to look at. You can click on the language button and switch it from your language to all languages. This will let you see every single review written by people all over the world again.
You can also use this menu to see how a game is doing in a specific country. For example a huge game like Team Fortress 2 has hundreds of thousands of English reviews. However it might have a much higher score in a smaller group like Thai speakers. Looking at these different scores can give you a better picture of the game. Steam has been adding many tools like this to help people find exactly what they want to play.
The platform is also trying to be more helpful with new search filters. They recently added ways to find games based on accessibility needs for players with disabilities. They even added a personal calendar that suggests upcoming games you might enjoy based on your history. Even though the new review filter is the default you still have the power to see the full global conversation. Checking all the reviews is the best way to make sure a game is worth your money.
