Your voice will now be heard on Steam, as Valved announced today the release of a new user review section.
"Now it's easy to see what other Steam users think about a product before you buy. With Steam Reviews, you can browse for reviews that others have found helpful, or write your own reviews for titles you've played on Steam," the description reads.
Currently in beta, Steam user reviews allow you to read and write reviews for games you've played, rate others' reviews, and follow a user whose reviews you enjoy or find particularly useful. There's also a flag system that allows you to report offensive content or spam, so hopefully this curbs fanboys from posting.
In its current form, there is no overall score or rating, but Valve is looking to add that feature during beta. Once added, user review scores won't replace the Metacritic score, but will instead complement it.
To write a review you don't need to have purchased the game; you just need to have played it, whether it be from a Steam key obtained elsewhere, a Free game, a Steam Free Weekend, or Family Sharing.
Reviews that are shown are selected from the most recently-written ones, Steam believes "should reflect the current state" of a developer's game or software.
Check out Valve's announcement page for more details and information regarding Steam User reviews.
