A singer who recently lent their voice to Horizon Forbidden West and its Burning Shores DLC says she's "continuously received" abusive messages related to her role in the games.
This article features Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores spoilers.
In a recent tweet, Julie Elven, whose video game credits span a huge number of titles and projects from developers including Blizzard, Riot Games, and Jagex, said that "since Burning Shores came out in April, I've continuously received angry DMs from gamers." The complaints levied at Elven stem from her vocals being featured on a scene in which players can decide whether Aloy and companion Seyka will kiss.
Elven says that the messages she's received have described that scene as "'LGBTQ propaganda'" and accused her of having "destroyed Horizon."
Since #HorizonForbiddenWest #BurningShores came out in April, I've continuously received angry DMs from gamers, as my vocals are featured on a scene in the DLC that they see as "LGBTQ propaganda". Receiving puking emojis, "God won't forgive you", "You destroyed Horizon" & more.May 15, 2023
In follow-up tweets, the singer says, "the positive comments and influx of love absolutely outweigh the negative ones, but the continuous hateful DMs show how much still needs to change." Elven also says that "story-wise, this scene made so much sense and I continue to stand with Guerilla and am proud to be a part of it."
The scene that Elven refers to led to Horizon Forbidden West being the subject of a review-bomb. Some fans took aim at the overall length of the DLC, but many other negative reviews made reference to the kiss between Aloy and Seyka - an optional path at the end of the story. In response, review aggregator MetaCritic promised "stricter moderation" of user reviews (the site has faced criticism elsewhere in the industry for the prevalence of review-bombing).
The scene in question is likely to continue to be relevant for the series. Horizon developer Guerilla has repeatedly teased "Aloy's next adventure", pointing firmly in the direction of Horizon 3 - something that Burning Shores itself contains serious implications for.
