Like many video game websites we often review things. Most times that will be video games, some times it’ll be other video game related things. In all cases you’ll see a rating like this with it:
In our latest review style, we break down our overall thoughts on a game into separate scores across 4 main categories: Graphics, Gameplay, Audio and Value for money. Sometimes, if relevant, other factors might be included to be counted into the overall score, or one of these factors may be dropped for a specific game if there’s a reason it isn’t relevant.
The average of these scores is then used to determine the final, main score of the game. While those topics will still be very subjective, the idea is to base the resulting headline score on more than just a single “finger in the air” determination.
In general this is what we’re basing those scores on:
Graphics
A high score here can mean a lot of things. The game’s world could be extremely well detailed; the landscapes could be picturesque; the pixel art is well drawn and appealing, etc. In general, it really just means the game looks good and does what it sets out to do well. A basic looking pixel-sprite game could just as much score a 10/10 as a game like The Witcher 3.
Gameplay
Take this as an overall metric of how much fun we had with a game, or just how appealing it was to play in general. Games that are fun but repetitive, or enjoyable despite, say, framerate issues might lose a few points, but we’ll likely always be fairly generous with this one. This can still also be incredibly subjective, though. Make sure to read the actual review as well to see why we came to that conclusion. It might be different for you!
Audio
We all love a banger of a soundtrack. Especially high marks here for memorable themes or songs that will stick with you long after the game is done. Sound effects and voice acting are also taken into consideration.
Value for money
A short game can be a fantastic thing. Not every experience needs to be a 200 hour epic. But if that game is over and done with in a few hours but it costs £40? That’s less than great. This is also an increasingly important metric for free to play and mobile games. The game might be free, but do the microtransactions still represent good value for money?
A five-star rating doesn’t necessarily mean perfect – but it does mean we can’t really think of much to complain about in that specific regard, at least.
As with any score, though, the point is that it’s a subjective summation of a subjective review. Even if we rate something poorly or highly, please feel free to disagree, try for yourself and determine your own opinion. We’d even welcome a comment about it! All we’re really out to do is to give you our impressions on a thing and hope it gives you more information than you had before you clicked the link.
Whenever you see a review with a low score, it probably means the game was – on the whole – not great. While we might not be recommending it, by all means, don’t let us stop you from giving it a go. Even if we didn’t enjoy it, you sure might.
Likewise, a high score means we absolutely think you should play this game. Like, say, 2018’s God of War. For some of you, no matter how much we enjoyed a game or would recommend it, it might just never be your ‘thing’. And that’s OK. Contrary to the what the Internet says, we’re all allowed to like different things. But, if you give a game we highly recommend a go and didn’t get on with it, we’d still love to see a well thought out comment about why. Just as much as you’ll hopefully enjoy reading our reviews to begin with.
