Naomi the Wordsmith

I know the feeling.

You’ve heard nothing but good things about this game. You want to play it, but you’re on a tight budget. You don’t want to commit to buying an expensive game if it’s overhyped.

How can you trust a review to be fair instead of just selling you the game?

Here’s how to read a game review the right way.

Keep the score in mind (if the review has one)

If a game review gives a score that doesn’t match its message, something’s wrong. This can happen for different reasons, some worse than others.

Maybe the reviewer’s being influenced or is biased. Maybe they have different priorities to you.

But to know where you are, you need to keep the score in mind as you read the message.

Know what you want from the game

Knowing what you’re looking for in the game is essential to getting what you need from a review.

If you’re after excellent graphics and the review criticises the graphics but loves the story, that’s something to think about.

Maybe they have higher standards than you on graphics. You might be happy with something that looks good but they want industry-revolutionising stuff. If that’s the case, everything’s fine.

So, ask yourself what’s more important:

• Graphics
• Performance
• Gameplay
• Art
• Story
• Accessibility
• Anything else that is essential to you

Know what you want out of the game and you’ll get what you want out of the review.

Focus on the parts of the review that most relate to your priorities for the game

Thanks to the step above, you know your priority factors for deciding if you want the game.

The better written reviews, that follow internet norms of language, have a lovely list of contents to help you navigate.

Whether you have that table of contents or not, quickly scan through the article to see the key points. Get a sense of how the review is structured and what is said.

Find the parts you’re most interested in and focus on what they say. Are they fans or haters? Or do they have mixed feelings?

Helpful hint: if you’re getting confused on the message, read the conclusion. Writers summarise their points in the conclusion so the reader leaves feeling clear on the message.

Decide if the message of the review correlates with the score

You know the score and the conclusion the review came to. Do you feel like they connect correctly or do you feel like there’s something not quite right?

If a score is high but a review is critical, it could mean:

• The reviewer is biased in favour of the developers
• The reviewer is biased by some other factor
• The reviewer wrote the score and review at different points of their time playing the game and their opinion changed. (This is a sign of a bad review; the reviewer should give a holistic representation of their feelings)
• You and the reviewer disagree and that’s fine
• Something else entirely

If a score is low but a review is overly positive in your opinion, it could mean:

• The reviewer is influenced by an unknown factor
• The reviewer tends to score harshly
• You and the reviewer disagree
• Something else entirely

There’s so many factors that influence a review that it’s difficult to speculate which is causing an inconsistent one. They’re an art, not a science.

Beauty is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder. And so is ugliness.

Do you think the reviewer is biased?

If you think the reviewer is biased, there’s a few situations at play:

• The reviewer is genuinely biased
• The reviewer isn’t biased, but you are
• Neither you nor the reviewer is biased

There’s a lot of ways a reviewer can be biased. They might be bought off by a developer. They might love that developer and will defend the games they make to the written death. They might have a political/religious/gender/racial/something else bias influencing them.

You can’t ever be sure if a reviewer is biased or not (unless it turns out they were taking bribes). But there are warning signs:

• They only seem to review games by the same developer
• They only do all-negative or all-positive reviews
• They have a connection to a developer (this is not a red flag, it’s more of an orange cause to learn more)

If they’re biased, it’s wrong that they weren’t upfront about that influence in their review. There’s too many terrible reviewers giving good ones a bad name.

The main way the average gamer can be biased is in being diehard fans or critics of a game. If you adore the game, seeing a harsh review stings. If you hate it, seeing an enthusiastically positive one makes you wonder if the reviewer is in fact sane.

The third possibility, that no one is biased, is also pretty likely. When people share their opinions with the wider world, it tends to lead to disagreements.

That’s good.

Life would be boring if we all loved the same games, wouldn’t it? No good games would ever be made again.

Compare the review with others for the same game

This shows you the wider response to the game among the public, the streamers and the gaming news outlets.

You can see how the review you’re reading fits into the wider whole.

This helps you come to a more accurate conclusion as to how reliable it is.

If you’re still not confident

If you’re still reluctant to commit to buying the game based on the reviews you’ve read you can:

• See if you can contact the writer. Some reviews have comment sections under them (like I do here) where you can say your piece. If the writer responds, you’ll hopefully get a better sense of their reasoning
• Wait. There’s no need for you to buy it right away. You can always wait for a discount or to see if there’s any issues with bugs (Cyberpunk 2077, everyone’s thinking of you!)

The hype around games often create a sense of FOMO, which urges you to buy immediately so you’re not lagging behind everyone else.

Waiting boosts your chances of a happy first play session.

Game reviews are for you, the reader

Ultimately, it comes down to what you want from the game and what you want from a review.

Now you know how to read a review, you can feel more confident in your buying decisions.

Always remember, any piece of writing is for its readers.

Please share in the comments below your own knacks for judging if a review is suspicious or trustworthy.