I spend a decent amount of time writing reviews for this very website. I don’t pretend they change anyone’s mind on a game, I don’t even pretend that most of them are even read at all, it’s just something I do because I enjoy putting my thoughts into words.
I am also an avid consumer of reviews. I enjoy reading all of the reviews that hit my timeline from moots on Bluesky or checking out a handful of YouTube reviewers I’ve come to trust. I’m not opposed to peeking at a Metacritic or Opencritic aggregate as well.
I’ve been consuming or writing reviews for a few decades now. They serve a specific purpose for me, a videogame consumer. After some recent review controversy made the rounds across the internet, it made me think about the purpose of reviews and how people use them.
What I Get Out of Reviews
Let’s start with this: what do I get out of reading or watching reviews?
To put it simply, I use reviews as another source of information about a game. Previews and trailers show you what they want you to see, but reviews are the first time people who aren’t directly trying to get you to buy a game get to see the finished product. Most reviews go out of their way to be spoiler free, not really expanding on any story points beyond what has already been revealed, so I’m not worried about that aspect. It makes them, to me, mostly act as extended, in-depth previews that take things a few steps beyond what the trailers and other preview material showed.
A strong 90 second trailer can make any combat system look good, but does it hold up over a 15 hour game? Are the innovating systems the developer has been advertising for years actually as fun as they look? Is the story worth getting invested in?
I don’t go into review consumption suspecting they will change my mind on a game I’m heavily anticipating, or sell me on a game I have no interest in, but both of these things have absolutely happened.
Maybe the most surprising aspect out of the controversy around the Wolverine* reviews was seeing so many people speak up with some form of “I’ll never let a review change my mind on purchasing a game.” Really? Never?
*Wolverine was a highly anticipated first party Sony game from Insomniac, a developer who had been on fire for something like a decade or two. Everyone just knew it was going to be an amazing game. The reviews came out and the consensus was that it was a pretty good game, but nothing special. Certain corners of the internet imploded.
I don’t give much thought to an individual reviewer’s “do I think you should buy this game” opinion, but the details they provide along the way to reach that conclusion certainly provide valuable information to me about what to expect out of the game. A $70 game which is 15 hours of bland, repetitive combat? That falls down my priority list. A 12 hour game that is packed with surprises and overall wonderful gameplay? Now I’m interested.
I don’t understand how people can consume all of this additional information and not have it sway their thoughts or expectations about a game. Sure, each review is one individual’s personal opinion and should be taken as such, but when themes emerge across multiple reviews, that has to stack up to provide some level of information, right?
I’m not saying anyone should let reviews cancel a preorder of their most anticipated game of the year, but if a consensus forms across a handful of outlets/reviewers that you trust: does that not mean anything?
Now is as good of a time as any to address a certain subset of internet people who believe all reviewers are paid shills. Actually, no, those people don’t need addressing. If that were a thing, why didn’t Wolverine get a 93 average on Metacritic? Did Sony’s $300 million budget for the game not leave enough room to pay the tens of thousands of dollars it would have taken to bribe 100 reviewers into giving better scores to raise the score? Was the rounding error amount of cash simply not in the budget?
Do Reviews Matter?
This is a valid question, I think. Reaching, again, for the Wolverine situation, it’s hard to say. On one hand, you have the sales numbers coming out and it is not looking too bad for Sony. Nearly two million copies in a couple of weeks. I have no idea what internal expectations were, but two million copies right away seems fairly strong. It’s less than half of what Spider-Man 2 did, but that was an established series from the most marketable Marvel hero. Wolverine is an entirely new game with a completely different playstyle.
On the other hand, Insomniac rushed pretty quickly to address some of the loudest concerns around the hand-holding nature of the M-rated game. You can’t really see this and claim reviews have zero affect on anything. Did they materially change the sales numbers for a game in any meaningful way? Impossible to say. Did they make a developer take notice of some common complaints and try to improve their game experience? Absolutely. Would the developer have addressed the issues if they didn’t think it would help the bottom line sales numbers? I suspect not.
Reviews – What Are They Good For?
Ultimately, this is one of those “eye of the beholder” situations, isn’t it?
If I had a reviewer I had been following for a decade and found I had 100% perfect alignment on how I felt about games and how they felt, then maybe I would use that reviewer as a “buy or not buy” source of truth. That, of course, is never going to happen.
I also can’t completely ignore reviews as if the value they provide from sharing experiences of playing a game is meaningless. No matter how hyped I am about a game, if I read or watch a dozen reviews all claiming the same major flaws that seem like they would hamper my enjoyment of the game, it is definitely going to affect how I approach the game. I don’t understand how people can steadfastly refuse to change their mind about something in the presence of overwhelming information. Cancel every preorder if the reviews aren’t great? Absolutely not. Consider waiting for a sale instead of a day 1 purchase if I’m already on the fence about a game and the reviews point out some concerning flaws? Absolutely.
If you’re here seeking advice, I would phrase it like this: try to find value in reviews. They are simply individuals writing their honest experiences with games, for better or worse. They are sources of information: good, bad, and everything in between. Read reviews of games you love and games you hate, compare and contrast them to your own personal thoughts. Find areas you can concede that you are wrong about, find spots where you just know the reviewer is out of their mind.
Any review worth its salt will call out the positives and negatives of the game. Was there a legitimate bright spot in that game you absolutely hated but were so blinded by disappointment that you couldn’t see it at the time? Or vice versa? Reviews are sources of information about what a game is and isn’t, with a bit of personal opinion thrown in for good measure. The world would be a pretty boring place to game in if everyone agreed on every game. Only Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 is completely beyond reproach, obviously.
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