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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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And people explaining what the game is instead of how the game is.
A review should tell you what the game is. It should also tell you what they like/don't like about it, but different perspectives about how the core mechanics work are absolutely critical parts of the discussion.
Indeed, sometimes I really appreciate a heads up of if I can save in the middle of gameplay or if I have to complete a whole run before it saves progress, things like that are not deal breakers but it can definitely affect how I play a game
There's stuff like that, but it's also as simple as most game pages just not accurately depicting what the core gameplay loop is. The number of games with 10 cinematic trailers that combine for 3 seconds of gameplay and have descriptions full of setting with maybe some features but don't mention whether they're a card game or an FPS is way too high.
Screenshots can probably resolve my example, and tags are "OK", but marketing trash is just so abundant that a lot of pages are genuinely hard to figure out pretty basic elements of what the minute to minute experience is.
God I hate cinematic trailers for unreleased games. It's fine if it's a released game that I can just Google gameplay.
I straight up am not interested in them at all.
There are some games where I become attached to the writing, even though most are pretty mediocre and it's not why I play games. But I've never once had a story trailer interest me in any way. I will play the game if the mechanics are compelling, regardless of story. If they aren't, the story isn't better than a book or TV show and I don't care.
It's super annoying when even the screenshots are cinematic nonsense. It's a game. I want to know what the game is.
As you said, how they work. The description already tells me what the game is and I don't need a review reciting it a la "Shadow warrior is an action adventure fps game where you play as a ninja fighting against demons"
Descriptions are useless horseshit.
A review that doesn't mention what the actual gameplay loop is is a bad review.
To further flesh out your comment:
I recently played a small game called “Ever Forward” on the Nintendo switch. Nowhere it says that the game runs like a PowerPoint presentation. Other than that, it would be helpful if I would have read a review that said “the beautiful world you see in the trailer and screenshots is the ‘hub’ where you enter boring looking levels. The puzzles consist of 2-3 cameras that react to sound and a cube you can throw and that you need to carry to the end of each short puzzle.”
This is a side effect of YouTube content creation practices where a video will have an overview of the plot or story to pad out the run time or article. Often, because game journalism is basically long distance abusive relationships between the writer and the game publisher, the review is too mild to contain actual opinions and will draw on comparisons to other games instead of forming genuine critiques and admiration.
The end result is a generation of games and movies where the review is unable to provide enough genuine content to fill 10 minutes or 3 pages, so they instead spoil the game while riffing on very specific foibles. They don't know how to talk critically about mechanics or story or design.
I pretty much stopped watching videos like that. "$Game story EXPLAINED" but actually it's just a 30 minute rehash of the story without anything added to it or explained by the content "creator".
Sometimes the game itself doesn't really tell you what it is. That's not completely shocking.