Sup.
Have you ever wondered what are the criteria by which many sites give such brilliant scores to games?
Me too.
In this post we're going to explore a bit and delve into the world of video game critics, something I intend to become in some time and which carries unparalleled weight when it comes to gamers buying the next game they're going to play.
Rating a game is a fairly common practice since the early days of gaming, but the complicated task of summing up an experience is guided by a common set of criteria that everyone from Kotaku to Metacritic uses.
Gameplay
This includes the ease of use and understanding of the game's mechanics, not to be confused with the difficulty of the title, the feeling of control and the satisfaction you get from playing the game, for this section we can ask questions like what does this game want us to do? How does it get us to learn its mechanics? How do these mechanics feel?
As in any art, there will be a component of subjectivity in each of the criteria to be evaluated but I feel that the gameplay is one of the simplest, just put the playable objectives of the title on the table and see how effective they are, a clear example I think can be the movement in Spider-man PS4, in a game of this character the movement of the superhero and the general feeling of the character is a central angle of the gameplay, do you get to hit the key? certainly.
Graphics
The quality of the visual representation, including character design, environments and special effects. This one is a bit scattered, the graphics have long been a factor of debate in the community especially on the issue of realism, but I have the particular opinion that the graphics should complement the rest of the game but especially the gameplay criteria, enhance the experience, in the case of shooters the issue of realism depends in part on the intention that has the developer.
And of this I can give several examples, High On Life is a shooter that in many bases is quite similar to your typical call of duty or battlefield, but here the graphics take a back seat in favour of providing an alternative experience, it embraces a much more cartoonish and fun style before realism and that can like more or less, but for me it sets it apart from many traditional shooters experiences.
Sound
The quality of the soundtrack, the sound effects and the implementation of them in the game. How many times a soundtrack has marked you completely by how iconic it is? for me certainly a couple of dozen times every year I download some soundtracks because of how good they are, once again these should be guided to enhance the experience, to emphasize in those moments where the player is, hard to say because I have no idea about music but sometimes the soundtrack just clicks, and in that moment you understand everything.
Story
The plot, the characters and the quality of the narrative. Again it depends on the developer's intention, there are stories like Saints Row or Cuphead that are merely an excuse to get us loose in their world and play the experience, but it is true that a good reason to start has a weight when it comes to value certain genres of video games, like adventure games for example.
Additional content
Quantity and quality of extras, such as multiplayer modes, side quests and rewards. A common problem in videogames nowadays is to ask for more for a reduced experience, today it is the DLC or the tentative content that is not even in development yet, but for me the final product is the one that is put on the shelves on the release date and that is when the additional content, that which shows the affection towards the players, is expressed and valued, very important this section as well as the replayability of a title, nothing worse than completing a game for the first time and just move on to the next one.
Duration
The amount of time you can spend playing the game. another variant that in many cases will depend on what you want to achieve the game, in the endless runners the duration is infinite but the replayability component also plays a role, although there are also cases where if for example we want to tell a good story in a shooter if I think it is necessary at least 8 hours.
Value for money
whether the game offers a satisfying experience compared to its price. A combination of all the above criteria plus the extra factor of the developer and the details they want to bring to a game, also it goes without saying that it is buying a game that is complete, bug free or incomplete in some way (I'm looking at you Cyberpunk).
Replayability
The ability to replay the game and still enjoy it. This is for me one of the most important points of any videogame, if we don't want to replay at some point some experience is because that experience has not been good, and the videogame differentiating from the movies has the ability to add many more mechanics once the main session is finished, that's where we can give a clear assessment in this criterion.
There are a few extra criteria but I think I have covered most of them in this post, if you found it informative to listen to balbusear consider leaving me a comment or do a review on Hive Gaming using these keys.
All yours, @slashint - Gamer, Video Game Analyst.
