CONTROVERSIAL TAKE: REVIEWS ARE OPINIONS

Controversial take: reviews are opinions

Online games news Tedious Retro Gamer, 25-06-2025
Online Games Bay

After stumbling upon dozens of examples of people simply refuse to understand that reviews are opinions, I feel I have to take a stab at the topic.

I have watched a video titled "Worst game reviews in history" or something similar, in which the author gave examples of reviews that, in his opinion, were wrong and even the worst. Of course, most of them were from IGN, the temple of poor gaming journalism, and while in some cases he was right that the author of the review was just incompetent as a journalist, in some cases he started to complain that the opinions of the author were wrong. And that is where the problem starts.

The purposes
But let us begin with what are the purposes of game reviews (or reviews in general), which are:
1. to make some money
2. if possible, to praise the good product or discourage people from buying a bad one
That is it, there are no more hidden agendas, unless you assume operating in bad faith. The game publishers hope to attract customers to their products, the review publishers hope to attract attention to their publication, both sides hope to make some money.

The audience
As such the reviews are addressed not to fans of f.e. game series (who will buy the game anyway), they are addressed to average Joe, who does not know the title or considers buying it. Otherwise you end up with conclusions like "if you liked the previous games, you will like this one" or "if you are fan of the genre, you will love it" which are just redundant. It is like saying "if you like ice cream, you will like this ice cream". And what can I learn from "opinion" like that?

I cannot recall how many times I have seen comments like "they should have taken a better, more involved reviewer to make this one". It might be a good idea, but completely unrealistic, and it missed the point of the review. If an expert in Dark Souls will tell you that the game is too easy, does it explain anything to an average player? If a devoted fan of Dark Souls will tell you this game is the best ever, does it mean it is a game for everyone to enjoy?

Most of us are average players (hence the name, average) and the reviews are targeted at people like us, not experts or devoted fans. The review written by an expert in the game or devoted fan is as pointless as a review written by a complete layman or someone who dislikes the title, because they are biased. The whole point of the review is to inform average players if this game could be too hard, too easy, too complicated, too frustrating for them.

Learn how to play
Another missed argument in such comments is that the reviewer did not finish the game or should have learned some aspects of the game to get better at it. Again, it is a good advice, but for players, not for the reviewers. A reviewer one day writes about a car racing game and the next day might be writing about a platform game or economy simulation.

We do not live in a perfect world, unless you are hired as a full-time journalist, you simply cannot spend 30–40 hours playing a game, because no one will pay you for your time. No one will pay you for 20 hours spent reading the lore and backstory of the characters, so why would you? For a single review? Unlikely.

Reviews are usually not written by experts for the experts, they are written by people able to read and write coherently enough to tell the others if something is good or not. If they are efficient enough in some genre, I would call it a big plus, but not a hard requirement in modern gaming journalism. It is down not only to the fact that not many gaming journalists can count on full-time employment, but also there are dozens of genres, hundreds of sub-genres and hundreds of niche types of games. No magazine can afford to have on stand-by an expert in every single topic there is.

Reviews are opinions
And we come to the pinnacle of the whole problem - reviews are opinions. You may agree with them, you may disagree, but unless you understand that they are written by people, who may have different taste from you, they can make mistakes, they can have a bad day, you will remain angry for the rest of your life.

In the video that I mentioned before, the top spot of the worst review ever was taken by Alien Isolation review that had the audacity to call it not that good. I have played Alien Isolation twice, I despise the game, I think it is extremely boring and repetitive, and I do not understand the praise it got, which is my opinion. The IGN reviewer complained about AI and that the game is too hard. The author of the video thinks that Alien Isolation is the best game ever (I guess).

Those are three different opinions, because we are three different people. We came from different backgrounds, we could have different preferences when it comes to games, we can have different tastes, we could be in different ages and have difference experiences in life. And all of those opinions are valid, as long as they are sincere. If you have a different take on Alien Isolation, it is your opinion, and it is valid, as long as it is sincere.

That is how opinions work - there are no correct or incorrect opinions, opinion states your feelings, which are part of you and nobody else. Different people have different opinions, there are no universal opinions that are correct.

Why do you care?
And the last piece of this puzzle is that simple question - why do you care about reviews? I cannot recall how many times I have seen comments under reviews stating that the reviewer is wrong (which means the author of the comment does not understand how opinions work). If you do not agree with the review, does that mean your opinion about the product should change? No. So what makes you think you have the right to try to change somebody else’s opinion? You know that more than one opinion can exist in the world, right?

One of my favorite movies is "Radioland Murders" from 1994. Most people never even heard of it, the movie was panned as having too much slapstick or being nor here nor there when it comes to jokes and plot. I love that movie, so why would I care what other people think about it? I don’t have to watch it with them, it is my favorite movie. I would not say it is the best movie ever made, I would agree there is too much slapstick, but it fits the era, and it tickles me in the right spots every time I watch it. That is why I don’t give a monkey’s doodah what other people think about it.

If you have a different opinion about Alien Isolation or Radioland Murders, that is fine. Why should you care what I think about it or somebody else? Everyone can have his / hers own opinion, including the reviewers. Just because you played hundreds of hours in some game, just because you could be the best player in that game in the whole world, does not make your opinion any more or any less valid than anybody else take on the title. We all are different, which means we all see the world in a slightly different way. Why the games should be any different?

25-06-2025