The Perfect Game Review

[Runa216]

GameOver22 said:

Your rubric looks very detailed and cover most of the bases I can think of. I have two real suggestions. First, I would factor in dialog when talking about story (this might fall under characters). I've actually had some games where I think the characters and story are pretty good, but the dialog is noticeably sub-par. To explain better, I think some characters are strong on a conceptual level and represent important themes or points of view, but the importance of the characters often gets buried under bad or frustrating dialog (personally, I think Final Fantasy X and XIII both fall prey to this).

The other suggestion is to include replayability as its own section. I think it is important enough to gets its own section and be considered separtely from gameplay. For example, I consider God of War III to be about a 9.8/10 in the gameplay department but only consider it to be about a 7/10 in the replayability department (things like no level select, inability to skip cutscenes, and no rating system detracting from its score).

Also, where would you address things like glitches and camera issues? I usually consider it in the gameplay department, but I didn't see it on your list. Some glitchy camera issues are the reaon why I actually knock God of War III down to a 9.8 in terms of gameplay.

Well for dialogue, I think that's about the writing, which I put in the Plot section, since a person's talking is an action, therefore part of the events.  

I actually do mean stuff like that to be in the "replay" section, I just wanted to be clear and concise and not go into too much depth for a basic rubic.  To me, replayability is a combination of variable paths/endings and just plain desire to return to the campain for whatever reason. 

I've always considered glitches and camera to be a part of the visual/technical/performance cagegory.  some glitches are gameplay, but that'd be more of an aside, like in a misc section.  I also think "camera" could be a part of controls if you control it, etc.  a lot of games are subjective, and not all games even HAVE all of these categories.  

if I was to do a 'misc' section, I would include stuff like glitches and hype.  I may even include stuff like value and refinement to a misc category since they're all pretty all-encompasing.