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Veknoid_Outcast on 10 July 2017
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Slarvax said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:

This is really helpful. I'm always trying to improve as a critic, and I'll take this advice to heart.

I wanted to follow up on the point of the review reading like a manual. I've heard complaints from readers that reviews can be too focused on the reviewer's personal experience at the expense of cold, objective data about the game. But in Dunkey's review and in your post, I hear a call for less summary and more analysis.

I try to find a middle ground between objective information and subjective analysis in my reviews, with varying degrees of success. What would be a good balance for you?

I recently saw a few videos from The Geek Critique about the 2D Metroid series. It was an excelent analysis/review of the games. He didn't just focus on what makes the games good. He didn't just explain the mechanics and atmosphere of the game. He shared what he felt, as a player, during the game. What was hard, unfair, tense and why he felt that way.

The most important part here to me is, what the developers intended the player to feel during gameplay, and if they delivered said reactions, or not, and why. A lot of reviews just ignore this aspect of games. They focus on presentation and gameplay, which is what's most easy to see and understand. I don't need to be told a game looks good or bad, I can easily tell that. When it comes to gameplay, I think reviews focus more on player actions or let's say movesets than they need to. Instead, I want them to focus on how the world/level compliments said actions correctly, or incorrectly. 

I'm not a reviewer though; I don't know exactly what goes into making these things

Every time I write this long paragraphs I wonder if the things I say make sense.

No, that totally makes sense!

I'm looking through my reviews and not finding a lot of examples of what you describe, to be honest. I cover a lot of what a game has and what it allows, but not a lot about how it feels.

I pulled a paragraph from my Infinite Warfare review. Would something like this be a good compromise? It describes what the game allows and also how it felt to play it. Check it out:

With an intriguing sci-fi storyline, huge mission variety, and light simulation/management mechanics, the campaign in Infinite Warfare is something special. Players can easily spend as many as twelve hours exploring the Milky Way and taking down SDF bases and ships. Part Mass Effect, part Battlestar Galactica, it feels truly like an ongoing war of attrition, with small skirmishes being won and lost across the stars.