What I'm about to say can apply to any digital shop or even retailers, not only or necessarily the eShop, so it might be useful for anyone. It's nothing special, anyway, but what I do when I don't know anything about the quality of a certain game is looking for...
1) ...trailers of the game. Does it look like something I would want to play right now or in the future? No? Out. Yes? Next step.
2) ...the length of the game in HowLongToBeat. How much theoretical enjoyment can I get from it? Also, do I want something that allows me to spend a lot of hours or something more condensed? Whatever the case, quantity doesn't equal quality, so next.
3) ...the game in Metacritic. What do other people think of the game? Scores are irrelevant, but the feedback of other users (if there is any) can be useful. Reviews from specialized media can also be useful, even more if they differ a lot (a good option is choosing one of the best, one of the worst and one in the middle).
If at this point I'm still interested, but not decided yet, then I took one last step: watching gameplays. Not whole gameplays, of course, just bits of them, focusing on anything that would make me hesitant to buy the game and seeing for myself how it's handled.
Then I just have to think about all of the above and make my choice. It may sound like doing all this for every game you're doubtful about might be a bit too much, but it generally pays off: many times I buy games that I enjoy a lot (even if they're not the best in their genres) and I end up putting a good amount of hours in them for just a few euros (even 1 or 2 if they're on sale, and I generally wait until they are).
Last edited by Verter - on 20 December 2020I'm mostly a lurker now.
