Video Game Review Template
I prefer a loose design for my reviews that guides my thoughts, without confining or overly categorizing them. They are broken into five main parts, which will have a fair amount of overlap between them.
Background
I begin with a brief background check of the game to give context to the overall review. Things like the year of release, developer, publisher, genre and the console or systems for which the game was available go here.
Presentation
The presentation is the visual and audible components of the game. It isn’t simply a look at graphical quality and audio fidelity. It’s also a look at aesthetics and atmosphere. It looks at whether the use of presentation elements are effective in their assumed goals. Also, do they give or take from the gameplay in any significant way. A game with relatively unimpressive graphic and audio quality can still succeed at providing an engaging experience.
Interaction
The core components of this section are controls and feedback. Are the controls intuitive or matching with existing conventions? Are they responsive? Do they hinder gameplay or draw attention to themselves?
I also include elements such as interactive menus and HUD display items, like the kind that display health and magic on screen. Though one could argue they are presentation items, they are vital components in the player’s ability to interact with the world and make informed decisions.
In keeping with that same vein of thought, I also like to cover how well the game’s mechanics are conveyed to the player. Many RPGs, for example, are guilty of providing accessories with something akin to “+10 Vitality”, but offer no significant feedback as to how that influences your characters. Does it protect against physical damage? All damage? Maybe it gives more HP? The whole underlying system does not need to be exposed, but I should know enough to make the informed decision of whether a “+10 Vitality” or “+10 Willpower” will be more useful to me in a given situation.
Player Narrative
While this section is sort of a “catch all” section, it is intended to focus on the story of the user experience. What kind of game experience can you expect? How are challenges paced or escalated? Is the experience frustrating? How is the experience varied? How is it consistent? Does the game tell a story, and do the game mechanics support that story? Are expectations laid out and are they met?
I stumbled in naming this section for a while. ”Gameplay” likely fits, but I felt that came with certain baggage and expectations that proved limiting.
In computer applications, the User Narrative (or User Story) is a description of what the user would be using the program to accomplish. It is the basis of how buttons and fields are placed. It influences the hierarchy of windows. The whole structure of the application is organized to facilitate the user needs. Games are not wholly different. They are created with the intent of making an experience for the users. Game elements and mechanics are placed, much like those buttons and text fields, with deliberate purpose, in order to encourage certain activities, responses, feelings and behaviors. This section is designed to examine that cross section of the game’s design. So, I settled on Player Narrative.
Summary
And that will bring us back to “Do”! Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do!
