What Game Reviews Can—and Can’t—Tell You
Why Conversations and Community Matter When Deciding What to Play
If you spend any amount of time following games online, you’ve probably noticed a growing sense of uncertainty around reviews. Scores feel less definitive than they used to. Reactions are louder, timelines move faster, and it can be hard to tell whether a game is truly for you or just having a moment.
That doesn’t mean game reviews are useless. Far from it. But it does mean they work best when we understand what they are designed to do, and where their limits naturally are.
What Game Reviews Still Do Well
At their core, reviews are meant to answer some very practical questions:
Is the game technically sound?
Do the mechanics function as intended?
Is the experience accessible, stable, and complete at launch?
For many players, especially those trying to avoid broken releases or poorly optimized ports, this information is genuinely valuable. Professional reviewers often have early access, broad genre knowledge, and the ability to test games across different platforms. That perspective still matters.
Reviews are also helpful for providing a broad overview. They can explain how a game plays, what it’s trying to be, and who it might appeal to at a high level. As a starting point, they remain one of the easiest ways to get oriented.
Where Reviews Start to Fall Short
The challenge is that no review can fully account for personal taste.
A game that feels repetitive to one player might feel relaxing to another. A slow burn might be a dealbreaker for someone who wants instant action, while being exactly what another player is looking for. Even the best-written review is still filtered through a single perspective, written under time constraints, and intended for a wide audience.
Reviews also struggle to capture how a game feels over time. Some games open strong but fade quickly. Others take hours to click, or only shine once you understand their systems more deeply. Some even hide the “good stuff” for end-game content. These long-term impressions are hard to summarize in a score or short verdict.
That doesn’t make reviews misleading. It simply means they are incomplete by design.
Why Trust Feels More Complicated Than It Used To
Over the years, there have also been a handful of high-profile moments that shaped how players think about reviews from major outlets. Situations where reviews were later walked back, where it became clear a game had not been fully experienced, or where coverage appeared closely tied to major releases left a lasting impression on the community.
Whether those moments were the result of pressure, mistakes, or simple human limitations, they reinforced a feeling many players already had: review scores don’t always tell the full story, especially when big-name games and advertising dollars are involved.
For a lot of players, that’s why scores carry less weight than they once did. Not because reviews are always wrong, but because trust is harder to give when context and transparency feels incomplete.
The Role of Conversation
This is where conversation becomes increasingly important.
Talking with other players adds context that no single review can provide. You hear how a game landed with people who have different tastes, different expectations, and different play styles. You learn what surprised them, what stuck with them, and what didn’t.
Most importantly, conversation allows for follow-up. Not just “Is this game good?” but “Would I enjoy this game?”
That distinction matters.
Why Local Game Communities Still Matter
Local game stores play a unique role in this process.
They are places where recommendations grow out of real interactions, not algorithms or aggregate scores. Over time, staff and regulars get to know players. They remember what you’ve enjoyed before, what you bounced off of, and what you’re curious about trying next.
Instead of a verdict, you get a discussion.
Instead of a number, you get perspective.
That kind of insight doesn’t replace reviews. It complements them.
Using Reviews the Right Way
Game reviews work best when they’re treated as one tool among many. They can help you understand what a game is trying to do, how it performs, and whether there are any major red flags. What they can’t do is tell you how a game will feel in your hands, in your free time, or alongside the other games you love.
That’s where experience, conversation, and community come in.
If you ever want to talk through a game before picking it up, whether it’s a new release or something you’ve been curious about for a while, those are exactly the conversations we love having in the shop.
Reviews can start the conversation.
Community helps you finish it.
